The New England Freedom Association (c.1842 – c.1848) was an organization founded by African Americans in Boston for the purpose of assisting fugitive slaves .
65-549: The New England Freedom Association was founded in 1842 or 1843, and existed for about five years. Its founding members included William Cooper Nell , Henry Weeden, Judith Smith, Mary L. Armstead, Thomas Cummings, and Robert Wood. They raised "funds to aid those of our friends who flee to the land of the Pilgrims for their liberty." Meetings were held in the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill. In December 1845,
130-615: A Free Soil candidate for the Massachusetts state legislature, but lost. Passage of the federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 required state law enforcement, even in free states, to aid in the recapture of refugee slaves and it increased penalties for those citizens who helped slaves. Nell was inspired to renew his fight against slavery. He created the Committee of Vigilance in Boston, whose members swore to aid escaped slaves. It served
195-465: A $ 100 reward for the citizen that would first lay violent hands on him. Thompson canceled at the last minute, and Wm. Lloyd Garrison , editor and publisher of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator , was quickly scheduled to speak in his place. A lynch mob formed, forcing Garrison to escape through the back of the hall and hide in a carpenter's shop. The mob soon found him, putting a noose around his neck to drag him away. Several strong men, including
260-636: A Godly Commonwealth through a pursuit of Christian morality and justice, however, was the main influence on Phillips's nationalism. He favored getting rid of American slavery by letting the slave states secede, and he sought to amalgamate all the American "races". Thus, it was the moral end which mattered most in Phillips's nationalism. As Northern victory in the Civil War seemed more imminent, Phillips, like many other abolitionists, turned his attention to
325-592: A candidate for the first time. In the mid-1862, Phillips's nephew, Samuel D. Phillips, died at Port Royal, South Carolina , where he had gone to take part in the so-called Port Royal Experiment to assist the slave population there in the transition to freedom. Phillips was also an early advocate of women's rights. In 1840 he led the unsuccessful effort at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London to have America's women delegates seated. In
390-743: A eulogy. Irish poet and journalist John Boyle O'Reilly , who was a good friend of Phillips, wrote the poem Wendell Phillips in his honor. In 1904, the Chicago Public Schools opened Wendell Phillips High School in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the south side of Chicago in Phillips's honor. In July 1915, a monument was erected in Boston Public Garden to commemorate Phillips, inscribed with his words: "Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing but victories." Jonathan Harr's "A Civil Action" refers to
455-648: A literary society. He ended his work with Douglass during the latter's feud with his close friend Garrison. Nell ended all contact with Douglass finally in 1853 when the leader advocated the Colored National Council and the Manual Labor School, which represented the types of segregated institutions which Nell detested. Douglass attacked Nell and other leading black activists who supported Garrison, including Robert Purvis of Philadelphia and Charles Lenox Remond . In 1850, Nell had run as
520-466: A memorial celebration of Crispus Attucks at Faneuil Hall , a traditional site of commemoration, and worked with others to have a "Crispus Attucks Day" designated in Boston. He reminded people of the participation of African Americans in the fight for independence from Great Britain, and helped have Attucks recognized in the commemoration of the Boston Massacre . That same year, Nell organized
585-796: A monument, in Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts , which he felt would help the abolitionist cause. He spoke at the funeral and on the way home, repeated his speech the next night to a wildly enthusiastic audience in Vergennes, Vermont . On the eve of the Civil War, Phillips gave a speech at the New Bedford Lyceum in which he defended the Confederate States' right to secede: A large body of people, sufficient to make
650-492: A nation, have come to the conclusion that they will have a government of a certain form. Who denies them the right? Standing with the principles of '76 behind us, who can deny them the right? ...I maintain on the principles of '76 that Abraham Lincoln has no right to a soldier in Fort Sumter . ...You can never make such a war popular. ...The North never will endorse such a war." In 1860 and 1861, many abolitionists welcomed
715-668: A national controversy between abolitionists and anti-abolitionists. At Faneuil Hall, Massachusetts attorney general James T. Austin defended the pro-slavery mob, comparing their actions to 1776 patriots who fought against the British and declaring that Lovejoy "died as the fool dieth!" The married couple went abroad in 1839 for two years. They spent the summer in Great Britain and the rest of each year in mainland Europe. They made important connections and Ann wrote of them meeting Elizabeth Pease and being particularly impressed by
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#1732790544181780-467: A reformer who was as bold as a lion, who had reformed a great wrong, and who had left a rejuvenated Constitution. On February 8, in the U.S. House of Representatives , John F. Finerty offered resolutions of respect to the memory of Phillips. William W. Eaton objected to the resolutions. A memorial event was held in Tremont Temple , Boston, on April 9, 1884. Archibald Grimké delivered
845-598: A similar purpose to the Freedom Association of 1842, but was illegal under the new federal law. Nell also supported the Underground Railroad , which had numerous supporters to help slaves reach freedom in the North, with some going on to Canada. In 1851, Nell and other petitioners requested money from the state legislature to commission a monument to Crispus Attucks , one of the first martyrs of
910-564: A stroke in 1874 at the age of 58. His wife survived him by more than twenty years, dying in Nashua, New Hampshire , on September 13, 1895. The William Cooper Nell House , now a private residence in Beacon Hill, was designated a National Historic Landmark in recognition for his contributions to the abolition movement. He lived at that home in the 1860s. Wendell Phillips Wendell Phillips (November 29, 1811 – February 2, 1884)
975-434: A trust at once develops character and intellect, and goes far to afford the hitherto mission and indispensable motive to education. Next in order of importance and time, comes the ballot. So it has always been with all disfranchised classes; first property—then political influence and rights; the first prepares for, gives weight to, challenges, finally secures the second. In 1849 and 1850, he assisted Lucy Stone in conducting
1040-490: A waiter. The award was financially supported by the estate of anti-slavery advocate Benjamin Franklin . The school committee instead gave Nell The Life of Ben Franklin , an autobiography. Inspired by the founding of William Lloyd Garrison 's newspaper, The Liberator , William Cooper Nell decided to challenge race-based discrimination and segregation, as his father had done. Nell was particularly interested in encouraging
1105-615: Is madness. The trial of fifty years only proves that it is impossible for free and slave States to unite on any terms, without all becoming partners in the guilt and responsible for the sin of slavery. Why prolong the experiment? Let every honest man join in the outcry of the American Anti-Slavery Society. (Quoted in Ruchames, The Abolitionists p. 196) On December 8, 1837, in Boston's Faneuil Hall , Phillips' leadership and oratory established his preeminence within
1170-665: The American Revolution . When Boston commissioned a major monument to the Boston Massacre to be installed on the Common in 1888, the fallen Attucks was featured in it prominently. A few years later, in 1855, Nell achieved another success when the legislature finally abolished segregation in public schools. In recognition of Nell's efforts on this issue, a commemorative dinner was held to honor him. During 1855, Garrison's The Liberator employed Nell to journey around
1235-675: The Fifteenth Amendment also granted citizenship to Indians. He proposed that the Andrew Johnson administration create a cabinet-level post that would guarantee Indian rights. Phillips helped create the Massachusetts Indian Commission with Indian rights activist Helen Hunt Jackson and Massachusetts governor William Claflin . Although publicly critical of President Ulysses S. Grant 's drinking, he worked with Grant's second administration on
1300-571: The Lakota (Sioux). During the 1870s, Phillips arranged public forums for reformer Alfred B. Meacham and Indians affected by the country's Indian removal policy, including the Ponca chief Standing Bear , and the Omaha writer and speaker Susette LaFlesche Tibbles . By late January 1884, Phillips was suffering from heart disease . Phillips delivered his last public address on January 26, 1884, over
1365-653: The mayor , intervened and took him to the most secure place in Boston, the Leverett Street Jail . Phillips, watching from nearby Court Street , was a witness to the attempted lynching. After being converted to the abolitionist cause by Garrison in 1836, Phillips stopped practicing law in order to dedicate himself to the movement. Phillips joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and frequently made speeches at its meetings. So highly regarded were Phillips' oratorical abilities that he
