The Abolitionist Movement
by Hovan Liu, Melvin Shajee, Howard Luo, Evelyn Fu
The One Who Freed Many
If you look carefully enough, you might notice quite a few bands of slaves with no white master nearby, huddled up in a building. These slaves may be runaways from other colonies, but that is not a cause to be alarmed. Slaves are simply people who have been taken away from their home country and forced to work for no pay. Harriet Tubman
Many slaves get to New York by boat. That doesn’t mean that they’re crazy or vicious killers that are out to get you, as some slave owners would have you believe.
You might be wondering how slaves can get through a city with an unimaginably high population, but it's possible by going through the Underground Railroad. New York relies on slavery like many of the southern colonies, so they have to hide from everyone. These runaways may seem to have a leader, who is probably black, but in some cases it might be a white leader. These people and their leader are almost certainly escaped slaves and a member of the Underground Railroad. The Underground Railroad is a key portion of the Abolitionist Movement. The Underground Railroad gets its name from operating similarly to a railroad.The Underground Railroad is a group of people who free slaves by smuggling them to free states. Other slaves just want to get out of their state. One of the most famous Abolitionists is Harriet Tubman, a slave who ran away from her owner in Dorchester County, Maryland. Harriet Tubman is currently an Underground Railroad conductor.
Harriet Tubman also never lost a single slave on all of her nineteen trips and counting to free slaves. One of Harriet Tubman's secrets to success is threatening people with a gun if they threatened to give up and go back. Harriet Beecher Stowe was another abolitionist, and the author of the book Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book about slavery. People should fight against slavery because if we have freedom why can't slaves? Some people may argue that slaves are violent and dangerous but this is just because they don't want to lose their slaves, and the free labor which comes with them.
Letter to the Editor
Dear fellow abolitionists,
The abolitionist movement is fading and not enough effort is being provided to prevent slavery. Slave ships are arriving at a rate of around 80 a day. The poor conditions on the slave ships cause rebellions and suicide. When slaves arrive in the colonies, conditions don’t get better. Most slaves work around 18 hours a day and are punished if not done efficiently. The abolitionist movement seems to have been doing little to help free the slaves. The abolitionist movement needs to start taking action before it's too late.
The Middle passage is a route slaves take to America and many slaves die before reaching their destination. Slaves are thrown
William Seward
directly overboard into the ocean if they’re sick or attempting to rebel. Those who are living on the ships are given little space on the ship, most people get about 1x5 feet. The slaves are tied either around the neck or ankle with a rope and attached to each other. There needs to be a more efficient way to prevent slavery and remove these ships from the ocean.
Once the slaves arrive at their destinations, auctioneers sell them and often break up families. Once a slave reaches its new owner, the owner shows little care towards the slave. Some may argue that slavery has been critical to the development of New York however it comes down between ruining a bunch of lives or increasing the construction of NY. If the abolitionist movement doesn’t regain strength quickly and taking action as soon as possible, thousands of lives will furthermore be put to misery or death.
Slave rebellions are common due to the mistreatment and innocent lives are lost. A rebellion in the past where Africans got a hold of muskets, left five civilians dead and six wounded. Bloodshed is not required for our colonies to develop and progress. The abolitionists need to take action to stop slavery quickly. The lives of innocent people are put at risk for as long as slavery survives. The abolitionist movement needs to help the slave victims before it’s too late.
Sincerely,
William SewardThe African American Saint
This man is a famous abolitionist that supports anti-slavery. He escaped from his owner at the age of 20, and is currently the most influential and important black leader of our time. This person is no other than Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, or more commonly known as Frederick Douglass.
Douglass was once bought by a man named Hugh Auld. There, Hugh’s wife Sofia taught Frederick how to write. After being hired out to William Freeland, Douglass shared his knowledge of literature to the slaves on the plantation. There, he began his
Frederick Douglass
first move as an abolitionist. Frederick had two attempts to escape slavery until he succeeded, as stated before. After his escape, Douglass formally joined the abolitionist movement in 1841. His job was to deliver speeches and persuade people to join the abolitionist movement and to spread the word about slavery. Soon, a writer and fellow abolitionist named William Lloyd Garrison urged Frederick to compose an autobiography. Douglass accepted, and wrote the publication in 1845. His book later became known as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. This book is currently a bestseller and was translated into many European languages. Due to his fame, on August 16, 1845, Douglass was forced to escape to Ireland and Britain. Two years later in 1847, he returned to his home country, America.
