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May 23, 2026
Abolitionists and the Politics of Correspondence
Summary
Mary Freeman, associate professor of history at the University of Maine, joins Michael Stauch to discuss her new book Abolitionists and the Politics of Correspondence (U Pennsylvania Press, 2026), about how abolitionists harnessed the power of letter-writing to further their political aims. It highlights everyday Americans’ involvement in abolition, and shows in particular how women and Black Americans used letters to intervene in politics when other avenues were closed to them. Freeman focuses not only on what people wrote but also how they wrote about it: how they manipulated, exploited, and subverted cultural conventions to make political statements and claims.
Highlights include:
- The inspiration behind the book’s striking title;
- The influence of the “archival turn” on Freeman’s analysis of the materiality of letters;
- A bold new reading of the lives of Angelina and Sarah Grimke, suggesting how their letter writing influenced their activism;
- How the abolitionist movement grew alongside the rise of the post office;
- The role of new forms of technology in shaping social movements, yesterday and today.
Guest: Mary Freeman is an associate professor of history at the University of Maine, with a focus on the political, social, and cultural history of slavery and abolition. Her writing has appeared in the Journal of the Early Republic and she is currently developing research projects on nineteenth-century Black activism in Maine and on the history of abolitionist archives.
Host: Michael Stauch is an associate professor of history at the University of Toledo and the author of Wildcat of the Streets: Detroit in the Age of Community Policing, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2025.
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