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When did Lucy Stone get her college degree?
1847When she graduated from Oberlin in 1847, Lucy Stone became the first Massachusetts women to earn a college degree. She was a gifted public speaker, and a dedicated abolitionist. Soon she was appointed a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society.
What did Lucy Stone do after college?
Lucy Stone (1818-1893) was an early advocate of antislavery and women's rights. She was born in Massachusetts. After she graduated from Oberlin College in 1847, she began lecturing for the antislavery movement as a paid agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Where did Lucy Stone teach?
Oberlin CollegeLucy StoneEducationBachelor of ArtsAlma materOberlin CollegeKnown forAbolitionist suffragist women's rights activistSpouseHenry Browne Blackwell ( m. 1855–1893)5 more rows
What is an interesting fact about Lucy Stone?
A leading suffragist and abolitionist, Lucy Stone dedicated her life to battling inequality on all fronts. She was the first Massachusetts woman to earn a college degree and she defied gender norms when she famously wrote marriage vows to reflect her egalitarian beliefs and refused to take her husband's last name.
What was Lucy Stone's education?
Oberlin CollegeMount Holyoke CollegeWilbraham & Monson AcademyLucy Stone/Education
What did Amelia Bloomer do?
Amelia Bloomer edited the first newspaper for women, The Lily. It was issued from 1849 until 1853. The newspaper began as a temperance journal. Bloomer felt that as women lecturers were considered unseemly, writing was the best way for women to work for reform.
Where did Lucy Stone grow up?
West Brookfield, MassachusettsEarly Life. Lucy Stone was born on August 13, 1818 in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. She had eight brothers and sisters and grew up on a farm. In her family, her father was obeyed without question.
Where is Lucy Stone buried?
Forest Hills CemeteryShe was also the first person in Massachusetts to be cremated. Unfortunately, Forest Hills Cemetery, where she is buried, did not respect her last wishes and they used the last name “Blackwell” on her stone.
What speech did Lucy talk about?
At the convention Lucy talked about women suffrage. A copy of her speech was sent to England. These women, from the convention, wanted England to know that women in their country should have rights.
Did Lucy Stone support the 15th amendment?
On the one hand, some leaders such as Stone and Douglass supported the 15th Amendment and argued that it was "the Negro's hour," and that Black male voting rights should come first. Once the 15th Amendment was ratified, AERA could then push for a separate amendment for women's suffrage.
Why is Lucy Stone so important?
During the Civil War, Stone supported the Women's National Loyal League founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. In 1866 she helped found the American Equal Rights Association.
Who disagreed with Lucy Stone?
After the Civil War, Stone found herself at odds with fellow suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, both former allies who deeply opposed Stone's support for the 15th Amendment.
Who was Lucy Stone married to?
In 1855 Stone married Henry Blackwell. At the ceremony the minister read a statement from the bride and groom, announcing that Stone would keep her own name.
Who was Lucy Stone?
Library of Congress. Lucy Stone (1818-1893) was an early advocate of antislavery and women’s rights. She was born in Massachusetts. After she graduated from Oberlin College in 1847, she began lecturing for the antislavery movement as a paid agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. She said in 1847, “I expect to plead not for the slave only, ...
What did Lucy Stone say in 1847?
She said in 1847, “I expect to plead not for the slave only, but for suffering humanity everywhere. Especially do I mean to labor for the elevation of my sex.”. Lucy Stone did not participate in the First Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, but she was an organizer of the 1850 Worcester First National Woman’s Rights Convention. ...
Where was Lucy Stone born?
Early Life & Family. Influential women's rights activist and abolitionist Lucy Stone was born on August 13, 1818, in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. One of Francis Stone and Hannah Matthews's nine children, Stone was steeped early on in life the virtues of fighting against slavery from her parents, both committed abolitionists.
Who Was Lucy Stone?
Lucy Stone dedicated her life to improving the rights of American women. She supported the Women's National Loyal League, which was founded by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (though Stone and the two would later be at odds), and in 1866 helped found the American Equal Rights Association. She also organized and was elected president of the State Woman's Suffrage Association of New Jersey, and spent her life serving the cause. Stone died 30 years before women were finally permitted to vote (August 1920), on October 18, 1893, in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Where was Lucy Stone born?
Born near West Brookfield, Massachusetts in 1818, [1] Stone graduated from Oberlin College in 1847, becoming the first Massachusetts woman to earn her bachelor’s degree.
What did Lucy Stone say about the abolition of slavery?
In 1893 as she lay dying of stomach cancer, Stone reflected, “I am glad I was born, and that at a time when the world needed the service I could give.” [11]Her words remain a statement truly befitting the woman, suffragist, and abolitionist who worked relentlessly to secure freedom for the enslaved and rights for women. With the dying words, “Make the world better,” the indefatigable Lucy Stone departed this world, a bone fide pioneer of her time.
What was the name of the organization that Stone worked for?
In 1848, Stone began working as a paid lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. During that first year, she established herself as an exemplary abolitionist lecturer, a cause she continued to champion throughout her life.
What did Stone and Blackwell say at the marriage ceremony?
At the ceremony Stone and Blackwell read a Marriage Protest, a statement the two wrote together denouncing all legal portions of marriage in which a woman became subservient to and property of her husband. [7] . Stone retained her maiden name, a decision which often proved controversial and left an ongoing legacy. [8] .
Where was Lucy Stone born?
Early Life. Lucy Stone was born on August 13, 1818, on her family's Massachusetts farm in West Brookfield. She was the eighth of nine children, and as she grew up, she watched as her father ruled the household, and his wife, by "divine right.".
Who was Lucy Stone married to?
And so, in 1855, Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell married. At the ceremony, Minister Thomas Wentworth Higginson read a statement by the bride and groom, renouncing and protesting the marriage laws of the time, and announcing that she would keep her name. Higginson published the ceremony widely with their permission.
Why did Lucy Stone refuse to write a speech?
She was asked to write a commencement speech for her class, but she refused because someone else would have had to read her speech because women were not allowed, even at Oberlin, to give a public address.
What did Lucy write to Henry?
She wrote to him, "A wife should no more take her husband's name than he should hers. My name is my identity and must not be lost." Henry agreed with her. "I wish, as a husband, to renounce all the privileges which the law confers upon me, which are not strictly mutual. Surely such a marriage will not degrade you, dearest."
What was Lucy Stone's job?
The American Anti-Slavery Society. A year after she graduated, Lucy Stone was hired as an organizer for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In this paid position, she traveled and gave speeches on North American 19th-century Black activism and women's rights.
Who were the women who helped to organize the American Woman Suffrage Association?
Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and Henry Blackwell led those who sought to keep the causes of Black people and women's suffrage together, and in 1869 they and others founded the American Woman Suffrage Association .
Who was Lucy Stone?
Updated June 18, 2019. Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818–October 18, 1893) was the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree and the first woman in the United States to keep her own name after marriage. While she started out on the radical edge of women's rights at the beginning ...
Where was Lucy Stone born?
Early life and influences. Lucy Stone was born on August 13, 1818, on her family's farm at Coy's Hill in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. She was the eighth of nine children born to Hannah Matthews and Francis Stone; she grew up with three brothers and three sisters, two siblings having died before her own birth.
Who was Lucy Stone?
Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818 – October 18, 1893) was a prominent U.S. orator, abolitionist, and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery.
Why did Henry Blackwell not want to marry?
Stone told him she did not wish to marry because she did not want to surrender control over her life and would not assume the legal position occupied by a married woman. Blackwell maintained that despite the law, couples could create a marriage of equal partnership, governed by their mutual agreement. They could also take steps to protect the wife against unjust laws, such as placing her assets in the hands of a trustee. He also believed that marriage would allow each partner to accomplish more than he or she could alone, and to show how he could help advance Stone's work, he arranged her highly successful western lecturing tour of 1853. Over an eighteen-month courtship conducted primarily through correspondence, Stone and Blackwell discussed the nature of marriage, actual and ideal, as well as their own natures and suitability for marriage. Stone gradually fell in love and in November 1854 agreed to marry Blackwell.
Why did Lucy Stone sign her name?
