New England Anti-Slavery Society

William Lloyd Garrison, 1833, Oil on wood by Nathaniel Jocelyn.
Remember Your Weekly Pledge, collection box for Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Set aside in the home, the box was designed to remind members to make their weekly contribution. Circa 1850

The New England Anti-Slavery Society (1831–1837) was formed by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of The Liberator, in 1831. The Liberator was its official publication.

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, members of the New England Anti-slavery Society supported immediate abolition and viewed slavery as immoral and non-Christian (sinful). It was particularly opposed to the American Colonization Society, which proposed sending African Americans to Africa.

The founding meeting took place on January 1, 1831, in the vestry of the Belknap Street Church.[1] (Some sources list the date as January 1, 1832.) Garrison was the principal founder. The other founding members were: Benjamin Bierly of Amesbury, Massachusetts,[2] Reverend Elijah Blanchard,[2] Dr. Gamaliel Bradford,[2] Elizabeth B. Chase,[2] Joshua Easton, also a member of the Massachusetts General Colored Association,[2] Charles Theodore Follen,[2] Reverend Henry Grew,[2] Reverend Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor,[2] Ellis Gray Loring,[1] Captain Jonas Parker of Reading, Massachusetts,[2] Reverend Perry of Mendon, Massachusetts,[2] Reverend Amos August Phelps,[2] Reverend Aaron Pickett of Reading, Massachusetts,[2] Samuel Edmund Sewall,[3] Horace Wakefield,[2] Amasa Walker,[2] and a Reverend Yates.[2]

The society sponsored lecturers or "agents" who traveled throughout the New England area, speaking in local churches or halls, and also selling abolitionist tracts or The Liberator. Whenever possible, the Society's agents would also encourage the formation of local anti-slavery societies. By 1833 there were 47 local societies in ten northern states, 33 of them in New England. The society also sponsored mass mobilizations such as yearly anti-slavery conventions and celebrations of July 4 or — preferred by those who believed celebrating July 4 was unacceptable since the U.S. Constitution accepted slavery — the Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in the West Indies, August 1.[citation needed]

John Levy, "a colored gentleman" from Lowell, decries insufficient involvement of free Negroes in the struggle. Garrison, Birney, Burleigh, Henry Stanton, and other stalwarts speak at length.[citation needed]

  1. ^ a b "Tribute to the Memory of Ellis Gray Loring, Esq. at the New England Anti-Slavery Convention, May 27, 1858" (PDF). The Liberator. June 4, 1858. p. 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 26, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS)". American Abolitionists. February 14, 2017. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2024.
  3. ^ Garrison, William Lloyd (1979). Merrill, Walter M. (ed.). The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: Let the Oppressed Go Free, 1861-1867. Harvard University Press. p. 219. ISBN 9780674526655.