Abolitionist Movement
The North would not let you the idea of slavery. They kept arguing the point that there should NOT be slavery. There were quite a few abolitionist movements, such as the Dred Scott Case. Dred Scott was a former slave that had escaped to the North. He was captured, but he asked to go to court and try to argue his point. He made it all the way to the Supreme Court. The other slaves and people in the North was hoping that he would win the case so they could be free, but he lost. The courts basically said that he only counted as 3/5 of a person and just ended it. After the Dred Scott Case, the Fugitive Slave Law was created. This stated that any escaped slaves could be captured and be taken back to there owners. There were bounty hunters that were sent out to capture slaves to take back to their owners. If they didn't know the owner of the slave, they would just give them to another person. It didnt matter who got the slaves, as long as they were working on a plantation. Fredrick Douglass was an American abolitionist and writer. He escaoed slavery and became a leading African American spokesman and writer. He founded the abolitionist newspaper, The North Star. John Brown was an American abolitionist as well. He started the the Pottawatomic Massacre in Kansas to revenge killings of abolitionist. He later seized the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, to encourage a slave revolt. He was later tried and executed. Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American author and daughter of Lyman Beecher. She was an abolitionist and an author of the famous anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin. Sojourner Truth was an American evangelist and reformer. ( An evangelost is a preacher of the Gospel through not an apostle. An apostle is someone is is not "sent forth" as an embassador od the Gosple.) She was born an enslaved African but was later freed and became a speaker for abolition and womens' suffrage. (Womens' voting rights.) She also wrote the famous, "I am a Woman." All these people were part of the abolitionist movement. They all created issues and helped cause the Civil War all because the North would not let the issue go. The undergrond railroad was aslo an abolitionist movement. Some white people would try to help the slaves escape. This put their lives at risk. If they were caught, they were in serious trouble. They used secret codes to communicate and wanr them when there were bounty hunters out, when slaves were coming in, wehn was a good time to help them escape, and where to hind them. It was a very dangerous process.