Name____________________________
Important events and people in the FIGHT AGAINST SLAVERY
Abolition = the Movement to End Slavery
Background
Why is this person and/or this event important in the fight
to end slavery? What can we learn from it?
William and Ellen Craft
William and Ellen Craft escaped slavery in
1849. Ellen pretended to be a white master
while William pretended to be her slave.
William Wells Brown, an escaped slave himself
and prominent abolitionist, wrote a letter to
William Lloyd Garrison about the escape.
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Ellen is “so near white” that she could pass for a
white woman
White slaves owners and African slaves had children
together for many generations
Slavery wasn’t always about race/color – if it was,
Ellen would not be a slave
Slaves were very smart – even if they could not
read, write, or sign their name - and would do
anything to be free
Henry “Box” Brown
Henry Brown escaped from slavery in 1829. His
story was told to William Still, the son of a
former slave and conductor on the
Underground Railroad. Still published Brown’s
story in 1872.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in 1838. He
later traveled
around the
Northern
states, and
Europe, telling
his story. On
July 5, 1852,
he delivered a
speech in
Rochester, New York, titled “What to the slave
is the 4th of July?”
Background
Why is this person and/or this event important in the fight
to end slavery? What can we learn from it?
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
was an important figure
in the movement to end
slavery. He is best
known for publishing the
abolitionist newspaper,
The Liberator, and
founding the American
Anti-Slavery Society.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
The book Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published
March 20, 1852. Harriet Beecher Stowe, a
Northern white woman, wrote it in response to
the Fugitive Slave
Act of 1850,
which required
the citizens in
Northern states
to return
escaped slaves to
the South. Within
two years it had
sold 2,000,000
copies
worldwide.
Read “Opposition to Ending Slavery” on pg. 458. Summarize why some were opposed to ending slavery,
even in the North, and what the government did to stop any discussion on the subject. Complete
sentences are not necessary.
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