WOMEN OF THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT

STUDIES IN GENDER HISTORY

Recent years have shown that the study of gender is too important to be ignored. By challenging long-accepted approaches, categories and priorities, gender history has necessitated a change in the historical terrain. This series seeks to publish the latest and best research which continues to restore women to history and history to women, and to encourage the development of a new channel of scholarship.

Women of the Anti-Slavery Movement The Weston Sisters

Clare Taylor

M St. Martin's Press

© Clare Taylor 1995 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1995

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

First published in Great Britain 1995 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 104 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 95

ISBN 978-1-349-23768-5 ISBN 978-1-349-23766-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-23766-1

First published in the United States of America 1995 by Scholarly and Reference Division, ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010

ISBN 978-0-312-12319-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Taylor, Clare, 1934-Women of the anti-slavery movement: the Weston sisters / Clare Taylor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-12319-2 1. Antislavery movements-United States. 2. Women abolitionists­

-Massachusetts. 3. Weston family. 4. Boston (Mass.)-History--Antislavery movement, 1830-1863. I. Title. E449.T24 1995 305.8'00973-dc20 94-24881

CIP

For Eric

Contents

Map of Boston, 1838 vm

Acknowledgements x

Introduction x1

The Westons of Massachusetts 1

2 The Weston Sisters and the Anti-Slavery Movement 17

3 Right and Wrong in Boston 27

4 Women of Boston and Norwich 43

5 Maria Weston Chapman and her Anti-Slavery Mission to Europe 61

fi The Liberty Bell

7 The Care of Children

8 The Weston Legacy

Notes

Bibliography

Index

vii

87

99

109

121

141

155

-...-, L ~I< - ........-_

- BOSTO · CITY O'P

Map of Boston, 1838

Map of Boston, 1838 Map of Boston, 1838 Map of Boston, 1838 Map of Boston, 1838

Map of Boston, 1838 Map of Boston, 1838 Map of Boston, 1838

Map of Boston, 1838 Map of Boston, 1838

Map of Boston, 1838 Map of Boston, 1838

Acknowledgements

I should like to thank all those people, libraries and institu­tions who gave help during the course of this work, too many to be named individually, and including my husband and family. Thanks especially go to Professor George Shepperson; Professor Frank Thistlethwaite; Professor Michael Heale, Professor Peter Parish; Professor Peter Thomas; Professor David B. Davis; Professor Betty Fladeland; Professor Kathryn Kish Sklar; Professor Deborah Van Broekhoven; Professor Lee Chambers-Schiller; Mrs Dorothy Sterling; the Boston Public Library, Massachusetts; London libraries including Friends House Library; the Fawcett Library; Dr Williams Library; the Institute of Historical Research, London Univer­sity; the Archives, Baring Brothers; also Harvard University and its Libraries; the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College; Columbia University Library; Cornell University Library; and thanks too to the United States Information Service, London, for a travel award.

My thanks also to Giovanna Davitti at Macmillan, and to Anne Rafique, for editorial guidance.

X

Introduction

The anti-slavery movement was a campaign led by liberals in Britain and America for the abolition of black slavery world wide.

Since the seventeenth century Negroes, men and later women, had been taken forcibly from West Mrica across the Atlantic and sold into slavery on the plantations of wealthy Creoles in Central and Latin America. Anti-slavery protest began in the second half of the eighteenth century led by pious individuals, especially the Society of Friends, or Quakers, a well-organised transatlantic religious sect, sup­porters of fraternal love.

British courts forbade the use of slave labour in the British Isles as early as 1782, and the government ended the slave trade in 1807. British mastery of the seas made this act effec­tive, despite international protest over the right of search exercised by the Royal Navy. In 1833 Britain emancipated slaves in British territories, notably the West Indies, after a brief period of apprenticeship, but her example was not popular.

