Courage and Conscience: Black & White Abolitionists in Boston

"Written by first-rate scholars, these 10 essays give focus to the antislavery movement in Boston, particularly to the significance of African American abolitionists." —Choice

"... handsome, lavishly illustrated, and informative... "—The New England Quarterly

"... this work is a thoughtful, long overdue discourse on individual and group accomplishments. It is replete with absorbing illustrations, which when accompanied by insightful essays, depict the courage of those who labored for equality in antebellum Boston." —Journal of the Early Republic

Until recently little was known of the contributions of African Americans in the antebellum abolition movement. Massachusetts, having granted voting rights early on to black males, was a center of antislavery agitation. Courage and Conscience documents the black activism in 19th-century Boston that was critical to the success of the abolitionist cause.

"Written by first-rate scholars, these 10 essays give focus to the antislavery movement in Boston, particularly to the significance of African American abolitionists." — Choice

"... handsome, lavishly illustrated, and informative... " — The New England Quarterly

"... this work is a thoughtful, long overdue discourse on individual and group accomplishments. It is replete with absorbing illustrations, which when accompanied by insightful essays, depict the courage of those who labored for equality in antebellum Boston." — Journal of the Early Republic

Until recently little was known of the contributions of African Americans in the antebellum abolition movement. Massachusetts, having granted voting rights early on to black males, was a center of antislavery agitation. Courage and Conscience documents the black activism in 19th-century Boston that was critical to the success of the abolitionist cause.

Library Journal

Although 19th-century Boston had a small African American population, it had one of the most active and militant abolitionist movements in the United States. This collection of ten essays, the result of two recent exhibits in the Boston area, studies the people and the role of the city in the abolitionist movement. Written by Dorothy Porter Wesley, James Oliver Horton and Lois Jacobs, and Bernard T. Riley, among others, the essays explore such issues as the role of William Lloyd Garrison in the abolitionist movement, the influence of David Walker's beliefs on Garrison's activities, and how art and literature created by blacks, such as Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , helped make people aware of the horrors of slavery. Though these essays are interesting, readers who do not have a background in this area will have a difficult time with the book. Recommended for academic libraries or public libraries with collections on the Civil War era or on Boston and the New England states.-- Danna C. Bell-Russel, Marymount Univ. Libs., Arlington, Va.

DONALD M. JACOBS, Professor of History at Northeastern University, is the editor of Antebellum Black Newspapers and Index to the American Slave. He is the author of While the Cabots Talked to God: Racial Conflict in Antebellum Boston, the Black Struggle, 1825—1861.