WISHING YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

                                               AND GOD'S BLESSINGS FOR 2024

 

 

                                                              🔔🔔🔔

                                           

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SARAH MAPPS DOUGLASS P/101

                                                              Read Part One HERE

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Sarah Mapps Douglass. She lived from 1802 - 1882. In 1852, now reconciled with the Quakers, Sarah closed her school and accepted an appointment to supervise the Girls' Preparatory Department of the Quaker-sponsored Institute for Coloured Youth. From 1853 - 1877 she served as principal of that department. 

During this time, she also  acquired basic medical training at the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania and at Pennsylvania Medical University, where she studied female health and hygiene.

In 1855 Sarah married the Reverend William Douglass, Rector at St Thomas Episcopal Church, a widower with nine children. Her husband died in 1861.

A cause Sarah had long championed was the education of women on health issues. In 1858 she embarked on a career as a lecturer, confronting topics that would have been considered unseemly for an unmarried women to address. Her illustrated lectures to female audiences in New York City and Philadelphia drew praise for being informative and "chaste."

Read Part One Hundred and Two HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SARAH MAPPS DOUGLASS P/100

                                                               Read Part One HERE

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Sarah Mapps Douglass. She lived from 1802 - 1882. Around 1827 Sarah established a school for black children. She also was an active abolitionist and joined her mother as a founding member of their bi-racial Female Phildelphia Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. Sarah served on the Society board of directors, the committee of annual fairs, the education committee, and as librarian and corresponding secretary.

Sarah and her husband forged social and political networks with both black and white abolitionists She maintained a long and close friendship with Angelina and Sarah Moore Grimke, daughters of South Carolina slave holders. 

At the urging of the Grimke sisters, Sarah attended the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in New York in 1837. This was the first national convention of American anti-slavery women to integrate black and white members.

During the 1830s and 1840s Sarah was beset by financial problems. Her school never operated at a profit, and in 1838, deciding that she could no longer accept the financial backing of her parents, she asked the Female Anti-Slavery Society to take over the school. The experiment proved unsatisfactory, however, and in 1840 she resumed direct control of the school, giving up a guaranteed salary for assistance in paying the rent.

Read Part One Hundred And One HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SARAH MAPPS DOUGLASS P/99

                                                               Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Sarah Mapps Douglass. She lived from 1806 -  1882. Sarah was the daughter of renowed abolitionists Robert Douglass Sr and Grace Bustill Douglass and lived in Philadelphia. Like many prosperous families, the Douglasses educated Sarah and her brother Robert at home with private tutors.

Raised as a Quaker by her mother, Sarah was alienated by the blatant racial prejudice of many white Quakers. Her concern with discrimination within the Religious Society of Friends began when she was a child and observed that her mother was asked to sit either under the stairs or on a back bench at the nearby Arch Street Meeting.

Although she adopted Quaker dress and enjoyed the friendship of Quaker anti-slavery advocates like Lucretia Coffin Mott, she was highly critical of the Religious Society of Friends. Her mother continued to attend but Sarah eventually stopped. 

Read Part One Hundred HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARIA WESTON CHAPMAN P/98

                                                                  Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Maria Weston Chapman. She lived from 1806 -1885. In 1839 Maria together with Lucretia Mott and Lydia Maria Child were elected to the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which upset male members of the society. Lewis Tappan, the president of the society, argued: "To put a woman on the committee with men is contrary to the usages of civilised society." However, members Williamd Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Weld, Wendell Philips, and Frederick Douglass were as committed to women's rights as they were to the abolition of slavery.

In 1835, Maria assumed the leadership of the Boston Anti-Slavery Fair, the chief fundraising instrument of the American Anti-Slavery Society. For the next 23 years Maria and her sister Anne were chief organisers of the fairs.

Maria also contributed to numerous anti-slavery periodicals during those years and was on the editorial committee of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, the official mouthpiece of the AAS.

After President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Maria and Garrison closed down the anti-slavery organisations. She devoted the rest of her life to educating former slaves.

Maria died in 1885. 

Read Part Ninety-Nine HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARIA WESTON CHAPMAN P/97

                                                                   Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Maria Weston Chapman. She lived from 1806 - 1885. Her parents were Warren Weston and Nancy Bates Weston from Weymouth, Massachusetts. She grew up on the family farm and attended local schools. Maria's uncle was a prosperous banker in London, England. He invited her over to complete her education. When she returned to Boston in 1828, she was hired as principal of the Young Ladies High School.

When Maria was 24, she married Henry Grafton Chapman. Both soon began to work for the abolition of slavery and supported a radical call for immediate abolition of slavery.

In 1848, Maria and her sisters Caroline, Anne and Deborah joined eight other women to form the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society - an abolitionist, interracial organisation. They believed slavery to be the direct violation of the law of God.

Members of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society circulated petitions, raised money, wrote and edited publications, and corresponded with each other frequently. 

Read Part Ninety-Eight HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARGARETTA FORTEN P/96

                                                                     Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Margaretta Forten. She lived from 1806 -1878. Margaretta continued her work with the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and served as Recording Secretary. She also served on the Society's Educational Committee, which "dedicated itself to improving the quantity and quality of local black schools" and was successful in assuming the financial obligations of a primary school in Philadelphia for which Margaretta supervised the finances.

