EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: ELIZA CLARK GARRETT P/60

                                                          Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Eliza Clark Garrett. She lived from 1805 - 1855.

Eliza was born in a farm close to the town of Newburgh in New York State. She was from a devout family. At age 20, she married Augustus Garrett. Departing New York, she and her husband lived in Cincinanati for a time, but had to flee the city after getting in debt. They then moved to New Orleans. 

Facing difficulties in New Orleans as well, the Garretts separated for a short while -  Augustus to Chicaogo, while Eliza returned to Newburgh. Reuniting in 1835 in Chicago, the couple worked in real estate and prospered. Eliza became a prominent member of the Clark Street Methodist Episcopal Church. Through her association with the Church, Eliza became aware of the lacking of educational facilities for Methodist clergy in the region.

In 1848, Augustus died after a short, sudden illness. Inheriting a considerable portion of his fortune, Eliza became determined to establish a biblical institute and opportunities for women's education in Chicago. Despite having to make considerable payments of her husband's fortune, Eliza was able to found the North Western Female College, a preparatory school for girls, in 1854.

Eliza's desire to create a biblical institute became a controversy within the Methodist Church's upper ranks, due to a view held by some that a surplus of education would degrade the holiness of the clergy. However, her considerable financial support overcame hesitation in the organisation. On 1 january 1855, the Garrett Bible Institute was founded north of the city, in Evanston. 

Sadly, despite still being a relatively young woman, Eliza fell ill the following November. She died on 24 November 2855, at the age of 50.

Read Part Sixty-One HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SOJOURNER TRUTH P/59

                                                           Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sojourner Truth. She lived from 1797 -1883. In 1851, Sojourner gave her famous speech commonly titled, "Ain't I A Woman, "at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. She encountered fierce opposition from pro-slavery groups wherever she travelled. She was often attacked, and on one occasion, she was so beaten that she was left with a limp for the rest of her life. However, Sojourner never stopped travelling and teaching, sure that God would protect her.

When the Civil War began, Sojourner dedicated her talents to recruiting soldiers for the Union Army. In 1864 , she moved to Washington D.C. and worked for the National Freedman's Relief Association, striving to improve the lives and prospects of free Black people. That Fall she was invited to meet President Abraham Lincoln. 

After the war, Sojourner lobbied the U.S Government to grant land to newly free Black men and women. She understood that Black people could never be truly free until they achieved economic prosperity, and she knew that owning land was an important first step. She also continued to travel throughout United States, giving speeches about women's rights, prison reform, and desegration. She was a passionate champion of all aspects of social justice right up until her death in November, 1883. 

Read Part Sixty HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SOJOURNER TRUTH P/58

                                                           Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sojourner Truth. She lived from 1797 - 1883.

In 1827, Sojourner became a Christian and participated in the founding of the Methodist Church on Kingston, New York.In 1829, she moved to New York City and joined the John Street Methodist Church (Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church), which allowed her to meet and speak with many Black community leaders. She continued to explore her new religious calling and learned more about the abolitionist movement. She also found new causes to champion, including temperance and women's rights.She took up teaching and preaching in New York's poorest neighbourhoods boldly going places other women activists feared to visit.

For the next eleven years, Sojourner worked as a domestic servant before undergoing a second spiritual transformation. She believed God was calling her to travel and preach about the causes she believed in. To mark the start of this new chapter in her life, she began to use the name who know her so well by: Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner travelled throughout the Northeast, telling her story and working to convince people to end slavery and support women's rights. She had little money, so she often walked from place to place and sometimes slept outdoors. She met abolitionist leaders Like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and David Ruggles along the way. She never shied away from challenging these celebrities in public when she disagreed with them. Sojourner's lack of education and her Dutch accent made her something of an outsider, but the power of her words and her conviction impressed all those around her.