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#17327905441811430-733: The Amendment–Impeach the President." As Radical Republicans in Congress broke with Johnson and pursued their own Reconstruction policies through the Freedmen's Bureau bills and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 , their views converged increasingly with Phillips'. However, most congressional Republicans disagreed with his assertion that "suffrage is nothing but a name because the voter has not...an acre from which he could retire from
1495-596: The Civil War. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Nell worked to have blacks accepted as soldiers in the Union Army . In 1861, he was hired as a postal clerk in Boston, earning the distinction of being the first African American to hold a federal civilian post. On April 14, 1869, Nell married Frances Ann Ames, the 26-year-old daughter of Philip Osgood Ames, a barber from Nashua, New Hampshire , and his wife Lucy B. (Drake) Ames. The Nells had two sons, William Cooper, Jr. (1870–92) and Frank Ames (1872–81). Nell died of
1560-535: The Constitution of the United States, as he believed it was a pro-slavery document. He was influenced by the opinions of Garrison and Wendell Phillips . Around this time, Nell also began his association with Garrison and The Liberator . This connection would continue until the paper closed in 1865. Nell fought for the ideals of Garrison throughout the abolitionist campaign. Nell began working against
1625-554: The Convention of Colored Citizens of New England. While it was contrary to his earlier dislike of segregated abolitionist efforts, he argued that the Scott decision was such an insult to blacks that they needed to act separately. In his time apart from the newspapers, Nell worked for legislation to allow blacks into the Massachusetts militia. He did not succeed in this but lived to see blacks serve in United States armed forces during
1690-475: The July 3, 1846, issue of The Liberator he called for securing women's rights to their property and earnings as well as to the ballot. He wrote: I have always thought that the first right restored to woman would be that of the full and unfettered control of all her property and earnings, whether she were married or unmarried. This, too, is, in one sense, the most important to be secured. The responsibility of such
1755-660: The Midwest and study African-American anti-slavery efforts. He attended a graduation at Oberlin College , appreciating the easy relations among the integrated students. Nell was outraged by the US Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling in 1857, which said that ethnic Africans had no legal standing in the United States as they were not considered citizens under the Constitution. In 1858 he organized
1820-514: The North Star, reach a haven where they can be protected from the grasp of the man-stealer. An article of the constitution enjoins upon us not to pay one farthing to any slaveholder for the property they may claim in a human being. ... Our mission is to succor those who claim property in themselves, and thereby acknowledge an independence of slavery. At least three of its members—John Coburn, James Scott, and John J. Smith —took part in
1885-463: The North. In this case, Nell supported an African-American group since he believed its cause was closer to the hearts of blacks than whites. Nell publicized the Freedom Association's direct aid to fugitive slaves as well as the abolitionist cause. He also fought for higher education and encouraged the improvement of young African Americans; with John T. Hilton, he founded the Adelphia Union and
1950-650: The Quaker abolitionist Richard D. Webb . In 1840 they went to London to join up with other American delegates to the World Anti-Slavery Convention at the Exeter Hall in London. Phillips' new wife was one of a number of female delegates, who included Lucretia Mott , Mary Grew , Sarah Pugh, Abby Kimber, Elizabeth Neall and Emily Winslow. The delegates were astounded to find that female delegates had not been expected and they were not welcome at
2015-538: The Republican Party in the 1868 election . The Republicans did pass the Fifteenth Amendment constitutionalizing black suffrage in 1870, but the goal of land redistribution was never realized. In 1879, Phillips argued that black suffrage and political participation during Reconstruction had not been a failure, and that the main error of the era had been the failure to redistribute land to the freedmen . He defended black voters as being "less purchasable than
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2080-607: The Wars of 1776 and 1812 (1851) and The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution (1855), were the first studies published about African Americans. He is noted as the first African American to serve in the federal civil service, where he worked in the post office. Nell was born in 1816 in Boston, Massachusetts , to Louise Cooper, from Brookline , and William Guion Nell, from Charleston, South Carolina . His father
