The woman's rights movement and its champions in the United States.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
We may date the Woman's Rights cause proper, from the division in the anti-slavery organization in 1840; though before that time, Frances Wright, an Englishwoman of rare gifts both as a writer and speaker, had visited this country, and addressed large audiences, demanding at that early day all that the champions of woman's rights now claim. She was followed by Ernestine L. Rose, a native of Poland,--a woman of great beauty, refinement, and cultivation,--of generous impulses, liberal views, and oratorical power. She came to this country in 1836, addressed large audiences in Charleston, South Carolina, and in Detroit, Michigan, on “The science of government.” When it was announced in those cities, that a woman was to speak on such a theme, men made themselves merry at her presumption; but, after listening to her able exposition of the republican idea, leading men came to her, and, with marked respect, complimented her successful effort. She was among the first who agitated the property rights of married women in the State of New York. As early as 1838 she circulated petitions on that subject,, which were presented by Judge Hertell in the Legislature. She has been one of the leaders in the Woman's Rights movement [363] since that time, and spoken at all the annual conventions. The active part the women of this country had taken in the anti-slavery cause, beginning in 1830, had prepared them for this new demand. In those early organizations woman had an equal voice with man. She did more than sew pincushions, and ask alms; she proclaimed the living truths of the gospel of freedom, in public assemblies, as well as at the hearthstone,--to grave and reverend seniors in halls of legislation, as well as to her husband at home.Sarah and Angelina Grimke.
In 1836 Sarah and Angelina Grimke, daughters of a wealthy planter in South Carolina, emancipated their slaves, and came North to lecture on the evils of slavery. They were high-toned, noble women, well educated, of keen moral perceptions, and deeply religious natures. The one desire in their childhood and youth had been to escape the daily torture of witnessing the cruelties inflicted upon the slave; to get beyond the abominations they saw no way to end. Angelina, the younger sister, was a natural orator. Fresh from the land of bondage, there was a fervor in her speech that electrified her listeners, and drew crowds wherever she went. She was tall, delicately organized, with a sad, thoughtful face, dark hair and eyes, with great depth of expression. Her voice was rich, clear, and strong, and could easily fill any hall. Both sisters were ready writers, and, while lecturing through the North, wrote for the press, on slavery and woman's rights. Sarah published a book reviewing the Bible arguments, which the clergy were then making in all our pulpits, to prove that the degradation of the slave and woman were [364] alike in harmony with the expressed will of God. In May, 1837, a National Woman's Anti-slavery Convention was called in New York, in which eight States were represented by seventy-one delegates. The meetings were ably sustained through two days. The different sessions were opened by prayer and reading of the Scriptures, by the women themselves, and a devout, earnest, and Christian spirit pervaded all the proceedings. The debates, resolutions, speeches, and appeals were fully equal to those in any conventions held by the men of that period. Angelina Grimke was appointed in this convention to prepare an appeal for the slaves to the people of the free States, and a letter to John Quincy Adams, thanking him for his services in defending the right of petition for women and slaves, qualified with the regret that, by expressing himself “adverse to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia,” he did not sustain the cause of freedom and of God. What man has done as the result of war, women asked to prevent war thirty years ago. In 1838 she was married to Theodore D. Weld, and settled in New Jersey. She is the mother of one daughter and two sons. Among those who took part in the debates of that convention, we find the names of Lydia Maria Child, Mary Grew, Henrietta Sargent, Sarah Pugh, Abby Kelley, Mary S. Parker, of Boston, who was president of the convention, Anne Weston, Deborah Shaw, Martha Storrs, Mrs. A. L. Cox, Rebecca B. Spring, and Abigail Hopper Gibbons, a daughter of that noble Quaker, Isaac T. Hopper. Though early married, and the mother of several children, her life has been one of constant activity and self-denial for the public good. Those who know her best can testify to her many acts of benevolence and mercy, working alike for the unhappy slave, the unfortunate of her own sex, the children on Randall's Island, and the suffering soldiers in our late war.[365]
Abby Kelley
Abby Kelley, a young Quakeress, made her first appearance on the anti-slavery platform. She was a tall, fine-looking girl, with a large, well-shaped head, regular features, dark hair, blue eyes, and a sweet, expressive countenance. She was a person of clear moral perceptions, and deep feeling. She spoke extemporaneously, always well, at times with great eloquence and power. As soon as the rare gifts as orators, that both she and Angelina Grimke displayed in the women's meetings, were noised abroad, the men, one by one, asked permission to come into their meetings, and thus, through man's curiosity, they soon found themselves speaking to promiscuous audiences. For a period of thirty years Abby Kelley has spoken on the subject of slavery. She has travelled up and down the length and breadth of this land,--alike in winter's cold and summer's heat, mid scorn, ridicule, violence, and mobs, suffering all kinds of persecution,--still speaking, whenever and wherever she gained audience, in the open air, in school-house, barn, depot, church, or public hall, on weekday, or Sunday, as she found opportunity. In 1845 she married Stephen S. Foster, and soon after, they purchased a farm in Worcester, Massachusetts, where, with an only daughter, she has lived several years in retirement. Having lost her voice by constant and severe use, she gave up lecturing while still in her prime.Mary Grew.
