“THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT”: WOMEN, CONSUMPTION, AND FREE PRODUCE IN THE TRANSATLANTIC WORLD, 1791-1848 by JULIE LYNN HOLCOMB Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON August 2010 Copyright © by Julie Holcomb 2010 All Rights Reserved To Stan ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Researching and writing this dissertation has been a long journey. Fortunately, it has not been a lonely one. I am pleased to have an opportunity to recognize the many kindnesses and the valuable support received along the way. The University of Texas at Arlington provided a great environment in which to develop as a scholar. I have benefitted from the patience, generosity, and scholarship of my committee. My chair Sam W. Haynes modeled the ideal balance of academic rigor and nurturing support. I profited as well from the advice of Stephanie Cole and Christopher Morris. Words cannot begin to convey how much I appreciate my committee’s encouragement and advice throughout this process. I have also received valuable assistance from James Cotton and Robin Deeslie in the history department and Diana Hines and Rachel Robbins in the library’s interlibrary loan department. I have also had the opportunity to study at Pacific University and the University of Texas at Austin. Pacific is an incredible place to study. The small classes and equally small departments provide unparalleled opportunities for academic and personal development. I am particularly grateful to Lawrence Lipin and Alex Toth for their mentorship during my time at Pacific. At UT, I had the opportunity to study with the outstanding David B. Gracy, II. For the past two years, I have taught in the department of Museum Studies at Baylor University. Kenneth Hafertepe and Ellie Caston have provided the perfect mix of v support, collegiality, and humor. They along with my other faculty colleagues, Gary Smith and Joy Summer-Smith, and our administrative assistant Marcia Cooper have made the transition to teaching and to Baylor a delight. The Museum Studies department shares space with the Mayborn Museum Complex. As a result, I have the gift of working with an outstanding group of museum professionals. I appreciate the support and friendship of Anita Benedict and Denise Seaman, in particular. I am especially grateful to Tom Haddad for the thoughtfully designed monkey diorama he left on my desk during a particularly stressful period. I know he did not act alone. I have benefitted as well from my students in the MST program. Our discussions inside and outside the classroom have shaped my thinking about this project and my development as a teacher and scholar. One group of students in particular played an important role in my transformation from museum administrator to teacher — Ca-Caw! I appreciate the support I have received from my colleagues in other departments at Baylor. In the history department, T. Michael Parrish and Stephen Sloan have provided encouragement and advice. While working on this dissertation, I had the opportunity to participate as a fellow in Baylor’s Summer Faculty Institute, a unique and important opportunity to focus on my development as a teacher, scholar, and individual. Tom Hanks and Lenore Wright and my colleagues in the SFI provided support and friendship at a critical turning point in the writing of this dissertation. I began this dissertation while working at the Pearce Civil War and Western Art Museums at Navarro College. I appreciate the encouragement I received from Tommy Stringer, Tim Kevil, Richard Sanchez, Kenneth Martin, and Cubie Ward. I also vi benefitted from the community of the museum’s board and volunteers: Helen and Oliver Albritton, Doug Tiller, Jimmie Buchanan, and Jay and Lucy Waterman. I am particularly grateful for the friendship of the museum’s benefactors, the late Charles and Peggy Pearce. I appreciate the support of scholars outside my immediate academic communities. Carol Faulkner and Stacey Robertson have given generously of their time and scholarship. Both have taken time out of their busy schedules to read papers or chapter drafts and give thoughtful comments. They have played an important role in shaping my thinking about women abolitionists and free produce. I am grateful to Bruce Laurie and Lynne Getz for their comments on a paper I presented at the 14th Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. Seth Offenbach, Winifred Connerton, and Julie Turner provided insightful comments on various drafts of this dissertation. As well, I appreciate Christopher Densmore’s willingness to aid a novice Quaker scholar. The models of teaching and scholarship given by Steven E. Woodworth, Charles Grear, Susannah Ural, and Bonnie Laughlin-Schultz have been invaluable. I want to thank Kenneth Corfield as well for responding positively to my queries about Elizabeth Heyrick. I appreciate the supportive environment created and maintained by Thomas B. Jankowski at PhinisheD. I received research funding from the American Historical