Expanding the Boundaries of the Anti-slavery Network: The Abolitionist Women of Antebellum Iowa

Abstract

Expanding the Boundaries of the Anti-slavery Network: The Abolitionist Women of Antebellum Iowa examines the contributions of Iowa women to the anti-slavery movement both nationally and in their local communities. Iowa women dedicated their efforts within their homes, families, and as part of their personal identities to the movement, expanding the geographic boundaries of the anti-slavery network. This research deconstructs traditional definitions of political participation to capture the full extent of women’s contributions. Iowa women engaged in public political activism while infusing their political activism into the feminine antebellum sphere. This broad engagement with the entirety of their contribution in many roles illuminates a new multi-generational structure to the anti-slavery network that transformed the family into an anti- slavery society. Within women’s spaces, young abolitionists engaged with and internalized anti-slavery as part of their identity. The abolitionist home encouraged children’s adoption of the movement as their own in adulthood. Using the personal memoirs of abolitionists and their children, community histories, and newspaper records, this thesis examines the impact of Iowa women’s political efforts and life-long commitment to anti-slavery. Implementing anti-slavery labor into every facet of their lives, Iowa women ensured the endurance of the anti-slavery movement in Iowa throughout the antebellum period.