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

CHAPTER 4
“OH FAINT YOU NOT, YE GATHERED BAND!”:
CREATING AN AMERICAN FREE PRODUCE COMMUNITY
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Oh faint you not, ye gathered band!
Although your way be long,
And they who ranged against you stand,
Are numberless and strong;
While you but bear a feeble hand,
Unused to cope with wrong.
– Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, “To the Ladies’ Free Produce Society,”
1830
Recognizing the limitations of individual effort Elizabeth Margaret Chandler
promoted anti-slavery and free-produce societies. Free-produce and anti-slavery
associations, Chandler noted, popularized and directed abolitionist sentiment.
Associations were critical to the development of the individual abolitionist and,
ultimately, to the creation of public anti-slavery sentiment. Chandler believed woman’s
task was to instill in her children the sentiments of justice and equality. Yet, she went
beyond the ideal of the republican mother, urging women to unite “purpose and
sentiment” through active involvement in associations. Joining in free-produce and
abolitionist associations united individual effort and sentiment and fortified weaker
members, Chandler argued. While anti-abolitionists were seemingly numberless,