Xichuan Dao
27-09-2004, 20:42
My assignment for Honors US History I, (high school sophomore year). Short paper, only would have come to two pages had I not decreased the font size.
On September 3, 1838, a young man named Frederick Baily boarded a northbound train from Baltimore, Maryland. Wearing a shipbuilder's outfit, and carrying fraudulent documents, Baily was determined to escape slavery, which had imprisoned him almost since his birth. Upon reaching his destination of New York, Baily quickly changed his name to Frederick Douglass, and became involved with abolitionist activities.
In the mid-1800s, the abolitionist, or anti-slavery, movement was rapidly expanding in America. Despite pro-slavery propaganda, depicting slaves' lives as those of light laborers who lived better than some whites, publications such as the New Bedford Liberator helped convince many that slavery was cruel and inhumane. Founded in the 1830s, the Liberator was a publication of the American Anti-Slavery Society, of which Douglass was an exceptionally active member. In regards to the paper, Douglass once wrote, "[It] became my meat and drink. My soul was set all on fire."
Thousands of trains thunder through New York City's Grand Central Station every day. And, during the early to mid-1800s, approximately 3,000 slaves were helped to freedom by Quaker Levi Coffin and his wife, Catharine. For this, Coffin was often referred to as the President, and his house nicknamed the Grand Central Station, of the Underground Railroad.
Notwithstanding his South Carolinian heritage, Coffin was adamantly opposed to slavery. A member of the Society of Friends, perhaps better known as the Quakers, Coffin moved to Newport, Indiana in 1826. Today known as Fountain City, Newport was a key stopover for escaped slaves on their way to Canada.
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was named President-elect of the United States. Fearing the destruction of their way of life, a South Carolinian convention held on December 20 passed the first ordinance stating, "that the union between South Carolina and the other states that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." Many other Southern states soon followed suit.
In April 1861, President Lincoln attempted to transport supplies to Fort Sumter, a resisting South Carolinian garrison controlled by the Union Army. South Carolina, fearing an attack, demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter. Commander Anderson, of the Union Army, refused. On April 13, Confederate artillery opened fire upon Fort Sumter. The Civil War had begun.Comments, opinions, etc...
On September 3, 1838, a young man named Frederick Baily boarded a northbound train from Baltimore, Maryland. Wearing a shipbuilder's outfit, and carrying fraudulent documents, Baily was determined to escape slavery, which had imprisoned him almost since his birth. Upon reaching his destination of New York, Baily quickly changed his name to Frederick Douglass, and became involved with abolitionist activities.
In the mid-1800s, the abolitionist, or anti-slavery, movement was rapidly expanding in America. Despite pro-slavery propaganda, depicting slaves' lives as those of light laborers who lived better than some whites, publications such as the New Bedford Liberator helped convince many that slavery was cruel and inhumane. Founded in the 1830s, the Liberator was a publication of the American Anti-Slavery Society, of which Douglass was an exceptionally active member. In regards to the paper, Douglass once wrote, "[It] became my meat and drink. My soul was set all on fire."
Thousands of trains thunder through New York City's Grand Central Station every day. And, during the early to mid-1800s, approximately 3,000 slaves were helped to freedom by Quaker Levi Coffin and his wife, Catharine. For this, Coffin was often referred to as the President, and his house nicknamed the Grand Central Station, of the Underground Railroad.
Notwithstanding his South Carolinian heritage, Coffin was adamantly opposed to slavery. A member of the Society of Friends, perhaps better known as the Quakers, Coffin moved to Newport, Indiana in 1826. Today known as Fountain City, Newport was a key stopover for escaped slaves on their way to Canada.
On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was named President-elect of the United States. Fearing the destruction of their way of life, a South Carolinian convention held on December 20 passed the first ordinance stating, "that the union between South Carolina and the other states that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." Many other Southern states soon followed suit.
In April 1861, President Lincoln attempted to transport supplies to Fort Sumter, a resisting South Carolinian garrison controlled by the Union Army. South Carolina, fearing an attack, demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter. Commander Anderson, of the Union Army, refused. On April 13, Confederate artillery opened fire upon Fort Sumter. The Civil War had begun.Comments, opinions, etc...