view; indeed, very many seem to think a new order of things is very desirable in this respect....  And now, my dear friend, in view of these things, I feel that it is not the cause of the slave only that we plead, but the cause of woman as a moral, responsible being, and I am ready to exclaim, ’Who is sufficient for these things?’ These holy causes must be injured if they are not helped by us.  I see not to what point all these things are leading us.  But one thing comforts me:  I do feel as though the Lord had sent us, and as if I was leaning on his arm.”

And in this reliance, in a meek and lowly spirit, impelled not by inclination, but by an overpowering sense of duty, these gentle women, fully realizing the singularity of their position, prepared to enter upon entirely new scenes of labor, encompassed by difficulties peculiarly trying to their delicate natures.

A series of public meetings was arranged for them as soon as the Convention adjourned, and the first was held in Dorchester, in the town hall, to which they repaired upon finding the number of those who wished to hear them too great to be accommodated in a private house.  Their next was in Boston on the following afternoon.  Angelina’s heart here almost failed her as she glanced over the assemblage of women of all classes, and thought of the responsibility resting upon her.  It was at this meeting that a reverend gentleman set the example, which was followed by two or three other men, of slyly sliding into a back seat to hear for himself what manner of thing this woman’s speaking was.  Satisfied of its superior quality, and alarmed at its effects upon the audience, he shortly afterwards took great pains to prove that it was unscriptural for a woman to speak in public.

As the meetings were held at first only in the daylight, there was little show of opposition for some time.  The sisters went from one town to another, arousing enthusiasm everywhere, and vindicating, by their power and success, their right to speak.  Angelina’s letters to Jane Smith contain memoranda of all the meetings she and Sarah held during that summer and fall.  It is surprising that they were able to endure such an amount of mental and physical labor, and maintain the constantly increasing eagerness to hear them.  Before the end of the first week, she records:—­“Nearly thirty men present, pretty easy to speak.”  A few days later the number of men had increased to fifty, with “great openness on their part to hear.”

After having held meetings every day, their audience numbering from one hundred and fifty to one thousand, Angelina records on the 21st July, at Lynn:—­

“In the evening of the same day addressed our first mixed audience.  Over one thousand present, great openness to hear, and ease in speaking.”