Read Part Fifty-Nine HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SOJOURNER TRUTH P/57

                                                           Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sojourner Truth. She lived from 1797 - 1883. Late in 1826, Sojourner escaped to freedom with her infant daughter Sophia. She had to leave her other children behind because they were not legally freed in the emancipation order until they had served as bond servants into their twenties. She later said, "I did not run off, for I thought that wicked, but I walked off, believing that to be all right."

Sojourner found her way to the home of Isaac and Maria Van Wagenen, in New Paltz, who took her and her baby in. Isaac offered to buy her services for the remainder of the year (until the state's emancipation took effect) which John Dumont accepted for $20. She lived there until the New York State Emancipation act was approved a year later on.

Sojourner learned that her son Peter, then five years old, had been sold by John Dumont and then illegally resold to an owner in Alabama. With the help of the Van Wagenens, she took the issue to the New York Supreme Court. Using the name Isabella Van Wagenen, she filed a suit against Peter's new owner Solomon Gedney. In 1828, after months of legal proceedings, she got back her son, who had been abused by those who were enslaving him. Sojourner became one of the first black women to go to court against a white man and win the case. 

Read Part Fifty-Eight HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SOJOURNER TRUTH P/56

                                                            Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Sojourner Truth. She lived from 1797 - 1883. Around 1815, Sojourner met and fell in love with an enslaved man from a neighbouring farm. Robert's owner forbade their relationship; he did not want the people he enslaved to have children with people he was not enslaving, because he would not own their children. One day Robert sneaked over to see Sojourner. When his owner found him, he was severly beaten. Truth never saw Robert again after that day and he died a few years later. The experience haunted Sojourner throughout her life. She eventually married a older enslaved man named Thomas. She bore five children: James, her firstborn, who died in childbirth, Diana (1815), the result of a rape by John Dumont, and Peter (1821), Elizabeth (1825), and Sophie (ca. 1826), all born after she and Thomas united.

In 1799, the State of New York began to legislate the abolition of slavery, although the process of emancipation of those people enslaved in New York did not complete until July 1827. John Dumont had promised to grant Truth her freedom a year before the state emancipation, "if she would do well and be faithful." However, he changed his mind, claiming a hand injury had made her less productive. She was infuriated but continued working, spinning 100 lbs (45 kg) of wool, to satisfy her sense of obligation to him. 

Read Part Fifty-Seven HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: SOJOURNER TRUTH P/55

                                                           Read Part One HERE

In this post I focus on a woman named Sojouner Truth. She lived from 1797 - 1883. She was one of ten or twelve children born to James and Elizabeth Baumfree. Colonel Hardenbergh bought James and Elizabeth Baumfree from slave traders and kept their family at his estate in a big hilly area called by the Dutch name Swartekill, in the town of Esopus, New York. Sojourner's first language was Dutch and she spoke with a Dutch accent for the rest of her life. Charles Hardenbergh inherited his father's estate and continued to enslave people as a part of that estate's property. 

When Charles Hardenbergh died in 1806, nine-year old Sojourner (known as Belle), was sold at an auction with a flock of sheep for     $100 to John Neely, near Kingston, New York. Until that time Sojourner spoke only Dutch, and after learning English, she spoke with a Dutch accent. She later described Neely as cruel and harsh, relating how he beat her daily and once even with a bundle of rods. In 1808 Neely sold her for £105 to tavern keeper Martinus Schryver of Port Ewen, Now York, who owned her for 18 months. Schryver then sold Sojourner to John Dumont of West Park New York. John Dumont raped her repeatedly, and considerable tension existed between Sojourner and Dumon't wife Elizabeth Waring Dumont, who harrassed her and made life more difficult. 

Read Part Fifty-Six HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY MASON LYON P/54

                                                       Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Mary Mason Lyon. She lived from 1797 - 1849. 

Though Mary's policies for the seminary were controversial, it soon attracted its target student body of 200. Mary anticipated a change in the role of women and equipped her students with an education that was comprehensive, regorous and innovative, with particular emphasis on sciences. She required seven courses in the sciences and mathematics for graduation, a requirement unheard of at other female seminaries. She introduced women to "a new and unusual way" to learn science - laboratory experiments which they performed themselves. She organised field trips on which students collected rocks, plants and specimens for lab work, and inspected geological formations and recently discovered dinosaur tracks.

