The Concord
Female
ANTISLAVERY
Society BY NANCY SNYDER
52
Discover CONCORD
| Spring 2021
I
Female anti-slavery societies were In 1837, Concord, Massachusetts was not gaining footholds in much of the a town recognized for its great abolitionist Northeast, with strong societies in stance against slavery. During the 1830s Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and and the 1840s, Concord was a town of Vermont. The Societies held the common nearly 2,000 residents with only a few dozen giving abolitionism much thought — conviction “that slavery was a sin that, as women, they had a religious duty to let alone taking any action against slavery. eradicate.”1 Concord’s transformation from a town that considered abolitionism as The Concord Female Anti-Slavery something of little concern to a town Society would evolve into one of the internationally recognized as a strong hub most active and influential of all the in the abolitionist movement began in the female antislavery societies throughout home of Mrs. Samuel Barrett. For years, the country. prominent Concord women would rotate What distinguished the Concord meeting in each other’s homes and talk of Female Anti-Slavery Society was the whom and how to help Concord’s neediest women that founded and supported residents. They the organization. called themselves These were the the Concord wives, mothers, Female Charitable aunts, sisters, and Society and the neighbors of some charitable work of the most revered they accomplished and prominent was admirable. The Transcendental Charitable Society writers. The women also served as a of the Concord political voice for Female Anti-Slavery these Concord Society used their women — a close relationships welcome outlet to influence the given the prescribed thinking of these and narrow roles writers. Although for women at Emerson had that time. Mary Merrick Brooks reached international In 1837, during a recognition for his meeting at Mrs. Samuel Barrett’s home, the remarkable essays and public thought, Concord Female Charitable Society became at the time the Society was founded, the Concord Female Anti-Slavery Society. Emerson had never spoken nor written At that historic meeting were Mrs. Lidian about slavery. Given the tenor of the Emerson (wife to Ralph Waldo Emerson) times, not discussing slavery was a and her daughter Ellen; the indomitable noticeable absence in Emerson’s work. Mrs. Mary Merrick Brooks, the Society’s It was not until 1844, after the relentless primary organizer who would become a lobbying of his neighbor, Mrs. Mary legendary figure in Concord history; Mrs. Merrick Brooks, and of the innumerable Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau (mother of Henry abolitionist meetings organized by his David Thoreau) and her two daughters wife Lidian that dominated their home, Helen and Sophia (sisters to Henry David); that Emerson spoke out against slavery at Mrs. Abigail Alcott (mother of Louisa May); one of the annual fairs the Society would Susan Garrison, resident of Concord’s hold for fundraising. From that moment Robbins House and the sole woman of on, Emerson became one of the country’s color, and Mrs. Lucy Brown. leading abolitionists.
