these people are at the cutting edge of reform. these people are in the vanguard of change. they're saying things that are quite controversial. they get a lot of criticism and opposition, as we will see, from all over the united states. not just from states with big slave populations, which is what we might expect, but even in free states. in states where slavery had been abolished during a revolution or soon after the revolution there was still a lot of criticism. and we must remember that the past is different from the present. we must remember that the whole spectrum of political opinion is completely different from what it is today. many of the presidents are themselves slave owners. and the president of the united states in the 1830s was a very wealthy slave owner, andrew jackson. we talked about that in an earlier lecture. and jackson denounced

abolitionists. he said they were dangerous, they were incendiaries, they were trying to harm the united states, they were trying to harm american society. so this is something that is a hard fight for abolitionists in this generation. and the 19th century has been called by historians the century of emancipation because this fight takes place in many different societies. and it's a hard fight everywhere. and everywhere slave owners fight back. you know, everywhere slave owners try to counter these criticisms and they try to preserve slavery. and we'll be talking about that in a few minutes. the individuals who get caught up in the abolitionist movement, the people who lead the abolitionist movement are very interesting people. and there have been lots of different biographies on the different historical figures.

i think at this point we can quote a civil rights activist from the 1950s and 1960s about what kind of person would be involved in this movement, what kind of person would be leading it. and i'd like to quote a nice phrase from andrew young, who was a black political activist. he was a friend of martin luther king. he was with king when king was assassinated. he later served as a congressman and a mayor. he's had a long career in politics and reform. and in his memoir he said the kind of people who were attracted to the civil rights movement of the 20th century were what he called creatively maladjusted. they were creatively maladjusted. meaning they were people who did not want to accept the status q quo, who thought segregation was wrong, and they were creative about it. they wanted to change the status quo. and i think that that's a very nice phrase. i think it really applies in

many respects to the abolitionists. now, let's talk about a few of the famous figures. one of the most famous was a newspaper editor in boston. his name was william lloyd garrison. and william lloyd garrison was a native of massachusetts. he was a white man. he was from a working-class background. his father had abandoned the family when he was quite young. and william had to go out to work. he started supporting himself when he was very young. he went into the printing business. he was a printer, and he worked for several newspapers. he for a while worked for a paper in baltimore, and he saw slavery up close and personal when he was living in a slave state, in the state of maryland. and he was horrified by what he saw. and he went back to boston and decided that he was going to open his own newspaper and he

was going to devote it completely to abolishing slavery. and the newspaper was called -- does anybody know the name of his paper? yes. >> "the liberatoliberator." >> yes. "the liberator." good name. it's a good name for an anti-slavery newspaper. "the liberatoliberator." he found td in 1831. and garrison did the whole thing himself. he wrote many of the articles. he did the actual printing of the paper. he distributed the paper. this is really his creation. and the language in "the liberator" was very blunt. very direct. garrison doesn't hold anything back. he said in his very first issue, he said, and i quote, he said that "i will be as harsh as truth, as uncompromising as justice. i will not retreat a single inch. i will be heard." and he said in the 1840s in an

issue of the paper that the united states constitution was "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." you don't hear that too often in the 19th century or today. very strong language. "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." and he's saying this because he says it's a pro-slavery constitution. he says the constitution protects slavery. his language is very blunt. he's very straightforward in his journalism throughout his car r career. although in person garrison was very mild-mannered and very quiet-spoken and people who met him would be surprised at the contrast between his personality and the things he said in his paper. but he's completely dedicated to what he's doing, and he believes that with his newspaper he can change public opinion. he doesn't want to go into politics. he sees american politics as corrupt. he thinks american politics are too corrupt.

he's going to try to sway public opinion. by using his newspaper. he also goes out on a lecture tour sometimes. garrison was not an especially great orator. he was a pretty good speaker. his real gift is in journalism. and the newspaper stays in business until slavery ends with the civil war. now, some of the abolitionists were black people. not all the abolitionists were white. i think the textbooks up until maybe 40 years ago or so would often portray the abolitionist movement as all white. it was not all white. there were some black abolitionists. for example, david walker. david walker is a native of the south. he's from wilmington, north carolina. excuse me. his mother was a free black woman. he came to the north in the 1820s. and he settled in boston.