Mary served as the principal of Mount Holyoke Seminary for the first 12 years, she selected her teachers from among her former pupils from Ipswich Seminary and Mount Holyoke itself.

 Religion was very important to Mary. She was raised a Baptist but converted to a Congregationalist under the influence of her teacher Rev. Joseph Emerson. Mary preached revivals at Mount Holyoke Seminary, spoke elsewhere, and though not a minister, was a member of the fellowship of New England's New Divinity clergy. At the Seminary she provided spiritual enrichment through Bible study, prayer and worship. Her philosophy was "study and teach nothing that cannot be made to help in the great work of converting the world to Christ." In "A Missionay Offering "(1843), her only published work, she stressed the importance of supporting missions. Mary frequently invited missionaries to speak at the seminary, and many of her students were inspired to travel overseas or serve at home as missionaries and teachers, some founding schools based on Mount Holyoke's principles.

Mary's health began to decline during the winter of 1846-1847. She died in 1849.

Read Part Fity-Five HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY MASON LYON P/53

                                                        Read Part One HERE

In this post I continue to focus on a woman named Mary Mason Lyon. She lived from 1797 - 1849.

In 1834, Laban Wheaton and his daughter-in-law, Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton, called upon Mary for assistance in establishing the Wheaton Female Seninary (now Wheaton College) in Norton, Massachusetts. Mary left teaching and collected donated funds to raise money for the seminary's creation.

She created the first curriculum with the goal that it be equal in quality to those of men's colleges. Mary also provided the first principal, Eunice Caldwell. Wheaton Female Seminary opend on 22 April 1835, with 50 students and three teachers.

Mary and Eunice left Wheaton, along with eight Wheaton students, to open Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Though initially rebuffed by the general assembly of Massachusetts, she ultimately won approval for chartering the Seminary, at South Hadley, Massachusetts.

The seminary opened in 1837. The college was unique that it was founded by people of modest means and served their daughters, rather than the children of the rich. Mary was espcially influenced by Rev. Joseph Emerson whose "Discource on Female Education (1822) advocated that women should be trained to be teachers rather than "to please the other sex."

Mary strove to maintain high academic standards: she set rigorous entrance exams and admitted "young ladies of an adult age, and mature character." In keeping with her social vision, she limited the tuition to $60 per year. In order to keep costs low, Mary required students to perform domestic tasks. - an early version of work/study. These tasks included preparing meals and washing floors and windows.

I will continue my story on Mary Mason Myon in my next post. 

Read Part Fifty-Four HERE

EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: MARY MASON LYON P/52

                                                        Read Part One HERE

In this post I focus on a woman named Mary Mason Lyon. She lived from 1797 - 1849. Mary was the daughter of a farming family in Buckland, Massachusetts. Her father died when she was five and the entire family pitched in to help run the farm. Mary was thirteen when her mother remarried and moved away. However, Mary stayed behind in Buckland in order to keep house for her brother Aaron, who took over the farm. 

Mary attended various district schools intermittently and she began teaching in them as well in 1814. Her modest beginnings fostered her lifelong commitment to extending educational opportunities to girls from middle and poor backgrounds.

Mary was eventually able to attend two secondary schools, Sanderson Academy in Ashfield and Byfield Seminary in eastern Massachusetts. At Byfield she was befriended by the headmaster, Rev. Joseph Emerson and his assistant Zilpah Polly Grant. She also soaked up Byfield's ethos of rigorous academic education infused with Christian commitment.

Mary then taught at several academies, including Sanderson, a small school of her own in Buckland, Adam's Female Academy (run by Zilpah Polly Grant), and the Ipswitch Female Seminary (also run by Zilpah Polly Grant).

P.S. I will continue my stroy on Mary Mason Lyon in my next post.

Read Part Fifty-Three HERE