Anti-Slavery Collection: References & Resources
This guide provides researchers and students with access to resources related to the American Anti-Slavery movement of the 19th century in New England.
Selected Journals & Articles
- Chambers, L. (2008). Married to Each Other; Married to the Cause. Singlehood and Sibship in Antebellum Massachusetts. Women's History Review, 17(3), 341.Research for this article, which focuses on female relationships within the anti-slavery movement, was conducted at the BPL using the Weston Papers Correspondence.
- Duran, Jane. (2015). Lydia Maria Child: Abolitionism and the New England Spirit. Pluralist, 10(3), 261.A towering figure in the anti-slavery movement, Lydia Maria Child wrote passionately for the cause of the enslaved black. This article explores how she influenced--and was influenced by--the community of Bostonians who surrounded her.
- Hogan, L. S. (2008). A time for silence: William Lloyd Garrison and the 'Woman Question' at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention. Gender Issues, (2), 63.The participation of women in anti-slavery organizations was a deeply divisive issue, one that led William Llloyd Garrison to ultimately break with the national organizations.
- King, M. D., & Haveman, H. A. (2008). Antislavery in America: The Press, the Pulpit, and the Rise of Antislavery Societies. Administrative Science Quarterly, 53(3), 492-528.This article explores the rise of the anti-slavery societies and their connections to religious organization, mass media tactics, and the rise of modern activist approaches and tactics.
- Mayer, Henry (1999). William Lloyd Garrison: The Undisputed Master of the Cause of Negro Liberation. The Journal of Blacks In Higher Education, (23), 105.A short article describing William Lloyd Garrison's work and achievements with a comparison to modern black social activists, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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- Boston Public Library Electronic Catalog
Search across the library's research and special collections.
Databases
- Slavery and Anti-Slavery: a Transnational Archive This link opens in a new windowSlavery and Anti-Slavery includes collections on the transatlantic slave trade, the global movement for the abolition of slavery, the legal, personal, and economic aspects of the slavery system, and the dynamics of emancipation in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions.
This database contains:
5.4 million cross-searchable pages: 12048 books, 170 serials, 71 manuscript collections, 377 supreme court records and briefs and 194 reference articles from Macmillan, Charles Scribner's Sons and Gale encyclopedias.
Links to websites, biographies, chronology, bibliographies, and information on key collections, to give users background and context for further research.
Collections published through partnerships with the Amistad Research Center, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the British Library, the National Archives in Kew, Oberlin College, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the University of Miami, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and many other institutions. - Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & LawThis HeinOnline collection brings together, for the first time, all essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.
Books of Note
All on Fire by ISBN: 0312187408Publication Date: 1998-09-01Describes how the abolitionist used his influence and his weekly newspaper to motivate two generations of activists fighting against slavery.
American Antislavery Writings by ISBN: 9781598531961Publication Date: 2012An anthology of historic writings gathered to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Includes pieces by William Lloyd Garrison, Phillis Wheatley, Louisa May Alcott, and Frederick Douglass.
Boston's Abolitionists by ISBN: 9781933212197Publication Date: 2006In the years before the Civil War, Boston's black leaders helped fight slavery from a vibrant African-American community on Beacon Hill.
Boston and the Civil War by ISBN: 9781609499495Publication Date: 2014Bostonians played a critical role in the Civil War, both on and off the battlefield. Berenson's book explores the anti-slavery movement and its key local leaders.
Broke by the War by ISBN: 1570039429Publication Date: 2010Transcriptions of more than 140 letters written between 1852 and 1857 by slave trader A. J. McElveen to Ziba Oakes; collection held by BPL and digitized (see Primary Source Materials page).
The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison (6 volumes) by ISBN: 9780674526600Publication Date: 1971-1981Transcriptions of the collected letters of William Lloyd Garrison. Collection held by BPL and digitized (see Primary Source Materials page).
Prophets of Protest by ISBN: 1565848802Publication Date: 2006The anti-slavery movement involved far more than wealthy Northern white men. This collection of essays looks at the wider world of contributors: blacks, women, Midwesterners, and others who took up the cause of freedom.
The Weston Sisters by ISBN: 9781469618173Publication Date: 2014The five Weston sisters were instrumental figures in the anti-slavery movement in New England. Chambers explores their relationships and mutual support of one another as instrumental in their activism. Collection held by BPL and digitized (see Primary Source Materials page).
Women of the Anti-Slavery Movement by ISBN: 9781349237685Publication Date: 1995Taylor's book focuses on the Weston sisters of Weymouth and their extensive contributions to the cause of abolition. Collection held by BPL and digitized (see Primary Source Materials page).
