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Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of houses and safe routes for slaves to use in their attempts to escape captivity from their masters. It was created by abolitionists seeking to aid fugitive slaves and had many "conductors", like the famously known Harriet Tubman. Used from the early 1830s on, it reached its peak from 1850-1860. -
The Liberator
The Liberator was a newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist from MA. He used media and speeches to gain his followers and created The Liberator as an anti-slavery promotion. It ended up inspiring future abolitionist speakers like Frederick Douglass. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner's Rebellion was a slave rebellion in 1831, led by Nat Turner that resulted in the highest amount of fatalities ever recorded in slave uprisings in the US, having involved a killing spree of about 60 people. It was suppressed quickly after and resulted in even tougher slave codes and restrictions. -
Gag Rule
During the abolition movement of the Antebellum era, many abolitionists began speaking out against slavery. It gained a huge awareness until the Congress imposed the gag rule in 1836 until 1844 which basically put the issue of slavery on the backburner to be dealt with later. Their reasoning behind this suppression of abolitionism was seeing the slavery issue as a distraction from other more important political matters. -
Trail of Tears
Although the Indian Removal process doesn't fully fall into a slavery category, it was a major part of suppression issues in America during this time. The entire ordeal lasted from the 1830s to the early 1840s and was a result of Western and Southern states pressuring the removal of Native Americans in the area. The Trail of Tears was considered the final forced removal act, where Cherokees were marched across the Mississippi River to be relocated & about 1/4 of the Native Americans died. -
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of bills put in place after the Mexican-American war that settled long disputes over territory. The reaction involved Congress deciding which territories had popular sovereignty and certain state legislatures implementing 'personal liberty' laws that increased the rights of state citizens. -
Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Act was a part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave states and Northern free states. One of the main topics was the argument that even upon freedom after running away, any slave could be picked up and dragged back to land/plantations by their masters since and that officials of free states had to follow this rule. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin was a novel published by Harriet Beecher Stowe during the abolition movement. It brought huge awareness to the issue of slavery from being purchased/read by hundreds of thousands of abolitionists. Viewed as a vital anti-slavery tool, it fell in a form of literature from the point of view of a slave and their family, bringing forth a raw and real perspective to the issue. -
KS-NE Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act, passed by Congress in the mid 1850s, was what gave those two states the choice to decide for themselves whether or not they would allow slavery. Stephan Douglas organized the central plains by appealing to both the North & South. For the North, a transcontinental railroad was built from Chicago to San Francisco and for the South, popular sovereignty was allowed in the two territories. A conflict of ideologies soon followed. (i.e Bleeding Kansas) -
Ostend Manifesto
The Ostend Manifesto, a document written in 1854, was created to outline a plan (and the reasoning behind that plan) for aquiring Cuba from Spain either by purchase or force. It was thought to be beneficial to do so to help balance the slave and free states but the Democrats denounced it as both imperialistic and expansionist. When Presient Pierce and his American diplomats attempted this, it ultimately failed.
