ed "Immediate, not Gradual
Emancipation," was during the same year republished by the
"Anti-Slavery Sewing Society," a body composed of some of the
members of this Association, but not identical with it, which met
weekly at the house of our Vice-President, Sidney Ann Lewis.
Another event, important and far-reaching beyond our power then
to foresee, had marked the year. A member of this Society[60] had
received and accepted a commission to labor as an agent of the
American Anti-Slavery Society. It is evident, from the language
of the Report, that the newly-appointed agent and her
fellow-members regarded the mission as one fraught with peculiar
trial of patience and faith, and anticipated the opposition which
such an innovation on the usages of the times would elicit. Her
appointed field of labor was among her own sex, in public or in
private; but in the next year's Report it is announced that she
had enlarged her sphere. The fact should never be forgotten by us
that it was a member of this Society who first broke the soil in
that field where so many women have since labored abundantly, and
are now reaping so rich a harvest.

The next year, 1837, was made memorable by a still greater
innovation upon established usage--the first National Convention
of American Anti-Slavery Women. It is interesting and profitable
to notice, as the years passed, that new duties and new
responsibilities educated woman for larger spheres of action.
Each year brought new revelations, presented new aspects of the
cause, and made new demands. Our early Reports mention these
Conventions of Women, which were held during three consecutive
years in New York and this city, as a novel measure, which would,
of course, excite opposition; and they also record the fact that
"the editorial rebukes, sarcasm, and ridicule" which they
elicited, did not exceed the anticipations of the Abolitionists.

The second of these Conventions was held in this city, in the
midst of those scenes of riot when infuriated Southern
slaveholders and cowardly Northern tradesmen combined for
purposes of robbery and arson, and surrounded Pennsylvania Hall
with their representatives, the mob which plundered and burnt it,
while the City Government looked on consenting to these crimes.
That Convention