A Very Dangerous Woman: Martha Wright and Women's Rights

4. Philadelphia Story

o 4 Philadelphia Story The Lion and the Jackals MARTHA WRIGHT’S 1833 visit to Philadelphia coincided with the founding meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society.1 As the guest of James and Lucretia Mott, Martha had her first direct exposure to the moral fervor of William Lloyd Garrison and other leaders of the growing abolitionist movement . James and Lucretia had earlier become enthusiastic participants in the movement. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, many antislavery reformers had focused on the idea of “colonization.” The American Colonization Society, formed in 1816, financed the purchase of slaves from their owners and the emigration of the freed blacks to a colony in West Africa that later became the nation of Liberia. But even though the slave trade to the United States had ceased by 1808, as prescribed by the Constitution, the slave population in the country continued to increase, and the development of the cotton industry made slavery more and more important to the economy of the South. By 1830, Garrison had become convinced that the only solution to the problem of slavery in America was abolition—the immediate emancipation of all slaves.2 In the following year, he began publishing the Liberator, an uncompromising weekly journal devoted to promoting of the abolition of slavery. In his 40 chapter four first issue, he stated, “I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation . . . . I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and i will be heard.”3 And he was, attracting many supporters, but also many detractors, not all of whom were in the South. In 1832 he formed the New England Anti-Slavery Society, and in 1833 he chose Quaker Philadelphia as the site for the formation of a national society. At an early age, Martha had developed a deep hatred of slavery. Before this visit to Lucretia’s, however, she appears to have devoted little thought to the relative merits of competing approaches to solution of the problem. On December 5, Martha wrote to David about “a Convention that was to meet here for the purpose of forming a society favorable to immediate emancipation and opposed to Colonization . . . Sister L. called on Wm Lloyd Garrison the great man the lion in the Emancipation cause and invited him to tea here . . . innumerable jackals were also invited. Yesterday was spent in preparation— there were about 50, counting our own family.”4 About Garrison, “the lion,” Martha wrote, “I had always supposed he was a coloured brother but he isn’t.” The “jackals” were Garrison’s followers in attendance at the party, and they included both black and white supporters of abolition. For the event, Lucretia had placed on her center table an “imposing array of Anti Slavery pamphlets,” including one “representing a coloured woman rampant [actually kneeling, hands clasped and chained] and the words ‘Am I not a woman & a sister.’” This was a feminine variation on the more usual image on anti-slavery pamphlets of a black man in chains with the message, “Am I not a man and a brother?”5 The Motts’ home that week was the center of many antislavery discussions , and some visitors tended to dominate the conversation. In response to the “profound conversation” of one man, Martha reported that she “dispensed the proper quantity of assenting nods, all the time thinking Sister L’s ‘indeeds’ and ‘possibles’ quite supererogatory.”6 Although Martha’s formal education ended at fifteen, her letters reveal an extensive vocabulary, presumably a result of her wide reading. “The Convention met yesterday to organize themselves,” Martha wrote, adding, “no females present.” But that was remedied the next day, when “just as I had seated myself to commence this letter,” an abolitionist “came to say that he and others were dispatched to invite ‘the women’ to meet with the 41 philadelphia story Convention, and Mother Sister L. and Anna [Mott] quickly clapped on their bonnets to accept the gallant invitation. Mother urged me to accompany them, thinking my poor letter of no consequence but I thought I should enjoy myself more with you than with them.” However, Martha did “clap on her bonnet” later and attend sessions of the convention, “which I found quite interesting . . . For two evenings there has been a public controversy or rather discussion between a Colonization advocate and an anti Colonization. I attended and became interested in the course of the debate, tho’ as...