Margaretta was also active in support of womens' suffrage. With her sister, Harriet Forten Purvis, she helped to organise the Fifth National Woman's Rights Convention that met in Philadelphia in 1854, was a co-founder of the interracial Philadelphia Suffrage Association in 1866, and subsequently a member of the American Equal Rights Association.

Margaretta continued her emphasis on education  to assist in the anti-slavery movement and worked as a teacher in many black schools for thirty years. She eventually opened up her own school.

Margaretta passed away in 1878.

Read Part Ninety-seven HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARGARETTA FORTEN P/95

                                                                     Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Margaretta Forten. She lived from 1806 - 1875. She was the daughter of  James Forten and Charlotte Vandine. The Fortens were one of the most prominent black families in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were active abolitionists who took part in founding and financing at least six abolitionist organisations. Margaretta and her sisters were educated in private schools and by private tutors.

Because women were excluded from the American Anti-Slavery Society, Margaretta together with her mother and sisters Sarah and Harriet, co-founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, the first female bi-racial anti-slavery society, with ten other women in 1833. The goal of this new society was to include women in the activism being done for the abolition of slavery, and "to elevate the people of colour from their present degraded situation to the full enjoyment of their rights and to increased usefullness in society."

Read Part Ninety-Six HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ELIZABETH PEASE NICHOL P/94

                                               Read Part One HERE

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Elizaeth Pease Nichol. She lived from 1807 - 1897. In 1840, Elizabeth travelled to London to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention, as did her friend Eliza Smeal Wigham, who was secretary of the Edinburgh Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. 

Before the convention started, Joseph Sturge, the British organiser, told the six women delegates they would not be allowed to participate. Leading Anti-Slavery members had rebuked him for thinking this "insane innovation, this women-intruding delusion," should be allowed. At the time, women attended were required to sit in segregated areas out of the sight of male delegates. 

The matter became contentious because some of the male delegates from the United States supported the women's participation while others spoke of the men's right to exclude women. Consequently, the American women delegates had to join the British women observers in a segregated area.

Elizabeth maintained the connections she had made at the World Anti-Slavery Convention and remained active in the movement for the abolition of slavery through correspondence with international abolitionists such as American Maria Weston Chapman. These letters with like-minded thinkers provide valuable insight into personal communications between women in the movement, not locally but internationally, and we can see just how committed these women were, from small towns and cities across the country and around the world, to a unified goal of emancipation

After moving to Edinburgh, Elizabeth became the treasurer for the Edinburgh chapter of the National Society for Womens' Suffrage. 

In 1853, she married Dr John Pringle and moved to Glasgow. 

Elizabeth died in 1897. 

Read Part Ninety-Five HERE

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ELIZABETH PEASE NICHOL P/93

                                              Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Elizabeth Pease Nichol. She lived from 1807 - 1897. Elizabeth was born in Darlington, England. Her parents were Joseph Pease and Elizabeth Beaumont. They were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Her father was a founder of the Peace Society.

The Quakers held a strong view about the value of educating girls as well as boys. Elizabeth attended a school with her brothers and male cousins, one of only two girls at the school.When it closed down, her education continued at home, where it was disrupted by her mother's poor health.

By 1837, Elizabeth was leading the Darlington Ladies Anti-Slavery Society. Charles Stuart, an Anti-Slavery abolitionist and lecturer, encouraged her to send a female delegate or attend a national society being formed by Joseph Sturge. Elizabeth resisted more public involvement, as she did not seek the limelight but wanted to work locally for the causes she held to be important.

In 1838 Elizabeth published an important pamphlet with Jane Smeal Wigham titled "Adress to the Women of Great Britain." This document was a call to action to British women, asking them to speak in public and to form their own anti-slavery organisations.

Read Part Ninety-Four HERE

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ELIZABETH BUFFUM CHACE P/92

                                                           Read Part One HERE

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Elizabeth Buffum Chace. She lived from 1806 - 1899. With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Elizabeth continued her striving for the outlaw of slavery and although firmly supportive of the Union cause, she was disappointed that Abraham Lincoln did not move immediately to abolish slavery

Elizabeth met and corresponded regularly with many of the most significant Anti-Slavery figures of that time; she associated personally with William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass and William Wells Bronwn, and hosted them frequently at her home.

In her later life, Elizabeth continued to advocate for the political rights of women and for prison and workplace reform. She and other women were involved in the creation of the RI State Home and School for Dependent and Neglected Children, which resulted in a bill in 1884 to create a home for them. The School was opened in 1885.

Elizabeth died in 1899. 

Read Part Ninety-Three HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ELIZABETH BUFFUM CHACE P/91

                                                           Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Elizabeth Buffum Chace. She lived from 1806 - 1899. Her parents were Arnold Buffum and Rebecca Gould. The family lived in Smithfield, Rhode Island. They were Quakers. Elizabeth's parents were anti-slavery, her father being the president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society.

In 1828, Elizebeth married Samuel Buffington Chace, who was a Quaker as well. It was after her marriage that Elizabeth began to become truly influential in the anti-slavery movement. She and her husband opened their home in Valley Falls, Rhode Island as a Station on the Underground Railroad, at great personal risk, to help runaway slaves escape to Canada.