Stone viewed the tradition of wives abandoning their own surname to assume that of their husbands as a manifestation of the legal annihilation of a married woman's identity. Immediately after her marriage, with the agreement of her husband, she continued to sign correspondence as "Lucy Stone" or "Lucy Stone – only." But during the summer, Blackwell tried to register the deed for property Stone purchased in Wisconsin, and the registrar insisted she sign it as "Lucy Stone Blackwell." The couple consulted Blackwell's friend, Salmon P. Chase, a Cincinnati lawyer and future Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, who was not immediately able to answer their question about the legality of her name. So while continuing to sign her name as Lucy Stone in private correspondence, for eight months she signed her name as Lucy Stone Blackwell on public documents and allowed herself to be so identified in convention proceedings and newspaper reports. But upon receiving assurance from Chase that no law required a married woman to change her name, Stone made a public announcement at the May 7, 1856, convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Boston that her name remained Lucy Stone. In 1879, when Boston women were granted the franchise in school elections, Stone registered to vote. But officials notified her that she would not be allowed to vote unless she added "Blackwell" to her signature. This she refused to do, and so she was not able to vote. Because her time and energy were consumed with suffrage work, she did not challenge the action in a court of law.
How old was Lucy Stone when she died?
Having "prepared for death with serenity and an unwavering concern for the women's cause", Lucy Stone died on October 18, 1893, at the age of 75. At her funeral three days later, 1,100 people crowded the church, and hundreds more stood silently outside.
Why did Stone work against Stanton?
In the process of planning for women's rights conventions, Stone worked against Stanton to remove from any proposed platform the formal advocacy of divorce. Stone wished to keep the subject separate, to prevent the appearance of moral laxity. She pushed "for the right of woman to the control of her own person as a moral, intelligent, accountable being." Other rights were certain to fall into place after women were given control of their own bodies. Years later, Stone's position on divorce would change.
Where did Lucy Stone give her first public speech?
Stone gave her first public speeches on women's rights in the fall of 1847, first at her brother Bowman's church in Gardner, Massachusetts, and a little later in Warren.
Early Life
Education
- Her father would not support her education, so she alternated her own education with teaching to earn enough to continue. She attended several institutions, including Mount Holyoke Female Seminaryin 1839. By age 25 four years later, she had saved enough to fund her first year at Oberlin College in Ohio, the country's first college to admit both Whi...
The American Anti-Slavery Society
- A year after she graduated, Lucy Stone was hired as an organizer for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In this paid position, she traveled and gave speeches on North American 19th-century Black activism and women's rights. William Lloyd Garrison, whose ideas were dominant in the Anti-Slavery Society, said of her during her first year of working with the organization, "She is a v…
Radical Leadership
- Stone's radicalism on both North American 19th-century Black activism and women's rights brought large crowds. The talks also drew hostility: according to historian Leslie Wheeler, "people tore down the posters advertising her talks, burned pepper in the auditoriums where she spoke, and pelted her with prayer books and other missiles." Having been convinced by using the Greek …
Marriage and Motherhood
- Stone had thought of herself as a "free soul" who would not marry; then she met Cincinnati businessman Henry Blackwell in 1853 on one of her speaking tours. Henry was seven years younger than Lucy and courted her for two years. Henry was anti-enslavement and pro-women's rights. His eldest sister Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910), became the first woman phy…
Split in The Suffrage Movement
- Inactive in the suffrage movement during the Civil War, Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell became active again when the war ended and the Fourteenth Amendmentwas proposed, giving the vote to Black men. For the first time, the Constitution would, with this Amendment, mention "male citizens" explicitly. Most woman suffrage activists were outraged. Many saw the possible passa…
The Women's Journal
- The next year, Lucy raised enough funds to start a suffrage weekly newspaper, The Woman's Journal. For the first two years, it was edited by Mary Livermore, and then Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell became the editors. Lucy Stone found working on a newspaper far more compatible with family life than the lecture circuit. Alice Stone Blackwell attended Boston University, where …
Last Years
- Lucy Stone's radical move to keep her own name continued to inspire and enrage. In 1879, Massachusetts gave women a limited right to vote for the school committee. In Boston, however, the registrars refused to let Lucy Stone vote unless she used her husband's name. She continued to find that, on legal documents and when registering with her husband at hotels, she had to sig…
Death
- Stone's voice had already faded and she rarely spoke to large groups later in her life. But in 1893, she gave lectures at the World's Columbian Exposition. A few months later, she died in Boston of cancer and was cremated. Her last words to her daughter were "Make the world better."
Legacy
- Lucy Stone is less well known today than Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, or Julia Ward Howe, whose "Battle Hymn of the Republic" helped immortalize her name. Stone's daughter Alice Stone Blackwell published her mother's biography, "Lucy Stone, Pioneer of Woman's Rights," in 1930, helping to keep her name and contributions known. But Lucy Stone is still remembered to…