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By the 1830s, new
abolitionists throughout the north were raising their voices against slavery. Some of
these vocal whites were William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Lewis Tappan, and Theodore
Dwight Weld, who were soon joined in their anti-slavery crusade by such former slaves as Frederick Douglass, Highland Garnet, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner
Truth. They condemned slavery in articles and speeches, with Garrison starting his own
anti-slavery press (1831) in the form of a publication, "The Liberator". Douglass,
the most influential black leader at that time, also began an abolitionist
newspaper in 1847 called the "North Star". Like other abolitionists, he
considered Ohio an important antislavery advocate because it was the oldest, richest and
most populous of the western states. Visiting for the first time in 1843, he later wrote
in 1849 that annual conventions were "more faithfully and regularly held than
those of the colored freemen of any other state in the Union." Tubman and others were instrumental in the promotion of the underground railroad, a term used to describe a network of routes and safe houses that stretched from the slave states to freedom. Blacks fleeing slavery were guided along these routes, and sanctuaries, until they reached safety. Throughout the history of slavery in North America, many slaves rightfully protested their plight, and impoverished conditions, by subtly destroying property, disobeying orders, and feigning illness. Others escaped their bondage, while many participated in the almost 200 revolts and mutinies that occurred, including the 1831 uprising in Southampton County, Virginia, led by Nat Turner, preacher and slave, resulting in the death of around 60 whites before it was quelled. The Turner insurrection, followed by his execution, caused the South to reinforce its slave codes and restrict manumission (liberation). |
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