Association; the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in Texas, Fort Worth Town Chapter; Trudy and Ben Termini Graduate Student Research Grant, University of Texas at Arlington; and the History Department, University of Texas at Arlington. Funding from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History allowed me to participate in the vii summer seminar, Passages to Freedom: Abolition and the Underground Railroad, directed by David W. Blight, James Oliver Horton, and Lois Horton. The seminar influenced my professional and academic development and reinforced my belief that the fields of public and academic history are not and should not be antithetical. No project of this magnitude happens without the support of friends and family. Sarah Canby Jackson, Mary Hayes, Amanda Morrison, Rosalie Meier, Sue Sanders, and Susan Humphrey have been with me through this whole process. Their patience, friendship, and support are priceless. Rosalie kept me humble and laughing, reminding all who would listen that I was writing about liberating broccoli. Terra Garza provided limitless amounts of coffee and a comfortable home away from home. I also appreciate the support and friendship of my co-dissertators, the “Great-Eights.” My family has been an important part of this process. Mark Holcomb and Sara Eckel, David Holcomb, Steven and Debra Holcomb, Mike and Barbara Dumford, and Keith and Evona Parsley have been especially supportive. My mothers, Laura Thorne, Chris Holcomb, and Barbara Zank, were among the earliest supporters of my education. They taught me to find strength in any situation and to never lose sight of my dreams. I wish they had lived to see the completion of this degree. Some dissertators mark their progress by the birth and growth of their children. In my case, it was the birth of my grandchildren. Noah Steven arrived in the early months of dissertation research; Paige Addison was born in the final months of writing. They remind me that my most important role is just to be Grams. My daughter Jennifer has been an incredible force for good in my life. I am forever amazed by her generosity viii and her compassion. My son-in-law Eric Sfetku and his parents Robert and Joyce have been welcome additions to our family. My husband Stan Holcomb, more than anyone, has felt the stress of this particular project. Nearly thirty years ago, he walked into the drugstore where I worked and back into my life. Words cannot sufficiently express my appreciation for his laughter, his faith, his patience, and his reassurance throughout this process. My friends would also remind me that I have benefitted from Stan’s incredible gourmet meals. I would agree that great food is important. However, more than anything, I appreciate Stan’s unwavering, unconditional love. I think only he can understand what I mean when I say this dissertation is, like its author, his. June 28, 2010 ix ABSTRACT “THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT”: WOMEN, CONSUMPTION, AND FREE PRODUCE IN THE TRANSATLANTIC WORLD, 1791-1848 Julie Holcomb, PhD The University of Texas at Arlington, 2010 Supervising Professor: Sam W. Haynes Abstention from slave-labor products, along with petitioning, was a popular and consistent form of anti-slavery activism for British and American abolitionists, especially women. Despite renewed interest in the British and American free-produce movements, historians continue to focus on either eighteenth- or nineteenth-century British or American abstention, only briefly referring to the transatlantic and generational connections between the movements. Limiting questions about free-produce in this way overemphasizes the connection between abstention and the Society of Friends and privileges the nineteenth-century period of the movement. While Quakers were the primary proponents of abstention from slave-labor products, attempts by both Quakers x and non-Quakers to establish an international free-produce movement are essential to understanding transatlantic abolitionism. This dissertation recovers and critically interprets the transatlantic free-produce movement from the late-eighteenth through the mid-nineteenth century, revealing the key role women played in the protracted battle for the abolition of slavery. Recognizing the importance of abstention to the abolitionist movement broadens the period of women’s activism to the eighteenth century, more than forty years prior to the organizational activity of the 1830s that serves as the traditional starting point for histories of women’s abolitionism. Abstention reveals the ways in which British and American women crossed generational, gender, geographic, religious as well as class and racial boundaries on behalf of the slave. This study places abstention and abolitionism within the context of the market revolution, examining abstainers’ debates about the morality of the marketplace. Rather than political economy, abstainers urged Britons and Americans alike to create a moral economy, which privileged humanity and justice over financial profit.