Abolitionism was the 19th-century movement to end the institution of slavery in the United States.

Early abolitionism was often rooted in Quaker religious beliefs.

The movement became more radical and prominent in the 1830s with figures like William Lloyd Garrison.

Garrison published the abolitionist newspaper 'The Liberator' and called for the immediate and uncompensated emancipation of all slaves.

Formerly enslaved people, most famously Frederick Douglass, were powerful speakers and writers for the cause, providing firsthand accounts of slavery's brutality.

The Underground Railroad was a secret network of routes and safe houses used by enslaved people to escape to freedom in the North and Canada.

Harriet Tubman was a famous 'conductor' on the Underground Railroad, making numerous dangerous trips to lead others to freedom.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' was a hugely influential piece of anti-slavery propaganda.

Abolitionists faced violent opposition in both the North and the South.

The movement was crucial in making slavery the central moral and political issue that led to the Civil War.