The Anti-Slavery Alphabet

The Anti-Slavery Alphabet is an alphabet book published in 1846 by the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS). It was written by two of the society's members, Hannah and Mary Townsend, with the intention of encouraging abolitionist ideas in young children.[1] PFASS first released the book at their annual Anti-Slavery Fair in December 1846.[2]

Contents

The book is prefaced with a poem, "To Our Little Readers", that encourages readers to talk to other children and adults about ending slavery, and to refuse foods made with sugar produced by slave labor. Each page of the main body of the book is illustrated with two decorated upper case letters of the English alphabet, in standard alphabetical order. After each letter is a rhyming quatrain discussing a word that begins with that letter. For example, the quatrain for the letter "A" is:

A is an Abolitionist—
 A man who wants to free
The wretched slave—and give to all
 An equal liberty.

See also

References

  1. ↑ De Rosa, Deborah C. (2005). Into the Mouths of Babes: An Anthology of Children's Abolitionist Literature. Praeger. p. 71.
  2. ↑ Sledge, Martha L. (2008). "'A Is an Abolitionist': The Anti-Slavery Alphabet and the Politics of Literacy". In Elbert, Monika. Enterprising Youth: Social Values and Acculturation in Nineteenth-Century American Children's Literature. Routledge. p. 69.
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