Adapted from Andy Robinson and Joan Brodsky Schur, Advocating for Abolition: Staging an Abolitionist Society Convention. Social Education, Volume 74(4), pp 178–183, 2010.

Finding Out About Your Role in the Abolitionist Movement

You are one of the leaders of the abolitionist movement, and you must do some research for our upcoming Abolitionist Society Convention. All the information that you gather will help you when you portray the abolitionist in the drama of the Convention and also create your online brochure or pamphlet for others to look at. All information about your abolitionist will help you to create your character; the more anecdotes you can learn to share, the fuller your portrayal of your role.

You must seek out answers to the following questions and take notes on the information you find. Use the resources provided on this site. All of your responses should be in first person.  If you use a resource outside of the ones posted, please cite the source in proper form.

Use this word document as a template / Use this example of Arthur Tappan as a guide for detail and voice

1. Describe your upbringing and how it relates to how and why you became an abolitionist. Where were you born (North or South)? What was your social status at birth (enslaved, free, upper class etc.)?
2. Describe your education and religious tradition as they relate to your fight against slavery.
3. By what primary means did you work for the cause? What other strategies did you support?
4. For which publications did you write, publish, or contribute (if any)?
5. What anti-slavery organizations did you found or work for (if any)?
6. What difficulties did you face from outside the movement (heckling, social isolation, violence, etc.)?
7. What difficulties did you face within the movement (disagreements, leadership style, gender)?
8. What kind of impact did you make on ending slavery, or people’s opinions about the importance of ending slavery?
9. What other reforms or movements did you support (temperance, women’s rights, public education, etc)?
10. Look at the list of other abolitionists at the convention. Do any of them figure in your biography? When and where did you encounter them? Did you agree with them at all times or did you part ways on certain issues?
11. What are some signature quotes that summarize your ideas or stress your beliefs on abolition?
12. How do you feel about the following tactics in the push for abolition? 
    Writing –
    Oratory (speaking) –
    Religious Institutions –
    Political Action –
    Economic Action –
    Breaking Law –
    Violence –
    Killing –
    Attitude Towards Race and Gender –
    Other -