Elizabeth Margaret Chandler - Career

Career

At the early age of sixteen, Elizabeth Chandler's romantic verses on nature were first published. In 1825, when she was eighteen years old, her emotional poem, "The Slave-Ship", was published and drew national attention. After reading that poem, she was invited by Benjamin Lundy, a well known abolitionist and publisher, to write for his periodical, The Genius of Universal Emancipation. She wrote for and edited the "Ladies' Repository" section of his newspaper. She used her appeal to women to demand better treatment for Native Americans and the immediate emancipation of slaves. She became one of the most powerful women writers of her time. She often used the tragic example of women slaves being torn away from their children and their husbands to gain sympathy from her female readers. When told that women did not have the power to abolish slavery, Chandler responded that, as mothers, women are in the unique position:

It is hard to say exactly how influential her writings were to the public at large. However, many of her articles were copied and circulated in the most popular newspapers of the time. She also introduced one of the most famous abolitionist images, the kneeling female slave with the slogan "Am I not a Woman and a Sister". Taken from the image depicting a male slave for the seal of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade designed by Wedgwood. Two years later, William Lloyd Garrison editor of The Liberator, and a leader in the abolitionist movement, adopted this symbol and slogan to head the ladies department of the paper, one of the most prominent abolitionist papers of the time.