Attributed to W & F Langenheim, Catharine Beecher, 1848. Daguerreotype. Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, A102-438-1z.

Resource 11: Catharine Beecher’s Campaign Against Indian Removal

Catharine Beecher’s circular urged women to join a petition campaign against the planned relocation of southeastern Indians. The Indian Removal Act was passed anyway, but the failure of this campaign had an important effect: it convinced many that large-scale colonization—the movement of free blacks to Africa—was unworkable.