Abolitionism: Did you mean...?

Olaudah Equiano (l. c. 1745-1797, also known as Gustavus Vassa) was an African of the Igbo village of Essaka, of the Kingdom of Benin (modern Nigeria), who was enslaved around the age of ten, bought his freedom around the age of 20, and became...

The Immortal Ten were a group of abolitionists from Kansas Territory (where slavery was hotly contested) who slipped across the Missouri River into St. Joseph, Missouri (a slave state) and, on 23 July 1859, freed their friend and fellow abolitionist...

When Sojourner Truth (circa 1797-1883) escaped from slavery, she later said, "I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right" (Delbanco, 142). So it was also with Harriet Tubman (circa 1822-1913...

John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (16-18 October 1859) was carefully planned and, at first, perfectly executed – until he made the mistake of letting the physician John Starry go (who then raised the local militia) and allowing...

John Wesley Cromwell (l. 1846-1927) was an African American civil rights activist, educator, historian, journalist, and lawyer who wrote extensively on slave revolts, especially Nat Turner's Rebellion of 1831. Drawing on primary sources...

Sojourner Truth's Escape from Slavery comes from the Narrative of Sojourner Truth, an account of the famous abolitionist's life as given to her friend and admirer Olive Gilbert and published in 1850. The story of her "walking away" from slavery...

Although Phillis Wheatley's poetry found an audience upon publication, it was not well received by everyone and some, notably Thomas Jefferson (l. 1743-1826), dismissed her work entirely as "mimicry" since, according to the prevailing understanding...

David Walker (l. c. 1796-1830) was an African American abolitionist writer best known for his 1829 work An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (also known The Appeal or Walker's Appeal) advocating for a united front in the abolition...

The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831) is the first-person account given by the rebel slave leader Nat Turner (l. 1800-1831) to the attorney T. R. Gray (l. c. 1800-1843) following Nat Turner's Rebellion in Virginia (also known as the Southampton...

Enslaved Blacks in the United States, seeking freedom, often fled to Canada, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 compelled citizens in free states to help slave-catchers apprehend them. Although they frequently faced racial prejudice...