Proceedings of the Boston Mob Anti-Slavery Meeting, Stacy Hall, 1855

What it is

This is a printed record of the Anti-Slavery Meeting held in Stacy Hall, Boston, on the twentieth anniversary of the mob of October 21, 1835. It was published in Boston in 1855 by R. F. Wallcut, with a phonographic report by J. M. W. Yerrinton. A phonographic report is a transcript made by a shorthand reporter, so the words are the reporter's record of the speeches, not a direct recording. The copy here is a scanned PDF from the Internet Archive, part of the Birney Anti-Slavery Collection.

Why it matters

The meeting looked back on the 1835 attack on Garrison, when a Boston crowd threatened and seized him during an anti-slavery event. Its proceedings show how abolitionists remembered that attack and used it to argue for free speech and for their cause. The record also includes poems read or sung at the meeting, and it reflects the years of conflict over slavery that led toward the Civil War.

Look closer

• Who spoke at this meeting, and how does the printed record show the speakers' view of the 1835 mob?
• Why did a reporter's transcript matter for preserving the meeting, and what might be lost or changed in writing it down?
• How do the songs and poems in the record shape the message of the meeting?