2145-568: The Young Men's Literary Society of Boston. He was a leader in campaigns to desegregate public facilities in Boston: he succeeded in gaining desegregation of the Boston railroad in 1843, and, in 1853, performance halls in the city. Nell served as publisher to Frederick Douglass ' The North Star , from late 1847 until 1851, moving temporarily to Rochester, New York , during this period. He also joined New York anti-slavery societies and founded
2210-459: The abolitionist movement. Bostonians gathered at Faneuil Hall to discuss Elijah P. Lovejoy 's murder by a mob outside his abolitionist newspaper's office in Alton, Illinois , on November 7. Lovejoy died defending himself and his press from pro-slavery rioters who set fire to a warehouse storing his press and shot Lovejoy as he stepped outside to tip a ladder being used by the mob. His death engendered
2275-769: The anti-slavery cause. He published the North Star from 1847 to 1851, moving temporarily to Rochester, New York. He also helped found the New England Freedom Association in the early 1840s, and later the Committee of Vigilance , to aid refugee slaves. The Committee of Vigilance supported resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 , which had increased penalties against even citizens in free states who aided refugee slaves. Nell's short histories, Services of Colored Americans in
2340-574: The appointment of Indian agents . Phillips lobbied against military involvement in the settling of Native American problems on the Western frontier. He accused General Philip Sheridan of pursuing a policy of Indian extermination . Public opinion turned against Native American advocates after the Battle of the Little Bighorn in July 1876, but Phillips continued to support the land claims of
2405-513: The association announced in the Liberator that it had reorganized. Its officers were: Two of its twelve officers were women. The Boston Vigilance Committee , by contrast, had no female members. In the Liberator article, the association described its purpose: The object of our Association is to extend a helping hand to all who may bid adieu to whips and chains, and by the welcome light of
2470-466: The convention's Committee on Qualifications of Voters on May 27, 1853. In 1854, Phillips helped Stone call a New England Woman's Rights convention to expand suffrage petitioning into the other New England states. Phillips was a member of the National Woman's Rights Central Committee, which organized annual conventions throughout the 1850s, published its Proceedings, and executed plans adopted by
2535-406: The convention. Instructed by his wife not to "shilly-shally", Phillips went in to appeal the case. According to the history of the women's rights movement of Susan B. Anthony 's and Elizabeth Cady Stanton , Phillips spoke as the convention opened, scolding the organizers for precipitating an unnecessary conflict: When the call reached America we found that it was an invitation to the friends of
2600-418: The conventions. He was a close adviser of Lucy Stone, and a major presence at most of the conventions, for which he wrote resolutions defining the movement's principles and goals. His address to the 1851 convention, later called "Freedom for Woman", was used as a women's rights tract into the twentieth century. In March 1857, Phillips and Stone were granted hearings by the Massachusetts and Maine legislatures on
2665-453: The existing system of segregated schools for black and white children in Massachusetts, gathering 2,000 signatures from the black community on a petition to the state legislature. In 1855 Nell and his colleagues gained a victory; segregation was ended in Boston schools. Nell also encouraged young African Americans to learn outside of the public school system. Garrison said of him, "Perhaps no one has done so much—certainly no one has done more—for
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2730-430: The first woman suffrage petition campaign in Massachusetts, drafting for her both the petition and an appeal for signatures. They repeated the effort the following two years, sending several hundred signatures to the state legislature. In 1853, they directed their petition to a convention charged with revising the state constitution, and sent it petitions bearing five thousand signatures. Together Phillips and Stone addressed
2795-671: The formal legal end of slavery. Along with Frederick Douglass , Phillips argued that without voting rights, the rights of freedmen would be "ground to powder" by white Southerners. He lamented the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment without provisions for black suffrage, and fervently opposed the Reconstruction regime of President Andrew Johnson , affixing a new masthead to the National Anti-Slavery Standard newspaper which read "Defeat
