The Massachusetts General Colored Association dated back to 1826; the colored convention movement, bringing together Negro leaders from several Northern states, began in 1830, and the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Salem, made up of "females of color," was organized on February 22, 1832.
From the beginning the American Anti-Slavery Society vigorously pushed the formation of auxiliary branches, thus giving momentum to the movement among Negroes. In 1834, Negro antislavery societies were formed in Rochester, Newark, Nantucket, and Lexington, Massachusetts, the last taking the name, Lexington Abolition Society of Colored Persons and Whites Who Feel Desirous to Join. In the same year the Colored Female Anti-Slavery Society of Middletown, headed by Clarissa Beman, was organized.
Six colored auxiliaries to the national society were founded in 1836, including one at Troy, Michigan, plus a woman's antislavery group in Rochester. During the following year Negroes in New York organized the Roger Williams Baptist Anti-Slavery Society as an auxiliary to the national body, and the Negroes in Geneva formed an affiliate of the New York Anti-Slavery Society. In May 1838 black Philadelphians or- ganized the Leavitt Anti-Slavery Society, named after the white abolitionist editor, Joshua Leavitt.
Negroes of a tender age shared in the abolitionist crusade from the beginning. To enlist the sympathies and support of the children was an important phase of most of the reform movements in pre-Civil War America. "Our enterprise is a school for the young," wrote the editor of an abolitionist book for children. The Slave's Friend, a monthly designed for juveniles and carrying pictures, hymns, and anecdotes, was dis- tributed without charge.
The formation of juvenile antislavery societies began in 1834, one of them a girl's group at Providence. The six founders quickly added to their number, bringing in several colored misses, making it "a sugar-plum society," said one observer. At their weekly meetings one member would read aloud from antislavery publications while the others sewed. From the sale of their needlework the young women raised $90 the first year, sending it to the national society.
Negro young people felt a similar urge to unite for a worthwhile cause. In Boston in 1833 they formed the Juvenile Garrison Independent Society, youngsters of both sexes and between the ages of ten and twenty who paid an entrance fee of 4. Almost at the same time Susan Paul recruited a Garrison Junior Choir, which sang at abolitionist gatherings and gave concerts for the benefit of the Mashpee Indians and similar charities. At a Negro school in Albany in 1834 an antislavery club was formed, each member pledging himself to give 6^ a month to the national body.
rhaps the first true Negro juvenile abolitionist societies were formed in 1838 when four of them emerged, at Pitts- burgh, Troy, Carlisle, and Providence. The first of these in point of time was the Pittsburgh Juvenile Anti-Slavery Society, formed on July 7, 1838. With David Peck as president and George Vashon, son of Garrison's friend, as secretary, the Pittsburgh group comprised the first "cent a week" society west of the Alleghenies. The forty members also raised money for The Colored American, a reformist weekly, and listened to declamations from their fellows. The juvenile society at Carlisle also supported The Colored American, and the Providence young people gave their assessments of a penny a week to the national organization. In 1839 the Salem Juvenile Colored Sewing Society, another of the early clubs of its kind, paid $15 to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society for a life membership for an admired adult.
American Abolitionists: Black Struggle for Equality
