Maria Weston Chapman

Abolitionist, writer, and editor

Boston Public Library

Quick Facts

Significance:

Abolitionist, writer, editor

Place of Birth:

Weymouth, Massachusetts

Date of Birth:

July 25, 1806

Place of Death:

Weymouth, Massachusetts

Date of Death:

July 12, 1885

Marrying into a wealthy Boston merchant family, Maria Weston Chapman used her status to play an influential role in the city's early abolitionist movement. She became a leader in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and helped contribute to the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator.

Born in 1806 to Warren and Nancy Weston, Maria Weston spent much of her youth on her family's farm in Weymouth, Massachusetts, with her seven siblings. Though not wealthy, the Westons had powerful connections, allowing her many opportunities not afforded to other women of her time and background. As a young woman, Maria's uncle offered her the chance to finish her formal education in England. She seized this opportunity to complete her schooling and lived with her uncle's family in London for many years. When she returned to Boston in 1828, Weston became the principal of the Young Ladies' High School.¹

In 1830, Maria Weston married Henry Grafton Chapman, ushering her into the upper echelons of Boston's society through her new husband's merchant business. Unlike most of Boston's merchant class, however, the Chapman family staunchly advocated for the abolition of slavery. The Chapmans refused to deal in Southern cotton, a lucrative trade that built the wealth of many of Boston's merchant families. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison considered the Chapmans "almost the only, if not the only, mercantile houses in the country which sacrificed a profitable Southern business to their deep conviction of the sin of slavery."²

Maria Weston Chapman herself became wholly devoted to the abolitionist cause, and in 1833 she and 12 others—including her sisters—founded the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. The group, composed of Black and White women from various social classes and backgrounds, found common ground in the fight for the immediate abolition of slavery. They played an active role in recruiting women to the cause, as well as using their funds to promote lectures and create institutions for learning.³

The society procured many of these funds through abolitionist bazaars and fairs, where the women themselves handmade the items for sale. Chapman organized her first anti-slavery fair in 1834 and continued to run them annually for over 20 years. Chapman contributed many of her own works to the fairs, including The Liberty Bell—an annual gift-book she edited that featured some of the most prominent writers of the day.⁴ In total, the efforts of Chapman and the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society helped raise $65,000 over the years.⁵

On October 21, 1835, a violent mob descended upon the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society's annual meeting. The mob dragged William Lloyd Garrison, who had offered to speak at the event, from his office and assaulted him. The mayor of Boston asked the women to end their meeting for their own safety. In response, Chapman declared, "If this is the last bulwark of freedom, we may as well die here, as any where."⁶ 

In open defiance of the angry crowd, the women left the anti-slavery office arm in arm, enduring the insults and threats of the men around them. They proceeded to Chapman's home to finish their meeting.⁷ Well aware of the threat of mob violence that abolitionists faced, Chapman predicted that this meeting might become a target: "We shall be in session at Boston, and we are prepared to say that in the strength of God our duty shall be done, let the events of the day be what they may."⁸ Just three years later, Chapman attended an anti-slavery convention in Philadelphia at the newly constructed Pennsylvania Hall. Once again, mob violence threatened the meeting. The day after she spoke, an anti-abolitionist mob burned the hall to the ground.⁹

Throughout the late 1830s, Chapman's influence grew. Her home served as the center of the "Boston Clique," a term used by friends and foes alike to describe the group of White abolitionists who exerted power and influence over the various antislavery societies.¹⁰ Chapman worked most closely with William Lloyd Garrison, assisting him in writing and editing The Liberator newspaper. She also served on various committees for the New England Anti-Slavery Society, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and the American Anti-Slavery Society. Throughout this time, she published numerous abolitionist and feminist essays, most famously Right and Wrong in Massachusetts—a paper that argued for the equal rights and participation of women in the abolitionist movement.

When President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Chapman retired from her activist work. Ultimately, her primary cause had been for the abolition of slavery. Like many other White abolitionists, she had little interest in the fight for civil rights and equality for African Americans once slavery ended. Though she worked with African American abolitionists and reformers in various organizations, her innermost circle primarily consisted of wealthy White abolitionists.

Despite these glaring shortcomings, Chapman opened the door for other women to have a more assertive role in Boston's abolitionist movement, encouraging their participation in lectures, speeches, fundraising, and petitioning. Her Boston Clique, comprised of men and women, became a space for women to proudly engage in debate, bringing into question what the traditional "female sphere" included.¹¹ She successfully carved out an active role for herself in Boston's abolitionist community, changing the perspective of what a female reformer could and should do.

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Footnotes

1. “Maria Weston Chapman.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed July 7, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maria-Weston-Chapman.
2. Garrison, William Lloyd. The Liberator. December 4, 1846.
3. “The Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service. Accessed July 7, 2024. https://home.nps.gov/articles/000/the-boston-female-anti-slavery-society.htm.
4. Kim Reynolds. “Notable Women, Notable Manuscripts: Maria Weston Chapman.” Boston Public Library, March 1, 2022. https://www.bpl.org/blogs/post/notable-women-notable-manuscripts-maria-weston-chapman/.
5. Julie Roy Jeffrey, The Great Silent Army of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in the Antislavery Movement. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 108.
6. Debra Gold Hansen, “The Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and the Limits of Gender Politics,” The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), 50.
7. The Boston Evening Transcript. September 1, 1897, pg 6.
8. Yellin, Jean Fagan, and John C. Van Van Horne. The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018., pg 49
9. Nscalessa. “NSCALESSA.” The Library Company of Philadelphia, March 1, 2017. https://librarycompany.org/2013/05/17/abolitionist-women-at-pennsylvania-hall/.
10. Kantrowitz, Stephen David. More than freedom: Fighting for black citizenship in a White Republic, 1829-1889. New York: Penguin Books, 2013, pg 60.
11. Yellin, Jean Fagan, and John C. Van Van Horne. The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2018, pg 173.