II. LOCAL ANTISLAVERY SOCIETIES
II.B. Concord Ladies' Antislavery Society:
THE CONCORD LADIES' ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY
During the nineteenth century, community organizations provided women with an outlet beyond family and home for the expression of intellect, organizational ability, and social conscience. From 1814, many Concord women belonged to the Concord Female Charitable Society, which provided local aid. From the 1830s, the antislavery movement offered opportunity for women to bring social reality in line with the democratic and religious ideal of the brotherhood of all men by subverting the sanctioned treatment of human beings as property, and to achieve in the process an enhanced sense of purpose and companionship.
The Ladies' Antislavery Society of Concord (also known as the Concord Female Antislavery Society and, simply, the Antislavery Society of Concord) held its first meeting on October 18, 1837 at the home of Susan Barrett, not long after abolitionists Angelina and Sarah Grimké had visited Concord on a lecture tour of New England. Mary Wilder (Mrs. John Wilder) was elected president of the society, Mary Merrick Brooks (Mrs. Nathan Brooks) secretary. Other founding members included Cynthia, Helen, and Sophia Thoreau, Mrs. Prudence Ward, and her daughter Prudence Ward.
For more than two decades following its founding, members of the Ladies' Antislavery Society organized fairs and socials to raise money for the antislavery cause, providing William Lloyd Garrison and others with funding to transform moral outrage into political action. They circulated petitions, and arranged for lecturers to raise awareness of and commitment to their cause. After passage of the Compromise of 1850 and the detested Fugitive Slave Law, some—including Mary Merrick Brooks—offered runaway slaves en route to freedom safe haven in their homes through the network known as the Underground Railroad.
The efforts of the Ladies' Antislavery Society (also known as the Concord Female Antislavery Society) continued on into the Civil War, overlapping with those of the Soldiers' Aid Society.
10. Manuscript announcement (September 29, 1863) of upcoming meeting, Maria Pratt to Mrs. John Barrett. From Concord Ladies' Antislavery Society Records, CFPL Vault Collection.
11. Manuscript announcement (December 30, 1864) of upcoming meeting, Mary Merrick Brooks to Mrs. Barrett. From Concord Ladies' Antislavery Society Records, CFPL Vault Collection.
12. Manuscript notice of upcoming benefit fair at Shepherd's Hall. From Concord Ladies' Antislavery Society Records, CFPL Vault Collection.
13. The Concord Anti-Slavery Society Will Hold Its Annual Festival in the Town Hall, Concord, on Thursday Evening, Jan. 28, 1858 (broadside notice). CFPL Concord Pamphlet Collection.
14. Secretary's 1843 annual report, Concord Ladies' Antislavery Society, including an account of the Society's founding (transcribed from the Liberator, June 23, 1843).
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