William Lloyd Garrison, 1833, Oil on wood by Nathaniel Jocelyn.Remember Your Weekly Pledge, collection box for Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Set aside in the home, the box was designed to remind members to make their weekly contribution. Circa 1850
TheNew England Anti-Slavery Society (1831–1837) was formed byWilliam Lloyd Garrison, editor ofThe Liberator, in 1831.The Liberator was its official publication.
The society sponsored lecturers or "agents" who traveled throughout the New England area, speaking in local churches or halls, and also selling abolitionist tracts orThe Liberator. Whenever possible, the Society's agents would also encourage the formation of local anti-slavery societies. By 1833 there were 47 local societies in ten northern states, 33 of them in New England. The society also sponsored mass mobilizations such as yearly anti-slavery conventions and celebrations of July 4 or — preferred by those who believed celebrating July 4 was unacceptable since the U.S. Constitution accepted slavery — the Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in the West Indies, August 1.[citation needed]
John Levy, "a colored gentleman" from Lowell, decries insufficient involvement of free Negroes in the struggle. Garrison, Birney, Burleigh, Henry Stanton, and other stalwarts speak at length.[citation needed]
In January 1833,Thomas Dalton, president of theMassachusetts General Colored Association, led a successful petition to merge with the New England Anti-Slavery Society.[4] Separate black anti-slavery societies had already existed in Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Connecticut, and New Jersey, however, a strong feeling against the organization of separate anti-slavery societies had been emerging.
Together they organized anti-slavery conventions and speaking programs throughout New England.
Sometime after Joshua Easton was sent as a delegate to the New England society in 1833, African Americans were granted full membership in the organization.[5]
In 1833, Garrison andArthur Tappan expanded this society and formed theAmerican Anti-Slavery Society. The American Anti-Slavery Society, however, attempted to create state-based organizations under the umbrella of its executive committee. At first the New England Anti-Slavery Society and the American Society worked together, with the New England Society becoming an auxiliary in 1834.[6]
In 1838, however, the New England Society gave up its regional jurisdiction and reorganized into the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.[6] The society took a proactive role in advocating for legislation against new slave codes and laws, particularly within Massachusetts, including publishing treatises related to proposals to outlaw or penalize those participating in the activities and formation of societies relating to abolition and anti-slavery activities.[7]
^abZorn, Roman J.,The New England Anti-Slavery Society: Pioneer Abolition Organization, The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Jul., 1957), pp. 157-176
^Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1836),A Full Statement of the Reasons Which Were in Part Offered to the Committee of the Legislature of Massachusetts On the Fourth and Eighth of March, Showing Why There Should Be No Penal Laws Enacted, and No Condemnatory Resolutions Passed by the Legislature, Respecting Abolitionits and Anti-slavery Societies, Boston
^"William Wells Brown". New Bedford, Massachusetts: New Bedford Historical Society.Archived from the original on 2021-06-16. Retrieved2024-03-11.
J.M.W. Yerrinton, ed. (1858).Speech of Rev. Henry Bleby. Boston: R.F. Wallcut.Missionary from Barbadoes, on the results of emancipation in the British W.I. colonies : delivered at the celebration of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, held at Island Grove, Abington, July 31st, 1858
