Reform Movement Leaders

Reform Movement Leaders

who were the leaders of the reform movements during the antebellum period and what did the achieve?

William Lloyd Garrison was the leader of abolitionism. Garrison believed in immediate emancipation of all slaves. He started “The Liberator” newspaper in 1831. This newspaper condemned the federal government, slave-holders, and the constitution for slavery. Garrison also formed the New England Antislavery Society as well as the American Antislavery Society. These were the first organizations dedicated to promoting immediate emancipation.

Sojourner Truth was an escaped female slave and a strong women’s rights activist. In the late 1840s se connected with the abolitionist movement, becoming a popular speaker. In 1850, she also began speaking on woman suffrage. Her most famous speech, Ain’t I a Woman?, was given in 1851 at a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio.

Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave, an escaped slave, purchased his freedom from his master in Maryland. Douglass founded the “North Star” newspaper in Rochester, New York. His paper served as a forum for abolitionist views, but it also supported the feminist movement and the emancipation of other oppressed groups. Douglass participated in the American Antislavery Society’s Hundred Conventions project. He also participated in the Seneca Falls Convention, which was the first women’s rights convention held in the United States.

John Brown was an abolitionist who supported and practiced armed insurrection as a means to end all slavery. Brown gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis. He demanded violent action in response to southern aggression. Browns attempt to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans in Harpers Ferry, Virginia electrified the nation. He was tried for treason against the state of Virginia, the murder of five proslavery southerners, and inciting a slave insurrection. To some John Brown was a terrorist, but to...

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