and believe it or not, some abolitionist men said that female abolitionists were hurting the cause, that they were distracting people from the important issue, that they were discrediting the movement. frederick douglass and william lloyd garrison said no, they're n not. they advocated the right of women to participate in the movement. so let's talk more about some of the female abolitionists, shall we? these are very interesting people who have been the subject of some really excellent biographies. the grinke sisters of south carolina. and grimke is a french name. their ancestors were french protestants who came to south carolina in the colonial period. the family by the early 19th century was very wealthy. they had a beautiful house in charleston. they had plantations out in the countryside. and two of the daughters in the grimke family, sarah grimke and angelina grimke, are the ones who become abolitionists. and even as children they seem to have been very sensitive to wrongdoing. they noticed when they thought people were badly treated. and sarah, the older of the two sisters, starte

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 st

at knox, we are very proud of our abolitionist beginnings. we were founded as was noted earlier 175 years ago. our founders then imagined into being at a time when this was an heroic effort, a town on the prairie in galesburg, illinois, distinguished by the presence of a college, a college that would be open to all students of talent and promise irrespective of means, of race, of color or creed. to this day we honor those commitments in many ways on our prairie campus, including our exceptional lincoln studies center, home to two of the nation's most renowned lincoln scholars, rodney davis, and two-time lincoln prize winner douglas wilson. the most recent book together, "the lincoln douglas debates," has been hailed as the most complete record of those debates. instructive perhaps in this campaign year. the fifth of those debates i'm very proud to say was held in 1858 on the knox college campus. i'm delighted today to introduce yet another example of how knox college has served and been inspired by the past. owen muelder, class of 1965 -- '63

abolitionist art and the american slave trade. >> growth was a young british artist who was unprepared. he crow wondered down to the slave auction and there be held the auction of humans for the first time and was captivated and painted the number of images in order to raise awareness of american slavery. >> host: was tv abolitionist? >> i suspect he where it -- was aware of the movement and good describe himself as being opposed the after witnessing the slave auction the than described himself as the abolitionist. he was not politically active. he was not a member of the many organizations that existed after the end of british slavery but where a team hot and publishing images were just as important. >> host: why did he come to the states? >> the volume novelists second only to charles dickens beloved by americans was odd a speaking to our. crow father was a good friend said he invited him to come along but crow was a highly trained artist in his early 20s he traveled up and down the eastern seaboard he made sure the launch -- lodgings were taking care of but he was sketching the whol

. >> was the anti-slavery or an abolitionist? >> i suspect when he first came to america he was aware of the antislavery movement and what would describe themselves as being opposed to slavery. after coming today and witnessing the slave auction, he was not a politically active abolitionist. he was not a member of these many organizations that existed in britain even after the end of british slavery, but he was writing and publishing in ways that were as important as the activism of those who are politically involved. >> why did he come to the united states in the first place? >> it is one of the stories that is not well known. it was a german who was on a six-month speaking tour. he invited his best friend's son to come along and be his companion. eyre crowe at that time is already a very highly trained artist, although he was only in his 20s. he went around the eastern seaboard, he made reservations and he traveled and made sure that all the lodgings were taking care of but he also sketched the whole way that he was traveling.

his parents sent him off to an abolitionist school. in sparta, illinois. in the 1850s he shows up at an iberia college in ohio, in 18528, where he attends classes, this is an african-american -- he obtains a college education which was quite remarkable in this day. you can tell simply from reading his works and speeches, he is thoroughly educated in a traditional liberal arts background. he is a poet, he is a political philosopher, he's a thinker, an abolitionist, a man of letters, a newspaper publisher. he comes on to the state political scene, really the first record we have of him speaking is in 1859 where at the age of 21 he attended an abolitionist event in springfield, illinois. on, this is -- august 1st, 1859, that's which if you know your history of the british west indies, that's emancipation day, the celebration of the freeing of the slaves in the british empire in the west indies. we have the newspaper report of what was going on and the audience was shocked to see this young kid come up to the stage. he was 21 years old. the reporter makes a re