Mary Grew, the daughter of Rev. Henry Grew, of Philadelphia, has been for thirty years one of the ablest and most faithful workers both in the anti-slavery and woman's rights cause. She is a cousin of Wendell Phillips. Being a woman of sound judgment, and great general information, she has been [366] one of his most reliable friends and counsellors, in planning and executing his lifelong work. She is one of the most terse and finished writers of the age. Her anti-slavery reports made out annually, and published in “The Anti-slavery standard,” are concise and comprehensive statements of facts and principles governing them. She is a woman of vigorous thought, and high moral principle. Gentle, refined, unobtrusive in manner, she is still a woman of great independence, and self-reliance of character. Being one of the delegates to the World's Anti-slavery Convention, I met her for the first time in London in 1840. I remember how charmed I was to hear her laud our republican institutions, in the presence of boasting Englishmen, and, in her keen, sarcastic way, express the utmost contempt for the sham and tinsel, the pomp and ceremony of the Old World. I was especially pleased with a little incident that occurred one day, at a large dinner party, at Samuel Gurney's,--a wealthy banker who had a beautiful country-seat near London. Lord Morpeth and the Duchess of Sutherland had been invited to meet a party of Americans there, as they had expressed a wish to see the American abolitionists. As it was a warm, pleasant afternoon in June, we went out on the smooth green lawn, under the shade of some majestic old trees, to hear Lord Morpeth read the reports to the British government from Jamaica. Most of us had been formally presented to the Lord and Lady, but Mr. Grew, having come late, had not yet had the honor of an introduction. Having formed ourselves into a semicircle round his lordship during the reading, at the close Miss Grew took her father's arm, and, in a cool, self-possessed manner, walked across the intervening space, and introduced her father to the Duchess of Sutherland, then mistress of the robes, with the same air as she would have presented two plain republicans in her own country. Standing near the daughter of Sir Fowell Buxton, she said to me, “What are you American girls made [367] of? Not a girl in all England would have presumed to intro. duce a commoner, to one of such rank as her Grace.” “Ah madam,” I replied, “you forget that in our country we are all of noble blood, all heirs apparent to the throne.” The women who devoted themselves to the anti-slavery cause in the early days, endured the double odium of being abolitionists, and “women out of their sphere;” hence the men who were engaged in the same cause little knew all the peculiar aggravations and trials of their position. The admiration such women as Angeline Grimke, Abby Kelley, and Lucretia Mott, commanded by their presence and eloquence, was well tempered by ridicule and denunciation. The press and the pulpit exhausted the English language to find adjectives to express their detestation of so horrible a revelation as “a woman out of her sphere.” A clerical appeal was issued and sent to all the clergymen in New England, calling on them to denounce in their pulpits this unwomanly and unchristian proceeding. Sermons were preached portraying in the darkest colors the fearful results to the church, the State, and the home, in thus encouraging women to enter public life. It was the opposition of the clergy to woman's speaking and voting in their meetings, that occasioned the first division in “The American Anti-slavery Society.” The reports of the meeting held in New York, May, 1840, are worthy the perusal of every philosophical thinker, to see how ridiculously even good common-sense men can talk and act when moved by prejudice rather than principle. The question under debate on that occasion was, whether woman should speak and vote in all business matters in their meetings. Men opposed to this went through the audience urging every woman who agreed with them to vote against it, thus calling on them to do then and there what, with fervid eloquence, on that very occasion, they had declared a sin against nature and Scripture for them to do anywhere. It [368] was a stormy meeting held that day by the friends of the slave, and, though he still groaned in bondage, it was urged by many that woman's voice should not be heard in his behalf. Whilst with one hand they strove to loose the chains that clanked on the rice plantations in Georgia, with the other they tried to force woman back into the narrow niche where barbarism had found her. So partially does truth illumine some minds that even the colored man was found voting to exclude woman from an anti-slavery organization. History, however, records that William Lloyd Garrison, ever sound on questions of human rights, carried the resolution by one hundred majority in favor of woman's right to speak and vote in their meetings. At this crisis a World's Anti-slavery Convention was called to meet in London. Several American organizations saw fit to send women as delegates to represent them in that august assembly. But, after going three thousand miles to attend a World's Convention, it was discovered that woman formed no part of the constituent elements of the moral world. In summoning the friends of the slave from all parts of the two hemispheres, to meet in London, John Bull never dreamed that woman, too, would answer to his call, though the idea of immediate emancipation was first published by Elizabeth Herrick, an English woman, in a well-reasoned pamphlet in 1824. Accordingly, on the opening of the convention in London, June 12th, 1840, the delegates from the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania societies were denied their seats. The delegation consisted of Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew, Abby Kimber, Elizabeth Neale, Sarah Pugh, from Pennsylvania; Emily Winslow, Abby Southwick, and Anne Greene Phillips, from Massachusetts. This sacrifice of human rights, by men who had assembled from all quarters of the globe to proclaim universal emancipation, was offered up in the presence of such women as Lady Noel Byron, Harriet Martineau, Elizabeth [369] Fry, Mary Howitt, and Anna Jamieson. The delegates had been persuasively asked to waive their claims that the harmony of the convention might not he disturbed by a question of such minor importance. But through their champion, Wendell Phillips (who was then a young man, and brave too, I thought, to advocate so unpopular an idea almost alone in such an assembly), they maintained that as they had been delegated by large and influential organizations, they must press their claims and thus discharge their duty, not only to those whom they represented, but to the speechless victims of American slavery. Thus the debate on this question was forced upon them, and many distinguished gentlemen of France, England, and America took part in the discussion, which lasted through one entire day.Anne Greene Phillips.
