The Abolitionist Sisterhood : Women's Political Culture in Antebellum America

A small group of black and white American women who banded together in the 1830s and 1840s to remedy the evils of slavery and racism, the "antislavery females" included many who ultimately struggled for equal rights for women as well. Organizing fundraising fairs, writing pamphlets and giftbooks, circulating petitions, even speaking before "promiscuous" audiences including men and women—the antislavery women energetically created a diverse and dynamic political culture. A lively exploration of this nineteenth-century reform movement, The Abolitionist Sisterhood includes chapters on the principal female antislavery societies, discussions of black women's political culture in the antebellum North, articles on the strategies and tactics the antislavery women devised, a pictorial essay presenting rare graphics from both sides of abolitionist debates, and a final chapter comparing the experiences of the American and British women who attended the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Contents Preface Abbreviations Chronology Introduction Part I: The Female Antislavery Societies 1. On Their Own Terms: A Historiographical Essay 2. Abolition's Conservative Sisters: The Ladies' New York City Anti-Slavery Societies, 1834—1840 3. The Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society And The Limits Of Gender Politics 4. Priorities And Power: The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society Part II: Black Women In The Political Culture Of Reform 5. The World The Agitators Made: The Counterculture Of Agitation In Urban Philadelphia 6. "You Have Talents—Only Cultivate Them": Philadelphia's Black Female Literary Societies And The Abolitionist Crusade 7. Benevolence And Antislavery Activity Among African American Women In New York And Boston, 1820—1840 8. Difference, Slavery, And Memory: Sojourner Truth In Feminist Abolitionism Part III: Strategies And Tactics 9. The Female Antislavery Movement: Fighting Against Racial Prejudice And Promoting Women's Rights In Antebellum America 10. "Let Your Names Be Enrolled": Method And Ideology In Women's Antislavery Petitioning 11. Graphic Discord: Abolitionist And Antiabolitionist Images 12. Abby Kelley And The Process Of Liberation 13. "A Good Work Among The People": The Political Culture Of The Boston Antislavery Fair 14. By Moral Force Alone: The Antislavery Women And Nonresistance 15. "Women Who Speak For An Entire Nation": American And British Women At The World Anti-Slavery Convention, London, 1840 Bibliographical Notes Notes On Contributors Index