2860-668: The formation of the Confederacy because it would end the South 's stranglehold over the United States government. This position was rejected by nationalists like Abraham Lincoln , who insisted on holding the Union together while gradually ending slavery. Twelve days after the attack on Fort Sumter, Phillips announced his "hearty and hot" support for the war. Disappointed with what he regarded as Lincoln's slow action, Phillips opposed his reelection in 1864, breaking with Garrison, who supported
2925-620: The intellectual and moral improvement of our colored youth." In 1843, Nell continued his crusade against segregation within the abolitionist movement by denouncing the Buffalo National Negro Convention. He claimed they served as, and promoted, exactly the type of separate abolitionism he was fighting against. He was influential in beginning the New England Freedom Association, an all-black organization that helped fugitive slaves in
2990-435: The intellectual and social well-being of young African Americans. He was dedicated to integration and opposed the separate abolitionist organizations for blacks and whites. In his devotion to integration, he dismantled the abolitionist Massachusetts General Colored Association, which had been organized by his father. Nell studied law in the early 1830s. He was never admitted to the bar because he would not swear allegiance to
3055-452: The objections of his physician. Phillips spoke at the unveiling of a statue to Harriet Martineau . At the time of the speech, he said that he thought it would be his last. Phillips died in his home, on Common Street in Boston 's neighborhood of Charlestown , on February 2, 1884. A solemn funeral was held at Hollis Street Church four days later. His body was taken to Faneuil Hall , where it lay in state for several hours. Phillips
3120-465: The persecution of landlordism"; in other words, Phillips and the Republicans diverged on the issue of land redistribution to the freedmen . Despite his belief that Ulysses S. Grant was not suited for the presidential office and dissatisfaction with Grant's and the party's refusal to endorse his comprehensive Reconstruction program of "land, education and the ballot", Phillips supported Grant and
3185-697: The point at which the women's rights movement began. In 1854, Phillips was indicted for his participation in the celebrated attempt to rescue Anthony Burns , a captured fugitive slave , from a jail in Boston. After John Brown was executed in December 1859 , Phillips attended and spoke at his funeral, at the John Brown Farm in remote North Elba, New York . He met Mary Brown and the coffin in Troy, New York , where she changed trains, and expressed, unsuccessfully, his wish that Brown would be buried, with
3250-546: The questions of Reconstruction . In 1864, he gave a speech at the Cooper Institute in New York arguing that enfranchisement of freedmen should be a necessary condition for the readmission of Southern states to the Union. Unlike other white abolitionist leaders such as Garrison , Phillips thought that securing civil and political rights for freedmen was an essential component of the abolitionist cause, even after
3315-505: The rescue of Shadrach Minkins in 1850. The Association eventually merged with the interracial Boston Vigilance Committee. William Cooper Nell William Cooper Nell (December 16, 1816 – May 25, 1874) was an American abolitionist , journalist, publisher, author, and civil servant of Boston, Massachusetts , who worked for the integration of schools and public facilities in the state. Writing for abolitionist newspapers The Liberator and The North Star , he helped publicize
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#17327905441813380-615: The slave of every nation and of every clime. Massachusetts has for several years acted on the principal of admitting women to an equal seat with men, in the deliberative bodies of the anti-slavery societies.... We stand here in consequence of your invitation, and knowing our custom, as it must be presumed you did, we had a right to interpret 'friends of the slave' to include women as well as men. The efforts of Phillips and others were only partly successful. The women were allowed in but had to sit separately and were not allowed to talk. This event has been taken by Stanton, Anthony, and others as
3445-539: The slave states secede: The experience of the fifty years...shows us the slaves trebling in numbers—slaveholders monopolizing the offices and dictating the policy of the Government—prostituting the strength and influence of the Nation to the support of slavery here and elsewhere—trampling on the rights of the free States, and making the courts of the country their tools. To continue this disastrous alliance longer
3510-462: The statue in recounting Mark Phillips,' a descendant of Wendell Phillips,' reaction to a legal victory in the case against W.R. Grace & Co. et al. The Phillips community in Minneapolis was named after him. A phrase from his speech of January 20, 1861, "I think the first duty of society is justice," sometimes wrongly attributed to Alexander Hamilton, appears on various courthouses around
