By 1837, Lydia Maria Child and other female abolitionists--Black and white--had been organizing against slavery for years. But as the movement grew, conservative clergy became uncomfortable with women's leadership and published a "Pastoral Letter" urging them to cease their efforts. The women's refusal caused
the abolitionist movement to splinter and left the "Woman Question" unanswered, setting the stage, three decades later, for tensions around the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment.

Event co-sponsored by History, Philosophy, & WGS