GET INSPIRED: The Bold Tradition of American Resistance
From Rebels and Runaways to Suffragists and Strikers, America’s True Inheritance Is Resistance.
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Part I of II: From Rebellion to Suffrage
Democracy in America wasn’t handed down. It was fought for tooth and nail. From rebels who dumped tea into the harbor to women jailed for demanding the vote, every gain came from defiance.
This is Part I of a two-part series tracing that tradition. Next Saturday, Part II will carry us from labor strikes to civil rights to the fight we must wage today to win democracy back.
Rebellion Before the Republic
From the beginning, America’s story was one of defiance. The tradition of resistance predates the republic itself. When Britain imposed the Tea Act without colonial consent, Boston patriots didn’t plead for relief. They struck back. The Sons of Liberty organized boycotts, staged demonstrations, and built networks strong enough to defy imperial authority.
Moreover, between 1765 and 1775, colonists developed boycotts, mass protests, and shadow institutions, tactics movements still use today. Their lesson endures with clarity: democracy does not descend from rulers. It belongs to ordinary people bold enough to seize it.
From Boston’s harbor to colonial town halls, ordinary people defied an empire and if they could rise against the greatest power of their age, we can rise against the threats of ours.
Freedom in Motion: The Underground Railroad
As the new republic expanded, the fight for liberty continued in darker corners. The Underground Railroad stands as one of the boldest resistance movements in American history. For a century, Black Americans, joined by determined abolitionist allies, built secret networks that freed hundreds of thousands from slavery. They relied on decentralized cells, balancing local secrecy with national coordination, a structure modern pro-democracy groups still emulate.
When Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and criminalized aid to runaways, thousands defied it. Communities organized vigilance committees, spread communication networks, and refused to comply. In Louisville, one enslaved person escaped on average every day during the 1850s. Resistance did not merely condemn slavery; it directly undermined the system.
Every secret journey to freedom cracked slavery’s foundations. Now, it’s our turn to show the same courage, undermining tyranny step by step until it falls.
Words as Weapons, Communities as Armor
Meanwhile, abolitionists built a movement that fused moral clarity with practical organizing. They understood the power of media as a weapon. William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator sustained the fight for decades, while Frederick Douglass’s North Star proved that the enslaved themselves could lead the charge for liberation.
Simultaneously, abolitionists created structures to support their people. They built schools, mutual aid societies, and churches that strengthened communities while sustaining the movement. The lesson was unmistakable: words could rally hearts, but institutions anchored the struggle.
Abolitionists turned words into weapons and built communities as shields. Without the technology available today, they successfully organized under the shadow of slavery, proving we can build movements strong enough to defeat authoritarianism.
(For more on the breadth of abolitionist strategies, study how fiery rhetoric paired with disciplined organizing shifted the course of politics.)
Seventy Years Unyielding: The Fight for the Vote
Soon after emancipation, the struggle for women’s equality surged to the forefront. The suffrage movement stretched across seven relentless decades. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for casting a ballot. By 1917, Alice Paul’s “Silent Sentinels” picketed the White House, enduring beatings, arrests, and forced feeding during hunger strikes. Their refusal to break under violence turned public sympathy into political pressure.
Furthermore, suffragists pursued victories wherever possible, knowing that local progress could open the path to national change. Wyoming granted women the vote in 1869, followed by Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. Each success added momentum until the 19th Amendment became inevitable.
The suffrage fight proved a central truth of democracy: progress comes only when people force open the gates of power. Suffragists endured arrests, hunger strikes, and violence to claim the ballot and now it’s our turn to defend that hard-won right with the same unbreakable resolve.
(For deeper context, see the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s history of women’s suffrage and the Library of Congress timeline.)
The Torch Passed On
Together, revolutionaries, freedom seekers, abolitionists, and suffragists forged America’s DNA of defiance. They advanced the cause of liberty but never secured its completion. Each generation carried the torch higher. Our 249-year-old nation needs we, the people, to carry on the American tradition of resistance to win back our democracy.
🔥 Pick Up the Torch: Join the Fight
How To Spot Authoritarianism — and Choose Democracy – Authoritarians follow a ruthless playbook. Learn how it works—and how ordinary people can stop it. Watch and share this powerful TED Talk to light the spark of resistance.
How Women Will Defeat Authoritarianism – History proves women-led movements turn the tide. Erica Chenoweth shows why broad, people-powered rebellion wins. Share it. Get inspired. Step into the fight.
All Voting Is Local: Take Action – Democracy is stolen at the state level unless we stand guard. Sign up to protect access: work the polls, monitor officials, or join rapid-response teams. The frontline is in your state, and it needs you.
👉 Come back next Saturday for Part II: Reclaiming Democracy: Carrying the Fire Forward for more inspiration, bold actions, and the fight ahead.
Thank you for inspiration and strength! Through community it is possible to win back our stolen democracy, not the supposed "social" media. Oligarchs own the internet!!! Meet face to face, demonstrate your independence from their machinery!