In 1835, Elizebeth helped to found the Fall River Female Anti-Slavery Society, after the original group struggled to intergrate the free black women who wished to join as members. She and her sisters held the point of view of working to end all racist practices, and not just working towards abolition as the original group intended.

Read Part Ninety-Two HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ANN CARROLL FITZHUGH SMITH P/ 90

                                                         Read Part One HERE

In this story I will continue to focus on a woman named Ann Fitzhugh Smith. She lived from 1805 - 1875.

In the fall of 1835, members of the anti-slavery movement in the state of New York announced that they planned to establish a state society. Notices went out for the first meeting which would be held on October 21 at the Second Presbyterian Church in Utica, New York. where six hundred anti-slavery advocates assembled. While the meeting was in progress, eighty or so men pushed their way into the church with cries of "Open the way! Break down the doors!"

The meeting came to an abrupt end, but Ann and her husband were in the audience and offered to host the meeting the following day in Peterboro. About three or four hundred delegates accepted their offer and made their way to Peterboro, but the trip was not easy. Slavery sympathizers placed logs across the roads, and they pelted the abolitionists with mud, eggs, clubs and stones.

Ann's home was a station on the Underground Railroad, and they played a crucial role in its operation during the 1840s and 1850s. She frequently travelled in an enclosed carriage and allowed her carriage to be used to convey veiled fugitives on their way to Canada.

Ann died in 1875. 

Read Part Ninety-One HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ANN CARROLL FITZHUGH SMITH P/89

                                                        Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Ann Carroll Fitzhugh Smith. She lived from 1805 - 1875. Her father, William Fitzhugh, a colonel in the Continental Army, build a home near Chewsville, Maryland, which he called The Hive because of the many activities carried on by his twelve children and the work necessary to sustain life in the surrounding wilderness. William then left Maryland for Rochester, New York.

Ann married Gerrit Smith in 1822. They lived in a large frame house facing Peterboro Green, Gerrit's lifelong home. 

As a child growing up in Chewsville, Maryland, Ann had been given a slave, Harriet Sims, who was later sold to a slaveholder in Kentucky, with her spouse Samuel Russell. After Ann's marriage to Gerrit, they located the Russells; they purchased their freedom and settled them into a home at Peterboro.

Ann's husband was one of the most powerful abolitionists in the US. Scores of abolitionists received comfort and support at their home. They purchased the freedom of hundreds of African Americans and arraganged for the safe passage of many to Canada. After 1835, Ann and her husband would not serve food grown with slave labour.

Read Part Ninety HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800:PRUDENCE CRANDALL P/88

                                                    Read Part One HERE

In this story I continue to look at a woman named Prudence Crandall. She lived from 1803 - 1890.

When Prudence continued undaunted to teach her African American students, the Canterbury legislature passed its 1833 "Black Law" (repealed in 1838), making it illegal to run a school teaching African American students from a state other than Connecticut. Prudence was arrested and jailed. Her first trial ended in a hung jury; the second trial resulted in her conviction, which was overturned by a highter court. On the night of September 9, 1834, an angry mob broke most of the school's windows and smashed furniture. Fearing for her students' safety, Prudence finally closed the school.

In 1835, Prudence married Baptist minister and abolitionist Calvin Philleo. The couple left Connecticut, ultimately settling in La Salle County, Illinois, where Prudence ran a school and participated in the women's suffrage movement. After her husband's death in 1874, Prudence moved to Elk Fals, Kansas, to live with her brother. In 1886, prompted by repentant Canterbury citizens, Prudence received a small pension from the Connecticut legislature. She died in 1890.

Read Part Eighty-Nine HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: PRUDENCE CRANDALL P/87

                                                    Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Prudence Crandall. She lived from 1803 - 1890. Prudence was born in Hopkinton, Rhode Island. Her parents were Pardon Crandall  and Esther Carpenter. Prudence moved with her family to Canterbury, Connecticut when she was ten years old. 

Prudence attended the New England Friends' Boarding School in Providence, where she studied arithmetic, Latin and science -  subjects not tyical for women but embraced by Quakers who believed in equal educational opportunities. She taught briefly in Plainfield, and in 1831 opened a private girl's academy in Canterbury, where she initially taught daughters from the town's wealthiest families. 

Ranked as one of the state's best schools, her rigorous curriculum provided female students with an education comparable to that of prominent schools for boys. 

Read Part Eighty-Eight HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY MEACHUM P/86

                                                              Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Mary Meachum. She lived from 1801 - 1869. On Sunday night, May 20, 1855, a group of about eight or nine freedom seekers set out across the Mississippi  River near St Louis on a skiff designed to take them over to the free state of Illinois. Hours earlier, they had met under the cover of darkness at the home of Mary Meachum. However, the word had gotten out about their escape and armed police agents along with slave catchers were waiting for the freedom seekers on the Illinois shore. In the pre-dawn hours of Monday morning, May 21, the confrontation quickly turned into a firefight, and at least five of the freedom seekers were taken back to St Louis in chains. Within a few days, authorities had also arrested Mary.

