From July 4th to Juneteenth: Anti-Slavery in Peabody, 1830-1865.

July 1, 2025  |  Sophia Richter  |  15 minute read

 

In the weeks after Juneteenth, and days before Independence Day, we look at what the abolition movement looked like in Peabody leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation Act of 1865. 

Abolition most commonly refers to the laws that ended slavery. The abolitionist movement in the United States aimed to free enslaved people and put a legal end to the institution of slavery. Slavery was made illegal in Massachusetts in 1783 and it would become illegal across the country in 1865.   

For many in Peabody, this might raise the question of the historical significance of the Emancipation Proclamation in Massachusetts. Not only was it a world-historical event impacting millions of people’s lives but it was one that Peabody residents were actively involved in bringing about. Read on to learn about the Anti-Slavery Movement in Peabody, Massachusetts.

 

Rise of the Anti-Slavery Movement in Danvers-Peabody: 

While many Black free and enslaved people pushed for abolition in Massachusetts, emancipation did not mark a major shift in (White) thought about slavery. This continued to evolve until abolitionist sentiments broke into a full-fledged anti-slavery movement in the 1830s. Peabody and the surrounding towns of Lynn, Danvers, and Salem, largely welcomed and promoted the movement.

There was some early rejection of the abolitionist cause in Peabody. Prominent anti-slavery activist and British citizen, George Thompson, came to Peabody in the mid 1840s to lecture on the abolitionist cause. He was scheduled to speak at the Universalist church’s vestry. Due to such an outcry, including threats to tar and feather Thompson if he spoke, he was ushered out of Peabody to safety.[1] Even well into the 1861’s, there are examples of anti-abolitionist sentiments in Danvers-Peabody. At a lecture at the Town Hall in 1861, where prominent anti-slavery activists Parker Pillsbury and William Lloyd Garrison spoke, “a few people out of doors inclined to disturb the proceedings, by hisses and cries.”[2]  

Among the diverse reasons that the movement was nurtured early on in Peabody was its proximity to famous abolitionist activists; residents’ equal interest in the temperance and women’s rights movements; and the many social clubs and meeting places that opened their doors to the public education of Peabody residents. 

Abolitionist Activists come to Peabody: 

Significant to the rise of the abolitionist movement in Peabody was the proximity and influence of many famous abolitionist activists. 

Frederick Douglass

Among them was Frederick Douglass, the famed anti-slavery activist. Douglass, born in Maryland to an enslaved mother, lived in Lynn, Massachusetts in the 1840s and began an anti-segregationist movement that targeted the Eastern Railroad’s Jim Crow practices. Among his many significant contributions to the anti-slavery movement, he travelled extensively across New England preaching to the cause. 

On July 4th, 1853, in Rochester, Douglass gave a famous speech called “What to the American slave is your Fourth of July?” His answer was:  

It is “a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to him, more bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages”.[3] 

Frederick Douglass came to Peabody to lecture on multiple occasions. Peabody’s newspapers in the 1840s and 1850’s indicate that his lectures were enthusiastically anticipated by residents and articles often reported on his political activities both in the United States and in Europe. On one occasion, in 1846, while Douglass was lecturing in London, UK, citizens of Peabody and Lynn feared that he could be seized upon his return to the United States. While some campaigned to collected donations towards Douglass’ family, others threatened that “the whole force of the town” of Lynn “would oppose such an outrage” if Douglass were attacked, that it “would be the beginning of a sudden overthrow of the wicked system”.[4] 

William Lloyd Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison, born in Newburyport, became known for his anti-slavery publication the Liberator, founded in 1831. While his publications would agitate plenty of New Englanders over the years, Garrison would be celebrated by the U.S. federal administration at the fourth anniversary of the capture of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, S.C. Garrison also visited Peabody a few times to lecture at anti-slavery meetings.  

In 1847, Daniel P. King, who was the representative of this district in congress, voted against the Mexican War on anti-slavery grounds. A resolution was drafted by fellow Peabody statesmen that “the town would not in any manner countenance anything that shall have a tendency to extend that most disgraceful feature of our institution – domestic slavery.”[5] 

Other prominent figures included: Wendell Phillips and Parker Pillsbury. Pillsbury gave a lecture in Danvers-Peabody at the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society about the influence of Northern universities on Southern slavery. He argued that “the brutalities and barbarities of which we complain, as committed by rebels, are wholly due to the teachings of Southern school-masters, school-mistresses, ministers and missionaries, educated at Northern colleges and theological seminaries”.[6] 

Temperance and Women’s Rights Movements in Peabody: 

The temperance movement – advocating that people stop consuming alcohol – began to pick up popularity around the same time as the Anti-Slavery movement. These two movements cross-pollinated their messages, building a coalition of support. Temperance ideas linked the sale of rum with the immorality of slavery, in order to encourage people to stop consuming the liquor. There is evidence of an active membership of the Washingtonians, a temperance society, in Peabody as well.[7] 

