In 1833, at the organization of the American Anti-Slavery Society
in Philadelphia, a number of women were present. Lucretia Mott, a
distinguished "minister" in the Society of Friends, took part in
the proceedings. She was careful to state that she spoke as a
mere visitor, having no place in the organization, but she
ventured to suggest various modifications in the report of
Garrison's committee on a declaration of principles which
rendered it more acceptable to the meeting. It had not then been
seriously considered whether women could become members of the
Anti-Slavery Society, which was at that time composed exclusively
of men, with the women maintaining their separate organizations
as auxiliaries.

The women of the West were already better organized than the men
and were doing a work which men could not do. They were, for the
most part, unconscious of any conflict between the peculiar
duties of men and those of women in their relations to common
objects. The "library associations" of Indiana, which were in
fact effective anti-slavery societies, were to a large extent
composed of women. To the library were added numerous other
disguises, such as "reading circles," "sewing societies,"
"women's clubs." In many communities the appearance of men in any
of these enterprises would create suspicion or even raise a mob.
But the women worked on quietly, effectively, and unnoticed.

The matron of a family would be provided with the best
riding-horse which the neighborhood could furnish. Mounted upon
her steed, she would sally forth in the morning, meet her
carefully selected friends in a town twenty miles away, gain