West Street: Nexus of Boston Reform, 1835-1845

Abstract

Two adjoining row houses in Boston were known as the social and organizational centers for the transcendentalists and for William Lloyd Garrison's select core of abolitionists known as the "Boston Clique." These transcendentalists and abolitionists came from a common religious tradition – the Unitarian culture of William Ellery Channing. As philosophical siblings, they were more aware of their differences than their similarities. But over time, their core values, inculcated in the school of Channing, allowed them to collaborate in reform efforts in the years leading to the Civil War.