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More than just another anti-slavery newspaper… A recent find…
February 7, 2025 by TimHughes · 2 Comments
I would have thought that after roughly a half-century in this hobby I would have heard of almost every title in America, even if I never owned them. But recently we encountered some issues of “The Non-Resistant” from Boston. Certainly the title intrigued me.
Wikipedia does a nice job of describing it:
“The New England Non-Resistance Society was an American peace group founded by William Lloyd Garrison (publisher of the famous ‘Liberator’ newspaper) in 1838. At the organizing convention, members of the American Anti-Slavery Society & the American Peace Society expressed discomfort with Garrison’s philosophy of non-resistance & inclusion of women in public political activities. After conservative attendees opposing Garrison walked out of the convention in protest, those remaining formed the ‘New England Non-Resistance Society’.
The Society condemned the use of force in resisting evil, in war, for the death penalty, or in self-defense, renounced allegiance to human government, and because of the anti-slavery cause, favored non-union with the American South.
The New England Non-Resistance Society was one of the more radical of the many organizations founded by William Lloyd Garrison, 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, refusing obedience to human governments, and opposing even individual acts of self-defense.
In the Society’s Declaration of Sentiments, Garrison wrote, ‘any person without distinction of sex or color, who consents to the principles of this Constitution may become a member and be entitled to speak at its meetings.’ The Society rejected loyalty to any human government; one historian has described the Non-Resistance Society’s ‘basic outlook as that of philosophical anarchism’.
The declaration was signed by 44 people, of whom 20 were women. Maria Chapman became the editor of its publication, The Non-Resistant, along with Edmund Quincy and William Lloyd Garrison and started publication in 1839. The publication lasted only several years but was indicative of the millennial character of parts of the reform movement.”
An interesting newspaper with an intriguing history. I should never be surprised by what comes our way.
Snapshot 1839… Is an atheist’s sworn statement in court valid?
September 22, 2023 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Let’s be honest, if a journalist posed this question in a mainstream newspaper today, the pushback for even asking the question would likely go viral within minutes, if not seconds. However, in 1831 the Boston Police Court was wrestling with this very question. In fact, the language used to describe such a situation was not one of validity, but competency. The article is too long to show in full, but for those who may be curious I’ve included 2 photos below – one each of both of the introduction and the conclusion.
Note: Some might also find the slavery-themed content within this same issue rather interesting as well: Daily National Intelligencer, July 2, 1839.