this came as a body blow to abolitionists. people who had been involved with the anti-slavery movement considered this a very real setback. it also made many of them very, very angry, and in many ways, i believe that between 1850 and the time the civil war breaks out, the effect of that fugitive slave law was to instill into abolitionists a higher degree of resolve, and indeed underground railroad activity was strengthened after that. remember this, the underground railroad heads out of the south in every direction. if you live in illinois, we tend to think of fugitive slaves rightfully headed northwards towards canada. in fact, fugitive slaves escaped in any direction they could. they went into arkansas and texas and down into mexico. they escaped on boats into the caribbean sea, and seacraft that went up along the sea, the eastern seacoast. in some cases, fugitive slaves who were taken abroad by their masters waited until they were in foreign lands to escape. fergus? >> owen, one of the knottiest problems in researching the

had to be this way or not. >> judith. >> the greater journey from slavery to abolitionist. you mentioned several things that the northern abolitionists who were averting slavery from the developing nation. but also the misperception of southerners as the great protagonists and beneficiaries of slavery. that at point in american history. recently, within the past ten years, there is a film. you also mentioned. a film that came up through sundance and is in distribution is a documentary called "traces of the trade." it is about the brown and wolf family about the greatest -- >> i went to brown university. i know all about the brown family. >> he ran the university and most of the north through the slave trade. and the documentary is available on youtube. it is a phenomenal story. i would like to enfold or have your opinion with regard to the greatest sin of slavery. i would like us to be absolved somehow in this little area of the world. >> in waterford, i'll absolve waterford. it was a quaker community. >> could you place the journey in the greater context of the slave trade

abolitionists? oh, yeah. cassius clay published a memoir, elizabeth cady stanton published one. there are lots of citations. you want me to give you some after class? okay. yeah. these are often very verbal people, highly verbal, highly articulate. they have things to say. they leave quite a large paper trail for a small number of people. any other questions, comments? okay. let's talk about the pro slavery response. slave owners are paying attention. they notice when slavery comes under this fierce attack. and they counterattack. the slave owning elite in the united states, they fight back. and all slave owners did that throughout the 19th century. whenever anti-slavery movements get started in other parts of the world, in the british empire, in spain, in other places in central and south america, slave owners respond and they fight back. and they try their best to stop emancipation. they cling to that institution which has benefitted them so much. and in the united states that happens. slave owners notice right away that the abolitionist movement has geared up and these people

so the civil rights movement, borrows on the language of the abolitionists. the woman's right movement, borrows and we have all the social movements that organize themselves social movements that form themselves around abolitionists, as the one great relatively pure example of extraordinary social reform in our country. but also we're called on to be modest at the same time by the same events. >> i want to make a quick argument for why slavery is just a little different. if you look at a state like south carolina or mississippi, were you talking about the majority of the people who live there enslaved. i'm going to go here. i think slayry very is a partic kind of violence when you talk about the selling of people, selling of children, the division of families. i think that's a little different than peta, and i guess i'm being presentist right now, but when i don't think we should ever lose sight of the fact that there are a great number of people who have absolutely no power, and also i think we belong in that debate. >> it's an irrefutable point, and i talk

so the civil rights movement, borrows on the language of the abolitionists. the woman's right movement, borrows and we have all the social movements that organize themselves around the models of abolition as the one great, you know, relatively, relatively pure. example of, extraordinary social reform in our country. but also we're called on to beep modest at the same time by the same events. >> i want to make an argument as to why savory is a little different. i think it's a particular kind of violence when you talk about the selling of people. the selling of people's children. the division of families. i think that's a little different than peta. we're talking about a compromise of two sides without power. also i guess -- >> it's an ir ref tabl point. slightly fascinating to me that we've come to this topic. nothing i'm say iing, misunderstood by me or -- slave hold i holding or any kind of reduction in our sense of the heinousness of the crime of slavery. very difficult to go here, but, i once heard someone speak about comparative -- slavery, we have one of

he talks about the raid's impact on the abolitionists movement and the civil war. this is about 50 minutes. >> before we get started, i want to thank you all for coming. i'm kate mcginnis white for those of you who haven't met. for most of us, it's a wonderful welcoming to our home here in waterford. to celebrate both the journey through hollowed ground partnership, which is really the result of the work of many in this room, as well as to celebrate our dear friend and favorite author, tony horowitz. yes, indeed. yes, come on. >> and former neighbor. >> we consider you a current neighbor, tony, under the economic conditions and c-span, thank you, he is selling his house. >> you can tour it afterwards. >> we're here today as part of the journey through hallowed ground national heritage areas institute. conversations, engaging both our partners as well as our authors in bringing to the fore the history in the swath of land from gettysburg to monticello. we could not be more thrilled than to have tony with us who has not only been the best-selling author of "confedera

