07.03 Join the Resistance Handout

07.03 Join the Resistance – Handout

Focus of Lesson Content:

 The Cotton Gin

o The cotton gin caused slave owners to depend even more on slavery.

o The value of slaves increased, making owning slaves a large investment. Slave owners feared financial loss and violence.

o The cotton gin increased the number of slaves, and slave ownership became more profitable than ever before.

o Southern states passed laws to control the practice of slavery. For example, South Carolina passed a law making it illegal to emancipate (to release from slavery slaves without permission from the state).

o Teaching slaves to read or write was a punishable crime in most southern states.

o Not all people in Northern states agreed with ending slavery or helping slaves.

 Active Resistance

o Pensacola, Florida : Jonathan Walker (1799-1878) was a famous Underground Railroad “conductor.” “Conductor” was the code name for any person who helped escaped slaves. Walker was a sea captain who transported escaped slaves to the Bahamas and freedom.

o Boston, Massachusetts: William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) published the first edition of his Boston newspaper in 1831. Garrison wanted an immediate end to slavery. The Liberator spread his message. It featured essays by other slavery fighters, like Frederick Douglass. Print text and speeches were the main ways abolitionists spread their message.

o Baltimore, MD: Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) was born enslaved. At age 10, his master’s wife helped him learn to read, until her husband found out and stopped her. Douglass was determined to continue learning. He observed boys near his home and the shipyards where he worked. Ten years later, he disguised himself as a sailor and escaped to freedom. Douglass was a powerful speaker and was as a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He published three autobiographies helping spread the message against slavery. He helped slaves escape through the New York “lines” to Canada. A “line” was the code name for an escape route on the Underground Railroad. o Harriet Tubman (about 1820-1913) escaped enslavement in 1849. She returned 19 times to the south to help lead about 300 slaves to freedom, many from her own family. Tubman is probably the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. o The Underground Railroad: In Newport, Ohio, about 100 people escaping slavery passed through Levi Coffin’s “station” each year for twenty years. A “station” was the code name for a safe place to hide and rest on the Underground Railroad. Stations were often private homes or churches. Escapees were safe here from the patrollers and bloodhounds that searched for fugitive slaves.