Lucretia Mott and the Philadelphia Antislavery Fairs

LUCRETIA MOTT AND THE PHILADELPHIA ANTISLAVERY FAIRS By N. Ohwin Rush * THE ANTISLAVERY FAIRS which took place in Philadelphia from 1835 to 1861 are, from the viewpoint of episodial historians, only a minor event in American history ; but placed in their proper setting they become an interesting part of the age-long struggle between the free and oppressed. It is, therefore, with the hope of throwing further light on the antislavery movement that this study has been made. This series of fairs held annually just before Christmas proved to be an excellent means of replenishing the continually exhausted treasury of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. When it was first proposed to inaugurate these occasions, there was considerable debate as to whether they should be held. This new innovation was doubly hard to put across because a majority of the membership was made up from members of the Society of Friends and by that Society, "Fairs were regarded with much suspicion, if not absolute disapprobation." 1 Especially was this true if monthly meetings occurred during fair week. If so, members were not excused for such "profane babbling."2 However, after considerable debate it was felt that such occasions were perfectly legitimate and proper. It is noteworthy to mention that the decision was reached only after it was agreed to use the term sale rather than fair. The beginning of these fairs was very plain and simple with the announcement that the Female Anti-Slavery Society would hold an "Anti-Slavery Sale." Later announcements used the term fair as shown in the following advertisement appearing in the Philadelphia Public Ledger for December 14, 1858: The 23rd Philadelphia anti-slavery fair will open on Tuesday evening, 14th instant, in Sansom Hall and continue open the three following days. A great variety of beautiful and useful articles at market prices. Articles * The author is Librarian of the Clark University Library. 1 Anna Davis Hallowell, ed., James and Lucretia Moti: Life and Letters (Boston, 1884), p. 127. 2 Ibid., p. 397. 69Vol. 35, Autumn 1946 70 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION of household use and apparel and others for Christmas gifts may here be purchased and a benevolent cause thus aided without any extra outlay of money. Admittance, 13 cents; season tickets, 25 cents.3 In 1859 the term Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Sale and National Bazaar was used. By this date the occasion had truly become national and even international by contributions. Valuable donations came annually from all over the Eastern United States, and boxes came from England, Germany and France. Outstanding performers from the eastern part of the United States appeared on the program and no doubt were excellent drawing cards. Such men as Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles C. Burleigh, H. H. Furness, and Joshua R. Giddings entertained the audience with eloquent speeches. Also, talented entertainers of the days such as Joshua Hutchinson gave appropriate musical entertainments, and William Wells Brown read descriptive antislavery dramas. All of the manual labor that went into the preparation for these early fairs was performed by volunteers. In 1842 the Society of Friends still did not completely approve of its members participating in antislavery fairs. This year the regular donation from Boston and England came too late so Lucretia Mott, a Race Street Friends minister and one of the mainstays in the Female Anti-Slavery Society, offered her home as a place for their sale (also, it was she or members of her family who usually cleared the tables of unattractive articles left unsold at the close of the fair). This was just too much. Some of the Elders from the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting where she was a member felt it their duty to call upon her and remonstrate on so "light-minded a proceeding; and particularly on the vanity of her having allowed engravings of herself to be included in the sale." 4 The problem of finding proper housing for the sales, which became more important as the years went by, was always a difficult one. This was especially true in later years when abolitionists from miles around flocked to them. They had a modest beginning and for several years were displayed in very...