Nat Turner, artist unknownNo pictures of famed slave revolt leader Nat Turner are known to exist, but this nineteenth-century painting illustrates how one artist imagined the appearance of Turner and his fellow conspirators. White southerners lived in terror of scenes such as this and passed severe laws designed to prevent African Americans from ever having such meetings. (Granger Collection)

Angelina GrimkéBorn in the south to a prominent slaveholding family, Angelina Grimké moved to the north to distance herself from an institution she hated. When she discovered that northerners were no more sympathetic about the plight of slaves than southerners and would not give abolition a free hearing, she chose to do something about it. She toured the northeast, speaking first to groups of women and then to large mixed audiences. She capped her tour by becoming the first woman to address the Massachusetts state legislature. Her courage won new respect both for abolitionists and for women. (Library of Congress)

American Anti-Slavery Almanac, 1840Northern antislavery propagandists indicted the southern way of life, not just slavery. These illustrations depict the South as a region of lynchings, duels, cockfights, and everyday brawls. Even northerners who opposed the abolition of slavery resolved to keep slaveholders out of the western territories. (Library of Congress)

Escaping from SlaveryRunning away was one of the most prominent forms of slave resistance during the antebellum period. Success often depended on help from African Americans who had already gained their freedom and from sympathetic whites. Beginning in the 1820s an informal and secret network called the Underground Railroad provided escape routes for slaves who were daring enough to risk all for freedom. The routes shown here are based on documentary evidence, but the network's secrecy makes it impossible to know if they are drawn entirely accurately.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and sons, 1848Elizabeth Cady Stanton posed in 1848 with two of her sons, Henry Jr., left, and Neil. Stanton, one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention, traveled widely and agitated for women's equality while raising five children. (Collection of Rhoda Jenkins)