Content Analysis - Essays in this Section
The Unionist was part of the extensive Benevolent Empire of reform, the push to rid society of evils by voluntary associations. In addition to its fervid support of Abolition and Black Civil Rights, The Unionist had articles speaking to Women’s Rights, Temperance, Peace, Anti-Masonry, and Anti-Tobacco. The endorsement of women was, of course, within the bounds of propriety of that age. But in its approval of women authors (Lydia Maria Child), women entrepreneurs (Lydia White), women poets, and, of course, a Female Academy with a female lead teacher, its actions are an early indicator of the inclusion of women in the Abolitionist community. Temperance was a cause that many Abolitionists championed, because of its emphasis on self-command and self-control. William Burleigh and his younger brothers Lucien and George were especially associated with the Temperance movement across their whole lifespan. Allies like William Goodell (editor of The Genius of Temperance), Arthur Tappan, and Samuel J. May were also advocates of tee-totaling. The now-obvious shortcomings of Temperance – classism, anti-Catholicism, and anti-immigrant hostility – were not as apparent, or were perceived as non-problematic, by Temperance advocates in this time period. The same can be said of the Anti-Masonic movement. This political tendency had enough energy to generate the first successful third-party in American politics, with Anti-Masonic presidential candidate William Wirt becoming the first third-party candidate to win electoral votes when he carried Vermont in the 1832 election. The most important connection between Abolition and Anti-Masonry was in the anti-elitism of the movement: Anti-Masonry implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) argued for equality and transparency in the still-young Republic. Charles C. Burleigh had deep connections to Anti-Masonry from his time studying law in Plymouth. Numerous Anti-Masonic newspapers picked up stories about Canterbury and Prudence Crandall, including a strong ally in Myron Holley, editor of the Anti-Masonic Intelligencer in Hartford. The Peace movement was strong in Windham county, due to the efforts of Samuel J. May and George Benson, Sr. in sustaining an active Windham County Peace Society. As mentioned in the essay on Philosophy, this group was ahead of the curve in publishing the work of Jonathan Dymond on peace. Their meetings and annual reports were featured in The Unionist. Anti-Tobacco was the reform movement that surprised me when I found it. The Unionist’s endorsement of Orin Fowler ‘s (1791-1852) “Disquisition on the Evils of Tobacco” was reprinted in that volume – another testimony to the good reputation of The Unionist. Orin Fowler has some Connecticut roots, and while he settled later in Fall River, Massachusetts, this area, too, became a hotbed of Abolitionism. The Anti-Tobacco movement looks far better in the historical mirror now than Temperance or Anti-Masonry!
For Further Reference
- Mintz, Steven. Moralist and Modernizers: America’s Pre-Civil War Reformers. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
- Peterson, Carla L. Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth-Century New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.
- Rycenga, Jennifer. Schooling a Nation: Students and Teachers at Prudence Crandall’s Female Academy. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, forthcoming 2024.
- Ziegler, Valerie. The Advocates of Peace in Antebellum America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992.
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