Non-Resistance Society

The New England Non-Resistance Society was founded at a special peace convention organized by William Lloyd Garrison, in Boston on September 1838. It was one of the more radical of the many organizations he founded, adopting a Declaration of Sentiments of which he was the principal author, pledging themselves to deny the validity of social distinctions based on race, nationality or gender",^[1] refusing obedience to human governments, and opposing even individual acts of self defense.^[2]

The declaration was signed by 44 people, of whom 20 were women. and Maria Chapman became the editor of its publication, The Non-Resistant ^[2], which started publication in 1839. The first annual meeting was held in Philadelphia, Sept 24-27, 1839.

The organization has been considered to be a "relatively exclusive vehicle of the radical [Boston] upper class" ^[3]

References

1. ^ Walters, Ronald G. American Reformers: 1815 - 1860. New York: Hill and Wang, 1997 ISBN 9780809001309 p.120 Google Books
2. ^ ^{a b} Yellin, Jean Fagan, and John C. Van Horne. The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women's Political Culture in Antebellum America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994. ISBN 9780801427282
3. ^ Hansen, Debra Gold. Strained Sisterhood: Gender and Class in the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993. ISBN 9780870238482 p.105 Google Books