Louisiana Purchase 1803 The acquisition of the Louisiana territories, known as the Louisiana Purchase, in 1803 by the Jefferson administration doubled the size of the American territory and therefore its availability to the spread of slavery. The north and south had opposing views. The south supported the spread of the institution of slavery to the new territories while the north strongly opposed it. The Louisiana Purchase brought heated political debate to Congress. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States in 1803. Click on map to enlarge. Missouri Compromise 1820 The first state to be organized from…
Author: Staff writer
Transcription of the Provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 Section 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the persons who have been, or may hereafter be, appointed commissioners, in virtue of any act of Congress, by the Circuit Courts of the United States, and Who, in consequence of such appointment, are authorized to exercise the powers that any justice of the peace, or other magistrate of any of the United States, may exercise in respect to offenders for any crime or offense against the…
“Intelligence is a great leveler here as elsewhere” c. 1818 Frederick Douglass, neé Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, was born in in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland. His mother was Harriet Bailey, a slave, his father was a white man believed to be his master Aaron Anthony. He was separated from his mother as an infant. 1819-1825 Douglass lived with his grandmother Betsey Bailey. 1825 His mother died. He saw her four or five times during his life. Douglass was separated from his grandmother and moved to the Wye House plantation, the Great House, owned by Colonel Lloyd. Too young to work…
Frederick Douglass was introduced to the abolitionist movement in 1841 when William Coffin invited him to share his story in a convention organized by the Massachusetts Antislavery Society (MAS). William Garrison, impressed by his oratory, hired him as an agent of the MAS. This was a turning point in Douglass’ life and the beginning of his The Quakers The first call for the abolition of slavery in America came in 1688 from the Quakers in Pennsylvania. The Quakers formed the first American Abolition Society in 1775. In 1787 Benjamin Franklin became president of the Society. In 1790, two months before…
The Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863 A Transcription By the President of the United States of America: A Proclamation. Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit: “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the…
Source: Speech before the American Anti-Slavery Society, May 11, 1847. I am very glad to be here. I am very glad to be present at this Anniversary, glad again to mingle my voice with those with whom I have stood identified, with those with whom I have laboured, for the last seven years, for the purpose of undoing the burdens of my brethren, and hastening the day of their emancipation. I do not doubt but that a large portion of this audience will be disappointed, both by the manner and the matter of what I shall this day set forth.…
“Abolition of slavery had been the deepest desire and the great labor of my life” Frederick Douglass, née Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, was born into slavery in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland. A runaway slave, he became an and civil rights leader, social reformer and eventually one of the most influential African American intellectuals of the times. Douglass made history as the first African American to hold a government position and to receive a vote for nomination as president of the United States at the Republican National Convention of 1888. His vision was finally realized when Barack Obama became the first…