Hearts Beating for Liberty: Women Abolitionists in the Old Northwest - Softcover

Robertson, Stacey M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1469622173 ISBN 13: 9781469622170

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014

Synopsis

Challenging traditional histories of abolition, this book shifts the focus away from the East to show how the women of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin helped build a vibrant antislavery movement in the Old Northwest.

Stacey Robertson argues that the environment of the Old Northwest--with its own complicated history of slavery and racism--created a uniquely collaborative and flexible approach to abolitionism. Western women helped build this local focus through their unusual and occasionally transgressive activities. They plunged into Liberty Party politics, vociferously supported a Quaker-led boycott of slave goods, and tirelessly aided fugitives and free blacks in their communities. Western women worked closely with male abolitionists, belying the notion of separate spheres that characterized abolitionism in the East. The contested history of race relations in the West also affected the development of abolitionism in the region, necessitating a pragmatic bent in their activities. Female antislavery societies focused on eliminating racist laws, aiding fugitive slaves, and building and sustaining schools for blacks. This approach required that abolitionists of all stripes work together, and women proved especially adept at such cooperation.

About this title

Book Description:

"Stacey Robertson's analysis of midwestern abolitionism is more expansive, sophisticated, and finely drawn than those of previous scholars, particularly because of her revealing emphasis on gender and because of her recognition that our task is to see this region's reformers with reference to the abolitionist movement as a whole. She brings a persuasive and clear argument to a significant history of radical activism that has hitherto been underexplored and widely overlooked."--James Brewer Stewart, author of Abolitionist Politics and the Coming of the Civil War

About the Author:

Stacey Robertson is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and a professor of history at SUNY Geneseo. She is author of Parker Pillsbury: Radical Abolitionist, Male Feminist.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1469622173
• ISBN 13: 9781469622170
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320