As we stood in the vestibule of Freemason's Hall that morning, talking over the coming event, I saw the wife of Wendell Phillips for the first time. Her earnest, impressive manner arrested my attention at once. She had just returned from her bridal tour on the continent, and was in the zenith of her beauty. She had a profusion of dark-brown hair, large, loving blue eyes, and regular features. She was tall, graceful, and talked with great fluency and force. Her whole soul seemed to be in the pending issue. As we were about to enter the convention she laid her hand most emphatically on her husband's shoulder and said, “Now, Wendell, don't be simmy-sammy to-day, but brave as a lion ;” and he obeyed the injunction. Most of the speeches that day were narrow and bigoted, setting forth men's prejudices without touching the principle under consideration, and, when the vote was taken, among the few who stood by principle, were Daniel O'Connell, [370] Dr. Bowring, Henry B. Stanton, George Thompson, and Wendell Phillips. William Lloyd Garrison did not reach England until the third day of the convention, having been unfortunately becalmed at sea. When he learned that Massachusetts women had been denied their rights in the convention he declined to take his seat as a member of that body. His anti-slavery principles being too broad to restrict human rights to color or sex, he took his seat in the gallery, and through all those days looked down on the convention. Thomas Clarkson was chosen president, but he being too old and feeble to endure the fatigue, Joseph Sturge, the celebrated Quaker merchant, presided over the deliberations. Sitting near Mrs. Mott in the convention, I mischievously suggested to her one day a dangerous contingency. “With a Quaker in the chair,” said I, “suppose, in spite of the vote of excommunication, the spirit should move you to speak, what could the chairman do, and which would you obey,--the spirit, or the convention?” She promptly replied, “Where the spirit of God is, there is liberty.” The general indignation felt by the advanced minds among the women of England, France, and America, and the puerile tone of the debates on this question, gave birth to what is called the Woman's Rights movement on both continents. The women of England soon after established a Woman's Rights journal, and petitioned Parliament for their rights of property. Their demands were ably maintained by Lord Brougham in the House of Peers. The French women, too, soon after established a journal, so liberal and republican in its sentiments, that they were compelled to publish it in Italy, though it was clandestinely circulated in France. At the same time Frederika Bremer, in her popular novels, was ridiculing the creeds and codes and customs of her country, and thus undermining the laws of Sweden in regard to women, which, in many particulars, were soon after essentially modified.[371]
Lucretia Mott.
