This pamphlet helps to emphasize the relationship between abolitionism and women's rights.

This pamphlet helps to emphasize the relationship between abolitionism and women's rights.

Sarah Moore Grimke and Angelina Emily Grimke were the first women in America coming from a southern slave-holding family to speak publicly on behalf of the abolition of slavery.Creating a stir of controversy soon afterwards during the 1830s especially with the force of their testimony before the Massachusetts State Legislature, they soon found themselves defending publicly and at length the right of women to speak on moral and political issues and on the end of the subordination of women. The editor of this collection of eloquent political writings, Larry Ceplair, has written a critical introduction situating the Grimkes' in an historical and political context in which he describes the significance of their thought and work. Of special interest is the inclusion of writings documenting the Grimke sisters activities that preceded by 11 years the first woman's rights convention in America, held at Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848.Most of the Grimke sisters writings are out of print today. Mr. Ceplair's efforts will be greatly appreciated by those interested in the history of feminist theory, antebellum history.

This is the first full-length biography of Mary Grew (1813-96), an American abolitionist and feminist, who worked steadily in the antislavery crusade from 1834 to 1865, in the Negro suffrage campaign from 1865 to 1870, and in the woman's rights movements from 1848 to 1892, her eightieth year.

Before the Civil War, the public lives of American men and women intersected most frequently in the arena of religious activism. Bruce Dorsey broadens the field of gender studies, incorporating an analysis of masculinity into the history of early American religion and reform. His is a holistic account that reveals the contested meanings of manhood and womanhood among antebellum Americans, both black and white, middle class and working class.Urban poverty, drink, slavery, and Irish Catholic immigration--for each of these social problems that engrossed Northern reformers, Dorsey examines the often competing views held by male and female activists and shows how their perspectives were further complicated by differences in class, race, and generation. His primary focus is Philadelphia, birthplace of nearly every kind of benevolent and reform society and emblematic of changes occurring throughout the North. With an especially rich history of African-American activism, the city is ideal for Dorsey's exploration of race and reform.Combining stories of both ordinary individuals and major reformers with an insightful analysis of contemporary songs, plays, fiction, and polemics, Dorsey exposes the ways race, class, and ethnicity influenced the meanings of manhood and womanhood in nineteenth-century America. By linking his gendered history of religious activism with the transformations characterizing antebellum society, he contributes to a larger quest: to engender all of American history.

Speicher (American history, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) examines the spiritual lives and convictions of radical abolitionist women of the 19th century who rejected the repressive features of the Christianity of their day. She explores the dimensions of their evolving faith, which was critical in shaping their decisions and actions, and highlights the leadership that these women exercised within the antislavery community. Includes a few bandw photos of key figures. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR