Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kelly and the Politics of Antislavery Book

In the years before the Civil War, a young white woman from a Quaker background came to embody commitment to the cause of antislavery and equal rights for black people. Abby Kelley became the abolitionist movement's chief money-raiser and organizer and its most radical member.

Publishers Weekly

A little-noticed figure in the early civil rights movement is brought to the forefront by Sterling, whose We Are Your Sisters depicts the experiences of black women in the 19th century. Twenty years before the Civil War, Abby Kelley, a young white Quaker, became a noted Abolitionist. In her travels through the North, she was vilified not only for her stand against slavery but also for protesting the exclusion of women from voting rights. While joining such renowned leaders in both movements as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone and Lucretia Mott, Kelley remained true to her rural roots and, as wife and mother, loyal to Quaker simplicity. At an 1839 meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society, she led the fight to substitute the word ``persons'' for men in official records. This useful, detailed and enlightening biography will appeal more to the student of history than to the general reader. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Jan.)