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When Canvassers Became Activists: Antislavery Petitioning and the Political Mobilization of American Women

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  • CARPENTER, DANIEL
  • MOORE, COLIN D.

Abstract

Examining an original dataset of more than 8,500 antislavery petitions sent to Congress (1833–1845), we argue that American women's petition canvassing conferred skills and contacts that empowered their later activism. We find that women canvassers gathered 50% or more signatures (absolute and per capita) than men while circulating the same petition requests in the same locales. Supplementary evidence (mainly qualitative) points to women's persuasive capacity and network building as the most plausible mechanisms for this increased efficacy. We then present evidence that leaders in the women's rights and reform campaigns of the nineteenth century were previously active in antislavery canvassing. Pivotal signers of the Seneca Falls Declaration were antislavery petition canvassers, and in an independent sample of post–Civil War activists, women were four times more likely than men to have served as identifiable antislavery canvassers. For American women, petition canvassing—with its patterns of persuasion and networking—shaped legacies in political argument, network formation, and organizing.

Suggested Citation

  • Carpenter, Daniel & Moore, Colin D., 2014. "When Canvassers Became Activists: Antislavery Petitioning and the Political Mobilization of American Women," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(3), pages 479-498, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:108:y:2014:i:03:p:479-498_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Mona Morgan-Collins & Wayne Valeria Rueda, 2023. "Becoming political: How marching suffragists facilitated women's electoral participation in England," Discussion Papers 2023-16, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    2. Jeffery A. Jenkins & Charles Stewart, 2020. "Causal inference and American political development: the case of the gag rule," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 429-457, December.
    3. Helen Briassoulis, 2021. "Becoming E-Petition: An Assemblage-Based Framework for Analysis and Research," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440211, March.
    4. Young Bae & Byung-Deuk Woo & Sungwon Jung & Eunchae Lee & Jiin Lee & Mingu Lee & Haegyun Park, 2023. "The Relationship Between Government Response Speed and Sentiments of Public Complaints: Empirical Evidence From Big Data on Public Complaints in South Korea," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, April.

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