Garrisonian Abolitionists and the Rhetoric of Gender, 1850-1860

Abstract

IN THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY, GARRISONIAN ABOLITIONISTS EMbodied radicalism. Their uncompromising stances on the immediate abolition of slavery, on racial equality, and on women's rights kept them at the fringes of society even as the increasing visibility of slave catchers on Northern soil led to a rise in Northern antislavery sentiment after 1850. The Garrisonians' gender beliefs contributed to their marginalization. When their detractors derided the Garrisonians as racial amalgamationists, white Northerners living in predominantly white communities could view the possibility of racial mixing from a relatively comfortable distance. However, if, as their opponents argued, the Garrisonians intended to desex society, nobody's identity was safe. 1 Proslavery writers eagerly took advantage of the Garrisonians' radical gender beliefs. They attempted to discredit the entire abolitionist movement by juxtaposing scenes of patriarchal harmony in the South with reports of the Garrisonians' promiscuous meetings and female speakers. Slavery apologists depicted Southern plantations as havens from the feminist ideas espoused by the unsexed Garrisonians. They hoped to persuade the nation that the abolitionists' threat to Victorian social mores was so radical that the long-established institution of