The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in the Antislavery Movement

Abstract

The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in the Antislavery Movement. By Julie Roy Jeffrey. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. 311 pages. $23.95 (paperback). Julie Roy Jeffrey provides a broad overview of white and black women's roles in the abolition movement from the emergence of immediatism in the 1830s through the Civil War. Before this book appeared, most historians of abolitionism concentrated on the ideas and actions of men in the movement, and those who did investigate the role of women typically focused on those antislavery activists who also became involved in women's rights. This work redirects the historiography of American abolition in two ways. First, it persuasively argues that while prominent men have received the lion's share of attention, ordinary women in a variety of places served as the backbone of the movement, helping to keep many local societies going even as the movement as a whole appeared to lose momentum in the 1840's. Second, it reminds historians that while abolitionism did help to launch a women's rights movement, the work women did as abolitionists needs to be understood on its own terms. In order to make her case for the prominence of women in the movement, Jeffrey painstakingly recaptures the nature of women's contributions. One constant challenge facing abolitionists was fundraising, and she highlights the various ways that women worked to meet this need. One method, which had previously received little attention from historians, was the antislavery fair, which became a central activity of female abolitionists by the 1840's. Held in big cities as well as smaller towns, these fairs not only offered consumer goods made in Europe but also a variety of locally-made goods sewn or crafted by women themselves, from quilts and hats to shirts and pocketbooks. In addition to creating goods, women also booked the halls, generated publicity, and priced and sold the items. The fairs were often held on holidays and could draw large numbers of customers, who would encounter anti-slavery banners as they perused the goods available for purchase. In addition to raising money, women played a primary role in petition campaigns. While these campaigns were most active in the 1830's, they continued to take place through the antebellum period and actually became more prominent again during the Civil War itself. Women also did the work of creating antislavery propaganda as well as sponsoring antislavery lectures. Taken together, women engaged in much of the day-to-day work needed to keep local antislavery societies functioning. …