Since slavery existed in America, some people always sought its abolition or end, including famous Americans likeInteractive popup. Assistance may be required. Benjamin Franklin. However, the abolitionist movement started to gain momentum in the 1830s and really took off in the 1850s after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law which created an obligation upon all law enforcement to help capture escaped slaves.

The following are three famous abolitionists. Click on each to learn more about them and to read a famous excerpt from their writing. Answer the questions that follow.

Southern Response

There were many people who responded to the abolitionists. They made various arguments, all of which are abhorrent, or detestable to us today and certainly abolitionists like Stowe, Garrison, and Douglass hated.

Southern "arguments" in favor of slavery included:

1. In Africa, the slave lived the life of a savage, but in America the slave has been brought to civilization and Christianity. Therefore, slavery has improved his or her life.
2. The slave lives a more comfortable life on a plantation than many people in the North who work for wages. The master takes care of the slave and provides him or her with food, clothing, shelter, and protection.
3. The slave is biologically inferior to the white man and therefore should be subservient to the white man as part of a "law of nature."

Tragically, many people believed these arguments or at least used them to justify the profit they were making from slavery.