Women, vigilance committees, and the rise of militant abolitionism, 1835–1859

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis essay explores the activism and resistance of the women abolitionists and runaways associated with vigilance committees. Vigilance committees were urban antislavery organizations dedicated to helping slaves along the Underground Railroad. Women intervened decisively in all the activities of the committees. Hundreds of female fugitives revealed to committee members the specific ways slavery oppressed women. Women activists, fugitive, and free, did most of the work for the committees both aboveground and underground. In the process, these activists taught other abolitionists that the resistance and experiences of enslaved women were central to the abolitionist movement and to the early women’s movement.