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Thankful Southwick was an affluent Quaker Abolitionist and Women's Rights Activist in Boston. Thankful was lifelong abolitionist who joined the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835 with her three daughters. She was present at both the 1835 Boston Mob and the Abolition Riot of 1836. During the 1839 schism in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, Thankful sided with the Westons, Chapmans, Childs, Sergeants, and other radical Garrisonians to reestablish the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and later joined the New England Non Resistance Society. She held several elected offices within the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, including counselor in 1837, as well as President in 1840, 1841, 1842, and 1844. Thankful was also involved in the Women’s Rights Movement and was an attendee and signer of the call of the first National Women’s Rights Convention held in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1850. Thankful and Joseph Southwick’s house was both a gathering place for fellow abolitionists and a stop on the Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves. During her years of activism in Boston, Thankful and her family were closely acquainted with notable abolitionists and women 's rights activists, including William Lloyd Garrison, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglas, Lydia Maria Child, Maria Weston Chapman, and George Thompson.

Early Life and Introduction to the Boston Abolitionist Movement

Thankful Hussey Southwick was born on July 2, 1792 in Portland, Maine. Her father was Samuel F Hussey, a quaker and abolitionist. Samuel’s abolitionist views were heavily informed by his trade as a merchant importing goods from England. Samuel learned of the antislavery movement occurring in England through the pamphlets that his English correspondent and fellow Quaker James Cropper left in the goods he sent over from England (Rem). He was a known friend of fugitive slaves (REM 6 or 16; BEV 1 and 2) and helped runaway slaves on their escape to freedom in Canada. Thankful inherited her abolitionist beliefs from her father. She had two sisters, Sarah Hussey, and Comfort Hussey.

On October 1, 1818, Thankful married Joseph Southwick of Portland, who was also an abolitionist. Thankful and Joseph had three children- Abigail Southwick, born September 17, 1819, Sarah Hussey Southwick, born March 3, 1821, and Anna, born 1823. In 1834, the Southwick family moved to South Danvers (Peabody), Massachusetts, and then to Number 36 High Street in Boston in 1835. While the Southwick did not know any families in Boston at the time of their move, the reputations of both Thankful and Joseph Southwick as devoted abolitionists preceded them, and they were quickly acquainted with notable Boston abolitionist families and became heavily involved in the abolition movement in Boston. Thankful and her daughters became close friends with the Chapmans and Westons. Along with the Sergeants, the Chapmans, the Childs, the Westons, and Thankful Southwick became the main power brokers and decision makers within the Boston abolition movement and the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society throughout the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s.

Involvement in the Abolition Movement

Early Years in the Boston female anit-slavery society

Thankful and her family were first introduced to the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society in the winter of 1834 while still living in Peabody. Sarah and Joseph attended the First Anti-slavery Fair held by the Society. Thankfully prompted her daughters to write an article for the fair in addition to attending it. After moving to Boston in 1835, Thankful and her daughters joined the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. The Southwick’s two domestic servants- Phillis Salem, a black woman, and Eliza Garnaut, a Welsh immigrant- also joined the Society at this time. As part of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, Thankful ******. Due to the Southwick’s affluent standing in Boston society, Thankful was able to devote large amounts of time and money to the cause, and Thankful and her daughter became prominent and powerful participants in the Boston Abolition Movement (SS??). During her first two years as a member of the Society, Thankful participated in both the 1835 Boston Mob and the Abolition Riot of 1836.

1835 Boston Mob

In October 1835, George Thompson was invited to speak at the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society’s meeting, which was to be held in the publishing office of The Liberator (NEHS). Thankful and 49 other members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society were gathered in William Lloyd Garrison’s office when the meeting was broken up by a mob of 1500 to 2000 anti-abolitionist gentlemen who were looking for Thompson. While the crowd rioted in the streets and destroyed the office of The Liberator, Thankful and the other women continued to read scripture and discuss amongst themselves. When Mayor Theodore Lyman was finally able to convince the women of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society to leave, Thankful and the others were able to pass through the still rioting streets unharmed.

