A new piece of history has emerged. It is a pamphlet that was meant to teach children that slavery is wrong, and to hopefully convince their parents as well.
Before women could vote, they were finding ways to be active in politics. In 1835 in Philadelphia, 18 rich women formed the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. The group wrote letters, fielded petitions, and held abolitionist fairs.
This Philadelphia group raised over $13,000 toward abolitionist causes. This group got together because women were barred from joining the American Anti-Slavery Society that had just formed.
In 1838, the second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was held at the newly constructed Pennsylvania Hall. There was a crowd of pro-slavery protesters, and they burned the hall to the ground. The protesters were angry about women interacting with men and African-Americans.
In the 1840s, Elizabeth Margaret Chandler and Hannah Townsend began writing anti-slavery pamphlets to appeal to children. They wanted to get the message to the younger generations. The hope was that children would read them and help to change their parents’ minds.
There is only one of these pamphlets that survived through the years. The pamphlet is the 1846 work, “The Anti-Slavery Alphabet.” They use the alphabet as a device to tell a series of four line stories about slaves and abolition. The entire pamphlet can be found here. Keep in mind there are a few out-dated terms in it that are now considered offensive.
It is not meant to be a feel-good pamphlet; it is meant to enrage and to inform. It is meant to make people go against owning slaves. The rest of the country finally caught up over twenty years later and freed the slaves.
Featured image by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History via flickr.com, available on Commons.
