The Serial Character of Abolition: Charting Transatlantic and Gendered Critiques of Slavery in The Liberty Bell

Abstract

This chapter discusses the editorial work of the female abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman and examines how Chapman envisions the gift book—a collection of poetry, short fiction, essays, and letters designed to be given away as present to a loved one—as a transatlantic space in which political thinkers, writers, and intellectuals could exchange their ideas. In order to enhance the dialogical endeavor of the gift book The Liberty Bell (1839–1859), Chapman makes strategic use of seriality by employing, for example, repeated iconography and cross-references that link contributions in each volume but also the individual volumes with each other. This chapter thus examines how the serial character of this annual publication reframed the literary and political discourse of anti-slavery within a multifaceted, transnational context in which women occupy a central position as readers, writers, and editors.