Thankful Southwick

Thankful Hussey Southwick was born on July 2, 1792, in Portland, Maine. Her father was Samuel F. Hussey, a Quaker and abolitionist. Samuel’s abolitionist views were heavily informed by his trade as a merchant importing goods from England. Samuel learned of the antislavery movement occurring in England through pamphlets that his English correspondent and fellow Quaker James Cropper left in the goods he sent over from England.[3] Samuel was a known friend of fugitive slaves and helped runaway slaves on their escape to freedom in Canada.[3] Thankful inherited her abolitionist beliefs from her father. She had two sisters, Sarah Hussey and Comfort Hussey.[3]

On October 1, 1818, Thankful married Joseph Southwick of Portland, who was also an abolitionist.[4] Thankful and Joseph had three children- Abigail Southwick, born in 1819, Sarah Hussey Southwick, born in 1821, and Anna Southwick, born in 1823.[4] In 1834, the Southwick family moved to South Danvers (current day Peabody), Massachusetts. They later moved to Number 36 High Street in Boston in 1835.[3]

• Abigail Southwick (born September 17, 1819), abolitionist and Representative at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention.[5]
• Sarah Southwick (born March 3, 1821), abolitionist and Recording Secretary for the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, author of Reminiscences of Early Anti-Slavery Days.[3][6]
• Anna Southwick (born April 6, 1823), abolitionist who joined the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society at age 12.[7]

Thankful died in her sleep at age 75 on April 29, 1867 in Grantville (current day Wellesley), Massachusetts.[4] Her obituary was written by Lydia Maria Child and her eulogy was given by William Lloyd Garrison.[4][8] Thankful and her husband were beloved and fondly remembered by their abolitionist and women’s rights peers. In his Speech Before the International Council of Women, in Washington, D.C. on April 1888, Frederick Douglass remembered Thankful and Joseph as “two of the noblest people I ever knew.”[9]

While the Southwicks did not know any families in Boston at the time of their move, the reputations of both Thankful and Joseph Southwick as devoted abolitionists preceded them. They quickly became acquainted with notable Boston abolitionist families and became heavily involved in the antislavery movement in the city.[3] Thankful and her daughters became close friends with the Chapmans and Westons.[3] Along with the Sergeants, the Chapmans, the Childs, and the Westons, Thankful Southwick became one of the main power brokers and decision makers in the Boston abolition movement and the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society throughout the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s.[7] Thankful and her family were first introduced to the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society in the winter of 1834 while still living in Peabody. Sarah and Joseph attended the First Anti-slavery Fair held by the Society.[3] Thankfully prompted her daughters to write articles for the fair in addition to attending it. After moving to Boston in 1835, Thankful and her daughters joined the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.[3] The Southwick’s two domestic servants—Phillis Salem, a black woman, and Eliza Garnaut, a Welsh immigrant—also joined the Society at this time.[7] As part of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, Thankful wrote and signed petitions,[6] raised donations for the abolitionist cause, and helped coordinate the annual Anti-Slavery Fair (also known as the National Anti-Slavery Bazaar), which helped fund and support the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.[10] Thankful also attended state legislature sessions, court hearings, and political meetings with other members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, including the Chapmans and her daughters.[3] During the early and mid 1800s, women did not attend political meetings due to the social norms, gender roles, and legal barriers that prevented women from participating in the political process. However, after Thankful and 12 other members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society attended Wendell Phillips' speech at Faneuil Hall on December 8, 1837,[11] Thankful and other female abolitionists attended political meetings in Boston freely.[3] Due to the Southwick’s affluent standing in Boston society, Thankful was able to devote large amounts of time and money to the cause,[4][3][12] and Thankful and her daughter became prominent and powerful participants in the Boston abolition movement.[7] During her first two years as a member of the Society, Thankful witnessed both the 1835 Boston Mob[3][13] and the Abolition Riot of 1836.[6][4]

In October 1835, George Thompson was invited to speak at the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society’s meeting, which was to be held in the publishing office of The Liberator.[13] Thankful and 49 other members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society[7] were gathered in William Lloyd Garrison’s office when the meeting was broken up by a mob of 1500 to 2000 anti-abolitionist gentlemen who were looking for Thompson.[13] While the crowd rioted in the streets and destroyed the office of The Liberator, Thankful and the other women continued to read scripture and discuss among themselves.[7] When Mayor Theodore Lyman was finally able to convince the women of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society to leave, Thankful and the others were able to pass through the still rioting streets unharmed.[3]

During his initial stay in Boston and during future visits, Thompson stayed at the home of the Southwicks. Thankful would serve him dinner at 9 o’clock while Thompson would entertain the family with stories of his life in England.[3]

