Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and American Abolitionism

In the United States, abolitionism grew sharply in the 1830s, when William Lloyd Garrison launched The Liberator in 1831 demanding immediate emancipation. Black abolitionists were central. Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in 1838, published his Narrative in 1845, and became the movement's most famous speaker; in 1852 he asked, 'What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? ' Harriet Tubman escaped in 1849 and returned to Maryland about thirteen times, guiding roughly seventy people to freedom along the networks known as the Underground Railroad.

Abolitionists disagreed about methods: Garrison rejected the Constitution as pro-slavery and favoured moral persuasion, while Douglass came to see the Constitution as anti-slavery and supported political action. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 forced Northern officials to help return escapees, drawing many previously cautious Northerners into the conflict and deepening the crisis that led to civil war.