Bell, Book, and Locomotive: Communicating Abolition in and out of Concord, Massachusetts

Abstract

“Bell, Book, and Locomotive” explores the print culture of abolitionism in Concord, Massachusetts by focusing on a confluence of communication technologies: town bells, printing presses, and the railroad. In addition to Ralph Waldo Emerson and fellow transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, the article considers the antislavery activism of Moses Grandy, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs.