{"id":2823,"date":"2019-08-30T17:19:12","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T17:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/?page_id=2823"},"modified":"2019-09-12T12:32:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T12:32:21","slug":"antebellum","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/antebellum\/","title":{"rendered":"Antebellum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Elizabeth Smith Abbey, 1807-1874<\/a> <\/td><\/tr>
Mary Hickox Bronson, 1777-1858<\/a> <\/td><\/tr>
Mary Ingersol Tod Evans, 1802-1869<\/a> <\/td><\/tr>
Roxana Jones Howe, 1805-1875<\/a> <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

In 1825, Akron was little more than a dream. But the untamed wilderness held all the ingredients for success \u2013 rich soil for those who planned an agricultural future and an ample water supply that could power future factories and mills. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akron\u2019s initial success, however, depended on an ambitious government-funded internal improvement program in the early 1800s \u2013 the canals. Akron was on the planned route of the ambitious transportation network across the region, the Ohio and Erie Canal. From 1825, when the construction started, until 1827, when Akron was linked by canal to Cleveland, thousands of men \u2013 Irish laborers who built the canal; artisans and mechanics, who offered valued services to the canal construction and helped build Akron, and farmers streamed into the area. In 1835, Akron again benefited from the canal frenzy when the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal linked North and South Akron and the city to east and west.  
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The canals also brought disease, filth, vice and violence to the city.  Akron newspapers in the 1820 and 1830s reported many residents suffered from a \u201ctouch of malaria,\u201d although typhoid fever was probably was the real cause. The Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal flowed along what became Main Street, making it what one early resident called a \u201cdisreputable dump.\u201d Scalawags, con men, \u201ctramps,\u201d \u201criffraff\u201d and crooks were so numerous along canal that \u201cdecent\u201d Akron residents generally avoided the area, one early inhabitant remembered. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akron\u2019s economy worsened in the five years that followed the Panic of 1837; Akron was reduced to what newspaper editor Samuel A. Lane called a \u201ctruck and dicker\u201d barter system. Many early residents lost their jobs and their savings as factories closed down. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was during this time that Akron women organized clubs and organizations to help alleviate the problems in the city. The Martha Washington women\u2019s auxiliary to the Washington Total Abstinence Society male group established one of Akron\u2019s first welfare programs for the less fortunate. The women started with the families of inebriates but soon reached out the families who were suffering during the depression that followed the Panic of 1837.  The \u201cMartha Washingtons\u201d and later the \u201cDaughters of Temperance\u201d did fundraising to raise money to help the less fortunate. While newspapers acknowledged their work, the periodicals never reported the names of the women activists. City publications also did not report the names of women who formed the Female Moral Reform Society to save women and children from \u201cdepraved men.\u201d 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Antebellum women\u2019s organizations became more active \u2013 and more militant — in the 1850s. The Summit County Female Labor Association worked to get a living wage for the sewing women in the city. This organization cut across class lines, with both seamstresses and affluent women working together to improve rates paid sewing women. Merchants who failed to pay the publicized minimum rates were identified in the media and the women encouraged a boycott of those who failed to meet the standards. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The women of these antebellum organizations were learning important lessons that they would apply in the years that followed.  They had learned how to publicize their activities, execute successful events and carry out welfare services in the community. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Akron women activists are difficult to identify, given the practices of the city newspapers. Names of Akron antebellum women were gleaned from secondary sources.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources: Kathleen L. Endres, Akron\u2019s \u201cBetter Half\u201d: Women\u2019s Clubs and the Humanization of the City, 1825-1924<\/em>, Akron: University of Akron Press,  2006.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George W.  Knepper, Akron: City at the Summit<\/em>, Akron: Summit County Historical Society, 1981.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samuel A. Lane, Fifty Years and Over of Akron and Summit County<\/em>, Akron: Beacon Job Dept.,1892. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos courtesy of the Summit County Historical Society.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Smith Abbey, 1807-1874 Mary Hickox Bronson, 1777-1858 Mary Ingersol Tod Evans, 1802-1869 Roxana Jones Howe, 1805-1875 In 1825, Akron was little more than a dream. But the untamed wilderness held all the ingredients for success \u2013 rich soil for those who planned an agricultural future and an ample water supply that could power future … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Antebellum”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3795,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2823","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2823"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3755,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2823\/revisions\/3755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}