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Ann Aibor, MI 48106 BLACK WOMEN ABOLITIONISTS: A STUDY OF GENDER AND RACE IN THE AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY MOVEMENT, 1828-1860 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Shirley Jo-ann Yee, A.B., M.A * * * * * The Ohio State University 1987 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Leila J. Rupp Dr. Merton L. Dillon Dr. Randolph A. Roth Department of History Copyright by Shirley J. Yee To Audrey W. Yee and in memory of Donald Y. Yee IX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express sincere appreciation and thanks to Dr. Leila J. Rupp for her guidance, scholarly insight, and patience throughout the research and writing of this work. Thanks go also to Dr. Lois Helmbold of the University of California, Berkeley, for originally suggesting the topic to me and to Dr. Merton L. Dillon and Dr. Randolph Roth for their valuable suggestions and comments. Generous financial support from The Ohio state University allowed me to conduct the research for this project: The Graduate Alumni Research Award, the Ruth Higgins Award, and the Women's Studies Small Research Grant. A dissertation fellowship from the Center For Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara enabled me to complete the work. Many research librarians provided me with valuable assistance: Edna Carnegie of the Connecticut Afro- American Historical Society, New Haven; Mary Huth, Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Rochester Library, New York; Barbara Trippel Simmons, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA; Elizabeth iii Shenton, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Collage; and David 0. White, Museum of Connecticut History, Hartford. X would also like to thank the librarians and staff of the Department of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Boston Public Library; the Essex Institute, Salem, MA; the Pusey Library, Harvard University; Moorland- Spingarn Research Center, Howard University; Trevor Arnett Library, Atlanta University Center, Atlanta, GA; the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University; and the Library of Congress. The following scholars offered their insight and advice when I began this project: John Blassingame, Yale University; Anne Boylan, University of Delaware; Jacqueline Jones, Wellesley College; and Nancy Hewitt, University of South Florida. Special thanks go to Dr. Elliott Butler-Evans, Dr. Patricia Cline Cohen, and Dr. Cedric J. Robinson of the University of California, Santa Barbara who read and critiqued portions of my work. The following individuals gave their friendship and moral support throughout my career as a graduate student: Jan M. Leone, Ken Schmitz, Nancy J. Peters, Allison Gilmore, Roger Nimps, Fred C. Shoemaker, Jim iv Rohrer, Tom Dicke, Rob Butler, Annie Stinemetz, and Larry Greenfield. I would also like to express my appreciation to Ann G. Auletta, M.D., for her assistance during my stay in Philadelphia. Deborah J. Johnson, Elaine Hargrove, Alyce Whitted, Lillian Stuman, and Ali Kolaini of UCSB provided encouragement and support during the final phase of my doctoral work. This dissertation would never have been completed without support from my family. Members of the Wong and Yee families in Massachusetts sustained me during my frequent research trips to the Boston area. Special thanks go to James and Barbara Wong, and Kathryn Moy for their constant encouragement. I am especially grateful to my mother, Audrey W. Yee, who listened to all of my ideas and maintained faith in my abilities every step of the way. v VITA March 6, 1959 ......... Born - New York city, New York 1 9 8 1 .................. A.B. University of Scranton, Scranton, Pennsylvania 1981-82 ............... Minority Graduate Fellow, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1982-86 ............... Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1983 .................. M.A. The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1986-87 ............... Dissertation Fellow, Center Black Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara; Adjunct Lecturer, Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................... 11 VITA ............................................... vi ABBREVIATIONS................................... .-viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION................................... 1 II. BLACK WOMEN AND AMERICAN ABOLITION: THE CONTINUATION OF A TRADITION AND FORMATION OF BLACK FEMALE PATTERNS OF PARTICIPATION................................ 32 III. BLACK WOMEN AND THE 'CULT OF TRUE WOMANHOOD': GENDER EXPECTATIONS AND LIMITATIONS IN THE ANTEBELLUM FREE BLACK COMMUNITY..............98 IV. SELF-HELP: BLACK WOMEN AND THEIR COMMUNITY......................... 143 V. BLACK WOMEN AND ANTISLAVERY SOCIETIES....... 205 VI. BLACK WOMEN AND PUBLIC ACTIVISM............. 263 VII. CONTINUING THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY: BLACK WOMEN ABOLITIONISTS AND THE ANTEBELLUM WOMEN'S RIGHTS MOVEMENT..................... 312 CONCLUSION.................................. 354 BIBLIOGRAPHY................................ 365 vii ABBREVIATIONS AAS American Anti-Slavery Society ADC African Dorcas Society AFASS American & Foreign Anti-Slavery Society AMA American Missionary Association ARC Amisted Research Center AWSA American Woman Suffrage Association BAP Black Abolitionist Papers BFASS Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society ! BPL Boston Public Library LNYCASS Ladies' New York City Anti-Slavery Society NAW Notable Amerlcan_Wpmen NV7SA National Woman Suffrage Association PFASS Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society viii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This dissertation explores black women's participation in the struggle to end slavery and racial oppression in the United States between 1828 and 1860. During this period, free black women throughout the North conducted their battle for racial equality in one of the most significant reform movements in American history, the abolitionist movement. Through their writings, speeches, organized public activism, and individual efforts, black women played a vital role in the struggle for black liberation. Black women shared with black men a broad interpretation of abolitionism. To these reformers, abolitionism meant not only ending slavery, but working for the social, economic, and political advancement of their race. For both black men and women, community activism was central to the achievement of these objectives.1 Through their participation in antislavery ■^In this study, the term "community" refers to a group of people who share a common history and embrace a common social, economic, and political interest. See Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield, MA: G.C. Morrison Company, 1977), p. 228. 2 societies and community self-improvement and moral reform activities, black men and women abolitionists maintained a commitment to the welfare of free blacks as well as to freedom for the slaves. But, although both black men and women held consistently to this commitment and engaged in similar activities, black women's activism meant more than fulfilling a responsibility to their race. As this dissertation will demonstrate, gender ideals within the free black community provided black women with an additional motivation for participating in the abolitionist movement. Historian James Oliver Horton has already shown that during the antebellum period, free black men and women had accepted the notion of separate roles for the sexes. Horton has argued convincingly that free blacks had supported a sexual division of responsibility in an attempt to erase memories of the slave experience and to create a community that reflected their free status. While black men were expected to assume the role of sole provider for the family, black women were to strive to fulfill the expectations of "true women." Like white middle class women, black women were expected to engage in reform activities in their own communities