Town Hall Reax.

   

Today, gathered in the Town Hall were the great abolitionists of slavery from the 1800s. Stories of many were heard, and the tales of each member were told from their childhood up until the end of their work in the fight against slavery. Today, we have legends of abolishment such as Nat Turner, John Brown, John Quincy Adams, and several others. In a few of the stories told today, a handful of people pointed out their values and ideas of the institution of slavery. With a few members being former slaves, they had a strong hatred for slavery and a motive to end it due to the terror and pain caused to them. For instance, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper described slavery as a moral cancer. Harper was born into a free African American family, yet fought nearly her entire adult life for equal rights for African Americans and women as well. Harper fought through her writing and words in her published abolitionist poems and short stories.

    Shifting to former slaves, we had Sorjouner Truth tell her story at the Town Hall meeting of her life while in slavery and also after she was rewarded with her freedom. Truth, a well-established follower of God, was born Isabella Baumfree to slaves who she was then sold away from her family soon after. When she was twenty-nine, she escaped from slavery with her infant daughter. Soon after, she changed her name by the grace of God to the well-known name of Sojourner Truth. She then began her work as a preacher and spread her faith across the land while also working to fight for women's suffrage as well. 

Next, Elizabeth Buffman Chace took the chance to describe the course of her life. She was born into a Quaker family and was inspired by her father, Andrew Chace the first president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, to work as an abolitionist. After her work was complete once slavery was abolished, Chace turned her efforts to work for the fight for women's suffrage like many others who we hear from today. 

Following, we had Abby Kelley Foster, the former secretary of the Female Anti-Slavery Society and also the founder of the Millbury Anti-Slavery Society. Foster lived her life by the motto "Go where least wanted, for there you are most needed." Strong words to live by as Foster dedicated her life to the fight against slavery and also in support of women's suffrage. She even quit her job as a teacher to work full time in her efforts, displaying her determination and dedication to the causes. 

    Finally, we had Henry Walton Bibb, a former slave who escaped to Canada in 1842. Bibb stated that "no tongue or pen has explained and experienced the horrors of slavery." These words were deemed to be very powerful as Bibb himself had experienced these horrors in the many years he lived as a slave. After his escape, Bibb was a man of the escaped slaves as he took them into his homes and settlements in Canada to provide for them until they could start their own lives. Bibb published a story on his life in slavery and his escape in 1849 to highlight how painful and terrorizing slavery was for not just him, but the millions that experienced those terrors as well.