he ran a clothing store in the town's black business district. he was a devout churchgoer. so was garrison. garrison is a very devout protestant, knows the bible very well. so was david walker. he's an active member of the methodist church. he's also sympathetic to working-class black people in boston. and he's also willing to help fugitive slaves. if a fugitive slave showed up at his house, walker would of course help them. in 1829 he published a book. and the title was "appeal to the colored citizens of the world." "appeal to the colored citizens of the world." and this was when the word "colored" was still used commonly by black people. didn't have the negative connotation it has today. and in this work walker calls on black people to assist and lead the black community. he believed in the american work

ethic. he believes in individual ambition. he believes in protestant values. and he says that black people have to work hard to better themselves and to better the black community. but he also denounces slavery. he said that it was a crime. he said that it went way back in history. he knew quite a lot about history all the way to ancient egypt. he criticized the founders for their hypocrisy on slavery. he especially singled out thomas jefferson. he said that violence might be necessary to end slavery. and he also said that one day god would punish whites for the sin of slavery. so this is a book that is just as blunt as garrison's newspaper. and it reached a large audience. it reached a large audience in the black population in the north. it was also carried into the south by black travelers, sometimes black sailors who

would go from port to port, would carry copies with them. so it reaches quite a large audience. and then the very next year walker died. he died in 1830. he died suddenly the year after the publication of his book. and what do you think the rumor was? just take a guess. >> someone knocked him off. >> yeah, that he had been killed. that he died so suddenly and he's in early middle age, he was not an older man, and historians believed is that for a long time. but now we think that he probably died of tuberculosis because a lot of people in boston got tuberculosis and died of the disease and a recent biographer found an obituary in a paper that said that mr. walker had died of tb. but walker in his rather short life nonetheless had an impact with his book. and frederick douglass, who will

himself become an abolitionist, read that book. he said years later. and he said it had a powerful impact on him. now, some abolitionists are not only white but they are also native southerners. there are a small number of white people in the south who disagree with slavery. for example, a man from kentucky named cassius clay. first name cassius, last name clay. this is a name from the ancient world. his father or mother apparently read, you know, the history of the ancient world and gave their son this name cassius clay. cassius clay is the son of a slave owner. he grew up outside of lexington. he has a very comfortable upbringing. he is a college graduate. and when he was a young man, he

inherited his father's estate and 17 slaves. he also married a young woman who was from the slave-owning elite in kentucky. but even when he was in his late teens and early 20s, he was starting to make comments in writing and sometimes in public that were anti-slavery. and he starts to say things like one day slavery should end. and then he starts to say it should end soon. then he says that no truly patriotic person could support slavery. he got active in the anti-slavery movement. he starts to give anti-slavery speeches in kentucky. also in other places in the ohio river valley. he begins publishing his own ant anti-slavery newspaper in lexington which he called "the true american." you know, again, emphasizing patriotism, that a true patriot

would be anti-slavery. and as you might imagine, a man in kentucky saying this is going to get criticism. not just verbal criticism. one time a mob broke into his newspaper office and destroyed his press. and cassius clay started to get death threats. but he's very determined. he's someone who is very strong-willed. and he will not back down. although he never emancipated his own slaves. and it seems to be the case that his in-laws threatened him, his wife's family apparently. he had a bad relationship with his wife's family. that was true throughout the marriage. it seems to be the case that his wife's family threatened him if he decided to free his own slaves. so he didn't. and of course his critics said that he was a -- that he was a

hypocrite. and clay said in his old age that it was a mistake. he was embarrassed about it. but he didn't free his own slaves, even as he is calling for emancipation. nonetheless, he goes out on the lecture circuit and he often faced audiences, especially in kentucky, which is a slave state, that were quite hostile. and clay, even though he was a religious man and knew the bible very well, he said -- most of the time his justification, his protection was the constitution. he said the constitution gave him the right to say what he thought about slavery. and when he would walk into a room to give a lecture to an audience, he would often hold up a copy of the constitution, and he would say this is my protection. and then he would pull a gun out of his bag and hold it up and say, this is also my protection.

and he would put the gun down, you know, right there on the table so everybody in the room knew that mr. clay was armed. and he carried a gun with him everywhere he went because he got death threats on a fairly regular basis because of his criticisms of slavery. and he said later that he was never actually assaulted during a lecture, although other abolitionists were. we'll talk about that in a minute. but he got many death threats. and one day when he was walking down a country road near his house in kentucky in the 1850s a stranger ran up to him and stabbed him. and clay was seriously injured, but he recovered and he continued on his anti-slavery mission. in 1851 he ran for the xwrofrn of kentucky on an emancipation ticket. he did not win. he got about 5,000 votes.

