5. Telling a Free Story: Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in Myth and Reality

The Civil War and Reconstruction (HIST 119)

Professor Blight discusses the rise of abolitionism. Blight begins with an introduction to the genre of slave narratives, with particular attention to Frederick Douglass' 1845 narrative. The lecture then moves on to discuss the culture in which antebellum reform grew--the factors that encouraged its growth, as well as those that retarded it. Professor Blight then describes the movement towards radical abolitionism, stopping briefly on colonization and gradualism before introducing the character and ideology of William Lloyd Garrison.

00:00 - Chapter 1. Frederick Douglass and the Slave Narrative
09:46 - Chapter 2. The Development of Abolitionism in the North
22:37 - Chapter 3. Colonization and the Idea of Gradualism
30:18 - Chapter 4. The Radicalization of Anti-slavery Thinkers
38:43 - Chapter 5. The Ideas of William Lloyd Garrison
46:42 - Chapter 6. Concluding Thoughts on Different Abolitionisms

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Spring 2008.