Summer 2009 TAH: Brian Carey
Antebellum Women in Burgeoning Boston: The fight for equality
Lucy Stone
-Middle class upbringing with 8 siblings.
-Worked and saved money for nine years until able to afford to go to a university (Oberlin College).
-In 1847, graduated becoming the first woman from MA to earn a college degree
-Though asked to write a commencement speech for graduation, refused b/c wouldn’t be allowed to read it! Not even Oberlin would allow a woman to publicly speak.
-Moved back to MA, befriended William Lloyd Garrison, and aligned with many policies that would come to be known as Garrisonian
~Included taking a very public and vocal role in the abolitionist movement
~Non-resistance
~Anti-clerical & anti-religious outlook.
-Studied at Oberlin included learning Hebrew and Greek
~Bible is not translated correctly
∙Makes women seem inferior
-Thrown out of church for defiant views
-In 1850, organized first national woman’s rights convention in Worcester, MA. Mostly locals attended Seneca Falls, but Worcester was NATIONAL, with representation attending from countrywide!
-Susan B. Anthony and Julia Ward Howe joined the woman’s suffrage movement after hearing speeches, both at the Worcester convention, and at later events
-“Lucy Stoner.”- 1st woman to keep own last name when married! Protested all the normal rules of marriage that gave a man power over woman
Emancipation/Abolition:
- Anti slavery bazaars
- Bazaars and fairs at Faneuil Hall - After Bunker Hill Memorial stood unfinished for almost 10 years, Sarah Jospeha Hale sponsored a week-long bake sale in 1840 to raise money to complete the project. Approx. $30,000 was raised and the memorial was completed.
- Around the same time, female anti-slavery societies held fairs here also.
- Major organizer: Maria Weston Chapman for the BFASS
One society which, within seven years, from 1833 to 1840, received national exposure and prominence
Held fairs at Faneuil Hall for over twenty years during the Christmas seasonraised thousands $$!
Other abolitionist women, including:
Lydia Maria Child - Wrote 1st book to advocate immediate end to slavery An Appeal in Behalf of that Class of Americans called Africans
Helen E. Garrison- wife of William Lloyd Garrison
Lucretia Mott - travelled to MA and Europe to speak on behalf of the abolition and emancipation movements. Also, called for the 1848 Seneca Falls convention with Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society’s (BFASS) - other accomplishments:
Organized three, almost four, national anti-slavery conventions
Organized multi-state petition campaign
Sued southerners who brought their slaves into MA over state lines
Slavery illegal in MA (since MA constitution adopted in 1783) and therefore bringing a slave over state lines, automatically freed them.
Public show of leadership and social reform angered many men, who believed they had crossed boundaries of a woman’s acceptable social sphere since slavery was an issue of politics! And politics was not an acceptable subject for ladies.
-Women argued that it was not only political, but also moral, religious, justice, humanity based (appropriate subjects)
-Not all events were welcomed at Faneuil Hall
E.g. April 1851- Boston refused to allow a convention opposing the Fugitive Slave Law to be held here
Old State House:
-Oldest standing public brick building in Boston made famous for James Otis’ protest “No Taxation without representation” and the reading of the Declaration of Independence from the balcony reflects the same passion of the Feminist/abolitionist movement.
-James Otis’ words reiterated by Lucy Stone - Refused to pay property taxes until women received representation in government
Declaration of Rights and Sentiments - Modeled after our Declaration of Independence
a.At the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in NY organized by Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stantonand signed by 68 women and 32 men
Federal Street (100 Federal St. - where Federal St. Church was) - was a vibrant location of emancipation, abolition, arts, education, and education for example:
-Boston’s very first theatre, opened in 1794, and designed by Charles Bulfinch, called The Federal Street Theatre, quickly earned a reputation of being the finest theatre in the U.S.
-Among its performers, Sarah Bernhardt and Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, and Susanna Haswell Rowson, playwright and actress lived in Boston performing in 129 plays at the theatre
- In 1797- Org. Young Ladies Academy near the theatre
- 1st school to educate women above elementary school level
- Taught public speaking and was the 1st school to do so
-Also, a noted playwright, Judith Sargent Murray, wrote plays performed here and pieces commenting on class structure and gender roles, and the biblical myth of the “Fall of Eve.” She also wrote in Massachusetts Magazine, using male pen name
- Sold collection of essays from magazine to many, inc. John Adams and George Washington
- 1st American woman to self publish
- Lived on Franklin Street with husband.
-Deborah Samson - The first woman to enlist and serve in the American Military spoke at Federal St. Theatre in 1802 about military life and demonstrated perfectly executed military drills!
Federal Street Church, where William Ellery Channing presided as minister of this Unitarian church.