but he begins to get more of a profile outside of kentucky. he's invited to give lectures in other parts of the country, in the free states. he spoke to a large crowd in springfield, illinois. and guess who was in the audience. >> abraham lincoln? >> abraham lincoln. very good. lincoln himself heard clay speak. and he remembered clay. and when lincoln became president in 1860, he gave clay a diplomatic appointment. the u.s. ambassador to russia. you know, which is not the most important appointment in the diplomatic corps. that would probably be u.s. ambassador to england. but still it was a political favor, we might say, for somebody who had been a long-time outspoken critic of slavery. clay said later that his service in russia mostly consisted of going to parties and drinking a lot and listening to

conversations between russian aristocrats to try to figure out what the czar was thinking about the american war, would the czar want to intervene in the war, and he did not. he came back to the united states, became more conservative as he got older, but still remained very defiant, became more and more reclusive, and finally died on his farm in 1903. now, some abolitionists were from the south and they were themselves ex-slaves. and probably the most famous ex-slave and the most famous black person in all of 19th century america was a man from maryland, and his name was? >> frederick douglass. >> right. frederick douglass. very good. and frederick douglass spelled his name with two ss. frederick douglass. frederick douglass was born in

the late 18 teens in maryland. he was a slave. his father either died or deserted the family before he was born. and he was owned by a family named anthony, the surname anthony. and the anthonys were slave owners who had relatives in rural maryland and also in the city of baltimore. frederick douglas's mother died when he was young and he was largely raised by his grandmother. he was also very found of and very close to his many cousins, his siblings, and his relatives on the different anthony plantations. and douglass said later that slavery there was quite harsh, he witnessed the master flogging one of his relatives once. one of his aunts was flogged by the master. he witness ed other relatives ad friends being severely punished. but then he got a very

interesting reprieve. he was sent to baltimore to work for a relative of the anthony family. and when he was in baltimore, he learned how to read. and the wife of the man he worked for in baltimore taught him to read. a white woman taught him to read because she thought that a slave should be able to read the bible. she was a devout christian and she thought a slave should be able to read the bible, even though this was illegal in many parts of the south. this was considered dangerous and unacceptable. nonetheless, frederick douglass becomes literate because this white woman in baltimore teaches him how to read. and once he learns how to read, he can't get enough of books and newspapers, and he reads everything that he can find. he's a very curious and inquisitive little boy. but then he gets sent back to the countryside. he got sent back to the countryside because a relative died and he was passed as part of that inheritance to another member of the family. and then he has to go to work in

the fields and he hates it. he hates field labor. and he becomes known as a, quote unquote, difficult slave. he's someone who is perceived by the master and the overseer as a defia defiant, difficult young man. and by the time he was about 20 he had decided he was going to escape, he was going to run away. and in 1838 he did get away. he was married to a free black woman, and he got his wife to make for him an outfit that sailors are wore. and sailors had very distinctive clothing. sailors white and black. if you saw a man walking down the streets of baltimore, you could tell right away if he was a sailor because of how he was dressed. so his wife made a sailor's outfit for him. and he passed himself off as a free black man who was working on the ship. and he made it to new york and he got off at the dock and was standing there and probably looking kind of disoriented.

and a black man came up to him and said, it's not safe here. you should keep going. keep moving. you know, why don't you go to boston in it's safer there. you know, a black man intuited obviously that douglass was a fugitive. so he went to boston, and he got a job working in a small town outside of boston. and almost immediately, within a year or two of settling in new england, he gives his first public talk against slavery. and douglass turns out to be a very compelling public figure and public speaker. he's very tall. he's a tall, powerful man. he had a baritone voice, a deep, rich speaking voice, and he spoke with great conviction. and of course he's talking about personal experience. he's talking about the things that happened to him, the punishments that he got, the punishments that were inflicted on his relatives and friends. he talked about the way that the slave trade separated family

members from each other. and even though he's a very compelling and inspiring speaker, he still got heckled. he got jeered at. occasionally, he got pelted with garbage and rotten eggs. and some people even said he couldn't be an ex-slave, he was too smart and too articulate to feel have ever been a slave. so he publishes an autobiography in 1845, you know, to prove in part that he really was a slave. and in his book he talks about the things he'd already been talking about in his lectures, the dehumanizing effects of slavery, how slaves are badly treated. he also talks about the corrupting influence that slavery has on white people. and that even white men who are trying to be good masters can sometimes behave with great

cruelty. and now that he has a public profile, that he's a published author, his friends are afraid that the anthony family in maryland may try to hire a slave catcher to track him down and bring him back to slavery. so he left the united states. he went to europe. he traveled around the british isles for about two years. he met a number of famous reformers in england and in ireland. he gave public speeches. then he comes back to the united states and his friends raise money, approximately $700, to pay off the anthony family. you know, to pay them for the value that frederick had as a slave. because he's a slave he is worth money to the anthony family. so then he's really free. he doesn't have to look over his shoulder anymore. he founded a newspaper in rochester, new york and called it's north star. an abolitionist newspaper that he ran himself.