France emancipated slaves in 1848, as did Spain and Portugal by the end of the century. The United States used slave labour intensively in the South, though not in the northern states after 1787. However by the nineteenth century slave-grown cotton from the American South was a major factor in the transatlantic trade. Britain depended on American cotton, and Southern planters refused to end their 'peculiar institution', their own system of slave-holding, which effectively divided the nation and caused international tension. The anti-slavery movement split internationally in 1840, ostensibly over the right of women to take part in the work, but also over Southern slavery.

Anti-slavery societies were first formed in Britain in 1823, in America in 1831, and included women, in spite of early prejudice by leaders like William Wilberforce. Abolitionists of both sexes were influenced by Evangelical Christianity

XI

Xll Introduction

and liberal humanism, and their motives in undertaking this reform were simple. In both countries it was agreed that slavery was a sin, tarnishing the shared ideals of democracy. Abolitionists were aware of the wider, revolutionary implica­tions of their demands which included extended civil liber­ties for all, irrespective of race and gender, and a change in Atlantic trading patterns.

Anti-slavery societies were active in Britain in the yt:ars leading up to emancipation in 1833, and protest continued after that date. In America the anti-slavery crusade was no less zealous, in spite of the impossibility of gaining a peaceful political solution to the problem of slavery in American life. The British example was upheld, but so controversial did the issue of abolition become in the United States that British abolitionists were reluctant to help the American crusade, fearing intervention would cause diplomatic incident.

The Boston abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison cam­paigned for British support, but he alienated many aboli­tionists in both countries by advocating the active use of women in anti-slavery work. The Garrisonians persevered in seeking international condemnation of American slavery, a significant crusade as much of the work was done by women on both sides of the Atlantic. They were not committed fem­inists and worked within their family circles, but it was in part due to them that American slavery was ended in 1865, and they clearly played a role in Anglo-American diplomacy, perhaps minor, but out of all proportion to their numbers.

There are many studies of the anti-slavery movement and its abolitionists, especially male. This present work focuses on a family of sisters, the Westons of Massachusetts, who dedicated their lives to the abolition of black slavery in the United States. There were six sisters, and from the early 1830s until the abolition of slavery in America in 1865 they campaigned for emancipation, believing slavery to be a blot on American democracy.

Initially the sisters joined the anti-slavery movement as members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, and were part of this organization until 1840. Thereafter they found it easier to work as a small group with congenial

Introduction xiii

friends, neighbours and virtually all their family. Their end never changed: the emancipation of black slaves in America; nor did their means. The Westons were not radicals in the methods they used to protest against slavery. They helped with an annual fair which was very successful in raising funds, and edited a journal, the Liberty Bel~ which usually appeared at Christmas, to be sold at the fair.

They rarely spoke in public and this set them apart from other female activists. They chose not to speak on public platforms probably because they were very shy and found public appearances an ordeal. As they were excellent admin­istrators and organisers their decision not to lecture roused no protest at the time. Indeed, their decision was probably welcomed since active female involvement in the anti-slavery movement sparked off riots in several cities in America in the 1830s, and previous to that male abolitionists forbade women to campaign except privately.

There are a few simple reasons for writing about the Weston sisters, the most important being that they were interesting, likeable people. They were not charming, as Southern women are held to be, but the sisters were beauti­ful, and the failure of all but one of them to marry was not due to a lack of sex appeal. A Southern belle was also a good woman, if tainted by association with slave owners, as most would agree; but the Westons like most Yankees were spir­ited in defence of civil rights for all, irrespective of race, and this gave them stature.

A group of attractive freedom fighters is a pleasing picture and gives the Westons advantage over their Southern 'sisters'. As genuinely well integrated women, that is, women not colour prejudiced, they deserve note. Their lives reveal that slavery deprived women, North and South, of much. Only with slavery's end would American women, North and South, cease to be bitter rivals, become truly emancipated.

The Westons were highly literate and left abundant records - a gift for the research worker- so that writing about them is not only pleasurable but possible. The eldest and only married sister, Maria Weston Chapman, has received indi­vidual note, but the family should be seen as a whole. The

XIV Introduction

sisters were witty women, as their letters demonstrate, and there are few distressing aspects to their lives, which reveal a great deal about life in nineteenth-century America and Europe, where the Westons travelled for several years.

