December 14, 2001

The Volume of History: Listening to 19th-Century America

By MARK M. SMITH

In simple Quaker dress, determined face framed by dark curls, the 33-year-old South Carolinian stood before a packed Massachusetts legislature in Boston on February 21, 1838. Nervous and apprehensive, she prepared to convince her audience why Southern slavery should be abolished and to explain women's role in the process. Her jitters were understandable. While sympathetic ears filled the hall, scoffers doubting whether a woman should speak so publicly and politically abounded. Angelina