xx Introduction
McNeal Turner was also a major voice advocating for black rights before, dur-
ing, and after the Civil War. Sarah J. Tompkins, Garnet’s second wife, was the
first African American female school principal in New York as well as a suf-
fragist, abolitionist, and education reformer. Abolitionists generally viewed
slavery as a “great sin” against the nation.
The Second Great Awakening evolved into an era of reform that produced
multiple movements such as abolitionism, women’s rights, and temperance.
By the mid-19th century, African American women were preaching, writ-
ing, speaking, and organizing efforts to call for the end to slavery. In the
1830s, the Female Literary Society of Philadelphia was formed and in Bos-
ton the Afric-American Intelligence Society was created. William Lloyd
Garrison’s New England Anti-Slavery Society invited black women to join
and write for the Liberator. African American women such as Margaretta
Forten helped to organize both the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society in
1833 and the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. Sarah Paul was
instrumental in the formation of the Massachusetts Female Anti-Slavery
Society. African American woman abolitionists such as Sojourner Truth
and Harriet Tubman are well known but several black women made abo-
litionism a subject of their speeches, writings, and activism. The focus in
this part is primarily on the lesser-known black abolitionist women beyond
Truth and Tubman.
Sarah Parker Remond, Margaretta Forten, and Sarah Mapps Douglass
actively engaged in the work of abolitionism. Sarah Remond assisted in the
activities of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society that raised money to
support the AAS, sought to pursue women’s rights, and encourage educa-
tion reform. Sarah Remond, as an agent of the AAS, traveled nationally to
deliver lectures on the anti-slavery cause. Remond reportedly delivered her
first antislavery speech at the age of 16. Sarah Mapps Douglass worked with
Angelina and Sarah Grimke in Philadelphia to form the Philadelphia Female
Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. The women who signed the constitution of
the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society included 7 black women of
the total 18 women. Margaretta Forten was one of these women. This society
raised money for the AAS, attacked segregation in the city, and sought to
raise funds for the building of schools. Mapps Douglass, the Grimke sisters,
and Margaretta, Sarah, and Harriet Forten, daughters of black businessmen
James Forten who helped to fund Garrison’s Liberator, also sought to confront
the AAS on the issue of women’s participation in the society. This Phila-
delphia society also secured 3,000 signatures on a petition to end slavery in
1836, held annual fairs to raise money to support the Underground Railroad,
and raised an estimated $13,845 for the antislavery cause between the years
1836 to 1854. Several African American women attended the Convention
