| Historical Context
William Lloyd Garrison was a strong opponent of slavery. When Garrison was three, his father abandoned the family and left his mother in poverty. This first-hand experience with poverty colored Garrison's later opinions about slavery. Without the benefit of formal education, Garrison was forced to learn on his own and he did so while working as a printer’s apprentice. Afterwards, he made a living by working as a journalist and editor of a reformist newspaper.
Attached Documents
This letter was written during his imprisonment for criminal libel. Garrison had accused a merchant of buying and shipping 75 slaves from Baltimore to New Orleans. With vehemence, Garrison sharply criticized the man. The document is reflective of high emotions on both sides of the slavery debate.
Questions to Consider
1. According Garrison, what is the cause of indifference to slavery?
2. What experience led Garrison to reevaluate the life of a slave?
3. How does Garrison describe the lot of a slave?
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| Historical Context
As one of the most notable leaders of the American abolitionist movement during its early years, Theodore Dwight Weld (1803 – 1895) served an important role as a writer, editor and speaker for the antislavery cause. A member of the well-known Weld Family of New England, he studied at Phillips Academy from 1820 to 1822 and then later at Hamilton College. During this period, he became a disciple of Charles Finney, a famous evangelist. In 1830, Weld, along with Arthur and Lewis Tappan, became a leading architect of abolitionist movement and solicited the help of New York philanthropists James G. Birney, Gamaliel Bailey, Angelina Grimké, and Sarah Grimké. At the Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Weld helped organize "Lane Rebels,” a group of students held a series of slavery debates. The talks so divided the community that the Lane Seminary was forced to dismiss Weld. In 1838, he married the younger Grimké. From 1836 to 1840, Weld worked as the editor of the Emancipator and also directed the national campaign for sending antislavery petitions to Congress. He helped to successfully spread the abolitionist message throughout the North. He would later come out of retirement to speak on behalf of the Union during the Civil War.
Attached Documents
This document, “American Slavery As It Is,” is the most famous of Weld’s writings. The work left a great impact on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the most influential of the antislavery works.
Questions to Consider
1. According to Weld, how do slave-owners characterize the treatment of slaves?
2. What is Weld’s goal in this essay? How does he plan to accomplish this?
3. What are some of the atrocities that have been committed against slaves?
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| Historical Context
In the history of American slavery, the story of Solomon Northup is unique. An African-American from the north, Northup’s father, spending the early part of his life as a slave in Rhode Island, was manumitted by his owner. In 1808, Solomon was born in Minerva, New York. He married Anne Hampton in 1829 and they had three children. One night, Solomon, a violin player, met two white men by the names of Merrill Brown and Abram Hamilton and they offered him a job in a circus. Convincing Northup to travel with them to Washington D.C. where the circus was, the two men drugged him, placed him in chains and shipped him to the South. For twelve years, Northup remained a slave in the deep South. Eventually, a lawyer by the name of Henry Northup, a member of the family that had owned Solomon’s father, tracked Solomon in Louisiana and managed to secure his freedom.
In 1853, Solomon published an autobiographical account of his time in servitude. Solomon Northup’s story is unique. All other slave narratives were written by individuals who been born into slavery. Yet Northup was born a free man and was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of thirty-three. His analysis of slavery is tinged with the memory of his former freedom. “Its truth is stranger than fiction,” Frederick Douglas wrote, “think of it: For thirty years a man with all a man’s hopes and aspiration-with a wife and children . . . with a home . . . then for twelve years a thing, a chattel personal, classed with mules and horses. . . .Oh! it is horrible. It chills the blood.”
Attached Documents
This document was taken from chapter fourteen and recalls Northup’s arrival in Louisiana, an area of the South where slavery was deeply entrenched. His account demonstrates not only the physical cruelty of slavery but also the psychological toll it exacts on the individual in bondage. He shows how the a slave could encounter simple amenities that made his life more bearable. Beyond this, Northup’s account is a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit that, despite enduring the most appalling atrocities, can maintain an unyielding hope in freedom.
Questions to Consider
1. What was the cause of Northup’s eventual transfer to a sugar plantation?
2. Describe the experience of the slaves during the march to the sugar plantation.
3. How did Northup take to harvesting sugar? What position was he given in the sugar plantation? What responsibilities was he given?
4. What is “Sunday money?” Why is it so important in the life of a slave?
5. What type of work did Northup do to obtain more money? How did this make him feel?
6. If food runs out, how does a slave supplement his diet?
7. According to Northup, what effect does slavery have on the individual?
8. Does Northup blame the individual slave-owner for slavery’s cruelties? Why or Why not?
9. Many southern whites argued that slaves could not understand the notion of freedom. What is Northup’s opinion?
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