Women and the Abolitionist Movement

I. Relationship between the abolitionist and woman’s rights movement

  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony identified abolitionism “above all other causes” as the most important source of the woman’s rights movement.
  • Women adopted language of slavery to protest their own condition
    • Marriage (coverture) like slavery
  • Female reformers gained concrete skills
    • Practice in adopting unpopular positions
    • Petitioning, public speaking, etc.
  • Encounters with sexism in the movement radicalized women
    • In arguing for a place within the abolitionist movement, women ended up articulating a critique of their status in society more broadly

II. Terminology

  • “Anti-slavery”
    • More diffuse concept than abolitionism
    • Not necessarily grounded in strong moral objections to slavery (e.g. Free Soilers)
    • Does not necessarily imply a commitment to equality
  • Abolitionism
    • “Gradual”
      • Schemes such as freeing all children born henceforth, or compensating owners
    • “Immediate”
      • Uncompromising call for an immediate end to slavery, with no compensation for owners
      • Usually involved a commitment to political and economic (though not necessarily social) equality

III. The Colonization Movement and the American Colonization Society (1816)

  • There were always some groups (like Quakers) that opposed slavery, but little organized anti-slavery activity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries
  • Prior to 1833, the colonization movement was the main vehicle for proposals to eliminate slavery
    • Odd alliance of elite white men
      • Those who opposed slavery, and slaveowners who felt threatened by free blacks
    • Believed that black racial inferiority made peaceful co-existence impossible
      • Movement was opposed by most free blacks
        • “We have no wish to separate from our present homes”
        • David Walker’s Appeal: “They want us for their slaves, and think nothing of murdering us … believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty.”
  • Colonization in Liberia begins in 1822
    • By 1867, 13,000 freed slaves had settled there
  • Support for colonization wanes in the 1830s with rise of abolitionism
    • The ACS was strongly condemned by abolitionists
  • But it revived amid sectional tensions in the 1850s and 1860s
    • Abraham Lincoln and other prominent leaders supported

IV. Emergence of abolitionism

  • Rooted in the Second Great Awakening; linked to antebellum reform movements like temperance
    • But more explicitly political; hence women’s participation more controversial
  • New strain of anti-slavery among whites around 1830
    • 1833 American Anti-Slavery Association founded in Boston (first national association)
      • Leading figure was William Lloyd Garrison, editor of abolitionist paper, The Liberator 
        • Immediate and total abolition
        • Anti-clerical, anti-party
        • “Moral suasion”
      • 1838: 1350 local societies
      • Initially admitted only men

V. William Lloyd Garrison and women abolitionists

  • By the 1840s, Garrison moved in the direction of women’s equality
    • Even put women on the organization’s executive board
      • Lydia Maria Child; Lucretia Mott
    • Refused to speak when women were not admitted to the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention
  • Many men were opposed to admitting women
  • To others, Garrison’s support for women’s rights seemed like political suicide
    • Led to a split in the movement
      • Founding of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which admitted only men

William Lloyd Garrison and “harsh language”

From The Liberator’s first issue:  “I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a case like the present. I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat—AND I WILL BE HEARD.”

VI. Women’s Roles in the Movement

  • “Domestic evangelist”
  • Women’s auxiliary societies
    • Fundraising; antislavery fairs
  • Writing and editing abolition publications
  • Petitioning
    • Primary tactic of the AASS in 1835-36
  • First anti-slavery convention of American women (1837)
    • Debate over women’s proper role

VII. Lydia Maria Child

  • Published sentimental, domestic literature
  • Converted by Garrison in 1831
  • Wrote An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans in 1833
  • National reputation permanently damaged

VIII. Maria Stewart

  • Supported self-determination and education for black girls
  • Influenced by William Lloyd Garrison
  • Published essays in the Liberator
  • Career short-lived (1831-33)
  • 1833: she was criticized black male leadership
    • Intense negative reaction
    • Left Boston, but defended herself in a farewell address
      • Referred to Biblical precedents to defend women’s political activity

IX. Sarah and Angelina Grimké

  • Natives of South Carolina
    • From an elite, slave-holding family
  • Relocated to Philadelphia; became Quakers
  • Sarah publishes “Letters on the Condition of Women” (1837)
  • Angelina, “Appeal to Christian Women” (1836)Angelina had a very public battle with Catherine Beecher over women’s proper roles
  • Promoted petitioning
  • First woman to appear before a state legislature
  • 1838: Angelina mobbed when delivery a speech; hall burned
  • Suffered mental collapse and withdrew from public life

“The women of the South can overthrow this horrible system of oppression and cruelty, licentiousness and wrong. Such appeals to your legislatures would be irresistible, for there is something in the heart of man which will bend under moral suasion. There is a swift witness for truth in his bosom, which will respond to truth when it is uttered with calmness and dignity.… Slavery must be attacked with the whole power of truth and the sword of the spirit. You must take it up on Christian ground, and fight against it with Christian weapons, whilst your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”