Word: abolitionists
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Douglass was amazed by the idea. He had been a close friend of John Brown's throughout the 1850s and had championed his militant abolitionist efforts. In 1859 Brown had invaded Harpers Ferry, Va., as part of a scheme to free the slaves but was captured and hanged for treason. While Douglass considered Brown a hero and martyr, Lincoln had referred to him as a criminal and madman. Yet now Lincoln was borrowing from Brown by conceiving a similar raid. Douglass had not gone with Brown to Harpers Ferry because he had correctly predicted that Brown would fail...
...family's history, including the exploits of his grandfather, an irascible firebrand who went west from Maine after having a vision of Christ urging him to help free the slaves. The "old man" encouraged young men of his congregation into the Civil War and, in service to the abolitionist cause, abetted John Brown and quite possibly committed murder. His son, the narrator's father, also fought in the war, and subsequently became an ardent pacifist...
...history, taking things like universal suffrage, women’s rights and peace for granted. Last Tuesday night, the system didn’t fail us. It just showed us that democracy and progress are something we have to work for, just like the civil rights or abolitionist or anti-war movements that came before us. And it showed us that it won’t be easy or fast. In some people’s estimation, we might have taken a step backwards. But compared to the 228 years it’s taken to build this country, four...
...American ideals before there was even a formal America. The same democratic impulses that spawned the colonial town meeting live on in a vibrant local government and the spirit of civic-mindedness. The same emphasis on equality and justice that gave us the nation’s first abolitionist newspaper endure in our continuing quest for civil rights. So, after an election in which a plurality of voters touted “values” as their foremost concern, how were our quintessentially American values so demonized and rebuked...
Francis Bok, one of the speakers and a former slave who escaped after 10 years in captivity, now travels America galvanizing support for the abolitionist movement...