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December held a special place in the prewar antislavery calendar. It was during this month in 1833 that the American Anti-Slavery Society (aas) was founded, a milestone event in the movement for immediate emancipation. December was also the month during which the Philadelphia and Boston female antislavery societies hosted their great annual fairs. These festive bazaars had raised money for antislavery work, but just as important, they had provided opportunities for abolitionists to assess their progress toward emancipation, to renew friendships, and to see and hear from leading men and women of the movement. They helped to create a sense of commitment , community, and continuity among those who sought to end slavery. By coincidence, John Brown had been executed in December, another reason to consider the end of the year as an evocative time for abolitionists. Despite increasing age, abolitionists of various stripes still came together to talk about the past and to comment on the pressing issues that remained unresolved. Each man and woman must have wondered, however, if this meeting would be the last he or she would attend. At each gathering, speakers expressed their keen sense of how much time had passed since their active work in the antislavery movement. In December 1879, on the twentieth anniversary of the death of John Brown, a commemoration was held at the Shiloh Presbyterian Colored Church in New York. It had been the hope that the memorial would attract “a grand gathering of old abolitionists,” but the exercises seemed mainly to have drawn African American members of the church. Letters came from white abolitionists who, for one reason or another, could not come. But everyone was conscious of those who had no choice in the matter. As one of the speakers observed, John Brown “is gone. Abraham Lincoln is gone. Charles Sumner is gone. William Lloyd Garrison is gone. Few of the old band of brothers remain.”1 The decoration of the church highlighted one of the themes of the day. The reading desk of Henry Garnett, the church’s pastor, was covered with the American flag, and a photograph of Brown, encircled by myrtle leaves, was displayed. The gathering heaped praise on Brown and expressed their The Last Gatherings iii R itual฀R emembrances thanks for the other prophets, leaders, and martyrs who had come forward during the nation’s days of trial. Speakers emphasized the situation of southern blacks who needed education and, as one man put it, the same privileges to move freely, or “get up and git,” as whites. After eulogizing John Brown, white abolitionist Aaron Powell denounced the “present disgraceful persecution” and the spirit of slavery that lay behind it. His sobering comments raised implicit questions about what Brown and the crowd of martyrs had actually accomplished.2 Several years after the John Brown exercises, the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the American Anti-Slavery Society approached. Some abolitionists hoped to recall the advent of the aas and perhaps to recapture a sense of fellowship provided by associational life by holding a commemorative meeting in Philadelphia on December 4, 1883. Only four of the original founders were still alive, but that reality did not deter those planning the celebration. The call, issued by African American Robert Purvis, one of the original members of the 1833 convention, and Daniel Neall, suggested that the organizers also felt a keen need to expose young people to a particular and increasingly unacknowledged vision of the past. “A new generation has arisen, to whom the record of the brave struggle of the American Abolitionists may well be commended as a historic treasure, and an inspiring lesson,” their invitation proclaimed.3 Compared to the original convention that had lasted three days, the commemoration was brief, with meetings during the day and evening of December 4 held in Philadelphia’s Horticultural Hall. The length of the proceedings was yet another reminder of the frailty of the remaining antislavery warriors; many “familiar faces” from the old days were missing. Wendell Phillips, Abby Kelley Foster, and Parker Pillsbury were unable to attend. Nor could Garrison’s sons, Frank and Wendell Phillips Garrison, be at the reunion. Despite the brevity of the occasion and the absence of key figures, planners were determined to make the occasion memorable and accessible to a wider audience by publishing the proceedings. The preface set out the purpose of the gathering. The occasion provided an opportunity both for “devout” thanksgiving for the end of slavery for “historic” reminiscences...

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