Hearts Beating for Liberty: Women Abolitionists in the Old Northwest by Stacey M. Robertson (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 84 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY Hearts Beating for Liberty: Women Abolitionists in the Old Northwest Stacey M. Robertson H earts Beating for Liberty marks a geographic shift to the West for abolitionist studies. In adopting this focus, Stacey Robertson enhances our understanding of women’s abolitionism, arguing that the western movement was not merely an eastern import. Robertson’s book highlights the dynamic relationship between western women abolitionists and their counterparts in the East as well as in Britain. In the Old Northwest, women developed a distinctive regional style that sustained a vibrant local movement and invigorated the eastern and transatlantic movements , particularly as eastern abolitionists struggled with ideological differences. This important monograph engages with and builds on a growing body of scholarship about female abolitionists. Robertson’s focus on the rank and file of western women abolitionists complements Julie Roy Jeffrey’s The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism. The book’s regional focus, which highlights grassroots activism and the influence of local politics, brings a decidedly western cast to studies such as Deborah Van Broekhoven’s study of Rhode Island women, The Devotion of These Women. Significantly, Robertson’s discussion of western women’s antislavery societies examines the influence of the West in associational development adding to Beth Salerno’s work in Sister Societies. Robertson arranges her book topically in loose chronological order, focusing on abolitionist women’s involvement in the Liberty Party, the free produce movement, antislavery fairs, and woman’s rights. This arrangement reflects the myriad ways that western women engaged with abolitionists in the East while simultaneously developing a distinctive regional movement . Western women, she argues, “kept an eye on national issues” yet they “also blazed their own paths” (4). Robertson makes a significant and ultimately successful challenge to the traditional interpretation of abolitionism in the West as simply a reflection of eastern abolitionism. Western women, for example, were drawn to the pragmatic character of the free produce movement. Robertson convincingly demonstrates that western women did not merely import the free produce movement from Philadelphia. In the 1850s, as support for free produce waned in the East, western women tried to breathe new life into the movement by reviving the Philadelphia-based Non-Slaveholder. Though their eastern colleagues ignored their financial support, “westerners continued to elicit support and financing for the paper” (86). Western abolitionists, particularly women, recognized the importance of a national publication to support the free produce movement and attempted to influence the publication by “providing the editor with articles and suggestions for improvement” (86). Thus, the free produce movement became a dynamic link between the West and the East as “information, publications , lecturers, petitions, and goods flowed in both directions between the regions” (85). According to Robertson, the geography, culture , and politics of the Old Northwest contributed to the development of a “cooperative, BOOK REVIEWS SPRING 2011 85 pragmatic abolitionism that came to characterize western female antislavery” (13). Like eastern abolitionists, western women networked extensively and formed local associations. Unlike eastern abolitionists, western women also established associations at the county and state level, an organizational structure that reflected the more sparsely populated west. State societies and their annual meetings, Robertson argues, provided an important “opportunity” for western women “to bond through shared identity” (20). Participation in the Liberty Party also distinguished western women from their eastern counterparts. In their abolitionist activities and associations, western women regularly partnered with men. Robertson demonstrates that the “harmony” between political and moral abolitionism in the West as well as the “distinct personality of the Liberty Party—a cautiousness regarding the culture of politics—offered women an ideal entrance into the political sphere” (40, 39). The pragmatic nature of western abolitionism encouraged women’s political participation in ways that connected their activism to moral imperative. Though women ’s political activism became closely linked to gender ideals, women used their political opportunities to push the boundaries of womanhood and promote the repeal of the region’s Black Laws. When western women turned their attention to woman’s rights, they continued to emphasize a pragmatic approach by highlighting the ways reform benefited all of society. Whether advocating for racial equality or woman ’s rights, “supporters approached their topic with...