The Abolitionist Movement: Fighting Against Slavery and Racial Injustice from the American Revolution to the Civil War

FAIN: FV-50143-07

Library Company of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA 19107-5679)
Richard S. Newman (Project Director: March 2007 to August 2009)

A four-week seminar for fifteen school teachers on the American abolitionist movement from the Revolutionary War era to the Civil War.

Participants in this seminar will examine key scholarly literature on the abolitionist movement as well as primary source documents written by abolitionists themselves between the American Revolution and Civil War. We will consider abolition's religious and organizational roots in Philadelphia, the movement's ideological and geographical evolution during the antebellum era, the impact of African-American and female reformers, and antislavery activists' struggles in both the North and South during the Civil War. Teachers will discuss how best to integrate primary sources into school classrooms. Site visits to Independence Hall, Mother Bethel AME church, Underground Railroad stops, and Gettysburg will bring alive our study of American abolitionism.