The arrest of Marry was big news within her community where she held a number of prominent roles. After being held in the St Louis jail for weeks, Mary faced a trial by jury for "enticing away slaves." On July 16 her attorney filed a motion to quash her indictment, and on Juy 19 her charges were dropped and she was set free to continue life as a free woman in St Louis. 

Mary continued to lead and serve her local community, serving as the president of the Coloured Ladies Soldiers' Aid Society which provided resources and care for black soldiers and enslaved people who had escaped during the war. 

Mary died in 1869.

Read Part Eighty-Seven HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY MEACHUM P/85

                                                              Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Mary Meachum. She lived from 1801 - 1869. Mary and her husband also helped enslaved people escape to Illinois, where slavey was outlawed. Their work inolved considerable risk due to the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 - a law authorizing the hunting and capture of escaped enslaved people and requirement that they be returned to their enslavers.

Rev John Berry Meachum grew up as an enslaved person in Virginia and Kentucky before earning enough money to purchase his freedom. Before leaving Kentucky, he met Mary, an enslaved person who was set to be moved by her enslavers to St Louis. John followed Mary to St Louis where he bought her freedom and eventually established the First African Baptist Church, the first black congregation in St Louis. Through his work as a skilled craftsman and barrel maker, John was able to buy the freedom of many enslaved people in St Louis. After John's death in 1854, Mary continued their work educating and freeing enslaved people.

Read Part Eighty-Six HERE

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY MEACHUM P/84

                                                              Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Mary Meachum. She lived from 1801 - 1869. Mary and her husband John Berry Meachum were American abolitionists who dedicated their lives to education and freeing enslaved people. Missouri banned all education for black people in 1847. As for of Rev Meachum's church he established a school for free and enslaved black students called "The Candle Tallow School" because classes were held by candlelight in a secret room in the church basement that had no windows to avoid being discovered by the sheriff. 

In 1847, the Meachums moved their classes to a steamboat in the middle of the Mississippi River, which was beyond the Missouri law, He provided the school with a library, desks and chairs, and called it "The Floating Freedom School." 

The Meachum's home on Fourth Street in St Louis was a safe house on the Underground Railroad. 

Read Part Eighty-Five HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY PRINCE P/83

                                                            Read Part One HERE

In this story I continue to focus on a woman named Mary Prince. She lived from 1788 - (appr.) 1833. 

In 1827 Adam Woods and his family travelled to London. They took Mary with them as a servant. Although she had served the Woords for more than ten years, they had increasing conflict in England. Four times Wood told her to obey or leave. They gave her a letter that nominally gave her the right to leave but suggested that no one should hire her.

After leaving the household, Mary took shelther with the Moravian church in Hatton Garden. Within a few weeks, she started working occasionally for Thomas Pringle, an abolitionist writer and Secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society, which offered assistance to black people in need.

The Woods left England in 1829 and returned to Antigua. Thomas Pringle tried to arrange to have Wood free Mary, so she would have legal freedom. However, Wood either refused to free her or allow her to be purchased by someone else. His refusal to free her meant that as long as slavery remained legal in Antigua she could not return to her husband without being re-enslaved and submitting to Wood's power.

After trying to arrange a compromise, the Anti-Slavery Committee proposed to petition Parliament to grant Mary's freedom, but did not succeed.

In 1829, Thomas Pringle hired Mary to work in his own household. She is known to have remained in England until at least 1833. Little is known of her life after this.

Read Part Eighty-Four HERE

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY PRINCE P/82

                                                            Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to look at a woman named Mary Prince. She lived from 1788 - (appr.) 1833.

Mary was returned to Bermuda in 1812, where Robert Darrell had moved with his daughter. While here, she was apparently physically abused by him and fored to bathe him under threats of further beatings. Mary resisted Darrell's abuse on two occasions: once in defence of his daughter, whom he also beat; the second time, defending herself from Darrell when he beat her for dropping kitchen utensils. After this, she left his direct service and was hired out to Cedar Hill for a time, where she earned money for her enslaver by washing clothes.

in 1815, Mary was sold a fourth time, to John Adams Wood of Antigua for $300. She worked in his household as a domestic slave, nursing a young child and washing clothes. There she began to suffer from rheumatism, which left her unable to work. When Adam Woods was travelling, Mary earned money for herself by taking in washing and by selling coffee, yams and other provisions to ships.

In Antigua, she joined the Moravian Church, where she also attended classes and learned to read. In 1826, Mary married Daniel James, a former enslaved man who had bought his freedom by saving money from his work. Her floggings increased after her marriage because Adam Woods and his wife did not want a free black man living on their property.

Read Part Eighty-Three HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800/ MARY PRINCE P/81

                                                            Read Part One HERE

In this story I will focus on a woman named Mary Prince. She lived from 1788 -  (appr.) 1833. She was born enslaved at Devonshire, Parish, Bermuda. Her father was a sawyer enslaved by David Trimmingham, and her mother was a house servant held by Charles Myners. When Myners died in 1788, Mary and her mother were sold as household servants to Captain George Darrell. He gave Mary and her mother to his daughter, with Mary becoming the companion servant of his young granddaughter, Betsey Williams.

