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

Abstention from the products of slavery required a substantial commitment. Free-labor
produce was expensive, difficult to identify, and often less palatable than its slave-
produced counterpart. Patronizing a free-labor store, moreover, blurred the boundaries
between the public and private spheres. Though petitioning was important in raising
political awareness of a growing popular anti-slavery culture first in Britain and then in
the United States, the daily market activities of anti-slavery women were equally
important to the development of that culture. While not as overtly political as petition
drives, these activities expanded women’s understanding of political action and
citizenship and contested accepted norms of women’s proper sphere of influence. The
networks developed by abstention campaigners created an anti-slavery culture that
crisscrossed the Atlantic and encouraged conservative and radical women to remain
involved in the cause in a way that petition drives and other more explicitly political
activities did not.
By focusing on the convergence of domestic, reform, and market activities, my
research will highlight the commitment anti-slavery activism required of conservative
and radical women, the communities British and American women formed, and the
chronology of their activities. Additionally, my research will expand historical
understanding of the role of the Anglo-American connection within the individual
movements as well as the broader, transnational movement. My research moves beyond
the traditional question of the value of free produce in the achievement of emancipation
and instead considers how free produce shaped abolitionist activity and influenced
women’s reform work. Examination of domestic, reform, and market activities within
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