Maria Weston Chapman - Travels

Travels

Throughout her three decades of involvement in the anti-slavery movement, Chapman spent considerable amounts of time outside of the United States, first in Haiti (1841-1842) and later in Paris (1848-1855). In spite of her prolonged absences, she still figured centrally in the Boston movement generally and the Boston bazaar particularly. While abroad, she tenaciously solicited support and contributions for the Boston fairs from elite members of British and European society, such as Lady Byron, Harriet Martineau, Alexis de Toqueville, Victor Hugo, and Alphonse de Lamartine. When she returned to the U.S. in 1855, “bloody Kansas” and the rise of the Republican Party brought the issue of slavery to the centre of national debate. It was in this period that Chapman began to manifestly deviate from Garrisonian ideaology, by endorsing the Republican party and later by supporting both the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln’s proposal in 1862 for gradual, compensated slave emancipation. Unlike many Garrisonians—and Garrison himself—Chapman gave no indication of being conflicted between the principle of non-coercion and the Civil War’s objective of abolishing slavery through violent force. Characteristically, Chapman was as resolute and unapologetic in her new beliefs as she had been in her old. Yet in spite of her newly expressed confidence in the state, Chapman seemingly felt little responsibility to former slaves once they were freed. In 1863, but for a passing interest in the AAS, Chapman retired from public life and for the next two decades, until her death in 1885, she “savored the perceived success of her cause and, equally, her own role in the victory.”