At the age of 12, Mary was sold for £ 38 to Captain John Ingham, of Spanish Point. Mary's new enslaver and his wife were cruel and often lost their tempers, and Mary was often flogged for minor offenses.

Captain Ingham sold Mary in 1803 to a salt raker, Robert Darrell, on Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos Islands, who owned salt ponds. 

As a child Mary worked in poor conditions in the salt ponds up to her knees in water. Due to the nature of salt mining, Mary was often forced to work up to 17 hours straight as owners of the ponds were concerned that if the workers were gone too long rain would come and soil the salt. Generally, men were the salt rakers, while women did ther easier packaging of salt. 

Read Part Eighty-Two HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY ANNE READ RAWSON P/ 80

 

                                                                                    Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue my story on Mary Anne Read Rawson. She lived from 1801 - 1887. Mary Anne corresponded with figures such as George Thompson in Britain as well as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison in the United States. Her visitors included Lord Shaftesbury and William Wilberforce. She was a prominent figure in the Sheffield Female Anti-Slavery Society.

Mary Anne was one of the few women who attended the world's first International Anti-Slavery Conference at Exeter Hall in London in 1840, which attracted delegates from America, France, Haiti, Australia, Ireland, Jamaica and Barbados.

In 1841, Mary Anne and her sister Emily, arranged for a day school to be created in the chapel on the ground of Wincobank Hall. The school was open to local children and became very successful. In 1860 the sisters created a trust to provide for its future financial endowment and management. The school continued until 1905.

Mary Anne continued to campaign for the rights of fugitive slaves as well as other local charitable causes up until she retired from public life in 1875. She died in 1887.

Read Part Eighty-One HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY ANNE READ RAWSON P/79

                                                                                   Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Mary Anne Rawson. She lived from 1801 - 1887. Her parents were Joseph Read and his wife Elizabeth of Wincobank Hall, Sheffield. They were wealthy and encouraged Mary Anne's involvement in good causes. She married William Bacon Rawson, a Notthingham banker and iron founder, but the marriage was short-lived due to William's early death in 1829.

Her abiding interest fom the mid-1820s to the 1850s was a campaign in the Sheffield area against slavery. She was a founding member in 1825 of the Sheffield Female Anti-Slavery society, which campaigned for the rights of slaves in the British Empire. The Sheffield Scoiety was the first to campaign not for a gradual and managed end, but for an immediate end to slavery. The society used lectures and pamphlets to achieve a decrease in sales of slave-produced West Indian goods, such as sugar and coffee. It formally wound up after the passage of the abolition legislation in 1833.

In 1837 Mary Anne became secretary of the Sheffield Ladies Association for the Universal Abolition of Slavery, which continued the case of enslaved workers across the world. The anti-slavery organisations run by women were first started by Lucy Townsend and they were sometimes dismissed as of as marginal interest, but these groups had, in fact, a national impact.

Read Part Eighty HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: JANE SMEAL WIGHAM P/78

                               Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Jane Smeal Wigham. She lived from 1801 - 1888. Jane was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Her family resided in Edinburgh but later moving to Aberdeen. They belonged to the Society of Friends, or Quakers.

Jane became the leader and secretary of the Glasgow Ladies Emancipation Society. In 1838, she published an important pamphlet with Elizabeth Pease of Darlington, titled "Address to the Women of Great Britan." This document called for British women to speak in public and to form anti-slavery organisations for women. 

In 1840, Jane became the second wife of the Quaker John  Wigham, who was a tea merchant and an active abolitionist in Glasgow. Their marriage took place in the same year as the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London.

After the Ladies Emancipation Socety ceased activity, Jane, along with some other friends, set up the Edinburgh chapter of the National Society of Women's Suffrage. She established the Edinburgh society as one of the leading British groups supporting the view of American abolitionist and social reformer William Lloyd Garrison.

Jane died in 1888.

Read Part Seventy-Nine HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SOPHIA STURGE P/77

                                                                                    Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Sophia Sturge. She lived from 1795 - 1845. She was born in Elberton, Gloucestershire, UK. She was the fifth child of Joseph Sturge, a farmer, and his wife Mary Marshall. The family belonged to the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers.

The abolitionist Joseph Sturge was Sophia's brother. She and her siblings were taught by tutors but their mother had to decide what could be afforded and Sophia's request for drawing and French had to be refused. However, the children taught themselves by correspondence. Sophia read well and would discuss ideas by letter. She attended a school in Wellington at some point, but did not enjoy it.

In 1815, Sophia became housekeeper for her brother Joseph Sturge. The big debate at that time was not just when, but how, to end slavery. Sophia and Joseph wanted it to end quickly and completely. Sophia founded the Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves, which although based in Birmigham, had national influence. She called on 3,000 households to ask for their support in boycotting sugar because of its link to slavery.

Sophia died in 1845.

Read Part Seenty-Eight HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY HORNCHURCH LLOYD P/76

                                Read Part One HERE

 In this post I will continue my story on a woman named Mary Hornchurch Lloyd. She lived from 1795 - 1865. Whilst Mary was in Birmingham, she started an organisation to assist deaf-mutes with Lucy Townsend. Mary continued as  Honorary secretary of the Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves or the Female Society of Birmingham when Lucy resigned after she moved to Thorpe in 1836. Mary later became the treasurer. In 1841 she became a minister in the Society of Friends and this required her to speak and travel around England.

