Women were involved in the antislavery movement from its beginning. They participated as organizers and members of separate female antislavery societies, beginning in Philadelphia spreading to other cities. By the late 1830s there were female societies in many different cities. These local societies met, prayed, and raised funds for state and national activities, and circulated publications and information.
The women who became active supporters of antislavery tended to come from reasonably prosperous families. They were most often the wives and daughters of professional men, merchants, and successful farmers who were likely to have a time and or money to spare. In this way they were similar to the members of most other women’s organizations
The most active and engaged female abolitionists began to move outward from their local societies. In 1837, seventy-one delegates from eight states held the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in New York; they issued publications and resolutions, formed executive committees, and launched a campaign to collect one million signatures on antislavery petitions. Since women could not vote, petitioning Congress was their only means of political action.
The most active abolitionist women were organizers and promoters of local or statewide action, and the writers who produced children’s books, hymns, and stories with an antislavery message, contributed to antislavery papers, or wrote tracts on the subject. They began to write and speak about the condition of woman as well as the condition of the slave a decision which would soon help to split the abolitionist