This Week In American History: On August 13, 1818 Lucy Stone was born. She was the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree. Her life was dedicated to fighting for the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage. She helped found the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).
Lucy Stone’s Early Years
Hannah Matthews Stone gave birth to Lucy Stone on August 13, 1818 in Massachusetts. Hannah and her husband Francis had nine children. Stone came from a family that had lived in New England for close to two hundred years. Her family originally landed in America pursuing religious freedom.
Lucy Stone Attends College
Even at a young age, Stone desired to further her education and attend college. At sixteen, she worked as a teacher. She saved her money from her teaching job so she could attend college. She attended a semester at Mount Holyoke in 1839. Unfortunately, Stone returned home due to an illness suffered by one of her sisters. Four years later, in 1843, Stone attended college at Oberlin College in Ohio. However, even though Oberlin was progressive for its day, Stone wasn’t allowed to participate in public speaking. Nevertheless, Stone graduated in 1847 at nearly thirty years old.
Lucy Stone As An Abolitionist Although Stone possessed a college degree, she didn’t have access to many career opportunities as a woman in the late 1800s. However, like her father before her, Stone was an avowed abolitionist. Fellow abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison hired Stone for his American Anti-Slavery Society. Stone wrote and delivered abolitionist speeches for Garrison’s Society. At the same time, she became active in women’s rights. As many other female abolitionists of her day, Stone faced heckling at her speeches. A mob physically attacked her at one of her speeches. However, Stone’s speeches ended up being so popular she soon began out-earning her male lecturer counterparts.
Lucy Stone Marries Henry Blackwell
In 1850, Stone organized the first national Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts. The international press even reprinted the speech she gave at the convention. For five years afterwards, Stone traveled throughout the US and Canada giving lectures on women’s rights. She met her husband Henry Blackwell at an annual women’s rights convention. Although it was uncommon at the time, Stone didn’t take Blackwell’s last name when they married. The couple had two children, although only one survived childhood. Stone’s daughter Alice Stone Blackwell became a feminists and abolitionist like her mother.
Lucy Stone’s Involvement With Abolitionist and Suffragist Movements
When the Civil War ended, Stone traveled to Kansas in order to work on the referendum for suffrage. She served as President of the New Jersey Women Suffrage Association and assisted in organizing the New England association. At the same time, Stone served on the executive committee of the American Equal Rights Association.
Lucy Stone Helps Found The AWSA
When the 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were passed in 1869 Stone broke with fellow suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, as well as others. The Amendments gave black men the right to vote but still denied the right to vote to women. While Stone was willing to accept this because of her abolitionist goals while still striving for woman’s suffrage, others in the women’s rights movement were not. Stanton and Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). Meanwhile, Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and other feminists formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).
The End of Lucy Stone’s Life
Fortunately, Stone lived long enough to see if the reunification of the two suffrage associations in 1890. In fact, it was her daughter Alice and Stanton’s daughter Harriet Stanton Blatch who played pivotal roles in reuniting the associations. Stone gave her last speech at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. She passed away later that same year at the age of seventy five.
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Info Source: WomensHistory.org
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons
