15. Harriet Robinson's account of the Concord Ladies' Antislavery Society (transcribed from Harriet Robinson's "Warrington" Pen-Portraits: A Collection of Personal and Political Reminiscences from 1848 to 1876, from the Writings of William S. Robinson (Boston: Edited and Published by Mrs. W. S. Robinson, 1877).
Harriet Hanson Robinson—wife of Concord-born journalist William Stevens Robinson (pseudonym "Warrington")—shared with her husband a principled commitment to the abolition of slavery. From 1854 to 1857, the Robinsons and their children lived in Concord, as renters of the Thoreaus' "Texas House" on Belknap Street. During that period, Mrs. Robinson joined the Concord Ladies' Antislavery Society. Harriet Robinson described the society in "Warrington" Pen-Portraits, her 1877 memoir of her husband:
"A woman's antislavery society had been formed in Concord, in 1837, at the house of Mrs. Samuel Barrett. It had seventy members at first; but when Mr. Garrison attacked the Church, calling it 'the bulwark of slavery,' the society was divided, and a new organization was formed of radical abolitionists who sympathized with Mr. Garrison, and, like him, were regardless of both Church and State. This society was in active operation during Mr. Robinson's residence in Concord; and, though its membership was small, it met regularly, kept busily at work; and through it Concord was represented at the annual subscription festivals and the antislavery fairs. Mrs. Nathan Brooks, the president, was its chief organizer and inspirer; and it was through her efforts that the society was so long maintained. It met at the houses of the members, where a plain tea was provided, to which the gentlemen were invited. The members of this society in 1857 were Mrs. Nathan Brooks, Mrs. John Thoreau, Mrs. F.E. Bigelow, Mrs. John Brown, jun., Mrs. Samuel Barrett, Mrs. Timothy Prescott, Mrs. Minott Pratt, Mrs. R.W. Emerson, Mrs. Jerome Richardson, Mrs. E.R. Hoar, Mrs. Simon Brown, Mrs. Lucy Brown, Mrs. A.B. Alcott, Mrs. W.S. Robinson, Miss Mary Rice, Miss Harriet Stowe, Miss Caroline Stowe, Miss Carrie Pratt, Miss Sophia Thoreau, Miss Ann Whiting, Miss Jane Whiting, Miss Ellen Emerson, Miss Martha Bartlett, and probably others whose names I have been unable to obtain."
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