Thankful also participated in the Abolition Riot of 1836, which was known at the time as the Baltimore Slave Cases.[4] In August 1836, Eliza Small and Polly Anne Bates were captured aboard the Chickasaw by the slave catcher Matthew Turner.[14] Turner alleged that the two women were fugitive slaves belonging to John B Morris of Baltimore. However, the two women had legal papers attesting to their freedom.[14] Eliza and Polly Anne were detained aboard the ship by the captain while Turner applied for a warrant from their arrest. Word spread quickly, and a warrant was requested and issued against the captain of the Chickasaw. When Eliza and Polly Anne’s case was argued, a delegation of Thankful and four other members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society were present at the trial “to give... whatever comfort [their] presence might afford” to Eliza and Polly Anne.[6] After Justice Shaw decided that the captain of the Chickasaw did not have the legal right to detain Eliza and Polly Anne and ruled for their release, a riot broke out in the courtroom when it appeared that Turner was about to immediately re-apprehend the women. Spectators rushed towards Eliza and Polly Ann and took them out of the courthouse. When the two women had been carried away, Thankful turned to Turner and said, “thy prey hath escaped thee,” and then denounced his proclaimed support for the American Colonization Society.[4][6]

In 1837, the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society established a relationship with Sarah and Angelina Grimke. The Society promoted the Grimkes' 1837 lecture tour of Massachusetts and sponsored a series of lectures in Boston by the sisters.[15] The Grimkes' public speeches were extremely controversial and laid the foundations for the eventual schism in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. In response to the Grimkes' lectures, notable local ministers began to voice their opposition to women playing an active role in organized abolition.[15] There was also an increasingly negative response by Bostonians to the public prominence and activism of the women in the Society, who became known as "petticoat politicians."[7] In response, the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society split into two blocks- the proclerical block, made up of middle-class Congregationalists and Baptists led by Mary Parker and Martha and Lucy Ball, and the anticlerical Garrisonian bloc, composed of upper-class Unitarians and Quakers lead by Maria Weston Chapman, Thankful Southwick and her daughters, Lydia Maria Child, and Henrietta and Catherine Sargent.[7][15]

The two blocks within the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society were divided over the extent to which women should participate in the abolition movement and the nature of that participation. Thankful and the other Garrisonians believed that women should play a public role and that women should be accepted as equals with men within the movement.[15] The Ball-Parker faction understood abolition as a part of female reform work necessitated and legitimized by the domestic and benevolent nature of women that needed to remain constrained by the boundaries of moral reform to prevent the intrusion of women into the public sphere.[7]

Over the next few years, the two factions vied for control and power. During this time, Thankful and other radical Garrisonians petitioned and attend political meetings as private individuals rather than under the banner of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.[15] The proclerical faction held most of the elected positions and were able to refuse to call special meetings requested by the Garrisonians and allegedly miscounted votes to pass their own motions. In the winter of 1839 to 1840, Garrisonians were so convinced that the proclericals were miscounting votes that they would disrupt balloting by exclaiming, "I doubt the vote." The Garrisonians repeatedly contested the election of the officers for 1840, which prompted the April 1840 motion for the dissolution of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society.[15] The motion passed, and the Society was dissolved.[7]

A week after the vote to dissolve the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, the Chapman faction voted to restart the Society.[16] Thankful would go on to serve as President of the new Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1840,[17] 1841,[18] 1842,[19] and 1844.[20] The Anti-Slavery Fairs would become the main focus of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society until 1858.[21] Thankful and other members would continue to petition, attend political meetings, and lecture as "women of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society."

Thankful and Joseph Southwick’s house was known for being a meeting place and caravansary for fellow abolitionists and other members of the anti-slavery movement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton remarked that Thankful’s home “was always a harbor of rest for the weary, where the anti-slavery hosts were wont to congregate, and where one was always sure to meet someone worth knowing. Their hospitality was generous to an extreme, and so boundless that they were, at last, fairly eaten out of house and home.”[12] The Southwick home was also open to fugitive slaves, as it was an important station on the Underground Railroad route through Boston to Canada.[22]

In 1838, William Lloyd Garrison established the New England Non-Resistance Society. Previously, Garrison was a member of the American Peace Society. He established the New England Non-Resistance Society in opposition to the American Peace Society's approval of defensive warfare.[23] The New England Non-Resistance Society also broke with the American Peace Society by allowing both men and women to become members and officials.[2] Thankful Southwick joined the society with Anne W. Weston and Maria Weston Chapman of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. Thankful was later elected to the Executive Committee.[2]