It was in London that I first met Lucretia Mott. We chanced to stop at the same house, with a party of Americans, who had come to attend the “World's Convention.” Seated by her at the dinner-table I was soon oblivious to everything but the lovely Quakeress, though a bride, with my husband by my side. She was then in her prime, small in stature, slightly built, with a large head, high, square forehead, remarkably fine face, regular features, dark hair and eyes. She was gentle and refined in her manners, and conversed with earnestness and ease. There were several clergymen at the table that day, who, in the course of conversation, rallied Mrs. Mott on her views of woman. She calmly parried all their attacks,--now by her quiet humor turning the laugh on them, and then by her earnestness and dignity silencing their ridicule and sneers. Though a stranger, I could not resist saying all the good things I thought on her side of the question, and I shall never forget the look of recognition she gave me when she saw that I already comprehended the problem of woman's rights and wrongs. She was the first liberal-minded woman I had ever met, and nothing in all Europe interested me as she did. We were soon fast friends, and were often rallied on our seeming devotion to each other. I was never weary listening to her conversation. On one occasion, with a large party, we visited the British Museum, where it is supposed all people go to see the wonders of the world. On entering, Mrs. Mott and myself sat down near the door to rest for a few moments, telling the party to go on, that we would follow. They accordingly explored all the departments of curiosities, supposing we were slowly following at a distance; but when they returned to the entrance, after an absence of three hours there we sat in the same [372] spot, having seen nothing but each other, wholly absorbed in questions of theology and social life. She had told me of the doctrines and divisions among Quakers, of the inward light, of Elias Hicks, of Channing, of a religion of life, and of Mary Wollstonecraft and her social theories. I had been reading Combe's Constitution of Man, and Moral Philosophy, and Channing's Works, and had already thought on all these questions; but I had never heard a woman talk what, as a Scotch Presbyterian, I had scarcely dared to think. On the following Sunday I went to hear Mrs. Mott preach in a Unitarian church. Though I had never heard a woman speak, yet I had long believed she had the right to do so, and had often expressed the idea in private circles; but when at last I saw a woman rise up in the pulpit and preach as earnestly and impressively as Mrs. Mott always does, it seemed to me like the realization of an oft-repeated happy dream. The day we visited the Zoological Gardens, as we were admiring the gorgeous plumage of some beautiful birds, one of the gentlemen remarked:-- “You see, Mrs. Mott, our Heavenly Father believes in bright colors. How much it would take from our pleasure if all the birds were dressed in drab” “Yes,” said she, “but immortal beings do not depend on their feathers for their attractions. With the infinite variety of the human face and form, of thought, feeling, and affection, we do not need gorgeous apparel to distinguish us. Moreover, if it is fitting that woman should dress in every color of the rainbow, why not man also? Clergymen with their black clothes and white cravats are quite as monotonous as the Quakers.” Owing to her liberal views, Mrs. Mott was shunned by the Orthodox Quakers of England, though courted by the literati and nobility. I have seen her by the side of the Duchess of Sutherland, conversing on the political questions [373] of the time with a grace and eloquence that proved her in manners the peer of the first woman in England, though educated in Quaker austerity, under our plain republican institutions. From the following extracts from Mrs. Mott's memoranda, the reader will get an insight into the moving and governing principles of her calm, consistent, and beautiful life.While walking in the streets of London, Mrs. Mott and I resolved on a Woman's Convention, as soon as we returned to America. Accordingly, in the summer of 1848, while she was on a visit to her sister, Martha Wright, of Auburn, I proposed to her, to call a Woman's Rights Convention, at [378] Seneca Falls, where I then lived. She consented, and the call was immediately issued in the county papers, and we at once prepared resolutions, speeches, and a declaration of sentiments. After much consultation over the declaration, finding that our fathers had similar grievances to our own, and the same number, we decided to adopt the immortal declaration of 1876 as our model. James Mott--one of nature's noblemen, both in character and appearance, the husband of Lucretia — presided at this first convention. Among those who took part in the discussions were Frederick Douglass, Thomas and Mary Ann McClintock, and their two daughters, Ansel Bascom, Catharine Stebbins, Amy Post, and Martha Wright. It continued through two days, was well attended, and extensively reported. The declaration was published in nearly every paper in the country, and the nation was convulsed with laughter, from Maine to Louisiana, though our demands for suffrage, the right to property, work, and wages were the same that wise men accept to-day, the same that Henry Ward Beecher preaches in his pulpit, and John Stuart Mill presses on the consideration of the British Parliament. Martha Wright, the sister of Lucretia, took an active part in this convention, and has presided over nearly every convention that has been held in later days. She is a woman of fine presence, much general information, and rare common sense. Though not a public speaker, she has been a most efficient worker in our cause. In a recent letter to me, speaking of her sister, soon after the death of Mr. Mott, she says, “The striking traits of Lucretia's character are remarkable energy, that defies even time, unswerving conscientiousness, and all those characteristics that are summed up in the few words, love to man, and love to God.” “Though much broken by the heavy affliction, that has come to her so unexpectedly, for, frail as she is, she never thought she should survive her strong and vigorous husband, she has borne it [379] better than we anticipated.” Our next convention was held in Rochester, a few weeks later. Mrs. Amy Post and Miss. Abigail Bush made the arrangements, and Mrs. Bush presided on the occasion. Mrs. Mott and I were opposed to a woman as president,--this was a step we were not quite prepared for, to have a woman call a promiscuous assembly to order. However, we were out-voted, and we were compelled to admit, at the close, that Mrs. Bush did us all great credit. The meetings were held in the Unitarian church, and created much interest in the city. One very interesting incident occurred during the morning session. A newly married couple, soon after the convention opened, walked slowly up the aisle to the altar, when the groom stepped forward, and asked the president, in a low tone, if the lady with him might have the opportunity to speak. “Passing through the city,” he said, “they heard of the convention, and having but an hour before leaving town, she would like to add her voice in favor of woman's rights.” She was accordingly introduced at once, and made a most eloquent and finished speech of twenty minutes. Whilst she was speaking, the groom remained standing near the altar, hat and cane in hand, reverently gazing on his beautiful bride. When she finished, a profound silence reigned, and they disappeared as quietly and suddenly as they came. Who they were, whence they came, or whither going, we never knew.
