SOCIAL sTUDIES

In the 1600's and 1700's, African men and women were kidnapped and took to North America. This is where they would become slaves. They would not get paid at all. They grew food, cleaned, and lived on plantations. Yet some states found it bad.

THE STATES (TERRITORIES WERE COMBINED STATES.)

ABOLITIONISTS were people who ended slavery. Frederick Douglass, for example. He gave speeches, and was a leader to the abolitionist movement. As well, Sojourner Truth's son was took illegally to be a slave. Truth fought in court for him and won. She then continued to try to end slavery completely.

In 1850 California, wanted to become a free state. Many of the states argued because it would give the country more free states and less slave states. After some time the Congress decided to make an agreement and the Compromise of 1850. They let California become a free state but, they also passed a Fugitive Slave Act.

Did you know that, a fugitive is someone who tries to escape? The laws said that fugitives even those in free states, had to be returned to their owners. Anyone who help the people that were slaves could go to jail. But many abolitionists disliked the law.

IN 1855,

• Michigan passed the Personal Liberty Law to protect its formerly enslaved citizens.
• Did you know liberty means freedom from another person's grasp?
• This law gave fugitives the right to a trial to win their own freedom.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
was a system of secret routes, which headed to Northern States where slavery was illegal. There was also railroad terms that you will learn in the next slide->

RAILROAD TERMS

• Station (safe place to stay, usually a house.)
• Conductor (someone who leads the fugitives.)
• Station Agents (people who lived and helped at the stations.)

DID YOU KNOW?

It was also founded in 1836. Almost 5,000 fugitives get food and shelter there. Support for the Underground Railroad was very strong in Michigan that newspapers printed the number of daily arrivals in the cities underground station.

Also Laura Haviland was a Quaker who has helped thousands escape to Canada all the way through Michigan. She hid so many runaways that she was known as the Superintendent of the Underground Railroad.

GEORGE DEBAPTISTE

• Was a free black man,
• And was a leader of the Underground Railroad.
• He risked his own freedom many times,
• He could've been put into slavery himself if he was caught!

ONLY SO MANY PEOPLE WERE SAVED!

On December 20, 1860 South Carolina left The United States. 10 more Southern states followed. Soon they formed the Confederate states of America, what we like to call the Confederacy.

JEFFERSON DAVIS

Most Americans didn't want a war. But, on April 12, 1861, when Confederate soldiers attacked Fort Sumter off the coast, the Civil War began.

When the news of the attack reached to Michigan, about 1,000 Michiganians rushed to join the fight.

Michiganians were the first soldiers there! When Abe saw them he said "Thank God for Michigan!"

DURING THE WAR

• Woman Took care of family farms
• Children did extra chores
• Men who didn't fight in the war mined coal and ores.

The soldiers life was hard. Disease spread through the camps. Everybody was tired lately, and very bored. The battles were also very brutal.

MORE THAN

The youngest American general fought in this war! He was only 23!

Also during the war
was a troop called The Michigan Sharpshooters which consists of
expert marksman. About 150 Ojibwa and Ottawa were in it. They fought some of the war's of bloodiest battles.

No women were allowed in the war. But Sarah Edmonds of Flint disguised herself. She named herself Frank Thompson and served as a spy. When she was a girl she healed Union Soldiers.

THANK YOU