During his initial stay in Boston and during future visits, Thompson stayed at the home of the Southwick’s. Thankful would serve him dinner at 9 o’clock while Thompson would entertain the family with stories of his life in England.

Abolition Riot of 1836

Thankful also participated in the Abolition Riot of 1836, which was known at the time as the Baltimore Slave Cases. In August 1836, Eliza Small and Polly Anne Bates were captured aboard the Chickasaw by the slave catcher Matthew Turner. Turner alleged that the two women were fugitive slaves belonging to John B Morris of Baltimore. However, the two women had legal papers attesting to their freedom. Elia and Polly Anne were detained on the ship by the captain while Turner applied for a warrant from their arrest. Word spread quickly, and a warrant was requested and issues against the captain of the Chickasaw. When Eliza and Polly Anne’s case was argued, a delegation of Thankful and four other members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society were present at the trial “to give them at the trial, whatever comfort [their] presence might afford” to the women. After Justice Shaw decided that the captain of the Chickasaw did not have the legal right to detain Eliza and Polly Anne and ruled for their release, a riot broke out in the courtroom when it appeared that Turner was about to immediately apprehend the women. Spectators rushed towards Eliza and Polly Ann and took them out of the courthouse (levy 88). When the two women had been carried away, Thankful turned to Turner and said, “thy prey hath escaped thee.”

In 1837*********.

Split in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society

Underground railroad

Thankful and Joseph Southwick’s house was known for being a meeting place and canvasary for fellow abolitionists and other members of the anti-slavery movement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton remarked that Tankful’s home “was always a harbor of rest for the weary, where the anti-slavery hosts were wont to congregate, and where one was always sure to meet someone worth knowing. Their hospitality was generous to an extreme, and so boundless that they were, at last, fairly eaten out of house and home.” The Southwick home was also open to fugitive slaves, as it was an important station on the Underground Railroad route through Boston to Canada.

Non-resistance movement

Involvement in the women's rights movement

  Thankful was also involved in the women’s suffrage movement. In October 1850, Thankful and Sarah Southwick attended and signed the call of the Women’s Rights Convention held in Worcester, Massachusetts, the first national women’s rights convention that called for “equality before the law without distinction of sex or color.”

Death and legacy

  Thankful died at age 75 on April 29, 1867 in Grantville (now Wellesley) Massachusetts. Her obituary was written by Lydia Maria Child and her eulogy was given by William Lloyd Garrison. Thankful and her husband were beloved and fondly remembered by their abolitionist and women’s rights peers. In his Speech Before the International Council of Women, in Washington, D.C. on April 1888, Frederick Douglas remembered Thankful and Joseph as “two of the noblest people I ever knew.” Bibliography for Thankful Southwick

Caller, James Moore., Ober, Maria A. Genealogy of the Descendants of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick of Salem, Mass: The Original Emigrants, and the Ancestors of the Families who Have Since Borne His Name. United States: J.H. Choate & Company,   1881.

Curti, Merle E. “Non-Resistance in New England.” The New England Quarterly 2, no. 1 (1929): 34–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/359819.

Garrison, William Lloyd. Edited by Louis Ruchames. The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison. United Kingdom: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979.

Hasen, Deborah Gold. Strained Sisterhood Gender and Class in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. Amherst, MA: Univ of Massachusetts Pr, 2009.

Horne, James C. van, and Jean Fagan Yellin. The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women's Political Culture in Antebellum America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994.

Jeffrey, Julie Roy. “The Liberty Women of Boston: Evangelicalism and Antislavery Politics.” The New England Quarterly 85, no. 1 (March 2012): 38–70. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23251364.

Levy, Leonard W. “The ‘Abolition Riot’: Boston's First Slave Rescue.” The New England Quarterly 25, no. 1 (March 1952): 85–92. https://www.jstor.org/stable/363035.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897. Edited by Ellen Carol DuBois and Ann D. Gordon. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2020.

Southwick, Sarah H. Reminiscences of Early Anti-Slavery Days. Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1893. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.32044025682196.