Read Part One HERE
In this post I focus on a woman named Abigail Norton Bush. She lived from 1810 - 1898. Abigail was born in Cambridge, Washington County. When she was very young, her family moved to the upstate New York town of Rochester in upstate New York, which was the home of many early social reformers in the early and mid 1800s. In the 1830s, Abigail worked for the Rochester Female Charitable Society, an organisation devoted to the care of the poor and the ill.
In 1833 Abigail married stove manufacturer Henry Bush. The Bushes were ardent supporters of the abolitionist movement and their home became a station of the Underground Railroad.
In a split among abolitionists in 1840, Henry chose to remain with the American Anti-Slavery Society, while Abigail grew more sympathetic to radical reform, and became active in the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society.
The first Women's Right Convention was held at Seneca Falls, New York on 19 and 20 July, 1848, under the leadership of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The women attending that convention were urged to hold similar meetings in their own cities.
Abigail was not at Seneca Falls, but the representatives from Rochester who did attend were moved to organise a convention of their own. Before leaving Seneca Falls, they convinced Lecretia Mott to stay in New York long enough to be the featured speaker at their convention, as she had been at Seneca Falls.
Please Read Part Sixty-Four HERE
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