In the 1830s, Peabody resident Abner Sanger was a partner owner in the business of a large country store in Peabody. He and his partner John Pierce decided to stop selling rum after reading the National Philanthropist, a subscription-based paper printed in Ohio that promoted anti-slavery and temperance. Later, Sanger committed many years to the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society as its treasurer.[8] 

Frederick Douglass himself appealed to supporters of the Temperance movement here in Peabody, lecturing at temperance events, such as the ones held by Rev. Mr. Prince’s church in 1845. His oration was met with enthusiastic approval.[9]

In addition to temperance, the women’s rights movement was on the rise. Among the Anti-Slavery organizers were organizations such as the “Female Anti-Slavery Society” which used a similar strategy as the temperance movement. Advocates appealed to northern white and free women’s desire for women’s rights by highlighting the inhumane laws subjugating enslaved women in the South. At time this was a strategy that promoted inter-racial solidarity. But it was also a divisive strategy for those white women who harbored racial prejudice.

Abolition and Self-Education in Peabody: 

There were many locations in Peabody that welcomed open debate and education around the abolitionist movement. The Bowditch Club held numerous public debates around abolition, the Civil War, and post-emancipation race relations.[10] Frederick Douglass himself was invited to speak at some of the Club’s meetings.[11]  

Peabody residents were also active in a number of anti-slavery societies. Prominent among them was the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society. Traveling around to different host sites, it’s leadership was comprised of a number of Danvers-Peabody residents.  

In addition to the active educational and social clubs, organizations in Peabody opened their doors for anti-slavery activities. Among them was the Sutton’s Hall, later part of the Peabody Institute Library.[12] Religious institutions such as the Unitarian Universalist Church, and the Old South Church, all hosted Anti-Slavery events.[13]

 

 

 

 

A number of abolitionists were active at the New Mills, colloquially termed “the Neck”, around 1833-34. New Mills in Peabody became the home of a meeting house for the First Baptist Society in 1848.[14] Attendees organized into a Society for the abolitionist cause. Among its early membership were Jesse P. Harriman, Richard Hood, John Hood, Joseph Merrill, Hawthorne Porter, A. R. Porter, John Cutler, William Endicott, James D. Black, William Francis, Henry A Potter, Samuel Brimblecome, John R. Patten, Eben Hunt, William Alley, Job Tyler, and H. Jocelyn.  

It was not exclusively made up of men either. Among the prominent women in the Society, E. H. Kenney, Rachel Kennedy, Lydia Endicott, Asenath Hood, Martha Cutler, Irene Kent, Susan Hutchinson, and E. H. Hutchinson played active roles. E. H. Hutchinson would also become a prominent leader in the Essex County Anti-Slavery Society.[15] 

Conclusion:

The anti-slavery movement began before the American Revolution, working for over a century in public spaces and in government to abolition the institution of slavery in the United States. Even in the North, where slavery had been abolished decades beforehand, nation-wide abolition was still a radical position for many. In Peabody, a revolution of the spirit continued a century after the American Revolution. The joint effort of cross-movement solidarities and a rich intellectual public sphere played important roles in the success of the anti-slavery movement.

Interested in learning more about how abolitionists debated the U.S. Constitution? Check out the Teach Democracy (formerly the Constitutional Rights Foundation) article to get started.

References:

[1] “Universalist Vestry,” The Peabody Press, October 8, 1879, page 1.

[2] “Sunday Services,” South Danvers Wizard, April 17, 1861, page 2.

[3] The Peabody Times, July 9, 1969, page 24.

[4] “American Slavery,” Danvers Courier, June 27, 1846, page 3.

[5] “Peabody, Past and Present,” The Peabody Enterprise, November 9, 1923, page 2.

[6] “Essex County Anti-Slavery Society,” South Danvers Wizard, October 7, 1863, page 2.

[7] ”Universalist Vestry,” Peabody Press, October 8, 1879, page 1.

[8] “Early Temperance Men,” Peabody Press, August 7, 1878, page 2.

[9] “Frederick Douglass,” Danvers Courier, May 24, 1845, page 2.

[10] ”Bowditch Club on Negro Suffrage,” South Danvers Wizard, April 12, 1865, page 2. 

[11] “Bowditch Club,” South Danvers Wizard, December 20, 1865, page 2.

[12] ”The Freedmen,” South Danvers Wizard, February 1, 1865, page 2.

[13] ”Rev. Mr. Sargent,” Danvers Courier, March 14, 1846, page 3; ”Frederick Douglass,” Danvers Courier, May 17, 1845, page 3.

[14] ”New Meeting House at the New Mills,” Danvers Courier, February 26, 1848, page 2.

[15] The Peabody Press, June 11, 1879, page 7.