Caroline M. Severance
In 1850 and 1851 several State Conventions were held in Indiana and Ohio. At the convention held at Indianapolis, the moving spirits were Frances D. Gage, and Caroline M. Severance. In a brief sketch of Caroline M. Severance I cannot do better, than to give the reader, what, in her easy, playful way, she writes in a letter to me of herself. I wrote [380] to her asking for facts of her life, telling her there was no escape, that nolens volens she was to be sketched, and it rested with her, whether it should be based wholly on such an objective view, as one could take hundreds of miles away, or on a subjective view, such as I could get in being en rapport with herself. She chose the latter, as the least of two evils, and frankly tells me what she knows of herself.Mrs. Severance now resides in West Newton, Massachusetts, where she is living a quiet life, in a beautiful home. She is using her pen in a way she hopes will some day prove a means of broader influence. In manners and appearance, Mrs. Severance is very attractive. She has a handsome face and figure, dignified carriage, and fine conversational powers. She is an amiable, affectionate, conscientious woman, faithful alike in her private and public duties.
Frances D. Gage.
Born October 12th, 1808, in Marietta, Washington County, on the banks of the Muskingum, Ohio. Her father, Joseph Barker, was a native of New Hampshire, and an early pioneer to the western wilds. Through her mother, Elizabeth Dana, she was allied to the distinguished Massachusetts families of Dana and Bancroft. A log cabin in the woods, was the seminary where Frances Barker acquired the rudiments of [383] education. And, though she had few early advantages, she became a sound thinker, a good writer of both prose and verse, and one of the most effective speakers in the country. She was born with a sound mind in a sound body. Her large, well-balanced head, and strong physical development made learning and hardships alike easy for her to surmount. Her father was a farmer and cooper, and the duties of a farmer's daughter, in a new country, were all cheerfully and easily disposed of by her. She assisted her father in making barrels, and I have heard her often tell that, as she would roll out a well-made barrel, her father would pat her on the head, and say, “Ah, Fanny, you should have been a boy!” Fanny had a kind and loving nature, and early felt the most intense sympathy for the fugitives from slavery. Her tenderness and charity for these despised people often subjected her to the ridicule of her young companions. She became familiarized with their sufferings and wants, in her frequent visits to her grandmother, Mrs. Mary Bancroft Dana, whose home was on the Ohio River, opposite Blennerhasset's Island. At the age of twenty-one she married James L. Gage, a lawyer of McConnellsville, Ohio,--a man of great humanity and moral integrity. With a family of eight children, and all the hardships of that Western life, Mrs. Gage still found time, through all those years, to read, and write for leading journals, and often to speak, too, on temperance, slavery, and woman's rights. As she stood almost alone on these questions, she was often subject to ridicule and persecution. Those who have never advocated an unpopular idea — who have — not made principle, rather than policy, their guiding star---cannot appreciate the peculiar trials of those who are true in word and action to their enlightened conscientious opinions. In 1851, Mrs. Gage attended a “Woman's Rights Convention,” in Akron, Ohio, and was chosen president of the [384] meeting. Her opening speech, on that occasion, is remarkable for its common sense, and a pathos peculiarly her own. In 1853 she moved to St. Louis. Those who fought the anti-slavery battle in Massachusetts cannot realize the danger of such a warfare in a slave-holding State. With her usual frank utterances of opinions, she was soon branded as an abolitionist, her articles excluded from the journals, and she from “good society,” with daily threats of violence to her person and the destruction of her property. Three disastrous fires-the work of incendiaries, no doubt — greatly reduced the resources of the family. Owing to her husband's ill health, and failure in business, she took the post of assistant editor of an agricultural paper in Columbus, Ohio; but as the breaking out of the war soon destroyed the circulation of the paper, and four of her sons had gone into the army, her thoughts turned to the scenes of conflict in the Southern States. The “suffering freedmen” and the “boys in blue” appealed alike to her loving heart for kindness and help; and, without appointment or salary, she went to Port Royal in 1862. She remained in Beaufort, Paris, and Fernandina thirteen months, ministering alike to the soldiers and freedmen, as opportunity offered. Pages might be written on the heroism of Mrs. Gage and her daughter Mary during this period. Oppressed with the magnitude of the work to be accomplished there, she returned North, to give her experiences acquired among the freedmen, hoping to rouse others, younger and stronger than herself, to go down and teach those neglected people the A B C of learning and social life. During this year she travelled through many of the northern States, speaking nearly every evening to Soldiers' Aid Societies. She worked without pay, only asking enough to defray her expenses. When the summer days made lecturing impossible, she went as an unsalaried agent of the Sanitary [385] Commission down the Mississippi, to Memphis, Vicksburg, and Natchez. In the month of September she was overturned in a carriage at Galesburg, Illinois, which crippled her for that year. As soon as she recovered she was employed and well paid by various temperance organizations to lecture for that cause; and she was thus occupied, when her plans for future activity and usefulness were suddenly terminated