For many years these anti-slavery organisations, that were run by women, were dismisssed as of marginal interest, but recent research has revealed that these groups had a distinct and national impact. These organisations were frequently more radical and they introduced new methods of raising awareness and pressure. These organisations organised campaigns to not purchase sugar and other products of slaves.

Mary died in Wood Green in 1865.

Read Part Seventy-Seven HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY HORNCHURCH LLOYD P/75

                               Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Mary Hornchurch Lloyd. She lived from 1795 - 1865. She was born in Falmouth, UK. Her mother was a minister in the Society of Friends and her father was a cooper. Mary's mother died whilst she was a child and she quickly became the carer for her father until he died in 1818. She married Samuel Lloyd in 1823. 

In that same year, the Anti-Slavery Society was founded, of which she became a member. Other members were Jane Smeall Wigham, Elizabeth Pease, Elizabeth Heyrick, Anne Knight, William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson.

Lucy Townsend founded the first Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in Birmingham, West Midlands in 1825. Mary and Lucy were the first joint secretaries of - what was at first called the Birmingham and West Bromwhich Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves,- also known as Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves, and around 1830 it became the Female Society for Birmingham.

By 1831 there were over seventy similar anti-slavery organisations. Lucy's organisation was publicised in America and beame a role model for similar organisations in the US.

Read Part Seventy-Six HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ANNE KNIGHT P/74

                                                              Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on Anne Knight. She lived from 1786 - 1862.

Anne carried on correspondence with abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and his supporters in America. 

The World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 gave her the opportunity to meet American abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison and Lucretia Mott. The fact that the convention refused to seat the American female delegates, and the heated debates and discussions that resulted from that refusal, convinced Anne that there was a pressing need to campaign for womens' rights. The movement for womens' suffrage in Britain has been dated from the exclusion of women from the floor of this conference, as it made them realise that they were marginalised within the movement and limited in activities within the public sphere.

In the 1840s Anne's first published statements appeared. She composed and had printed handbills and pamphlets often written in the style of an open letter to a public figure, who she felt had shown lack of principle.

Anne helped to inspire the Sheffield Female Reform Association, the first associateion for womens' suffrage, which had its inaugural meeting in Sheffield in 1851.

In the late 1850's Anne moved to Waldersbach near Strassbourg, where she died in 1862.

Read Part Seventy-Five HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ANNE KNIGHT P/73

                                                              Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Anne Knight. She lived from 1786 - 1862. She was  born in Chelmsford, UK. Her parents were William Knight and Priscilla Allen. Her parents' families were both Quakers and several of their members took an active part in the temperance and anti-slavery movements.

In 1825 Anne was a member of the Chelmsford Ladies Anti-slavery Society when she toured Europe with a group of Quakers. By this time she had acquired a good knowledge of French and German and made friendships with Quakers in France and Germany that lasted until her death.

Anne  supported full and immediate abolition of the slave trade without compensation for the slave owners. She also supported free trade and universal suffrage and campaigned fervently for womens' rights. 

By 1830 Anne was deeply involved im the attempt by Quakers to end slavery and spent much of her time arranging public meetings, distributing leaflets and organising petitions. 

As a member of the Chelmsford Ladies Anti-slavery Society, Anne worked with a number of abolitionists, including Elizabeth Pease. During this time she went to France several times. She asked George Thompson, a famous abolitionist orator, to undertake a speaking tour in France in 1834. He declined as he was too busy, so she undertook the tour herself addessing several French scientific congresses and numerous small gatherings. It appears that it was during this time that she began to consider what the role of women in reform activity should be.

Read Part Seventy-Four HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: LUCY JESSE TOWNSEND P/72

                                                                                    Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Lucy Jesse Townsend. She lived from 1781 - 1847. This was a time when the roles of men and women were clearly defined and deeply embedded in society. The men controlled all business matters whilst the women looked after domestic things. Therefore, women were only portrayed as appearing helpful in the national Anti-Slavery Society led by William Wilberforce, rather than activists in their own right, their role always minimalised. 

However, they then took to going from door to door canvassing and distributing leaflets emphasising the suffering of women under slavery. They began a systematic promotion to boycott slave-grown sugar. 

Very soon there was a network of over seventy anti-slavery women's groups throughout the country.

Lucy's organisation was published in America and it became a model for similar organisations in the US.

Amelia Moilliett also held anti-slavery meetings at her Hampstead Hall home. She noted that at the meeting on 25 January, 1827, 60-70 ladies of influence attended.

In 1836, Lucy moved to Thorpe, Notttingham, where her husband became Rector at St. Lawrence's Church. At that time she gave up the job of honorary secretary of the society but remained as a committee member. Lucy attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. At that convention she met women who represented other leading ladies' organisations, such as Eliza Wigham from the Edinburgh Ladies' Emancipation Society, Mary Ann Rawson from the Sheffield Society, Jane Smeal from Glasgow, Amelia Opie from Norwich, Elizabeth Pease from Darlington and Anne Knight from Chelmsford.

Lucy died in 1847.

