This question is based on the accompanying documents (1-8).  The question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents.  Some of the documents have been edited for the purposes of this question.  As you analyze the documents, take into account both the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented in the document.

Historical Context: During the 1830s the first anti-slavery societies were usually run by men but women might be auxiliary members. Then separate female anti-slavery societies began to grow, Massachusetts leading the nation. (Out of 300 MA societies by 1840, 55 were female, with Essex county leading the number.) The Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society was one of the first, if not the first, female anti-slavery society in the United States.

Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A.  Your answers to the questions will help you write the essay in Part B, in which you will be asked to answer the following question:

Part A: Short Answer Questions

Directions: Analyze the documents and answer the short-answer questions that follow each document in the space provided.

Document #1
Lydia Maria Child, An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans (Boston: Allen & Ticknor, 1833).
The Anti-Slavery Society is loudly accused of being seditious, fanatical, and likely to promote insurrections. It seems to be supposed, that they wish to send fire and sword into the South, and encourage the slaves to hunt down their masters. Slave owners wish to have it viewed in this light… I once had a very strong prejudice against anti-slavery;--(I am ashamed to think how strong--for mere prejudice should never be stubborn,) but a candid examination has convinced me, that I was in an error. I made the common mistake of taking things for granted, without stopping to investigate…This Society do not wish to see any coercive or dangerous measures pursued. They wish for universal emancipation, because they believe it is the only way to prevent insurrections. Almost every individual among them, is a strong friend to Peace Societies. They wish to move the public mind on this subject, in the same manner that it has been moved on other subjects: viz. by open, candid, fearless discussion. This is all they want to do; and this they are determined to do, because they believe it to be an important duty.

Document #2
Constitution of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society (1834)
Preamble
Whereas it is our belief, that the principle upon which all Slavery is found, viz: that man may, in some cases, innocently hold property in man, is a false principle.
And whereas we are fully convinced that the system based upon it is subversive of every precept of Christianity, and hostile to the best interest of all who are under its influence; --causing unjust and oppressive distinctions in the human family;--injuring the morale and tending to destroy all the kind and noble affections of one class—and blotting out from the other, as far as the most systematic degradation can do it,--the impress of the divine image. Therefore—
We, whose names are annexed, actuated by a sense of duty, agree to associate ourselves for the following purposes.
1st. To manifest our entire disapprobation of the system of slavery as existing in our own country, and our decided rejection of the principle upon which it is tolerated,--and
2d. To aid in disseminating such sentiments upon this subject as we deem correct,--contemplating it exclusively in a moral point of view. And though we effect nothing, by this effort, we will hope for the commendation once bestowed by our Lord:--She hath done what she could.
The following are the principles which as a Society we adopt:--
1st. Slavery should be immediately abolished. For if to hold slaves is a sin,--to emancipate them immediately, must be a duty.
2d. The people of color, enslaved or free, have a perfect right to a home in this country;--and nothing should be done to discourage them from wishing to remain here.
3d. It is a duty, resting upon us, to endeavor, constantly, to elevate the condition of this class of people among ourselves; and to show that we do not consider them a distinct and lower caste, on account of their color;--but that we are ready to acknowledge them as friends and equals, whenever their characters and attainments shall justify it.

Document #3
“The Boston Riot,” Hampshire Gazette (28 October 28 1835).
The moving cause of the rout was a notice given by certain ladies that the female abolition society would hold a meeting at their room in Washington Street. The Centinel says, it being expected that Thompson would address the meeting, a large body of respectable citizens assembled to prevent it...The Boston Gazette says that Garrison was protected by the four walls of prison ‘just in season to save him from a fate he well deserved, and which no one can contemplate without a shudder!’...All the Boston papers that we have seen attribute more blame to the abolitionists than to the ‘respectable’ mob, except the Courier and Post...In the land of the free, in one of its most refined cities, in sight of the building where liberty was first cradled, in open and broad day, citizens calling themselves ‘respectable’, to the number of five thousand, roused by the notice for a meeting of females, have assembled in riot, and hunted down...an innocent, terror-stricken man, whose greatest offence is, that he has used that liberty which God had given him, and which the constitution has guaranteed to him, in wrestling in behalf of the oppressed...

Document #4
“Third Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair,” Liberator (10 December 1836).
…The ladies have ever regarded the pecuniary benefit derived from these sales as but one of several reasons in their favor. The main object is to keep the subject before the public eye, and by every innocent expedient to promote perpetual discussion…Many an individual, who would never have read an Anti-Slavery publication, or entered a lecture room, has been induced by curiosity, or the demands of the Christmas or New Year’s holiday, to visit this annual scene of abolition business; and has left it with a juster appreciation of the motives, and a clearer comprehension of the measures, of [abolitionists]…

Document #5
1837 Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women
Delegates proposed a series of resolutions at the 1837 Anti-Slavery Convention of
American Women including the following.
RESOLVED, That as certain rights and duties are common to all moral beings, the time has come for woman to move in that sphere which Providence has assigned her, and no longer remain satisfied in the circumscribed limits with which corrupt custom and a perverted application of Scripture have encircled her; therefore that it is the duty of woman, and the province of woman, to plead the cause of the oppressed in our land, and to do all that she can by her voice, and her pen, and her purse, and the influence of her example, to overthrow the horrible system of American slavery.
From: Dorothy Sterling, ed., Turning The World Upside Down: The Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women Held in New York City, May 9-12 (New York: The Feminist Press, 1987).

Document #6
1838 Convention of American Women, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
On the final day of the convention, Clarissa C. Lawrence, vice president of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society, spoke to the gathering about her feelings as a black woman hounded by prejudice.
We meet the monster prejudice everywhere. We have not power to contend with it, we are so down-trodden. We cannot elevate ourselves. You must aid us. We have been brought up in ignorance; our parents were ignorant, they could not teach us. We want light; we ask it, and it is denied us. Why are we thus treated? Prejudice is the cause. It kills its thousands every day; it follows us everywhere, even to the grave; but, blessed by God! it stops there. You must pray it down. Faith and prayer will do wonders in the anti-slavery cause. Place yourselves, dear friends, in our stead. We are blamed for not filling useful places in society; but give us light, give us learning, and see then what places
we can occupy. Go on, I entreat you. A brighter day is dawning. I bless God that the young are interested in this cause. It is worth coming all the way from Massachusetts, to see what I have seen here.
From: Dorothy Sterling, ed., We Are Your Sisters.

Document #7
“What Have Women to Do with Slavery? A Dialogue,” The Liberator ( 1 November 1839).

Mrs. A. Is it possible, my dear Harriet, that what I have heard is true, and that you have actually joined the Anti-Slavery Society?
Harriet. It is so, aunt; I became satisfied that it was my duty.
Mrs. A. I thought your mother did not approve of your engaging in this matter.
Harriet. She did not, but then she wished me to act according to my own sense of right; she says I am of an age to decide for myself upon questions of right and wrong.
Mrs. A. I am sorry that my sister has been so weakly indulgent to you; I doubt not that in a short time … she will sign the petitions of Congress with other misguided women.
Harriet. … why is it that you are displeased with what I have done? I thought you told me that you were convinced that slavery is sinful; and you have often said that you felt as much for the poor slaves as I do.
Mrs. A. And I dare say I do; but I do not approve of the doings of the abolitionists in the first place; and most of all do I disapprove of women’s meddling with such things.
Harriet. Why so?
Mrs. A. It is evident, my dear, that men are appointed by Providence to make and administer the laws; it is a violation of the Divine Order when women interfere in politics. Slavery is the law of the land—it is a political question—and therefore there is a great impropriety in women’s meddling with the subject.
Harriet. Waiving the question altogether of the propriety of women having any thing to do with politics, is not the subject of slavery in fact a religious and moral question? Its pernicious effects extend to the remotest parts of our country; its poison has entered into the very fibre and muscle, if I may so speak, of our otherwise happy land; not a living soul but directly or indirectly feels its baneful influence, whether they know and confess it, or not.
Mrs. A. Suppose, Harriet, that this extravagant statement of yours were correct—still, what can women do about it? What, for instance, can an ignorant girl like you do? … but what, Harriet, can all these silly women do about it?

Document #8
“Address of the Massachusetts Female Emancipation Society, to the Women of New England,” First Annual Report of the Massachusetts Emancipation Society (Boston, 1841)
…petition Congress…for let every woman remember that the representation in our country is according to the number of the population without regard to sex…remember the woes…of the wretched slave mother as she drags her weary, lacerated limbs to the field after a sleepless night, with her sick and dying babe…Circulate a petition.

Document # 9
Charlotte Forten Journal Excerpts
Friday, May 26, 1854—Had a conversation with Miss Mary Shepard about slavery; she is, as I thought, thoroughly opposed to it, but does not agree with me in thinking that the churches and ministers are generally supporters of the infamous system; I believe it firmly. Mr. [Albert] Barnes, one of the most prominent of the Philadelphia clergy, who does not profess to be an abolitionist, has declared his belief that ‘the American church is the bulwark of slavery.’ Words cannot express all that I feel; all that is felt by the friends of Freedom, when thinking of this great obstacle to the removal of slavery from our land. Alas! That it should be so.
September [1855]. This evening Miss S.[arah] B.[rown] and I joined the [Salem] Female Anti-Slavery Society. I am glad to have persuaded her to do so. She seems an earnest hearted girl, in whom I cannot help having some confidence. I can only hope and pray that she will be true, and courageous enough to meet the opposition which every friend of freedom must encounter.
Friday, November 23. …This evening took a pleasant walk with Maria B. the most intimate of my school companions. She is an agreeable, intelligent girl, whom I wish very earnestly to interest in Anti-Slavery.

Document #10
Sarah Parker Remond, "A Colored Lady Lecturer," English Women's Journal 7 (June 1861).
… My mother hailed the advent of this young and noble apostle of liberty with enthusiasm, and among my earliest impressions is mingled the name of that now venerated friend of the oppressed William L. Garrison…As years rolled on, I became more and more interested in every effort made in behalf of the enslaved. The germ of a glorious reform was now planted and had taken root; the American Anti-Slavery Society was founded. Auxiliary societies were formed in different localities of the Free States, and a nucleus formed, around which the friends of freedom have rallied …from my earliest days, until I left the States, fifteen months since, I have attended the public meetings of the abolitionists. I am grateful beyond expression for the many influences which led me to become familiar with the principles and mode of action destined to completely upset that vile system of American chattel slavery.
In 1857 I was urged by a few friends to speak in public. A defective education, and a pro-slavery atmosphere, are not the best incentives for such a purpose. After much consideration and encouraged by one of the noblest women of my native State, one who had made many sacrifices and spent the best years of her life in publicly advocating the cause of the slaves, I started on my first anti-slavery tour in company with my brother Charles.

Part B: Essay

Directions:  Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several paragraphs, and a conclusion.  Use evidence from at least five documents in the body of the essay.  Support your response with relevant facts, examples, and details.  Include additional outside information.

Historical Context: During the 1830s the first anti-slavery societies were usually run by men but women might be auxiliary members. Then separate female anti-slavery societies began to grow, Massachusetts leading the nation. (Out of 300 MA societies by 1840, 55 were female, with Essex county leading the number.) The Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society was one of the first, if not the first, female anti-slavery society in the United States.

Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States history, write an essay in which you answer the following questions:

Guidelines:In your essay, be sure to: