Book/Printed Material Image 1 of A woman's life-work: labors and experiences of Laura S. Haviland

About this Item

About this Item

Title

  • A woman's life-work: labors and experiences of Laura S. Haviland

Summary

  • Canadian-born Laura Haviland (1808-1898) was an evangelically-minded Quaker and later (for a time) a Wesleyan Methodist, active in education and social justice issues throughout her life. A Woman's Life Work is, above all, a religious autobiography chronicling her conversion experience and her desire to express faith through benevolent social action. She was brought up in New York State but moved to Raisin, Lenawee County, Michigan, following her marriage at sixteen. In 1837, influenced by the example of Oberlin College, she and her husband founded the Raisin Institute, an academy open to "all of good moral character" regardless of race. After her husband's death, she became increasingly involved with the underground railroad, traveling frequently to the South and enacting elaborate plans to help slaves escape. When the Civil War broke out, she organized relief efforts for wounded or imprisoned soldiers as well as for former slaves, refugees, and those who were illegally still held in bondage, working with the Freedman's Relief Association and the American Missionary Association, with which she established an orphanage primarily devoted to black children. Although she lectured, lobbied, and ministered, Haviland's forte was grassroots activism--organizing, protesting, lobbying, or demonstrating against the specific injustices she encountered. Her book is filled with individual stories of black-white relationships under slavery and includes a slave narrative from a man called "Uncle Philip," transcribed in his own words. Haviland writes graphic descriptions of the punishments meted out to slaves and gives the reader eyewitness accounts of war-time prisons, hospitals, soup kitchens and refugee camps. She provides extensive information about the subtle relationships between the Society of Friends and evangelical Christianity. Though Haviland became a Wesleyan Methodist for the most active period of her life, she returned to her Quaker origins shortly before her death.

Names

  • Haviland, Laura S. (Laura Smith), 1808-1898

Created / Published

  • Cincinnati, Printed by Walden & Stowe for the Author, 1882.

Headings

  • -  Underground Railroad
  • -  Freed persons
  • -  United States--Race relations

Notes

  • -  Also available in digital form.

Medium

  • 2 p.l., 520 p. front. (port.) plates. 20 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • E450 .H38

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 11024792

Online Format

  • online text
  • image
  • pdf

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright protection (see Title 17, U.S.C.) or any other restrictions in the materials in the Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910 materials. The Library of Congress is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, General Collections and Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Haviland, Laura S. A woman's life-work: labors and experiences of Laura S. Haviland. Cincinnati, Printed by Walden & Stowe for the Author, 1882. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/11024792/.

APA citation style:

Haviland, L. S. (1882) A woman's life-work: labors and experiences of Laura S. Haviland. Cincinnati, Printed by Walden & Stowe for the Author. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/11024792/.

MLA citation style:

Haviland, Laura S. A woman's life-work: labors and experiences of Laura S. Haviland. Cincinnati, Printed by Walden & Stowe for the Author, 1882. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/11024792/>.