Sarah and Angelina had come to loathe slavery and all its degradations. They had hoped that their new faith would be more accepting of their abolitionist beliefs than their former had been. However, their initial attempts to attack slavery caused them difficulties in the Quaker community. The sisters persisted despite their belief that the fight for women's rights was as important as the fight to abolish slavery. Although Sarah had the desire to 'equip women for economic independence and for social usefulness' , they continued to be attacked, even by some abolitionists, who considered their position extreme. In 1836, Sarah published ' In 1837, ' was published serially in a Massachusetts newspaper, "The Spectator", and immediately reprinted in "The Liberator", the newspaper published by radical abolitionist and women's rights leader William Lloyd Garrison. The letters were published in book form in 1838.