The reason why relatively little has been written about the Westons is a failure by historians until recently to discuss female abolitionists. No history of the anti-slavery move­ment can ignore them, however, and no study of the social and political life of New England would be complete with­out some knowledge of the Weston sisters.

These are sweeping claims, but we gain an insight into the international anti-slavery movement, especially the female contribution through the Westons, leading Garrisonians. It is true that others, not least the Philadelphia female aboli­tionists, were more mature. Moreover the Westons called themselves 'a clique', a term which carries the sense 'an elite', and little can usually learned from a closed circle. If the Westons chose to work only with like-minded friends, it was a natural but prejudiced stand, and their circle was highly regarded.

Why they fell out with most reformers, especially women, is important, and makes sad if sometimes humorous read­ing. However the Westons were not unreasonable, and it is easy today to take their side in disputes. Without being parti­san or writing out of context, we see the Westons as cham­pions of liberty as they faced pro-slavery mobs in Boston or Philadelphia, defied slave-owners with every weapon at hand, and censured their fellow women for being narrow minded. They were relatively privileged and too often their quarrels arose over trivial matters, disputes partly due to a failure by early, inexperienced feminist organisations to cope. The slavery issue in America was bitter enough to cause civil war, let alone schism in society, and made victims of these women, none of whom was intellectually brilliant.

The present work attempts to do more than give a simple sketch of the lives of the Westons and their connections with the anti-slavery movement. The sisters were part of the social and political world of nineteenth-century Boston, and were intimate friends of British and European liberals. They were

Introduction XV

leading female reformers, and if not active partiCipants, were part of the emerging feminist movement. The Westons represent an attempt by American women to be truly democratic. The age of the common woman probably began when nineteenth-century women campaigned against slavery and found they had as few political or legal rights as the black slave. Without control over their lives, their for­tunes and their children, women knew a classless egalitarian­ism; sadly chivalry gave some more privilege than others.

The struggle to survive and to succeed 'strained' female relations, but the Christian and anti-slavery ideal was true sisterhood, and the Westons tried to be good sisters to each other at least. In the novels of Louisa May Alcott, a young friend of the Westons, Yankee girls are brought up to have a good social conscience, be friendly, helpful and happy. The theme of an Alcott novel is the spread of democratic ideals in American life to include and reward women, to offer them a more abundant life by teaching them to be independent but also to love one another. The Westons might wish this to be their goal in life, and indeed, they tried very hard in the face of provocation and natural disinclina­tion to be good women and good citizens.

In what follows, the first chapter deals with the family background of the Westons, established in Massachusetts since the seventeenth century, a well-placed family with wealth from farming and trading, but which ran to girls, few of whom married. The brilliant marriage of Maria Weston to Henry Chapman, son of a Boston and Salem merchant, was enhanced when the Chapmans converted the Westons to anti-slavery views. The second chapter gives an account of the female anti-slavery movement, and the link of the Westons with organised anti-slavery work. Their connection with the Boston Female Anti-Slavery movement is dealt with in Chapter 3 which notes how important was this group whose internal struggles divided the anti-slavery movement­and Boston. The Chapman set, as friends of William Lloyd Garrison, found themselves isolated in trade, politics, chapel and society, as well as in anti-slavery circles in a dispute as much over personalities as principles.

xvi Introduction

The Westons' ability to play a separatist part thanks to British help is the subject of Chapter 4; the fifth chapter discusses the decision of the Weston sisters to live and campaign in Europe. Chapter 6 deals with their literary work, their major contribution to the anti-slavery campaign second to their attitudes to teaching and rearing children, the subject of Chapter 7. A concluding note on the sisters describes how far it is possible to categorise them as women and abolitionists, and stresses their importance to the Anglo-American connection, and to new links between America, Ireland and Europe. The sisters were not heroines in a novel, but possibly they inspired novelists. Certainly they were 'lovely and pleasant' and their lives make interesting reading.