Reframing these two “visionary Quaker women” allows us see how abolitionism was a communal, sustained, and embedded in relationships that cut across race, gender, class, and geography.
For too long, both Quaker Hannah Pugsley and Black Hannah Pugsley have remained at the margins of abolitionist history. The former has often been remembered as a benevolent figure, yet seldom recognized as an active white abolitionist; the latter, preserved primarily through oral memory, remains largely absent from formal archives. However, recent scholarship—including new studies on Quaker women ministers—invites a reassessment of their roles in the early struggle for Black freedom. Scholars such as Rebecca Larson, Michele Lise Tarter, and Sandra Holton have shown that Quaker women routinely preached, organized, and offered spiritual leadership that challenged both religious and societal norms. In this light, Quaker Hannah’s support for New Rochelle’s early Free Black community and the founding of AME Zion Church suggests a deeper theological and political commitment, consistent with the Quaker tradition of lived equality and moral witness.
This reevaluation aligns with the broader framing of Black and interracial abolitionist efforts found in the works of Richard S. Newman, Cristina Proenza-Coles, and David Hackett Fischer. Newman, in his essay “A Chosen Generation,” describes the Black Founders as the generation of African Americans who “came of age just as the American nation took shape.” These were the first to organize against slavery, to found independent Black institutions, and to pioneer protest strategies ranging from print culture to aid for fugitives to the formation of national conventions for racial justice. Similarly, Proenza-Coles’ American Founders and Fischer’s African Founders document the foundational and enduring contributions of African-descended people in shaping early American civic and political life.³ Together, these works affirm that both Hannahs—Black and Quaker—must be recognized as participants in a multigenerational, interracial abolitionist movement that predated and outlasted the Revolution itself.
The full article can be read here by clicking on the link: AAHGS-NE-Newsletter-Fall 2025-Freedom Fortune and Family-Part 2