so the civil rights movement borrows on the language of the abolitionists. the women's rights movement of the 19th century borrows powerfully. so we have all of these social movements that organize themselves around the wolmodels abolition as the one great relatively, relatively pure example of extraordinary social reform in our country. but also we're called on to be modest at the same time by the same events. >> i want to make a quick argument arguing for why slavery is just a little different. if you look at a state like south carolina or mississippi, when you're talking about the majority of the people who lived there are enslaved. i think slavery's a -- i guess i'm just going to go here. i think it's a particular kind of violence when you talk about the selling of people, the selling of people's children, the division of families. i think that's a little different than peta, and i guess i'm being presentist right now, but whenever we talk about pragmatism inevitably we're talking about a compromise between two sides who have power. but i don't think we

he's an abolitionist. many were condescending. their view was blacks were too s do i will to fight for freedom and leave it to us benevolent whites to care of this issue for you. brown completely rejected them. among those he saw support from was frederick douglas. he meets with harriet tubman. he lived his believes in a quiet, astonishing way. as to the white support, the secret six, i believe one of my favorite parts of the story in an area where there's a little room for humor, they were really par local radicals. they were very wealthy businessmen mostly in the boston area who funneled brown money and guns. they fed it to him at salons in new england and brown dines with thoreau and emerson. alcott calls brown the manliest man they've ever met. they're intoxicated by this. it's like the 1960s when you had wealthy folks in manhattan hosting black panthers and other radicals. in the end these people are not shall we say profiles in courage. when brown's raid goes bad and they're implicated, one of them is already overseas, three

at 10:30 p.m., abolitionist john willis menard, elected to the u.s. congress in 1868. and although never seated, was the first african-american to address the house chamber. american history tv in primetime all this week on c-span3. and on our companion network, c-span2, book tv's weekend programs in primetime. tonight a look at some of the world's outstanding scientific minds. starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern, kitty ferguson on theoretical physicist and author steven hawking, an unfettered mind. at 9:00, george dyson talks about the realization of alan turing's theoretical universal machine in the 1940s and '50s. at 10:30, john girtner traces some of the 20th century's most important inventions. book tv in primetime all week on c-span2. >> between 1971 and 1973, president richard nixon secretly recorded nearly 4,000 hours of phone calls and meetings. >> always agree on the little things and then you hold on the big one. hell, i've done this so often in conversations with people, i'll say we'll concede that and make them feel good, but then don't give them the big one. >>

movement and you see how many of those folks started out as emancipationists -- i'm sorry sh -- abolitionists. when you hear sarah gremke saying by looking into the rights of slaves i gained deeper insights into my own rights as a woman, that's a mangled quote but basically the essence of what she said. it is impossible for me to picture america as it is today without picturing african-americans as a political force, without picturing african-americans as a cultural force. where would we be without jazz? what is america without jazz, without its popular music? when you think about these questions that our president is facing right now, why does the majority of republican voters in mississippi regard him as a muslim? i think all of that goes back to the civil war. the difficulty of accepting african-americans as full americans, as full citizens, as full participants in our lecture, and i think that causes a great degree of problems that are not even obvious when you talk about putting in place policy that, you know, presumably is for all of america. but when you see african-americans at the fo

one is called the abolitionist imagination, which i read in manuscript. it is a long essay, a probing provocative essay about the reputation of abolitionists with four people responding and very soon to be reviewed by david brian davis in new yorker books. you two can deal with that later. the book called college, what it was, is, and should be, which andy was interviewed about on connecticut public radio yesterday, if any of you happened to hear it. most prominently, he is known for his great biography of her man melville. it is on my short list of biographies to model if you are trying to do a biography about a model e also wrote the book called the death of satan, which is a book about american culture in civil wary roux. he edited the portable lincoln, et cetera, et cetera and commonly writes for the new york review of books. gather gallagher is professor of the american civil war at the university of virginia. he taught for years at penn state before going to uva gary grew up in colorado and california. he went to graduate school at texas. i don't kn

of abolitionists four being responding. soon to be reviewed in the new york review of books. then the book called "college" what it was, is and should be, which andy was interviewed about on connecticut public radio yesterday if any of you happened to hear it. probably prominently known for biography of" herman melville. if you are fryi he wrote "the death of satan" which is a book about american culture. edited "the portable lincoln" et cetera. et cetera. commonly writes for the new york review of books. gary gallagher in the middle of our lineup, is the professor of the american civil war, the university of virginia. he taught for years at penn state before going to uva. gary grew up in colorado and california. he went to -- garage wraduate st texas. i don't know what it is, maybe the texas hook that makes neo-confederates he ought to be one of them until they find out he is not. at any rate, for years he edited a series with the university of north carolina press which has produced some of the best books we have about th

