The Color of Abolition: How a Printer, a Prophet, and a Contessa Moved a Nation
Linda Hirshman
University of Illinois Press
In the crucial early years of the Abolition movement, the Boston branch of the cause seized upon the star power of the eloquent ex-slave Frederick Douglass to make its case for slaves’ freedom. Conventional histories have seen Douglass’s subsequent departure for the New York wing of the Abolition party as a result of a rift between Douglass and Garrison. But, as Hirshman reveals, this completely misses a key cause of the rift: Maria Weston Chapman, known as “the Contessa”.