The personal papers of antebellum northerners reveal an almost universal
fixation on sickness, death, and parting, within a context of strong, emotional
relationships. Much historical work has described the sentimentalizing
culture and accompanying glorification of family bonds in this period.
In this context, the problem of death and separation, so noticeable in
public and private culture, has been interpreted as intimately linked to
an increasingly mawkish sentimentality. As recent scholarship has shown,
however, life expectancy in America actually began falling in the 1790s,
declining by some eight years by 1860. Simply put, Americans experienced
earlier deaths and increased suffering at the hands of diseases.
This paper argues that these new demographic facts of life placed enormous strain on individuals. Antislavery advocates, of course, were enmeshed in this process. Their most successful propaganda couched its appeals in language and symbol that resonated with the northern public's deepest fears about separation from loved ones. Recognition of the generalized sensitivity in the North to images of sundered slave families helps explain the broad-based nature of the antislavery constituency.