Read Part Seventy-Three HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: LUCY JESSE TOWNSEND P/71

                                                                                   Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Lucy Jesse Townsend. She lived from 1781 - 1847. Her father was William Jesse from West Bromwich. Lucy married Rev. Charles Townsend, curate of West Bromwich in 1807. Apart from her duties as the vicar's wife and being a mother of six children, she was involved in many voluntary organisations and supported the anti-slavery movement.

On 8 April 1825, Lucy held a meeting at her home in West Bromwich inviting her friends and other influential women to discuss setting up an all female anti-slavery movement. Amongst those present were, Ameila Moilliett, Sarah Wedgwood, Sophia Sturge and Miss Galton to name just a few. This was the moment when the Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves was established (later to be called The Female Society for Birmingham). A committee was formed with Elizabeth Heyrick as trasurer for the organisation. Lucy and her friend Mary Lloyd were joint secretaries and under their leadership the society developed.

The group planned to raise funds from subscriptions and donations. The sale of goods such as workbags and albums etc would follow, the workbags being sewn from East India cotton, silk or satin so as to avoid using the product of slave labour.

Read Part Seventy-Two HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ELIZABETH COLTMAN HEYRICK P/70

                                                                             Read Part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Elizabeth Coltman Heyrick. She lived from 1769 - 1831. 

Elizabeth aimed to promote public awareness of the issues of the slave trade and hit the profits of planters and of importers of slave-produced goods, so she encouraged a social movement to boycott sugar from the West Indies, visiting grocery shops in Leicester to persuade them not to stock it. 

Elizabeth believed women should be involved in these issues as they were qualified "not only to sympathise with the suffering, but also to plead for the oppressed."

In 1823, Elizabeth joined the new Anti-Slavery Society, the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominion. She was a founding member of the Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves in 1825, the first ladies' anti-slavery society in the world.

Elizabeth was concerned with the welfare of long-term prisoners and worked as a prison visitor. Sadly, she did not live to see the Slavery Abolition Acts 1833 put one of her major social ambitions into practice. Elizabeth died in 1831.

Read Part Seventy-One HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ELIZABETH COLTMAN HEYRICK P/69

                                                                            Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Elizabeth Heyrick Coltman. She lived from 1769 - 1831. Elizabeth was born in Leicester, UK. Her parents were John Coltman and Elizabeth Cartwright. The family practised Methodism.

In 1787 Elizabeth married John Heyrick. After her husband's death, when she was only 28, she became a Quaker and soon took to social reform.

In the early 19th century, prominent leaders of the British abolitionist movement, William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, believed that when the slave trade was abolished in 1807, slavery itself would gradually die out. However, this proved not to be the case as without legislation, planters refused to relinquish their enslaved property. Campaigners such as Elizabeth wanted complete and immediate abolition of slavery as an institution. A decade after the abolition of the trade, it became clear to the movement that slavery itself would not die out gradually.

 

As a strong supporter of complete emancipation, she decided to address the leaders of the abolitionist movement In 1823 or 1824, Elizabeth published a pamphlet entitled, "Immediate, not Gradual Abolition," criticising leading anti-slavery campaigners such as Wilberforce for their assumptions that the institution of slavery would gradually die out and for focusing too much on the slave trade.

Read Part Seventy HERE

                                                                                                                                                                    

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800; ELIZA STARBUCK BARNEY P/68

                                                      Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Eliza Starbuck Barney. She lived from 1802 - 1889. Her parents were Quakers Joseph and Sally Gardner Starbuck from Nantucket, Massachusets. Local schools offered girls equal opportunities for education with those of their brothers. During her studies Eliza developed an enduring interest in natural sciences, agriculture and history. Eliza met Nathaniel Barney, ten years her senior, and they married in 1820.                                                                                                              Nantucket abolished slavery in 1773, and thereafter African Americans worked as tradespeople, labourers, sheep and livestock raisers, and as whalers and mariners.

Eliza was a cousin and close friend of abolitionist, suffragist and Nantucket native, Lucretia Coffin Mott. She and her husband kept up a life-long correspondence with Lucretia and her husband James, in which they often discussed the anti-slavery movement. 

Eliza and her husband welcomed a runaway slave named Frederick Douglass and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison into their home when they were visiting the island to attend a Massachusetts Anti-Slavvery Society Convention.

Not only active in the anti-slavery movement. Eliza was also a supporter of the temperance movement and involved in the equal rights and womens' suffrage movements. In 1839 and 1840, she served a secretary of the Nantucket's Anti-Slavery Society and in 1851, with both her daughter and husband at her side, she attended the first womens' suffrage convention held in Massachusetts. Eliza died in 1889.

Read Part Sixty-Nine HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: RHODA DEGARMO P/67

                               Read Part One HERE                                                                                                                                            

In this post I will continue to focus on a woman named Rhoda DeGarmo. She lived from 1798 - 1873. Rhoda was one of America's earliest women's rights activists. Her overt work on behalf of women's suffrage and women's rights began in 1848, when she was chosen as one of the members of the Arrangements Committee of the Adjourned Convention held in Rochester, New York on 2 August, 1848, about two weeks after the Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. With the rest of the Committee, Rhoda met in Protection Hall in Rochester on 1 August, 1848, to formulate an agenda and select a slate of officers for the Convention. The Committee decided to nominate a woman - Abigail Bush . to preside over the convention, a move opposed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Abigail performed her duties with aplomb, putting to rest the doubts of Elizabeth and Lucreatia, and proving the wisdom of Rhoda and the rest of the Arrangements Committee. 

