Right and Wrong in Massachusetts

Boston: Dow & Jackson's Anti-Slavery Press, 1839 First edition of the author's first book. Publisher's brown linen. . Twelvemo. Black paint stain to cloth on lower board. Some toning and dampstaining to leaves. Lacking front flyleaf. A good copy of a book that is scarce in commerce. Maria Weston Chapman (1806 – 1885) was an important abolitionist who played a major role in antislavery organizations including the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (of which she was the corresponding secretary and the writer of annual reports), the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and the New England Anti-Slavery Society, among others. Chapman's early organizing efforts (truncated) included a series of extremely successful fundraisers for antislavery groups: beginning in 1835, Chapman managed the annual Antislavery Fairs of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which raised four thousand dollars a year for the organization. In the ANB, Gerald Sorin writes, "That the fairs were the antislavery movement's major source of income was largely due to the energy and vision of Chapman, who ran them virtually single-handedly…" Chapman also edited the Liberty Bell, an antislavery gift book, for nearly twenty years, and served as acting editor of the Liberator when William Lloyd Garrison was ill or traveling. (Inventory #: 17606)