Upon his return, Douglass is currently working on many newspapers such as The North Star, Frederick Douglass weekly, Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Douglass’ Monthly, and New National Era in New York. The newspapers are made to convince people to join the abolitionist movement and to end slavery. Hopefully, this great leader can achieve his goal by abolishing slavery forever.The Horror Filled Voyage
This event takes place in 1721 when the failed rebellion happens on the Robert of Bristol. The ship was on its way to New York and there were many deaths of not only slaves, but sailors as well. Multiple people were responsible for the deaths, but Captain Harding was the mastermind.
Captain Tomba and four strong slaves attempted to kill the ship’s crew and escape. A woman slave was told to go up to the crew’s bunk and spy on them. She came back one day and reported five crew members asleep on the deck. They brought all of their weapons to the deck. His companions seized when the crew woke up but Tomba continued to murder the sailors. The Robert of Bristol’s crew members discovered what was going on and eventually secured all of the traitors.
Some of the slaves aboard the ship were forced by their captors to eat the internal organs of a dead slave after being accused conspiring. Another captive starved himself to death after several unsuccessful attempts of using his fingernails to rip his throat open. A sailor was accused of encouraging the revolt and gets pinned to the mast of the ship by Harding as his punishment. He was left to rot with no food or water for the next three weeks.
There were approximately thirty slaves on the ship and almost all of them ended up dead. Even though the revolt was unsuccessful, a lot of the ship’s company still died. Regardless of whether they were involved with the revolt or not, Captain Harding would execute them just because he wanted to.
This failed slave revolt resulted in the most horrifying punishments of the 18th century. It ended with several deaths from executions and suicides. Captain Harding was the man responsible for the executions of not only slaves, but sailors on board as well. The revolt started because the slaves wanted to be free. All of the conspirators were executed along with many people who were accused but might have been innocent. The captain treated those slaves inhumanely. Join the abolitionists to put a stop to this cruelty.
"Free Again" Parody of Again(Fetty Wap) - Hovan Liu
I really want to be free again, help me
Aye, I know this lifestyle is driving me crazy
Aye, I cannot see myself in this dream
We call this torture, I hate this unjust life
I want out of this place to freedom
I want out of this place to freedom
I really want to be free again, help me
Aye, I know this lifestyle is driving me crazy
Aye, I cannot see myself in this dream
We call this torture, I hate this unjust life
I want out of this place to freedom
I want out of this place to freedom
I ain’t playin’ no games, I’m soon free
Can you understand I'm a young slave livin’
Coming from the south, all a slave know is workin’
I ain't chasing money, Hey, I’m talking about that freedom
Big, heavy bags on my back, no breaks
Workin’ on the field, get more lashes on my back
Help me, it’s the work, I only want free days
I don’t really care who falls everyday, aye
I don’t really care who cries everyday, aye
I really want to be free again, help me
Aye, I know this lifestyle is driving me crazy
Aye, I cannot see myself in this dream
We call this torture, I hate this unjust life
I go out of the way to freedom
I go out of the way to freedom
I really want to be free again, help me
Aye, I know this lifestyle is driving me crazy
Aye, I cannot see myself in this dream
We call this torture, I hate this unjust life
I go out of the way to freedom
I go out of the way to freedom
I ain’t playin’ no games, I’m now free
Slavery has caused hundreds of slaves much harm. Many have suffered cruel punishments. Slave owners show no mercy towards the slaves and require the slaves to work long hard days. Do you believe slavery is fair?
Works Cited
http://www.thenation.com/article/little-ships-horror/
http://slaverebellion.org/index.php?page=slave-revolt-on-the-robert-1721
http://www.iloveny.com/things-to-do/history/underground-railroad/#.VnCByvkrK00
http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/underground-railroad
http://www.biography.com/people/frederick-douglass-9278324
http://www.nps.gov/frdo/learn/historyculture/people.htm