Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Without a public arena, the women’s abolitionist movement employed traditional women’s activities in conjunction with writing for publication as their rhetorical force. Female antislavery societies incorporated a range of tactics including sewing clothing for escaped slaves, organizing fund-raising bazaars, and petitioning politicians. As with societies of men, women elected recording secretaries, submitted reports and addresses for newspaper publication, and some groups even developed tracts for public distribution. Denied the right to speak publicly, female antislavery societies used organizational documentation not only as a device to record their activities but also as a persuasive tool to shape public opinion. Many of the female antislavery societies communicated through the antislavery press. Local, regional, and national papers published constitutions, resolutions, reports, and addresses of women’s organizations. The Henry County Female Anti-Slavery Society (HCFASS) maintained vigorous publication activities. During their eight-year existence, from 1841 to 1849, the Free Labor Advocate, a regional antislavery newspaper, published HCFASS resolutions and addresses almost every year. In addition to Indiana periodicals, HCFASS leaders sent publication requests to national newspapers. Although scholars have profiled several New England societies, the characteristics of individual societies in the Midwest remain slim. Since the HCFASS achieved the most prolific publication record of any female society in Indiana it provides a strong case study for female antislavery rhetoric in the Midwest.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / As white settlers and pioneers moved westward in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, some of the first to settle the Indiana territory, near the Ohio border, were members of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers). Many of these Quakers focused on social reforms, especially the anti-slavery movement, as they fled the slave-holding states like the Carolinas. Less discussed in Indiana’s history is the impact Quakerism also had in the movement for women’s rights. This case study of two of the founding members of the Indiana Woman’s Rights Association (later to be renamed the Indiana Woman’s Suffrage Association), illuminates the influences of Quakerism on women’s rights. Amanda M. Way (1828-1914) and Mary Frame (Myers) Thomas, M.D. (1816-1888) practiced skills and gained opportunities for organizing a grassroots movement through the Religious Society of Friends. They attained a strong sense of moral grounding, skills for conducting business meetings, and most importantly, developed a confidence in public speaking uncommon for women in the nineteenth century. Quakerism propelled Way and Thomas into action as they assumed early leadership roles in the women’s rights movement. As advocates for greater equality and freedom for women, Way and Thomas leveraged the skills learned from Quakerism into political opportunities, resource mobilization, and the ability to frame their arguments within other ideological contexts (such as temperance, anti-slavery, and education).