Read Part One HERE
In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Lucretia Coffin Mott. She lived from 1793 - 1880.
In 1848, taking up the cause of women's right, Lucretia and Elizabeth Cady Standon, called a convention at Seneca Falls, the first of its kind, "to discuss the social, civil, and religious rights of women." The convention issued a "Declaration of Sentiments" modeled on the Declaration of Independence: it stated that "all men and women are created equal" and included a list of 18 women-specific demands. These included divorce, property and custody rights, as well as the right to vote. The latter fueled the launching of the woman suffrage movement. Following the convention, Lucretia continued her crusade for women's equality by speaking at ensuing annual women's right conventions and publishing "Discourse on Women," a reasoned account of the history of women's repression.
Her devotion to women's rights did not deter her from fighting for an end to slavery. She and her husband protested the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and helped an enslaved person escape bondage a few years later. In 1866. Lecretia became the first president of the Americal Equal Right Association. She joined with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in decrying the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution for granting the vote to black men but not to women. Lucretia was also involved with efforts to establish Swarthmore College and was instrumental in ensuring it was co-educational. Dedicated to all forms of human freedom, Lucretia argued as ardently for women's rights as for black rights, including suffrage, education and economic aid. She played a major role in the woman suffrage movement through her life.Her last address was given to the Friend's annual meeting in May 1880.She died later that year.
Read Part Forty-Five HERE
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