By 1859, the conflict between North and South challenged Garrison's "peace man" status.

In 1859 John Brown went on trial for the raid on Harpers Ferry. The raid itself had failed, but Brown successfully brought attention his cause.

In 1857 the Supreme Court ruled against Dred Scott, a slave who sought freedom via the courts. With the ruling the Court radically altered not just the battle over slavery, but the status of every black person in America.

The Mexican-American war (1846-1848) changed the slavery debate. It almost doubled the size of the United States and began a debate, between Northerners and Southerners, over what to do with the newly acquired land.

In his 1845 book, Frederick Douglass told the truth about his life as a slave, despite the risk.

Map history with American Experience! You can relive the history of the abolitionist movement on American Experience's Mapping History iPhone app and explore places central to the nation's anti-slavery effort. Dozens of museums, institutions and PBS stations have partnered with American Experience to bring you archival images, documents and videos related to abolitionism.

In 1859 John Brown seized a federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, but failed to incite a revolution. Authorities found a link between Brown and Frederick Douglass.

John Brown put little stock in the idea of abolition through peaceful means. In 1855, he gathered his arsenal and left his home for the slave state of Kansas where he would begin his bloody struggle.

A wave of resistance to slavery led to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which imposed the rule of Slave states onto Free states.

Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in 1852 and changed American opinions on slavery. Uncle Tom's Cabin reached a vast audience, and made millions of Americans see slavery, for the first time, through the eyes of its victims.

By 1850, Frederick Douglass begins to doubt that a peaceful end to slavery is possible, putting him in opposition to white abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison.

The 1839 book 'American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses', written by Theodore Weld, his wife Angelina Grimke, and her sister Sarah Grimke, documented slavery's horrors.

In the spring of 1838, abolitionists Theodore Weld and Angelina Grimke wed in a "scandalous" ceremony, one unlike any other before seen. As news of the wedding spread, racial tensions in the city of Philadelphia reached a boiling point.

The Grimke sisters, Angelina and Sarah, lectured against slavery throughout the 1830s, even though they were condemned by many for speaking out as women.

Abolitionists, including Lewis Tappan and William Lloyd Garrison, were surprised by the vehement reaction to their 1835 postal anti-slavery campaign.

In 1835, abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Lewis Tappan proposed a a bold plan to spread their anti-slavery message throughout the United States.

In the late 1820s there were 2 million men, women, and children living in bondage in the United States. What was the economic value of slavery to 19th century American life?

In 1833, Frederick Douglass was sent to a slave breaker to be beaten back into submission. After six months of beatings, Douglass fought back. "I was nothing before. I was a man now."

With the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the war merged with the abolitionist cause. The Proclamation had included an unexpected clause: at last, black men could enlist in the armed services of the United States.

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 made the hunting down of escaped slaves, even in free states, fully legal. To abolitionists, this represented a huge blow to their efforts. Not only had the federal government endorsed slavery, but it had also committed to preserving the institution indefinitely.