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

to their board. New York women were interested in benevolence rather than reform. In
contrast, the BFASS and the PFASS sought reform though the two groups differed in
approach. African American abolitionists also worried they would not be welcomed by
their New York hosts.
In early 1837, PFASS member Sarah Mapps Douglass wrote the Grimkés of her
concerns. Angelina Grimké responded, reminding Douglass of her responsibility to
overcome the racism of the abolitionist movement. Grimké encouraged other African
American women to attend the convention, urging the BFASS and the PFASS to send
both black and white female delegates. She also convinced the New York hosts to accept
black delegates. 55 The BFASS selected four women to represent the society at the
convention: Martha Ball, Susan Paul, Mary Parker, and Julia Williams. In the end,
Parker and Williams were accompanied by Anne Weston, Henrietta Sargent, Eliza
Merriam, Lydia Fuller, and Lydia Maria Child. Representatives for the PFASS included
Douglass and her mother Grace, Mott, Sarah Pugh, and Mary Grew. The progressive
women of Boston and Philadelphia dominated the proceedings, muting the influence of
the conservative New York delegates. 56
55 Ruth Bogin and Jean Fagan Yellin, “Introduction,” in The Abolitionist Sisterhood, 10-11;
Lerner, The Grimké Sisters, 158-159; Darlene Clark Hine, “Lifting the Veil, Shattering the Silence: Black
Women’s History in Slavery and Freedom,” in The State of Afro-American History, ed. Darlene Clark Hine
(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1986), 231-232.
56 Amy Swerdlow, “Abolition’s Conservative Sisters: The Ladies’ New York City Anti-Slavery
Societies, 1834-1840,” in The Abolitionist Sisterhood, 36-37; Debra Gold Hansen, Strained Sisterhood:
Gender and Class in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press,
1993), 18-20; Jeffrey, The Great Silent Army, 93-94; Anti-Slavery Convention of Women, Proceedings of
the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women; Held in the City of New-York, May 9th, 10th, 11th, and
12th, 1837 (New York: William S. Dorr, 1837), 4, http://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/textidx?c=mayantislavery;idno=04820109
(accessed April 2, 2010).
157