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Abolitionists

Driving Question: What impact did abolitionist movements have on political and economic structures during the long nineteenth century?

As industrialization drew workers into reform movements, some groups also worked to end the institution of slavery and the slave trade. Abolitionist networks included formerly enslaved people and their allies. These reformers connected with those in other reform movements as they struggled to counteract racist ideologies in the long nineteenth century.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Analyze how abolition movements grew and spread.
  2. Use the historical thinking practice of sourcing to evaluate theories about the abolition of slavery.
  3. Use a graphic biography to support, extend, or challenge the overarching narratives from this time period.

Vocab Terms:

  • abolition
  • activist
  • debt
  • factory
  • gender
  • reform
  • suffrage
STEP 1

Opener: Abolitionists

Fighting for what is right can be extremely difficult and dangerous, and it can take incredible strength. Harriet Forten Purvis fought battles on multiple fronts.

STEP 2

Abolishing Slavery

There’s always more than one side to a story. In this article, you’ll examine three explanations for the end of slavery, and then you’ll dig into the sources to understand how slavery was finally abolished in the United States.

STEP 3

The Limits of Abolition

The United States was one of the last nations in the Americas to abolish slavery. Why did it take so long? And when slavery finally was over, was it really over?