he was also interested in other causes. he was interested in the women's rights movement, which we'll be talking about in a few minutes. he was an early supporter of women's suffrage when that was a radical idea. and he also talked about segregation in the north. he talked about the fact that in the north many public facilities were either closed to black people or they had to sit in the back or sit in a special section. and believe it or not, segregation started in the early 19th century north. it later spreads to the south after the civil war. but it's a creation of the early 19th century north. hotels are segregated and restaurants and most universities are closed to black people. and many public schools are closed to black people. for example, the state of massachusetts, which is one of the few states thatting aloud black people to vote, nevertheless did not allow black children to go to public

schools. four states in the midwest did not allow black people to own property. ohio, indiana, illinois, and michigan. and douglass is very outspoken about the prejudice that he witnesses and experiences as a free man in the north. in the 1850s he began to change his mind about the methods of abolition. up until that time he like garrison and many other abolitionists was hoping that they could change public opinion, they could persuade people. but in the 1850s he begins to think that maybe violence might be necessary, maybe that's the way to finally end slavery. in 1860 he supports abraham lincoln. not with tremendous enthusiasm. lincoln was not an out and out abolitionist, as we'll be discussing later on in the course. lincoln did say in 1860,

however, that the expansion of slavery has got to stop. no more new slave states in the trans-muss mi trans-mississippi west. so he's the only anti-slavery candidate, and douglass supports him for that reason. he's a lifelong republican because it was the republican party that brought about emancipation. he held several local offices as a republican after the war, lives a very long time, dies in the 1890s. now, as i mentioned a moment ago, giving public lectures against slavery can be dangerous, very dangerous. and frederick douglass found this out himself. when douglass would go out on the speaking circuit, he would usually travel with somebody, you know, another abolitionist. when he was in a small town in indiana in 1843, douglass was very badly injured. he was attacked by a mob of white people.

this was pendleton, indiana, a very ordinary little farming town. and he and another abolitionist were there giving a lecture. a white man named william white. he's a white man, and his last name is white. mr. white is white. so we've got a black abolitionist, mr. douglass, and a white abolitionist, mr. white. and they were speaking in front of a church on top of a wooden platform. and there were people in the audience who were there to listen, but douglass said later there were also people in the audience who looked very anally like they were going to do something about their antagonism to the speaker. and after they started the lecture, about 30 white men rushed onto the stage, started to tear down the platform, and beat up frederick douglass and william white. they were both badly beaten up. one of douglass's hands was broken. and douglass said for years

afterwards, he said that william white saved his life that day. now, a man who had a big stick was standing over douglass and was about to hit him over the head with it and may well have killed him, and william white stopped it from happening. and they do get away. they're not murdered that day in pendleton, indiana. and douglass felt grateful to white for the rest of his life. and william white is one of those unsung heroes of the abolitionist movement. you know, there are hundreds of people we don't know very much about who nonetheless took an active part in the movement and white is one of them. douglass said later i shall never forget that we were like two brothers, we were ready to dare, to do, and even die for each other. and he said that william white was a noble person. so this is, you know, high praise from one abolitionist to another. and we must remember that even though douglass was a black man

and a slave and had experienced all kinds of racial prejudice in his life he did not hate white people. he understood that there were good-hearted, decent white people like william white. now, as douglass's and white's experience remind us, this was dangerous. this was a dangerous line of work. and some people would fight back. some abolitionist speakers when they were attacked, when they were physically assaulted, they would fight back. obviously, douglass and white are ready to fight back. some speakers believed in non-resistance, non-violence. and they would not fight back. the men would just curl up in a ball on the ground and not fight back. pacifists, believing totally and completely in pacifism. and it's interesting that the female abolitionists were often threatened with violence, but we don't have any accounts of female abolitionists actually

being physically assaulted and nearly killed, like what happened to some of the men. so let's talk for a few minutes about some of those female aboliti abolitionists. probably one of the most beloved of the white women who became aboliti abolitionists in this period was a woman from massachusetts named lucretia mott. lucretia mott. lucretia mott was a quaker. her parents are very interesting people. her father was a sea captain. and he was gone for months and months at a time. sometimes he would be gone for a full year. and while he was away traveling the globe as a sea captain, lucretia mott's mother would run the household. and she was very capable and very well organized. i guess she had to be if you were going to be married to a sea captain. so she grew up in a household with a woman who was a strong,