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Chapter 8
slavery. They wanted the slaves to work
their large farms. The Southern states
wanted to form their own country.
President
Abe Lincoln
and the Northern
states did not let the Southern states
become a newnation.
Remember that Pennsylvaniahad stopped
slavery with a law in 1780. Many people in
our state worked to stop slavery.
Lucretia
Mott
, a Quaker Minister, fought for the
slaves’ freedom. She helped to set up the
Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. Many
men andwomen of both races helped slaves
to escape the South by means of the
UndergroundRailroad
. This railroadwas
set up in 1804. However, this was not a
railroadwith trains and rails. Itwasmadeup
of houses as hidingplaces, escape roads, and
people in Pennsylvania. They helped slaves
escape to theNorthern states or Canada.
In 1849,
Harriet Tubman
was a slave
in Maryland who escaped through the
Underground Railroad. She returned to
Maryland many times to lead more than
300 slaves to freedom. The South put a
$40,000 rewardonherhead.Noone caught
her leading people to freedom.
African-Americans were very active in the
newspaper industry in the North. They
wrote about freeing the slaves. In 1838,
William Whipper became the editor of a
magazine promoting freedom for slaves. Dr.
MartinDelaney fromChambersburgbecame
a well-known editor who also asked for an
end to slavery. From Harrisburg, T. Morris
Chesterwas anAfrican-Americannewspaper
personwho covered the CivilWar.
In the 1850s, two political leaders from
Pennsylvaniahelddifferent thoughts about
slavery.
Thaddeus Stevens
, awell-known
lawmaker in Congress, hated slavery. He
thought it should be ended throughout the
entire country. In1856,
James Buchanan
became the only United States president
elected from Pennsylvania. He did not like
slavery.However, he couldnot findwhere it
was against the law in our Constitution.
Civil war between the Northern and
Southern states broke out in 1861.
Civil War soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg.
