information as to what had been accomplished, give information as
to the work in other parts of the district, distribute new
literature, confer as to the best means of extending their
labors, and return in the afternoon. The father of such a family
was quite content with the humbler task of cooperation by
supplying the sinews of war. There was complete equality between
husband and wife because their aims were identical and each
rendered the service most convenient and most needed. Women did
what men could not do. In the territory of the enemy the men were
reached through the gradual and tentative efforts of women whom
the uninitiated supposed to be spending idle hours at a sewing
circle. Interest was maintained by the use of information of the
same general character as that which later took the country by
storm in Uncle Tom's Cabin. In course of time all disguise was
thrown aside. A public speaker of national reputation would
appear, a meeting would be announced, and a rousing abolition
speech would be delivered; the mere men of the neighborhood would
have little conception how the surprising change had been
accomplished.

On rare occasions the public presentation of the anti-slavery
view would be undertaken prematurely, as in 1840 at Pendleton,
Indiana, when Frederick Douglass attempted to address a public
meeting and was almost slain by missiles from the mob. Pendleton,
however, was not given over to the enemy. The victim of the
assault was restored to health in the family of a leading
citizen. The outrage was judiciously utilized to convince the
fair-minded that one of the evils of slavery was the development
of minds void of candor and justice. On the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the Pendleton disturbance there was another great