Mary Shackleton Leadbeater: Abolitionist Trailblazer, a talk with Aisling Ní Laighleis

Please join us at Ballitore Library & Quaker Museum as we continue to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Mary Leadbeater's death. Aisling Ní Laighleis will discuss how Mary worked with other women, including Molly Bewley and the publisher Rachel Jackson, to disseminate abolitionist sentiment both among their peers and nationwide.

Aisling will explore how Mary Shackleton Leadbeater was among the first abolitionist children's literature authors, and how her book "Extracts and Original Anecdotes for the Improvement of Youth" both informed children of the slave trade and encouraged them to play their part in the abolitionist campaign.

She will examine how Mary Shackleton and Molly Bewley, among others, abstained from slave-produced goods and often convinced their friends and family to do the same. Aisling will look at their attempts to end Quaker complicity in the slave trade more broadly, through imploring Quaker businessmen to stop selling sugar.