Mss Ch 8 Study Guide
Some courageous abolitionists dedicated themselves to helping people escape from slavery. They established a system known as the. It was a network of people- black and white, northerners and southerners- who secretly helped slaves reach freedom. Working for the was illegal and dangerous. 'Conductors' led fugitive slaves from one 'station' to the next. Stations were usually the homes of abolitionists, but might be churches or caves. Supporters helped by donating clothing, food, and money to pay for passage on trains and boats.
Mss Ch 8 Study Guide
Many people risked their lives to help runaway slaves. Levi Coffin, an Indiana Quaker, assisted more than 3,000 fugitives. Harriet Tubman, who had herself escaped from slavery, escorted more than 300 people to freedom via the.
Slaves would run away from slave states (in the South) and run to free states (in the North). A Massachusetts school teacher, was one of those who took up the cause of prison reform.
Social reformers began investigating conditions in jails. Over the yearsworked to convince state legislatures to build new, more sanitary, and more humane prisons.
In addition, debtors were no longer sent to jail. was outraged to find that prisons were also used to house individuals with mental illnesses. 's shocking report helped persuade the Massachusetts legislature to fund a new mental hospital. Of Massachusetts took the lead in education reform. To , public financing of education was essential for democracy to work. said 'If we do not prepare children to become good citizens; if we develop their capacities, if we do not enrich their minds with knowledge.
Then our republic must go down to destruction as others have gone before it.' After becoming head of the state board of education in 1837convinced Massachusetts to improve its public school system.