they're not all abolitionists, but that's where the abolitionists tend to hang out and that's a little too radical for me. we're going with union. okay? the republicans look at one of their main contenders, all right? his name is william seward. william seward is one of the main candidates the republicans will look at for from 1860. put him forward, okay? seward is from new york. very talented politician. eloquent speaker. i'll give you an excerpt of lincoln's inaugural address. later on in here in a little bit. it's beautiful. lincoln has writing skills you just can't teach somebody to write like that. it is just beautiful, and there are lines in lincoln's address that actually william seward gave him. okay? so seward is a very talented politician in his own right. problem for the republicans with him is, number one, he's from the northeast. he's from new york, all right? they need to get some western votes because, remember, douglas is from the west. they need to siphon off some of those western votes. number two, he is a very outspoken opponent of slavery. there is no way to tell so

his father was an early abolitionist. he was a staunch calvinist.to an opposing sin in yourself and to others. being almost a sort of moral policeman and slavery certainly was the great collective sin of that day. i think it came from john brown's temperament. most are really passivists. and they believe the way to fight sleighery is through education and moral uplift. he can't stand cravenness in the face of evil. he someone that wants to punch back. i think there's this temperamental part of him as well that he looks around and sees the nation really bullied by the slave-holding south throughout his life. he wants to stand up to it. so i think that's part of it, too. i wouldn't say there's any once experience or part of him that results in this militant abolitionism. >> you know, some suggest and you addressed this in your book that he knew when he had only 18 men to go in and take over an armory which he then set in virginia, that it was not successful and his ultimate goal was to be a martyr. what is your opinion about that? it was frederick dou

this institution that is being attacked by abolitionists and defended by pro slavery figures. slavery is very old. it goes back to the ancient greek and romans, ancient egyptians, it's older than the united states and slavery existed long before jamestown was founded in 1607. slavery had already spread through central and south america, that part of the new world had been colonized by the spanish and the portuguese and the development of slavery in north america and the british empire is a late comer, slavery was already an up and running concern generating huge profits in central and south america, before the very first slaves arrive in virginia and the virginia colony in 1619. and most of the slaves who come to the new world go to central and south america. we estimate maybe 5% of the millions of slaves who are brought from africa to the americas end up in what is now the united states. now, the cotton gin in the 1790s as we mentioned, the cotton gin gives slavery a new lease on life. it's a new way to make money from a slavery. and the typical slave in the period from 1830

then a discussion on the w abolitionist and women's suffrage movement. and the story of john willis the menard, the first s. c african-american elected to the u.s. congress. >>> between 1971 and 1973 president richard nixon secretly recorded therly 4,000 hours of phone calls and meetings. >> always agree on theme little things, and then you hold on thh big one. hell, i've done this so often in conversations with people. i'll say we concede that and make them all feel good but don't give them the big one. >> every saturday on c-span radio hear more of t

other sections big german section in florida, they are not in vfavor of lincoln and the abolitionists. sometimes it's your very wealthy white southerners, the guys who went constitutional union like the war will bring is bunch of destruction. sam houston gets kicked out of the leadership in texas. they tell him to go home. he was pro union the whole time. he was like look guys, i have been president of a country small and brand new it's hard. sam houston was your classic 19th century expansionist. you build more he's like go get cuba, mexico and somebody take canada. you get more you don't break away. are you guys nuts? so you have the unionists for a variety of reasons. there it a great book called "the free state of jones" looks at what jones county does during the war, not necessarily pro-union as anti-confederate and wealthy elite confederates. if there are any who are questions, i want to let folks who have 12:00 classes go and let the next class in if you have more questions come down, thank you and we will see you monday. >>> lectures in history airs each saturday at 8:00 p.m.

