Appeal to the Wives, Mothers, and Daughters of our Land.
New-York Female Moral Reform Society. “An Appeal to the Wives, Mothers and Daughters of our Land. In the City and the Country, Earnestly and Affectionately Presented by the Ladies of the New York Female Moral Reform Society." New York: Published by the Female Moral Reform Society, 1836. First edition. 12mo, unbound pamphlet stitched as issued. 12 pages. Lightly foxed throughout; a very good copy.
“The broken Sabbath, the midnight revel, the crowded theatre, all say, 'The glory is departing.' From the theatre to the brothel, the transition is easy and natural; and now the voice of conscience is silenced, the last restraints of virtue are withdrawn, and riot and murder close the dreadful scene.” An early publication from this reforming anti prostitution group, which had formed after a schism in 1834 from the New-York Female Benevolent Society. The Female Moral Reform Society sought to prevent prostitution and reform the sexual double-standard with women missionaries and operatives-as opposed to the Benevolent Society's mission of using male missionaries to convert prostitutes. The relatively plain-spoken advice here advanced-written by women for a female audience-argues for shining light on profligacy, disseminating frank information among the female operatives of the newly-sprouting mill towns (largely through the organization's periodical, Advocate of Moral Reform), and the role of unmarried women in advancing the cause of reform: "Away with that sickly sentimentalism, which spends all its energies in weeping over fictitious woes, while it looks with utter indifference on the sin and suffering by which it is surrounded. Let us call things by their right names, and shun vice in its alluring, as well as in its most disgusting forms." Includes the Constitution of the organization. American Imprints 35734.
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