Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Please be specific: Discuss the various reform efforts led by African Americans and identify the ideas of prominent abolitionists. Name the reformers and the abolitionists (each answer in one paragraph).

African Americans were certainly leaders in the antebellum abolitionist movement, and many branched out into other interconnected reform movements as well.
The most prominent leader of the abolition movement was Frederick Douglass. Having escaped from enslavement himself, he became a gifted orator and the public face of abolitionism. His autobiography became the standard to which all first-hand accounts of slavery were compared--accounts which were proven invaluable with regards to shaping public opinion among educated Northerners. Douglass was also an outspoken advocate for women's rights. He attended the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 and was among the few who supported Elizabeth Cady Stanton's call for women's suffrage in the mid-nineteenth century.
Another African American abolitionist, who also promoted women's rights, was Sojourner Truth. A former slave like Douglass, Sojourner Truth lectured on the evils of the institution of slavery, promoted temperance, and advocated for women's rights. Her famous speech, "A'int I a Woman," encapsulated her belief that the abuses of slavery were connected to the injustices endured by women.
David Walker was another prominent African American abolitionist who advocated from the pulpit (as an ordained minister) for African American equality. Walker, in a famous book entitled the Appeal, urged his fellow African Americans to rise up against their masters and violently overthrow slavery. This ran counter to the ideology of mainstream abolitionism during the antebellum period; before the 1850s, most abolitionists were also pacifists, largely due to the same religious impulses that caused them to criticize slavery. Overall, abolitionists argued that slavery was a sin--a moral stain on the nation that had to be eliminated.
The abolitionist movement was therefore notable for its leadership, which included African American men as well as black and white women: individuals who were otherwise closed out of the political process.
https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/walker/bio.html

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth

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