we are loyal to the america of lincoln and the abolitionists. but not to those who degrade my people. 1% of the american population gets 59% of the national income. i am a radical, and i am going to stay one until my people get free to walk the earth. the last person i'm going to introduce you to briefly is raymond alexander. he was a black lawyer who was recruited for the second trial. he was recruited by the naacp by think good marshall -- thurgood marshall who, of course, later was on the u.s. supreme court. raymond alexander, for the first time after a very long trial, three months -- i forgot to mention both trials took three months, 15,000 pages of trial testimony that i had to go through, and my eyes still haven't quite recovered from this experience. but raymond alexander in 1950 was hired by the u.s. state department to travel western europe to go to army bases and see that the african-american soldiers were being treated fairly. he was doing this in paris when he saw front-page newspaper headline about the trenton six on trial again, p

if you take any major change, it took abolitionists -- it started with abolitionists to say slavery'swe have to end it. suffragests who said women will have the right to vote. civil rights workers. environmentalists to say we needed clean air and water. those aren't out of the minds of a president or a congress man or a senator. that came from the people. and we have to remember that democracy is not a vicarious experience. that we need to have people committed to directions in this country and willing to put thems on the line. then we can get real change in this country. >> bill bradley, it's a fascinating book. we could all do better. i don't think anyone can disagree with that. i wish you success with it. thanks for joining me. >> thanks, piers. >>> when i come back, my interview with suzanne sommers and her thought on staying young. this should be good. >> 20 years older than me. >> i am. i could be your mother. >> people watching would think i'm your dad. >> my son is your age. >> really? >> yes. >> how does that make you feel? >> i don't feel that much different in age from him.

by abolitionists and suverageets. it has been won at the ballot box and on the battlefield. in state houses and and coursehouses. the path to victory has not always been straight or swift. but it has been sure and steady. and that's been the story of america stretching back to our earliest days. at our nation's founding, african americans were held in bondage. those without property could not vote. catsdzlirks could not hold office. women could not vote or hold office. and homosexuality was in some cases a crime punishable by death. but over time, we understood that freedoms are not fully shared if not fully safe. if government can deny freedom to one, it can deny freedom to all. exclusion and equality are mortal enemies in an america every time they have met in battle equality has ultimately triumph fed. throughout our history, each and every generation has expanded upon the freedoms won by their parents and grandparents. each and every generation has removed some barrier to full participation in the american dream. the work is not over. far from it. and i would argue last

far-reaching political civil rights platform that any party had ever had even with the republicans and abolitionists blooming. it was an extraordinary one that went further than they wanted because -- because chester bowles was the chairman of the democratic platform committee. he signed us on civil rights to have a maximum platform and a minimum that we would fight for because he knew he would have to compromise with the southerners and he wanted to have the maximum. we had good ones. minimum and maximum. that morning, robert kennedy got up to a chair in the caucus of the democratic leaders on the floor and said today's the day for the platform. the civil rights platform is strong and we want the kennedy delegates, every one of them, to go all the way with bowles' platform. i reported to bowles that's the command. he said oh, my god, i don't know what will happen. the southerners did not balk. the whole maximum got adopted somewhat by accident, which kennedy avowed and campaigned on a number of times and then came the call as king and then in due course, i became an assistant to the president for c

it is the story of the farmers, and cobblers and the abolitionists who ran the underground railroad, the workers who organized the individuals of every background, color, creed, orientation who worked in ways, large and small, to give us the country we have today. every single one of them decided that at some point, it was time to wake up and change the situation. that is what i want to talk with you about today. about how all of the work and the sweat and the passion that so many people poured into this country must be met with work and sweat and passion of our own. as young people like those who always spoke -- stoked the fires of progress, our country is counting on you to step forward and help us with the work that remains. we need you. i would be first to it meant that it is easy to lose sight of that responsibility, especially when you first graduate college. you are struggling to pay off your student loans. you are putting in extra hours at work. you are trying to figure out how -- who you want to spend the rest of your life with. i remember that like it was yesterday. i worke

starting with the great abolitionists and diplomat charles sumner and including justin morrell of vermontnd william fessendon of maine and lincoln himself averred that these leaders were nothing special compared to the, quote, great men of america's past, washington, jefferson, madison, or even more recently clay and john quincy adams and daniel webster. the nation was growing in strength, lincoln theorized. but its leaders seem to be shrinking. now i would say the first reason that the congress of 1862 was so productive was -- i will quote what rick edwards said to me and the lunch line in a different context, you can do certain things in a crisis that you can't do under normal conditions. the opposition democratic party had simply shattered over the issue of secession. and their strongest element, the solidly democratic south, had removed themselves from the federal government. the burst of legislative energy that marked the first half of 1862 had, in fact, been building through many years of epic gridlock. gridlock over the future of the united states. it was as if two teams of brawny