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Harriet DeGarmo Fuller papers, 1852-1857

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Summary

Creator:
Fuller, Harriet DeGarmo
Abstract:
The Harriet DeGarmo Fuller papers consist of four bound volumes of records and eight miscellaneous receipts of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, kept between 1852 and 1856, when Harriet DeGarmo Fuller was a member of the executive committee of the Society.
Extent:
4 volumes
Language:
English
Authors:
Collection processed and finding aid created by Rob S. Cox

Background

Scope and Content:

The Fuller papers consist of four bound volumes of records and eight miscellaneous receipts of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, kept between 1852 and 1856, when Harriet DeGarmo Fuller was a member of the executive committee of the Society. Together, these books form an important and detailed picture of the formation and early activity of the Society, with a record of their official resolutions, activities and expenditures. The Fuller Papers provide a unique insight into the inner workings of one of the most important state-level Garrisonian antislavery societies.

Volume 1 (26 pp.) contains the resolutions of the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Convention at Adrian, held on October 16th, 1852 (recording the formation of the State Central Committee), along with minutes from the State Central Committee meetings through September 23, 1853. The volume appears to be entirely in the hand of recording secretary, Jacob Walton of Adrian. The Central Committee appears to have served as a springboard to membership in the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, as each of the members of the Central Committee assumed prominent roles in the M.A.S.S.

Volumes 2 and 3 are daybooks of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, 1853-1856. Volume 2 (115 pp., many blank) contains the general accounts of the Society during this period, while Vol. 3 (33 pp.) contains detailed, itemized records of donations, pledges, and expenditures at antislavery fairs held at Adrian, Fairfield, Battle Creek, Livonia and other cities, as well as pledges made to antislavery agents between these events. These volumes provide an intricate depiction of the fundraising activities of a state-level Garrisonian organization, its resources, contributors and participants.

Volume 4 is a ledger (77 pp.) including the Constitution and bye-laws of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, minutes of the monthly meetings of its executive committee, and the minutes and resolutions of its annual meetings from October 22, 1853-January 5, 1857. The ledger is a remarkable record of a radical antislavery group founded to act upon deeply-held moral beliefs, and includes records of the convention at which the Society was founded, as well as its first three annual meetings. These brief entries provide insight into the minds of self-professed social radicals and glimpse into the inner workings and debates of the Society.

The Recording Secretaries of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society included: Ann Hayball (1853 October-1854 October); Eliphalet Jones (1854 October-1855 October; Ann Hayball often acted as Secretary pro tem.); Jacob Walton (1855 October-1856 October); and Harriet DeGarmo Fuller (1856 October-?). Each contributed to the records in this collection.

Biographical / Historical:

During the 1830s through 1850s, antislavery activity in Michigan was organized roughly into two channels, each represented by organizations with similar names: the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society and the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society. The Michigan State Society was the predominant antislavery organization during the 1830s and 1840s, and under the leadership of James Gillespie Birney and others, its members urged active participation in the political sphere. Ultimately, supporters of the Society contributed to the formation of the abolitionist Liberty Party, which twice nominated Birney for the presidency (1840 and 1844), garnering over 60,000 votes in 1844, drawing on a substantial base of support in Michigan, New York, and northern Indiana. After the party was effectively dissolved following the rise of the Free Soil Party, however, the Michigan State Society declined in significance and had become moribund by the early 1850s.

At a convention held in Adrian in October, 1853, several veterans of the antislavery movement in Michigan, including Harriet DeGarmo Fuller and her husband Edwin, organized a new society for the state. The Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, advocating the principles of William Lloyd Garrison, soon became a vigorous and strident instrument for reform. Committed to non-violent action, these abolitionists were -- in their own terms -- purists and radicals who disdained affiliation with any group, organization, or ideology that was tainted by association with slavery. They rejected the U.S. Constitution that accepted slavery and all laws that authorized the extension of the rights of slave holders into free states, while refusing rights to the enslaved. At their meetings, the members of the Society resolved that "between the radical abolitionist [sic] of the North and the Slave holders of the South, there is no middle ground; any more than between the worshippers of one living and true God, and those of idols...," (vol. 4: 13) and they insisted that Slavery could never be abolished "by a Governmental organization in which liberty and Slavery have a common ballot-box, a common judiciary, and a common executive" (4: 50-51), leaving as their only option for reform, collective action by the morally and spiritually committed. Nothing less than "the practical enforcement of the golden rule and the declaration of Independence, without regard to complexional differences among the people" could satisfy their political and social demands, or meet their goal of "claiming for those who are held in an iron bondage, only what the white inhabitants of this country assume to be theirs by a natural and heaven derived right" (4:13-14).

Members of the M.A.S.S. refused affiliation with churches that accepted slave holders into membership and many objected to any participation in the political process, arguing that it was hopelessly compromised by the slave power. Many members, like the Fullers, recognized a link between the oppression of the slave and the oppression of women in American society, and expanded their efforts to include the struggle for women's rights. Some members, like S. S. Foster (Abby Kelley Foster's husband) were willing, if necessary, to contemplate secession from the union. The disillusionment and suspicion that such moral purists felt rings throughout the minutes of their conventions, and, though always smaller than the Michigan State Society, their zeal and tight organization made the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society a vibrant and lively organization during the mid-1850s, when they were the only effective antislavery organization in the state.

Throughout this decade, Harriet DeGarmo Fuller was a tireless worker for the abolition of slavery and the rights of women, standing with her husband, Edwin, and other members of her family at countless meetings and fairs. Edwin had been a member of the State Central Committee of the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society in October, 1852, but in October of the following year, he and Harriet joined avidly into the formation of the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society. Harriet served as a vice president of the Society in 1853-54, and became its recording secretary in 1856. As members of the executive committee of the M.A.S.S., the Fullers traveled throughout southern Michigan and northern Indiana and Ohio, organizing antislavery meetings, fund raising events, and lectures.

Acquisition Information:
1996. M-3210.1 .
Custodial History:

The Fuller papers were donated to the Clements Library in January 1996, through the generosity of Bob Travis, a descendant.

Rules or Conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS)

Contents

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Info for Visitors

How to Request

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Download PDF Finding Aid
RESTRICTIONS:

The collection is open for research.

USE & PERMISSIONS:

Copyright status is unknown.

PREFERRED CITATION:

Harriet DeGarmo Fuller Papers, William L. Clements Library, The University of Michigan

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Collection

Harriet DeGarmo Fuller papers, 1852-1857
Total components 87
Items available online Online 4
Last indexed 2024-10-17