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
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