by a stroke of paralysis, in August, 1867. She has since been confined to her room, though able to walk about, read, and write. A visit to her sick-room is always pleasant and profitable, and everything from her pen breathes a sweet spirit of love to man and trust in God. In appearance, Mrs. Gage is large and vigorous, has a good, benevolent face, easy manners, and a varied fund of conversation. She is capable, as her life shows, of great self-denial and heroism. She is an extemporaneous speaker,--a talker rather than an orator,--and never fails to interest and hold an audience. There is no woman in the country who can speak so readily, without preparation, on so many different subjects, as Mrs. Gage. She has taken a prominent part in most of the National Woman's Rights Conventions, and, but for her illness, would have spoken all through Kansas in the last campaign. In reply to my letter, asking her for some facts relating to our Woman's Rights movement, she writes me from her sick-room:--Under the nomme de plume of “Aunt Fanny,” Mrs. Gage has written many beautiful stories for children, stanzas, and sketches of social life. She was an early contributor to the “Saturday visitor,” edited by Jane G. Swisshelm, and has lately written for the New York Independent. A volume of poems, and a temperance tale, “Elsie Magoon,” are the last of her published works. By her own efforts, Mrs. Gage has accumulated enough to secure to herself and her children a pleasant home for her old age. [387] In April, 1850, a convention was held. in Salem, Ohio. J. Elizabeth Jones, Mary Ann Johnson, and Josephine Griffing were the leading spirits,--all women of high moral character and intellectual cultivation. Mary Ann Johnson had lectured to large audiences throughout the country on physiology. Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Griffing were both able writers and speakers. These women circulated petitions in that State, and addressed the Legislature demanding woman's right to her property, wages, children, and the elective franchise. In the reports of this convention we find mention made of Maria L. Giddings, daughter of Joshua R. Giddings, who presented an able report on the laws; of Sojourner Truth, Mrs. Stowe's Lybian Sybil, for forty years a slave in New York, and of the Hutchinson family, who enlivened the occasion with their songs.
Abby Hutchinson.
Among the representative women of the nineteenth century, Abby Hutchinson deserves a passing notice. She was born in Milford, New Hampshire, one of a large family of children. Early in the anti-slavery cause, she, with four brothers, began to sing in the conventions. In all those stormy days of mob violence the Hutchinson family was the one harmonizing element. Like oil on the troubled waters, their sweet songs would soothe to silence those savages whom neither appeal nor defiance could awe. Abby made her first appearance in public at an early age. Anti-slavery, woman's rights, temperance, peace, and democracy have been her themes,--singing alike in the Old World and the New. To farmers on. New England's granite hills, to pioneers on the far-off prairies, to merchant princes in crowded cities, and to kings, queens, and nobles, in palaces and courts, have those girlish lips sung the republican anthem, “All men are created equal.” She was a girl of strong character and a nice [388] sense of propriety in all things. Although until her marriage her life was wholly a public one, yet she never lost the modesty, delicacy, and refinement so peculiarly her own. She was slightly formed, graceful, with a bright, happy face, and most pleasing manners. She had a fair complexion, dark eyes and hair, teeth like rows of pearls, and in fact might be called beautiful. Her voice, though not of great compass and variety, was full, rich, deep, and well modulated. All admit that “the Hutchinson family” have acted well their part in the cause of reform, and a second generation is singing still. When Abby retired from the stage her mantle fell on her niece Viola, who, having just married, will probably share the fate of her aunt, being according to Blackstone, wholly absorbed in another, and we shall hear from her no more. The first national convention was held in Brinley Hall, Worcester, Massachusetts, October 23d, and 24th, 1850. This was the first thoroughly organized, and ably sustained convention, for which extensive preparations were made, as the women of the country had learned by that time what was necessary to make a convention a success. Above three hundred persons, men and women, enrolled their names as members. Among them we find William H. Channing, E. D. Draper, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Earle, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd Garrison, Parker Pillsbury, Charles Burleigh, Hannah Darlington, Sarah Tyndall, Sarah R. May, S. C. Sargent, C. M. Shaw, Ellen and Marion Blackwell, Mary Adams, and Sojourner Truth. The proceedings of this convention were remarkable for their earnestness and ability. The reports, published both in England and America, in all the leading journals, first drew the attention of Mrs. John Stuart Mill to this subject, and prompted her able article in the “Westminster review” on “The enfranchisement of women.” Paulina Wright Davis was chosen president of the convention. [389] Her opening address, an hour in length, was a very concise, and able presentation of the work to be done, and the manner of doing it. In this convention every phase of the question was discussed,--work, wages, property, education, and suffrage,by the ablest men and women in the country. After this, National Women's Rights Conventions were held annually in the different States of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Ohio, and as the result the laws in these States were essentially though slowly modified. This simultaneous movement in every State, the unanimity of thought and feeling among the ablest women in the country, the striking similarity in the appeals, petitions, resolutions, and speeches, all prove this claim for woman to be one of those great ideas that mark an era in human progress, and not the idiosyncrasy of a few unbalanced minds.Antoinette Brown
