Free-produce movement

This 1820s sugar bowl describes its contents as "EAST INDIA SUGAR not made by SLAVES"

The free-produce movement was an international boycott of goods produced by slave labor. It was used by the abolitionist movement as a non-violent way for individuals, including the disenfranchised, to fight slavery.[1]

In this context, free signifies "not enslaved" (i.e. "having the legal and political rights of a citizen"[2]). It does not mean "without cost". Similarly, "produce" does not mean just fruits and vegetables, but a wide variety of products made by slaves, including clothing, dry goods, shoes, soaps, ice cream, and candy.[3]

  1. ^ Holcomb, Julie L.; Holcomb, Julie (2016-08-23). Moral Commerce: Quakers and the Transatlantic Boycott of the Slave Labor Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-5208-6. JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctt1d2dmqk.
  2. ^ Merriam Webster Online. Free. Retrieved on April 24, 2009.
  3. ^ Glickman, Lawrence B. (December 2004). "'Buy for the Sake of the Slave': Abolitionism and the Origins of American Consumer Activism". American Quarterly. 56 (4): 889–912. doi:10.1353/aq.2004.0056. ISSN 1080-6490. S2CID 143192356.