THERE IS DEATH IN THE POT - The University of Texas at Arlington

C. Gunn to address the group on the pre-selected discussion question: “Is it consistent
with the principles of abolition to partake of the produce of slave labor?” After Gunn’s
address, the group resolved to give preference to free-labor produce and abstain “as far as
practicable” from slave-labor produce. The following January, the group renewed their
commitment to free produce. Despite repeated resolutions against slave-labor produce,
however, the group lamented that more members had not made the commitment. 79 In
Boston, a female juvenile anti-slavery society boycotted the products of slavery and
raised funds for the cause. In August 1837, the young women “had quite a discussion on
self-denial and on the use of sugar and butter and at last came to the conclusion that we
would deny ourselves of something so as to contribute one cent weekly to the society.” 80
Juvenile anti-slavery societies and abolitionist literature were vital to socializing
young abolitionists into the cause. Many of these groups either read or sang Chandler’s
poems as part of their meetings. The Boston girls’ society, for example, sang a musical
rendition of Chandler’s poem, “Peace of Berry”; likewise, Susan Paul’s Boston Juvenile
Choir sang a musical version of Chandler’s “The Sugar-Plums.” 81 Reading abolitionist
literature to their children fit within the ideals of republican motherhood; yet, when
poems such as Chandler’s “Looking at the Soldiers” rejected traditional forms of
79 January 20, 1837, Minutes, JASS, HSP; National Enquirer, January 14, 1837; January 5, 1838,
Minutes, JASS, HSP; June 15, 1838, Minutes, JASS, HSP.
80 As quoted in De Rosa, Domestic Abolitionism and Juvenile Literature, 113.
81 De Rosa, Domestic Abolitionism and Juvenile Literature, 113; Lois Brown, “Out of the Mouths
of Babes: The Abolitionist Campaign of Susan Paul and the Juvenile Choir of Boston,” The New England
Quarterly 75 (March 2002), 72.
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