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William Lloyd Garrison Publishes The Liberator
William Lloyd Garrison was an abolitionist from MA. he used media and speeches to gain followers for the abolitionist movement. He published the newspaper The Liberator in 1831, which was an abolitionist newspaper. He inspired future abolitionist movement speakers such as Frederick Douglass. -
Whig Party Forms
Henry Clay and Daniel Webster formed the new political party, the Whigs. This party favored internal improvements, minimal westward expansion, and reform. Most people who joined the Whig party were evangelical Protestants. It was formed to oppose President Jackson's policies, and kinglike conduct. -
Roger Brooke Taney
In 1836, Roger B.Taney replaced John Marshall as Chief Justice on the Supreme Court. The two justices were very different. Marshall had sided with national laws and individual rights more, where Taney tended to side with states more than natural or individual rights. (See Dred Scott Case) -
Period: to
Pre-Civil War Era
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First Publication of The North Star
Frederick Douglass was a former slave, a journalist, a speaker, and abolitionist often called the "father" of the civil rights movement. He started a newspaper called the North Star, which was an abolitionist newspaper from Rochester NY. It also advocated women's rights. Its motto was "Right is of no Sex - Truth is of no Color - God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren." -
Free Soil Party Forms
The Free Soil party organized as a political party. Instead of emphasizing the sinfulness of slavery, and the natural rights of African Americans like the Liberty Party, they focused on how slavery was a threat to republican liberties and white yeoman farming. It was the first antislavery proposal to attract widespread support. However, William Lloyd Garrison denounced the free soil doctrine as "whitemanism." -
Seneca Falls Convention
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott held a convention for women's rights in Seneca Falls, NY. The convention was also advocating for abolitionism. At the convention, delegates formed a "Declaration of Sentiments," which was modeled after the Declaration of Independence, except that it included women's rights. -
Harriet Tubman Escapes From Slavery
Harriet Tubman was the conductor of the Underground Railroad, which was a system of safe houses where slaves were harbored in order to escape slavery. Tubman freed about 300 slaves via the Underground Railroad, She was a slave from about age 5 until 1849, when she found out that she was most likely going to be sold. She escaped, and started helping other slaves to freedom almost right away, -
Abolitionist Movement Grows
By this time, the abolitionist movement had grown significantly. There were hundreds of thousands of them. One of the reasons for this large growth was the book written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." This novel that promoted the abolition of slavery was very widely read in the US, almost outselling the Bible. -
Dred Scott
Dred Scott was a slave, who had lived for a long time in Illinois (a free state) and then in an area where the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery. He wanted freedom for him and his family, and so he brought it to court- that since he lived in a free state in a free territory, he should be free. The Dred Scott vs. Sandford case went to the Supreme Court in March 1857. The Supreme Court ruled that Scott was still a slave. It was controversial because Buchanan persuaded several justices. -
Election of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican candidate to win the presidency. He was for the abolitionist movement, and tried to preserve the Union. Lincoln was the president to end slavery. He was also a very powerful speaker.