Antoinette Brown was born in Henrietta, Monroe County, New York, May 20th, 1825. At the age of nine years she joined the Congregational church, and sometimes spoke and prayed in the meetings. In childhood she often expressed the wish that she might become a preacher. At the age 9f sixteen, she taught school during the summer, and attended the academy in Henrietta during the winter. In 1844 she went to Oberlin performing alone her first journey by canal and stage, to begin the experience of college life. While there she taught several branches in the seminary, in order to pay the expenses of her collegiate course. In 1846 she taught in the academy in Rochester. There her first lecture was delivered, in accordance with the custom of the male teachers, to address the pupils and visitors at the close of the terms. Her vacations at Oberlin had been passed in extra study of [390] Greek: and Hebrew. It was here she and Lucy Stone had first met, and formed a friendship that has strengthened with their years. Here they fought together the battles of woman's rights with the students and professors, and sustained each other under all the peculiar hardships of their position. As they afterwards married brothers, and purchased homes in New Jersey, their lives have moved on harmoniously together. In 1846 she returned to Oberlin to go through a three years course in theology. For some time the Bible argument on the ministrations of woman had been with her a subject of serious and prayerful consideration. It was customary for the students to receive a license to preach, and before finishing their course they would often speak in the pulpits of the neighborhood. When Miss Brown asked this license, the professors were grievously exercised. But after much thought and consultation they decided “that she was a resident graduate, pursuing the theological course, but not a member of the theological department, and, consequently, she needed no license from the institution, but must preach or be silent on her own responsibility.” Like General Jackson, she took the responsibility, and preached often in different parts of Ohio, while pursuing her theological course of studies. After quitting Oberlin she spent four years in private reading and study, preaching and lecturing on various reforms. In 1850 she attended the convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, and made a speech on the enfranchisement of woman. She preached whenever and wherever opportunity offered, without regard to sect,--alike in the church at Andover, Music Hall, in Boston, or public halls in Worcester, Cincinnati, and No w York. In 1853 she was ordained pastor of a Congregational church in South Butler, Wayne County, New York. The Rev. Luther Lee, Wesleyan minister of Syracuse, [391] preached the ordination sermon. Gerrit Smith and Samuel J. May took part in the ceremonies. “Then,” says Mrs. Blackwell, in a note to me recently, “Dr. Cheever openly branded me and my South Butler Church as infidels; and the New York Independent sustained him, and would only publish a crumb of my reply.” We are happy to say that our noble young friend, Theodore Tilton, was not then editor of that journal. Miss Brown remained in South Butler but one year, owing to ill health from excessive labor, and painful doubts concerning theological doctrines. As soon as she was reestablished in health of body and mind she lectured on reformatory subjects in Cincinnati and elsewhere, and investigated the character and causes of vice in New York, with especial reference to its bearing on woman. The year 1855 was spent in this interesting though painful work, and she published in the New York Tribune a number of sketches from life, under the title “Shadows of our social system.” In 1854 she was a delegate from the Wayne County Society to the World's Temperance Convention, at which Neal Dow presided, in New York. But she was denied her seat, simply because she was a woman. Wendell Phillips and William H. Channing made eloquent speeches in favor of her admission, and she took the platform herself and essayed to speak, but such was the noise and confusion with tongues and canes, and the swaying of the audience to and fro, that all attempts on her part were unavailable. From the liberal state of public sentiment to-day one can hardly believe it possible that, thirteen years ago, men claiming to be Christian ministers could have so rudely treated a beautiful, highly-educated young girl, a member of the same church with themselves, because she asked that her name might be enrolled with theirs in a World's Temperance Convention,--that [392] she, too, might raise her voice in the metropolis of the nation against the vice of drunkenness. In January, 1856, Miss Brown married Samuel Blackwell. Though she occasionally speaks, still most of her time is passed at home in the care of a family of daughters. It is said she is writing on theological questions for future publication. Mrs. Blackwell is a close, untiring student. She writes and speaks with ease, has a logical and well-stored mind, and is a woman of pleasing manners and address.Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone was the first speaker who really stirred the nation's heart on the subject of.woman's wrongs. Young, magnetic, eloquent, her soul filled with the new idea, she drew immense audiences, and was eulogized everywhere by the press. She spoke extemporaneously, having no special talent as a writer. Her style of speaking was earnest, fluent, impassioned appeal rather than argument. She excelled in telling touching incidents and amusing anecdotes. I well remember my pleasure the first time I heard her. It was at a Temperance Convention in Rochester, in 1853. A resolution was before the convention, asking of the Legislature a law granting divorce for drunkenness. Lucy took the affirmative; and, although the question was ably debated in the negative by Mrs. C. H. I. Nichols and Antoinette Brown, yet Lucy carried the audience with her. She was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. Her parents were rigid Presbyterians, and trained up their children in an austere manner. She, however, early queried with herself as to the wisdom of existing laws, customs, and opinions. She could riot see the justice of her brother's being sent to college to enjoy all the advantages of education, while [393] she and her sisters remained at home to work on the farm. The yoke on her own neck galled her to action. She decided that she, too, would go to college and have a liberal education. The question was thoroughly pondered and debated, and at last decided. She borrowed the money and went to Oberlin, where, with great economy, management, self-denial, and untiring application to her studies, she graduated with high honors. Having discovered her talent for oratory in the debating society at Oberlin, she decided to fit herself for a public speaker. On her return to New England she became an agent of the American Anti-slavery Society, lecturing alternately for the slave and woman. She travelled through the Western and some of the Southern States, speaking in all the large cities. In 1855 she was married to Henry B. Blackwell. Thomas W. Higginson performed the ceremony. She accepted the usual marriage under protest,--her husband renouncing all those rights of authority and ownership which were his in law, and she retaining her own name. Although this has been to her a source of great annoyance and persecution, from friends as well as enemies, yet, feeling that the principle of woman's individualism was involved in a lifelong name, she has steadily adhered to her decision. I honor her for her steadfast principle. The first thing the slave does in freedom is to take to himself a name. Having been Cuffy Lee, or Cuffy Davis, just whose Cuffy he might chance to be, as soon as he is his own master he takes a new name that is henceforth to represent his individual existence. Why wonder that a woman, believing in her own individual existence, who had distinguished her name the world over, should refuse to be so entirely swallowed up in another as to lose even the name to which she had answered for thirty years? I remember I had the same feelings when I was married, though young and unknown, and, [394] although I took my husband's name, I retained my own also. The name of Lucy Stone is prominent in all the early National Conventions, as she was Secretary of the Woman's Rights organization for many years. Mrs. Stone is small, with dark-brown hair, gray eyes, fine teeth, florid complexion, and has a sparkling, intellectual face. Her voice is soft, clear, and musical; her manner in speaking is quiet, making but few gestures, and usually standing in one place. Gerrit Smith told me once, with great glee, that sitting on the platform when Lucy was speaking, he saw her several times gently stamp her foot! Mrs. Stone has one daughter, and since her marriage her life has been spent in retirement, until the news that Kansas was to submit the proposition to strike the words “white male” from her Constitution to a vote of the people, roused her again to public duty. She spent two months in the spring of 1867 travelling through that State, speaking to large audiences. She attended the Topeka Convention, at the formation of the “Kansas impartial suffrage Association,” and has lectured during the past winter on suffrage for woman in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.Mrs. Caroline H. Dall.
Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, born in Beacon Street, Boston, she is more distinguished as a writer than speaker, though she has lectured on various subjects in many parts of the country. Her addresses are uniformly well written, and show great research, and untiring industry. Mrs. Dall is a highly educated woman, a close student, an encyclopedia of historical facts and statistics. Her reports, read in the annual Woman's Rights Conventions, of the progress of the movement, are most valuable and interesting papers. She has published several books under the [395] title, “Woman under the law,” “Woman's right to labor,” “The court, the College, and the market.” All her productions have been extensively reviewed and complimented by the press. In speaking of her last work, “The New York evening post” says:--Mrs. Caroline H. Dall's well-known book, “The College, the market, and the court,” has been issued in a new edition, which contains important additions, some corrections, an index, and some notes on the unfortunate Dr. Todd, who was lately so shockingly mangled by Miss Gail Hamilton. Mrs. Dall's book has been very well spoken of abroad, as indeed it deserves,--for it is the most eloquent and forcible statement of the Woman's Question which has been made.Many persons, now writing and speaking on this subject, glean their facts from her books, and without always giving credit where it is due. Mrs. Dall has been an active member in the Social Science Association, and read many valuable papers in their public meetings, both in Boston and New York. She was associated with Paulina Wright Davis, in “The Una,” --a woman's rights paper, published at Boston in 1854,--and has taken a prominent part in some of the Massachusetts Conventions. She married a Unitarian clergyman, who has been a missionary for many years in Calcutta. Mrs. Dall's department of thought is in the region of facts. Not capable of generalization, her mind does not deal in principles, hence the conclusions she draws from her facts are sometimes neither legitimate nor philosophical.
