They published newspapers under threat of mob violence, smuggled freedom seekers through attic floors and church basements, and argued the humanity of enslaved people before hostile courts and indifferent congresses. The abolitionists were not a monolith — they were ministers, escaped slaves, wealthy reformers, and frontier agitators who fought among themselves as often as they fought the institution they despised. What united them was urgency.
Test how well you know the people, moments, and movements that forced a reckoning with American slavery.
