Douglass fought for abolition
In 1847, English abolitionists purchased Douglass’ freedom from slavery, thus permanently assuring his safety.
Douglass settled in Rochester, New York.
He began to publish a weekly anti-slavery newspaper, The North Star.
Douglass also played a prominent role in the Underground Railroad.
He served as the superintendent of the Rochester area of the network.
He sheltered runaway slaves in his own house.
He was a friend of abolitionist John Brown.
He did not participate in Brown’s failed raid on the U.S. Government arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia.

Douglass fought for equality and served his country
When the Civil War broke out Douglass urged President Lincoln to allow blacks to fight for the Union.
He helped recruit two regiments for the North.
After the war, Douglass fought for the rights of the newly freed slaves.
Douglass advocated for equal rights for women and for temperance as well.
For twenty years, he had a distinguished career in public service.
He was appointed as a diplomat to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
He died of a heart attack at his home inWashington, D.C. at the age of 77.

Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman survived a harsh childhood as a field slave and grew strong
In 1820, Harriet (also known as Araminta) Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland.
She was one of eleven children.
She began to do hard labor in the fields at the age of five.
When she was fifteen, she received a severe blow to the head from an overseer.
This injury that plagued her with bouts of sleepiness for the rest of her life.
Despite this, Tubman was known for her incredible physical and spiritual strength throughout her life.

Tubman escaped and led others to freedom on the Underground Railroad
In 1844, Harriet married John Tubman, a free black man.
In 1849, she escaped to freedom in Philadelphia, guided by the North Star.
There she worked and saved her earnings to enable her to return to the South.
She would lead other slaves to freedom.
She made her first trip in 1850.
1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed.
The law stated that slaves who escaped to the North could, if discovered, still be returned to their owners.
Tubman led all her escapees all the way to Canada.
Tubman was famed for her courage, her endurance, and her skill at eluding capture.
It is said she never lost a single “passenger” on her trips on the Underground Railroad.

Tubman served the Union during the Civil War
During the Civil War Tubman served the Union Army as a volunteer nurse and a skilled scout and spy.
She refused to accept pay for this work.
She supported herself with sales of food she made.
Like Douglass, Tubman was a friend of John Brown.
They collaborated in the cause of abolition.
Tubman also spoke out frequently for women’s rights.
Her speeches were successful fundraisers for these causes.
Tubman spent her life helping African-Americans.
Finally granted a government pension at age 80.
Tubman used the pension money to found a home for the aged and the indigent.
She died in her nineties and was buried with military honors.
Thousands attended a memorial ceremony.

John Brown
1855, Brown followed five of his sons to the Kansas territory.
Proslavery forces had terrorized the region.
They used threats and violence to influence elections in an attempt to make Kansas a slave state.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 dictated that the people of the territories would vote on whether to be fee or slave.
On May 24, 1856, Brown led a small party of men to the homes of proslavery settlers along Pottawatomie Creek.
This was in retribution for an attack on the free-soil town of Lawrence
Five men were dragged from their homes and brutally killed.
Brown would say that he approved of, but did not participate in, the killings.
Brown took to the brush, striking out against proslavery forces whenever possible.
John Brown's resistance of proslavery forces in Kansas brought him national attention.
To many in the North, he became an abolitionist hero.
His defense of the free-soil town of Osawattomie earned him the nickname "Osawatomie Brown."
A play by that name soon appeared on Broadway to commemorate his story.
For the next two and a half years, Brown traveled ceaselessly throughout New England.
He beseeched abolitionists for money and guns to bring his war against slavery to the South.
A clandestine group of wealthy abolitionists, known as the "Secret Six," funded Brown.
This allowed him to raise a small army.
On October 16, 1859, John Brown led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
His plan was to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal.
This was thwarted by local farmers, militiamen, and U.S. Marines led by Robert E. Lee.
Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured.
Brown was found guilty of murder, treason, and of inciting slave insurrection.
On Dec. 2, 1859, he was hanged.

Causes of the War
Economic and social differences between the North and South.
The South grew cotton.
Cotton was their main crop.
The North bought the cotton and manufactured products with it.
The South was based on plantation life.
The North was based on industry.

States rights versus federal rights.
States wanted to nullify any law the ferderal government made that they did not agree with.

The fight between slave and non-slave states.
The question was if new states would be slave or non-slave.

Growth of the Abolition Movement
The North became very much against slavery.
Increased as a result of Uncle Tom's Cabin.