Rhoda also had a prominent role in the Monroe County Women's Rights Convention held in Januray 1853 and at a statewide convention held in Rochester in November 1853.

Rhoda's activities on behalf of women's rights culminated with her vote in the 1872 presidential election. She was one of the fifteen women, including her friend Susan, who succeeded in both registering and casting their votes. When an official election watcher challenged the votes of the women, Rhoda refused to either swear or affirm an oath, insisting that the fact that she would simply "tell the truth" should be enough. Rhoda died in 1873. 

Read Part Sixty-Eight HERE

 

 

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: RHODA DEGARMO P/66

                                Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Rhoda De Garmo. She lived from 1799 - 1873. She was born in Massachusetts. Rhoda lived with her husband, Elias DeGarmo, in Gates, New York. She joined the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society in 1842, the year that the Society was established. In 1845, she was appointd chair of the Society's counsellors (a group which has been likened to an executive committee). As a woman member of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society, Rhoda was also involved in the organisation of Anti-Slavery Fairs, usually held annually. The purpose of the fairs was to raise funds to support the anti-slavery cause and to raise awareness of the plight of slaves and the evil of slavery. 

Rhoda was also part of the network of anti-slavery activists who made up the Underground Railroad. Her home often provided refuge for fugitive slaves on their way to Canada. She was a close friend and co-worker with Susan B. Anthony in the anti-slavery movement.

As a member of the Society of Friends, Rhoda was active in the Farmington (New York) Quarterly Meeting.

Rhoda's belief in the temperance movement led to active partipation in that movement in the early 1850s. When her friend Susan was prevented from speaking at a Sons of Temperance meeting in 1852, Susan began to plan the establishment of a woman's statewide temperance society. A call was put out and almost five hundred women came to a meeting to form the Woman's State Temperance Society. At that meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton was elected president of the new organisation, while Rhoda was chosen as one of the several vice-presidents.

Read Part Sixty-Seven HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ABIGAIL NORTON BUSH P/ 65

                                                                    Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Abigail Norton Bush She lived from 1810 - 1898.

In 1849 or 1850, after years of suffering business losses, Henry headed west to join the California Gold Rush and to make a life there. By the early 1850s, the whole family had settled in California, where Abigail lived for the rest of her life.

In 1878, she sent a congratulatory letter to the National American Women Suffrage Association, which was then holding a convention in Rochester to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls and the second at Rochester.

When Frederic Douglass passed through Rochester during his escape from slavery the Bush family helped him. In 1883, some forty years later, Abigail wrote to Frederick to find out if he remembered her and asked for his photograph. The answer came with a promptness that at once evidenced his recollection of a regard for the writer.He expressed his great pleasure to hear from the one who had befriended him in days when friends were scarce.He spoke of his present position and future plans as he would to his most trusted friend and in lieu of a photograph sent a cleverly exectuted pencil picture of himself, together with a copy of his address on the 21st anniversary of slavery Emancipation.

In 1898, at the National American Women Suffrage Association 50th anniversary convention. Abigail and other founders of the movement were honoured at a Pioneers Evening. But she would not live to see what they started come to a triumphant conclusion in 1911 in California and nationally in 1920. Abigail died on 10th December, 1898 at the age of 88.

Read Part Sixty-Six HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ABIGAIL NORTON BUSH P/64

Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Abigail Norton Bush. She lived from 1810 -  1898.

Back in Rochester an Arrangements Committee met to organise the convention. A nomination committee composed of Amy Post, Rhoda DeGarmo and Sarah Fish met on the evening of 1st August, 1848 to select officers for the convention.

On 2nd August, 1848 - twelve days after Seneca Falls  the second Women's Rights Convention was held. Amy Post called the meeting to order and reported on behald of the committee the following persons to serve as officers: Abigail Bush as president; Laura Murray vice president; Catharine A. F. Stebbins, Sarah L. Hallowell and Mary H. Hallowell, secretaries.

Women serving as officers? This radical departure from the norm created much controversy - men always presided over meetings. Abigail later recalled that those who opposed her stopped her in the hall, and tried to persuade her to give up her position as president. According to Abigail the group said that James Mott (the husband of Lucretia Mott) would be happy to serve in her place. She refused their offer.

Even the most committed feminists were strongly against the idea of a woman president. They did not want to give a bad public image to the new Women/s Rights Movement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton asked how could a woman serve as president without any knowledge of parliamentary procedure and no experience in holding public meetings?

Amy, Rhoda and Sarah convinced Abigail to proceed, but when Abigail took her position as president, Lucretia and Alizabeth left their places of honour on the platform and took seats in the audience. One of the secretaries then read the minutes of the previous convention at Seneca Falls.

Abigail went on to perform her duties through all three sessions of the convention, becoming the first women to preside over a public meeting attended by a mixed audience of men and women. 

Read Part Sixty-Five HERE