Thankful and Joseph Southwick's house was known for being a meeting place and caravansary for fellow abolitionists and other members of the anti-slavery movement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton remarked that Thankful's home "was always a harbor of rest for the weary, where the anti-slavery hosts were wont to congregate, and where one was always sure to meet someone worth knowing. Their hospitality was generous to an extreme, and so boundless that they were, at last, fairly eaten out of house and home." The Southwick home was also open to fugitive slaves, as it was an important station on the Underground Railroad route through Boston to Canada.
