We continued studying the abolitionist movement as it was one of the most significant reform movements of the 19th century. One short-lived idea was to send people back to Africa when the African nation of Liberia was founded by the American Colonization Society. We learned that it wasn't feasible to send large numbers of Black people to Liberia, but that
some who thought their rights in the US would never be upheld chose to remain in America. We continued reading about the founding of the Anti-Slavery Society and identified abolitionists such as Henry David Thoreau and Sojourner Truth. It was interesting to learn that people who preferred reading novels to newspapers could read Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) which detailed the horrors of enslavement. We closed today's session discussing Frederick Douglas who traveled the nation and the world, drawing the most attention by educating people about their enslaved lives. Ben stated he had already read about these abolitionist's personal accounts and experiences with slavery. I wrote notes on the whiteboard for review and referral purposes