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| Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Bazaar | |
|---|---|
| Name | Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Bazaar |
| Founded | 1835 |
| Founder | Lucretia Mott |
| Location | Philadelphia |
| Purpose | Abolitionist fundraising |
| Defunct | 1858 |
Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Bazaar The Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Bazaar was an annual fundraising fair held in Philadelphia during the antebellum era that mobilized activists, writers, artists, and religious leaders to support abolitionist causes. Organized by an array of Quakers, Unitarians, Free Soil Party sympathizers, and radical reformers, the bazaar combined commerce, performance, and political advocacy to raise funds for American Anti-Slavery Society initiatives, Underground Railroad assistance, and abolitionist publications. It attracted national attention from readers of The Liberator, participants in the Seneca Falls Convention, and representatives from regional societies in New York City, Boston, and Baltimore.
The bazaar emerged from networks linking prominent abolitionists such as Lucretia Mott, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Sarah Parker Remond, and James G. Birney with institutional supporters like Friends (Quakers), First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia). Its inception followed controversies including the 1838 riot at Pennsylvania Hall and legislative actions like the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 that galvanized Northern philanthropy. Influences included philanthropic fundraising models seen in Boston Ladies' Anti-Slavery Bazaar, temperance fairs tied to American Temperance Society, and literary salons associated with Margaret Fuller and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Leadership blended activists, clergy, and businessmen. Committee members and supporters included Lucretia Mott, Elijah P. Lovejoy’s allies, Sarah Mapps Douglass, James Forten’s circle, and editors from The National Anti-Slavery Standard and Northeastern Anti-Slavery Society. Local organizers worked with printers like Isaiah Thomas (publisher)’s successors, stationers connected to Joseph R. Ingersoll, and philanthropists akin to William Still and Gerrit Smith. Clerical endorsement came from figures associated with Unitarianism in the United States, Methodism in the United States, and congregations linked to Benjamin Rush’s reformist descendants. Artisans and authors such as Hannah More imitators, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and artists sympathetic to Thomas Nast’s later cartoons contributed goods and imagery.
The bazaar offered lectures, musical performances, theatrical readings, and sales of handcrafted items, books, and periodicals. Speakers drawn from networks including William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Maria Weston Chapman, and Phoebe Palmer addressed audiences alongside readings from Harriet Beecher Stowe and pamphleteers like Lewis Tappan. Merchandise ranged from needlework and quilts echoing patterns in Underground Railroad codes, to anti-slavery medals similar to tokens issued by American Anti-Slavery Society. Publishers such as Isaac Knapp and printers linked to E. P. Dutton printed broadsides, while musicians influenced by Jenny Lind’s tours performed benefit concerts. Fundraising methods paralleled bazaars run by New England Anti-Slavery Bazaar committees and drew volunteers from Ladies' Association of Philadelphia circles.
The bazaar served as a financial engine for distribution of abolitionist literature like The Liberator, The North Star, and pamphlets by Gerrit Smith and Angelina Grimké. It facilitated networking among activists from Abolitionism in the United States, Underground Railroad, Free Soil Party, and early Republican Party constituencies. Public influence extended into municipal politics in Philadelphia, debates in the Pennsylvania General Assembly, and national conversations following incidents like the Christiana Riot. Reports in newspapers such as The Philadelphia Inquirer and reprints in The New York Times amplified its reach. The bazaar also intersected with reform movements including the Women's Rights Movement, the Temperance Movement, and educational initiatives tied to Cheyney University of Pennsylvania predecessors.
The bazaar provoked backlash from pro-slavery advocates, nativist groups like the Know Nothing movement, and municipal authorities wary after events such as the 1838 Philadelphia riots. Opponents included printers sympathetic to Cotton Whig interests, merchants trading with the South Carolina planters, and editors aligned with The London Times-style conservatism in transatlantic commentary. Legal and physical threats mirrored attacks on abolitionist presses represented by the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy and the burning of abolitionist meetinghouses. Internal disputes mirrored schisms between William Lloyd Garrison’s immediatist faction and gradualists such as Henry Clay supporters, while strategic debates overlapped with those in American Colonization Society contests.
The bazaar diminished in the 1850s as national tensions over the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the rise of Republican Party (United States) politics shifted fundraising models toward party organizations and war-time philanthropy. Its legacy persisted in the networks that fed into Civil War abolitionist logistics, the survival of printed tracts in collections at Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the influence on later charity bazaars in New England and Mid-Atlantic reform circles. Commemorations of organizers like Lucretia Mott and artifacts circulated to institutions including Library Company of Philadelphia, Smithsonian Institution, and university archives at University of Pennsylvania. The bazaar remains cited in scholarship on antebellum activism, women's organizing, and print culture tied to the struggle for emancipation.
Category:Abolitionism in the United States Category:History of Philadelphia Category:Events in Philadelphia