General Historical Information Prior to 1900


ANTHONY, SUSAN BROWNELL (1820---).
 An American reformer. She was born in Adams, Mass., the daughter
of a Quaker. She taught school from the age of fifteen to thirty; was active
in the total abstinence and anti-slavery movements, and since the Civil War
has devoted herself entirely to the woman suffrage movement. She founded
(1868) and for three years published The Revolution, a woman's rights paper.
She was arrested, tried, and fined for voting at the election of 1872. She
is an eloquent speaker, has lectured extensively in England and throughout
the United States, has taken part in many State campaigns, and appeared
before many Congressional committees. She has contributed to leading
magazines and (with Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mrs. Matilda Joslyn
Gage) published an extensive History of Woman Suffrage (3 volumes, New York,
1881-87). For her life, consult Harper, Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (2
volumes, Indianapolis, 1898).
____________________________________________

BLOOMER, AMELIA JENKS (1818-94).
 An American reformer. She was born in Homer, N.Y., and for
several years lectured and wrote on the temperance question. She was a
prominent advocate of woman's suffrage, but is remembered chiefly for her
enthusiastic adoption  of the so-called "bloomer" costume, originally
devised and introduced by Mrs. Elizabeth Smith.

_________________________________________

FOSTER,  ABBY  KELLY (1811-87)
      An American reformer, born of Quaker parentage, at Pelham, Mass. In
1837 she gave up teaching, and delivered a series of lectures in favor of
the abolition of slavery. She was the first woman who had ever appeared
before mixed audiences as an advocate of anti-slavery principles, and
although she was the object of considerable harsh criticism, and was
compelled to suffer indignities and rough treatment, her attempt met with
considerable success. Afterwards she became an advocate of prohibition and
woman's suffrage.
___________________________________________

GODWIN, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1759-97)
     An English miscellaneous writer. She was born at Hoxton, near London,
April 27, 1759 and was of Irish descent. Mrs. Godwin was one of the
"advanced women " of her time. Her most notable work is "Vindication of the
Rights of Women (1792). She maintained the right of women to enter the
professions and politics.
__________________________________________

GRIMKE SISTERS (SARAH MOORE (1792-1873) AND ANGELINA EMILY (1805-79)
      American abolitionists and advocates of woman's rights: sisters of
Thomas Smith Grimke. They were born in Charleston, S.C. where their father
John Faucheraud Grimke was a prominent lawyer and large slaveholder. After
his death the two sisters freed their slaves and removed to Philadelphia,
Sarah going first in 1821, and Angelina following in 1828. In 1836 they
removed to New York, where they were intimately associated with the leading
spirits of the American Anti-Slavery Society.
_____________________________________________

HOWE,  JULIA (WARD) (1819--)
      An American poet, philanthropist and sociological writer, active in
the agitation for the legal and political rights of women. She was born in
New York, of wealthy parents, and married, in 1843, Dr. S. G. Howe, a
philanthropist, best known for his labors for the education of the blind.
After the war she became a noted advocate of female suffrage, and of prison
and other reforms.
____________________________________________

LIVERMORE,  MARY  ASHTON (RICE) (1821--).
      An American reformer. She was born in Boston, and was educated in the
Charlestown (Mass.) Female Seminary. She took an active part in the
anti-slavery and temperance movements, . She became prominent as a lyceum
lecturer upon moral and social questions, and took a very conspicuous part
in the total-abstinence cause and in the movement to secure suffrage for
woman.
____________________________________________

MINOR,  VIRGINIA  LOUISA (1824--).
      An American woman suffragist, born in Goochland County, Va. She was
educated at a seminary in Charlottesville in Virginia, but in 1846 went to
live in Saint Louis, Mo., three years after her marriage. She was a nurse
during the Civil War, and in 1867 organized the Missouri Woman's Suffrage
Association. In 1872 she appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States
for woman's right to vote. She was the first woman in this country to take
this question to the courts.
___________________________________________

MOTT,  LUCRETIA  (COFFIN)  (1793-1880)
      An American abolitionist and woman's rights advocate, born on
Nantucket Island. She was educated in the Friends' School at Nine Partners,
near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. where she met James Mott whom in 1818 she married.
In 1840, at the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, to which both
James and Lucretia Mott had been chosen delegates, the question of the equal
participation of women in the proceedings of the convention came up, and
after some discussion all women were excluded. It was then that Lucretia
Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton first discussed the woman's rights.
____________________________________________
STANTON,  ELIZABETH CADY (1815-1902).
 An American reformer and promoter of the woman's rights
movement born at Johnstown, N.Y. She was educated at Johnstown and at Troy,
N.Y., and married Henry B. Stanton (q.v.), the anti-slavery reformer. She
became interested in the anti-slavery and other reform movements at an early
age, and through acquaintance with Lucretia Mott (q.v.)  was led to sign the
call for the first woman's rights convention, which was held in Seneca
Falls, N.Y., in July, 1848. This convention made the first formal demand for
the extension of the suffrage to women, and of the National Woman's Suffrage
Association there formed Mrs. Stanton became the first president, retaining
that office until 1893. From 1848 she devoted a greater part of her time to
traveling from State to State, addressing political conventions, State
Legislatures, and educational bodies in behalf of woman's rights. In 1868
she was a candidate for Congress. She was connected editorially with various
reform periodicals, was a frequent contributor to magazines, and was joint
author of A History of Woman's Suffrage (3 vols., 1880-86). Eighty Years and
More, an autobiography, was published in 1895.

_________________________________________

Source:   The New International Encyclopaedia
Puablisher:  Dodd, Mead and Company--New York
Copyright:  1902-1905    21 Volumes.

                  Transcribed by Miriam Medina
Return to VOTE Main
Return to BROOKLYN Main