Read Works
Read Works: Frederick Douglass: From Slavery to Freedom
[Free Registration/Login Required] This ReadWorks passage provides a brief biography of the abolitionist writer and speaker, Frederick Douglass. A paired passage, a vocabulary support sheet, a questions sheet, and an answers sheets are...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Abolitionist Sentiment Grows
Abolitionists had been active since the end of the Revolutionary War, but in the 1830s they became more radical in their demands to end slavery. See what their solutions were, and read about how abolitionist views were thwarted in the...
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: Grade 7 Social Studies: Abolitionist Movement
This sample task contains a set of primary and authentic sources about the fundamental beliefs that shaped the abolitionist movement.
Other
Digital Text: My Escape From Slavery
This site provides a narrative of Frederick Douglass' escape from slavery.
Columbia University
Columbia University: Columbia University & Slavery 11. Columbians
This website was created by faculty, students, and staff to publicly present information about Columbia's historical connections to the institution of slavery. This article looks at the different approaches among Columbians to the...
Other
19th C. u.s. Women's Writings: Lydia Maria Child's "Slavery's Pleasant Homes"
Text of several of Lydia Child's writings that supported her abolitionist sentiments.
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Mosaic: Conflict of Abolition and Slavery
Historical documents trace how the abolitionists virulently decried slavery and denounced those who supported it.
Bryn Mawr College
Quakers and Slavery: Thomas Garrett
The inspiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe's Simeon Halliday, meet Thomas Garrett, famous abolitionist and humanitarian whose life was dedicated to serving and saving the enslaved. Links to related primary sources regarding Garrett.
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Slavery and Freedom: Harriet Beecher Stowe
This biography focuses on the abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, infamous for her novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and author of many other influential published works in the nineteenth century. See "Harriet Beecher Stowe Activities" for...
Other
Many Roads to Freedom: Locally Published Abolitionist Newspapers
Selections from abolitionist papers that were published in or near Rochester, New York are provided here for download in PDF format.
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia: My Escape From Slavery
The full text of a famous work by Frederick Douglass that made a huge impact on the abolitionist movement.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: America in Class: The Religious Roots of Abolition
A lesson that looks at the role of Christianity in the fight to abolish slavery in the United States.
Other
Understanding Race: Society: 1800 1850s: Resisting Slavery
An overview of slave revolts and abolitionist efforts during the first half of the nineteenth century, leading up until the Civil War. Read about the Underground Railroad, the colonization movement, and various anti-slavery books.
Library of Congress
Loc: Born in Slavery
From the Library of Congress American Memory project, this extensive online archive contains first-person narratives of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves that were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal...
Library of Congress
Loc: African American Odyssey: Abolition, Anti Slavery Movements
A section of an online exhibit that deals with historically important documents about the abolition movement from its earliest Quaker beginnings in the early 18th century through 1860.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Frederick Douglass: Orator, Editor, and Abolitionist
Through two primary source activities and a short video, understand how Douglass stood firm in his beliefs and rose to prominence, and explore the importance of literacy in his life.
Columbia University
Columbia University: Columbia University & Slavery 9. John Jay Ii
This website was created by faculty, students, and staff to publicly present information about Columbia's historical connections to the institution of slavery. In the decades before the Civil War, Columbia produced only two graduates who...
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: The Abolitionists
Outline of the beginning of the Abolitionist Movement in a pre-Civil War America as part of the sectional conflict between the North and South.
Other
Al Islam: Slavery in Ancient Times
This resource gives a history of slavery from pre-Islamic Times and its continuation under Islam.
iCivics
I Civics: Slavery: No Freedom, No Rights
From the basics about slavery to the attitudes that defended it and the efforts of those who wanted to see it abolished, in this lesson students learn about this dark part of America's past.
The History Cat
The History Cat: The Abolitionists
Describes the abolitionist movement and the people who pushed for the abolition of slavery, especially William Lloyd Garrison who founded the Liberator newspaper and the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Arguments for slavery were put...
Columbia University
Columbia University: Columbia University & Slavery the Manumission Society..
This website was created by faculty, students, and staff to publicly present information about Columbia's historical connections to the institution of slavery. While many students and faculty at Columbia University were opposed to...
Siteseen
Siteseen: American Historama: The Abolitionist Movement
Learn the history of the Abolitionist Movement that was established in the free states of the North to abolish the institution of slavery in the South.
Other
William Lloyd Garrison: Abolitionist and Leader
A several page article about William Lloyd Garrison and his actions in the abolition of slavery.