Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society

Other white women who were mainstays of the interracial organization included Sarah Pugh and Mary Grew, respectively the president and corresponding secretary of PFASS for most of its existence.

[7] She also offered the Society's last resolution, which praised the post-civil war amendments as a success for the anti-slavery cause.

[2] Through holding key offices, historian Janice Sumler-Lewis claims the efforts of the Forten women enabled this predominantly white organization to reflect a black abolitionist perspective that oftentimes was more militant.

She argues these literacy societies offered black middle-class females opportunities to educate themselves and their children as well as to develop the necessary skills for community activism.

[9] Writer Evette Dionne notes that this amount of integration and cooperation in a society among black and white women would have been quite rare even in a free city like Philadelphia.

[10] In the 1830s, the PFASS largely focused on circulating antislavery petitions, holding public meetings, organizing fundraising efforts, and financially supporting community improvement for free blacks.

The primary PFASS fundraiser was an annual fair in which handcrafted items such as needlework with abolitionist inscriptions and antislavery publications were sold.

In addition to selling items, the fairs featured speeches by well known abolitionists that attracted large audiences willing to pay admissions fees.

Throughout the entire period, the PFASS provided a large proportion of all funds donated to the state society.

Black women members under the leadership of Hetty Reckless worked closely with the Vigilance Association of Philadelphia, an all-male benevolent society that aided fugitive slaves.

Reckless "persuaded society members to contribute to community projects and to make donations ... to provide fugitives with room and board, clothing, medical assistance, employment, financial aid, and advice concerning their legal rights.

"[15] However, white female members of the society were quite divided over whether aid to fugitive slaves counted as true antislavery work.

[18] White female abolitionists, on the other hand, tended to view these actions as "potential distractions from the main goal of fighting slavery.