Noble Cause pg. 3
Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813-1897)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Edited by L. Maria Child.
Boston: Published for the Author, 1861.
The first slave narrative written by a woman.
From the Helen LaKelly Hunt Collection of American Women Reformers and Writers
Henry Drisler (1818-1897)
Bible View of Slavery, By John H. Hopkins, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of Vermont, Examined.
New York: C.S. Westcott & Co., 1863.
Henry Drisler was an American scholar ardently opposed slavery. In 1861, Hopkins wrote his “The Bible View of Slavery” in which he criticized abolitionists and declared that there was no basis for ending slavery based on the Bible. In this work, Drisler refutes Hopkins, relying heavily on the Bible. “Therefore this saith the Lord, Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty everyone to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: Behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord…”
From the collection of Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner
Elizabeth Buffum Chace (1806-1899)
Anti-Slavery Reminiscences.
Central Falls, R.L Freeman & Sons, State Printer, 1891.
Elizabeth Buffum Chace (1806-1899) was a suffragist and anti-slavery advocate. She and her husband conducted an Underground Railroad station from 1840 on in Valley Falls, R.I. She helped sponsor the first Woman's Rights Convention in Worcester, 1850. In 1868, with Paulina Wright Davis she organized the Rhode Island Woman Suffrage Association, of which she was president from 1870 until her death. Chace ends her Anti-Slavery Reminiscences by saying:
In the progress of the Anti-Slavery movement, experience revealed the great injustice, the detriment to human welfare, of the subordinate, disfranchised condition of woman .... So, when the crime of slave-holding was overcome, they became the leaders in the Woman Suffrage cause . ... For, although we have not the chain, the lash and the auction block, ... there is enough that is unjust and degrading in the condition of women, to convince us, that the work to which this generation of reformers is called, is of far wider significance to the progress of all mankind...
From the Helen LaKelly Hunt Collection of American Women Reformers and Writers
Elizabeth Buffum Chace (1806-1899) and Lucy Buffum Lovell.
Two Quaker Sisters, with an Introduction by Malcolm R Lovell Foreword by Rufus M Jones.
New York: Liveright Publishing Corp., 1937.
Original diaries of Elizabeth and Lucy provide insight into their involvement with the antislavery movement.
From the Helen LaKelly Hunt Collection of American Women Reformers and Writers
Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman (1847-1929)
American Chivalry.
Boston: WB Clarke Co., 1913.
Lillie Buffum Chace Wyman was the daughter of Elizabeth Buffum Chace and wife of John Crawford Wyman. This first edition contains first-hand biographical profiles of active members of the anti-slavery movement.
From the Helen LaKelly Hunt Collection of American Women Reformers and Writers
Southeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs. Woman's Missionary Council.
Southern women and race co-operation.
[Nashville, Tenn.: Woman's Missionary Council, Methodist Episcopal Church, South], [1921].
Position statement of the Southern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, which met June 1921 in Atlanta, Georgia. The Southeast Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs was founded by Dr. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune in 1920 to unite state club federations from Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Virginia. The organization sought to combat school segregation and to improve health facilities.
DeGolyer Library, Pamphlet Collection, E185.61 .S68 1921
Card No. 91 Abolitionists.
New York, New York: Interstate News Service, 1926.
Part of the Interstate News Service History game/quiz cards as a teaching tool. Pictured on card no. 91 are the abolitionists John Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William L. Garrison, Elijah Lovejoy, and Wendell Phillips. The card asks three questions: What was the purpose of the Abolitionists? Why did John Brown attack the State Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, and Did “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” influence people for or against slavery?
From the collection of Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner
Sadie Iola Daniel (1892-1969)
Women Builders.
Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1931.
First edition inscribed by Mary McLeod Bethune. This work features the biographies of seven African-American women who were pioneers in education, financial and social institutions.
From the Helen LaKelly Hunt Collection of American Women Reformers and Writers
Annie Nathan Meyer (1867-1951)
Black Souls. With a Foreword by John Haynes Holmes.
New Bedford, MA: Reynolds Press, [1932].
Annie Nathan Meyer was a founder of Barnard College. Black Souls was one of the first plays performed by an all-Black cast and one of the earliest known lynching dramas written by a white woman. She was an ardent feminist who espoused many reform causes, but not suffrage.
From the Helen LaKelly Hunt Collection of American Women Reformers and Writers
National Association of Colored Women, Inc. [Postcard].
Postmarked August 2, 1953.
Organized in 1896 and incorporated in 1904, the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) became the largest federation of local black women’s clubs. Suffragist Mary Church Terrell became the first president of the NACW. Unlike predominantly white suffrage organizations, the NACW advocated for a wide range of reforms to improve life for African Americans. Postcard message reads: “You should be here, the session is good, the weather fine, eats are good, a nice place to stay.”
From the collection of Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner