The antislavery poet john greenleaf whittier compared reformer abby kelley to:

The antislavery versifier john greenleaf whittier matched reorganizer abby kelley to helen of troy who spread the seeds of male devastation. In addition, the later movement drew much more on the religious persuasion that slavery was an beyond compare sin and wanted to be destroyed directly. Frederick douglass wrote when the true history of the antislavery cause shall be written, women will inhabit a large space in its pages.