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

The members of the AFPA also recognized the importance of increasing the
supply of free-labor goods. At the Requited Labor Convention, Lydia White, a member
of the PFASS and a Hicksite Quaker, was appointed to a committee to identify sources
for free-labor goods. 74 As the owner of a free-labor store in Philadelphia, White was a
logical choice for the committee. She understood, probably better than any other member
of the committee, the difficulty of obtaining regular supplies of free-labor goods. When
White opened her dry goods store in Philadelphia in 1830, Elizabeth Margaret Chandler
promoted the store and its owner in the “Ladies’ Repository” of the Genius: “We are
proud to know that the projector of so laudable a design is one of our own sex.” 75 By
1831, White was receiving orders from Vermont, Michigan, Rhode Island, New York,
Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, and Delaware as well as Pennsylvania. White also purchased
small quantities of cotton for manufacture and sale in her shop. 76 White advertised her
store in the Liberator and the Genius of Universal Emancipation as well as the National
Reformer. 77
74 Minutes of the Proceedings of the Requited Labor Convention, 7.
75 Genius of Universal Emancipation, May 1830. White operated her store until 1846, the second
longest-running of the free-labor stores in this period. Quaker George W. Taylor operated a free-labor
store in Philadelphia from 1847 through 1867. For a complete list of free-labor stores, see Nuermberger,
The Free Produce Movement, 119.
76 Nuermberger, The Free Produce Movement, 81. After their move to Michigan, Elizabeth
Margaret Chandler and her aunt Ruth Evans ordered goods from White’s store. See for example, Elizabeth
Chandler to Jane Howell, December 13, 1832, RTD, 155. The Free Produce Association of Green Plain,
Ohio most likely purchased goods from White. In March 1833, Chandler announced in the “Ladies’
Repository” that members of the Green Plain group had entered into correspondence with the Philadelphiabased
Female Association for Promoting the Manufacture and Use of Free Cotton. See Genius of
Universal Emancipation, March 1833. For more about the free-produce movement in the Old Northwest,
see Robertson, Hearts Beating for Liberty, ch. 3.
77 See for example, National Reformer, October 1838.
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