The Colored Female Religious and Moral Society was an African American women's club organized in 1818 in Salem, Massachusetts.[1] The group was started by forty women and they created their own constitution.[2] The group's constitution was published in the Liberator, an abolitionist paper.[3] The members promised that they would "be charitably watchful over each other."[4] Members also were required to take an oath of secrecy.[5] The organization was religious in nature, but they also worked to get sickness and death benefits for others.[6] In 1833, after membership had dwindled, the society was again revived.[7] Many of the members were "Christian propertied elite."[5]

References

  1. ^ Scott, Anne Firor (1990-01-01). "Most Invisible of All: Black Women's Voluntary Associations". The Journal of Southern History. 56 (1): 6. doi:10.2307/2210662. JSTOR 2210662.
  2. ^ Sterling, Dorothy (1997). We are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century (Revised ed.). W. W. Norton & Company. p. 108. ISBN 9780393316292.
  3. ^ Sinha, Manisha (2016). The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition. Yale University Press. p. 269. ISBN 9780300182088.
  4. ^ Shaw, Stephanie J. (1999). "Black Clubwomen's Movement". In Mankiller, Wilma P.; Mink, Gwendolyn; Navarro, Marysa; Smith, Barbara; Steinem, Gloria (eds.). The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History (Reprint ed.). Mariner Books. p. 62. ISBN 9780618001828.
  5. ^ a b Adams, Catherine; Pleck, Elizabeth H. (2010). Love of Freedom: Black Women in Colonial and Revolutionary New England. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199779833.
  6. ^ Corrigan, John; Hudson, Winthrop (2016). Religion in America (8th ed.). Routledge. p. 149. ISBN 9781317344605.
  7. ^ "Colored Female Society in Salem". The Liberator. 16 February 1833. Retrieved 8 February 2017 – via The Liberator Files.
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