3575-507: The white man," credited black labor and rule for the nascent regrowth of the Southern economy, and commended black bravery against attacks from the first Ku Klux Klan . As the Reconstruction era came to a close, Phillips increased his attention to other issues, such as women's rights , universal suffrage , temperance , and the labor movement . Phillips was also active in efforts to gain equal rights for Native Americans , arguing that
3640-413: The woman suffrage memorial sent to twenty-five legislatures by the 1856 National Woman's Rights Convention. As the movement's treasurer, Phillips was trustee with Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony of a $ 5,000 fund given anonymously to the movement in 1858, called the "Phillips fund" until the death of the benefactor, Francis Jackson, in 1861, and thereafter the "Jackson Fund". Phillips's philosophical ideal
3705-413: The years 1630 and 1650. Phillips was schooled at Boston Latin School , and graduated from Harvard College in 1831. He went on to attend Harvard Law School , from which he graduated in 1833. In 1834, Phillips was admitted to the Massachusetts state bar , and in the same year, he opened a law practice in Boston . In 1836, Phillips was supporting the abolitionist cause when he met Ann Greene. It
3770-423: Was an American abolitionist , advocate for Native Americans , orator , and attorney . According to George Lewis Ruffin , a Black attorney, Phillips was seen by many Blacks as "the one white American wholly color-blind and free from race prejudice". According to another Black attorney, Archibald Grimké , as an abolitionist leader he is ahead of William Lloyd Garrison and Charles Sumner . From 1850 to 1865 he
3835-407: Was an important figure in the abolitionist movement, having helped to create the Massachusetts General Colored Association in the 1820s. Nell encountered racial discrimination as a student. In 1829, he was passed over for an award given to excellent students upon graduation from the Abiel Smith School , apparently because of his ethnicity, and excluded from a celebratory dinner. He managed to attend as
3900-426: Was her opinion that this cause required not just support but total commitment. Phillips and Greene were engaged that year and Greene declared Wendell to be her "best three quarters". They were married until Wendell's death, 46 years later. On October 21, 1835, the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society announced that British abolitionist George Thompson would be speaking. Pro-slavery forces posted nearly 500 notices of
3965-433: Was known as "abolition's golden trumpet". Like many of Phillips' fellow abolitionists who honored the free-produce movement , he condemned the purchase of cane sugar and clothing made of cotton, since both were produced by the labor of slaves. He was a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee , an organization that assisted fugitive slaves in avoiding slavecatchers. It was Phillips's contention that racial injustice
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#17327905441814030-412: Was mainly self-control of the animal, physical self by the human, rational mind, although he admired martyrs like Elijah Lovejoy and John Brown . Historian Gilbert Osofsky has argued that Phillips's nationalism was shaped by a religious ideology derived from the European Enlightenment , as expressed by Thomas Paine , Thomas Jefferson , James Madison , and Alexander Hamilton . The Puritan ideal of
4095-485: Was the "preeminent figure" in American abolitionism. Phillips was born in Boston , Massachusetts, on November 29, 1811, to Sarah Walley and John Phillips , a wealthy lawyer, politician, and philanthropist, who was the first mayor of Boston. He was a descendant of Reverend George Phillips , who emigrated from England to Watertown, Massachusetts , in 1630. All of his ancestors migrated to North America from England , and all of them arrived in Massachusetts between
4160-466: Was the source of all of society's ills. Like Garrison, Phillips denounced the Constitution for tolerating slavery. He disagreed with abolitionist Lysander Spooner and maintained that slavery was part of the Constitution, and more generally disputed Spooner's notion that any judge could find slavery illegal. In 1845, in an essay titled "No Union With Slaveholders", he argued that the country would be better off, and not complicit in their guilt, if it let
4225-448: Was then buried at Granary Burying Ground . In April 1886, his remains were exhumed and reburied at Milton Cemetery in Milton . On February 12, a memorial service was held at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Sullivan Street in New York City . Rev. William B. Derrick gave a eulogy , describing Phillips as a friend of humanity and a citizen of the world. Timothy Thomas Fortune also eulogized Phillips, calling him
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