-Most famous congregant- Maria Weston Chapman
Who, after the break between the BFASS occurred, was one of the most ardent remaining Garrisonians, insulting her own minister after Mary Parker, who served as President of the BFASS, quoted Channing to make a point in her speech. Chapman responded: “I never consider Dr. Channing as authority.”
-Eliza Lee Cabot Follen, another abolitionist also attended.
- Called out to mothers to stand up against slavery by considering the cries of slave moms
- This credo was common in recruiting women to the abolitionist cause. Also,
- Educate kids in principles of peace and hatred of slavery
- The knowledge that sexual violation of female slaves was widespread and rampant
Franklin Street
-Not only did the playwright Judith Sargent Murray live at 5 Franklin Place, but after she died, a woman’s rights advocate, named Abby May, lived there also.
-Opened 1st separate Latin School for girls in the late 1800s.
-Schools didn’t combine until 1972, approx 100 years later.
-Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus-on this site lived the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Boston (became bishop 1808)
-Guest of honor to Pres. John Adams and friend of William Ellery Channing
-The two ministers together, represent the power of the clergy and herein lay the core strength and, later, the weakness of female anti-slavery societies like the BFASS
-The BFASS was composed of a vast demographical range of economic status and religion.
-White Upper Class Unitarians and Quakers
-White Middle Class Congregationalists and Baptists
-Elite African-Americans (Baptist and Methodist)
-BFASS established by 12 women, some of whom were clergymen’s wives.
-Clergy often organized behind the scenes
-Helped to construct society’s constitution
Two types of female abolitionists:
-Those who spoke out v. slavery but did not question women’s place in society
-Those who spoke out v. slavery and became feminists fighting for improved lives for women
-Upper Class supported feminism abolitionism
-Middle classes didn’t question women’s place in society
-Blacks contributed more locally to their own church orgs.
-The BFASS had been considered auxiliary to male Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society
-When the MASS and the New England Anti Slavery Society voted to accept women as members, it became known as “The Boston Controversy”
-Caused schism creating two factions:
-Massachusetts Abolition Society 1839: Pro religious/clerical, opposed feminist movement because they thought it weakened abolitionism
-Re-emergence of BFASS, a Garrisonian organization:Commit acts of Non-Resistance, or Non-Violence (Civil Disobedience). Also,
-Free Produce Movement- boycott products made through slave labor
-Address promiscuous (male/female) audiences
E.g. The Grimke sisters- Angelina and Sarah –
-Travelled giving speeches country-wide, addressed a co-ed audience of over 600 in Lynn, MA – 1837
-Repeat performances had to be scheduled- male spectators increased in numbers.
-Many Boston women embraced feminist ideas because of the sisters
-Even though Congregational ministers were furious and asked churches to turn away the sisters
-Maria Weston Chapman began including feminist statements in her anti-slavery essays b/c of sisters.
-Refuse to pay taxes, like Lucy Stone
-Declare “no union” with slaveholding states
-Vote process - Susan B. Anthony- presidential election of Ulysses S. Grant (v. Horace Greeley) in 1872- led 16 women to cast votes
-Tried, found guilty, and refused to pay fine.
Old South Meeting House
Besides its fame for being the site where Samuel Adams gave the secret signal sending 200 Sons of Liberty down to Boston Harbor for the Boston Tea Party, one of the church’s most famous congregants, was renowned poet and writer Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)
Having been brought over from her native Senegal and sold at the age of 7 to the Wheatley family, Phillis arrived in poor health.
Due to her illness, her obvious intelligence, and her mistress’ fondness of her, she wasn’t trained as a servant and was instead encouraged to read and write
1st African American, 1st slave, and only the 3rd American woman poet published in book form in 1773
She was only twenty years old.
Work was recognized by George Washington and Voltaire, a literary master from France
Although poems didn’t address racial equality, they did comment on her experience during the slave trade, on religion, and on morality
She is immortalized in Boston today at the Women’s Memorial located on Commonwealth Ave. (2003)
In this memorial three women are featured:
-Phillis Wheatley
-Abigail Adams
-Lucy Stone
The ground on which we are now standing is where William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator was published until the building was taken down in 1861 (Downtown Crossing at the corner where Filene’s Basement once stood).
-Countless abolitionist meetings took place here since it was also the office of Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.
-The Liberator was published until after the Civil War was won in 1865.
West Street:
At 15 West Street, there was a book shop belonging to Elizabeth Peabody
-Elizabeth became the first female publisher in Boston and would create the program that we now refer to as Kindergarten.
-Her publication was entitled Kindergarten Messenger
-Behind this book shop, Elizabeth also had a parlor where her sisters were married
-Sophia married great American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote The Scarlet Letter
-Mary married Horace Mann who would come to be known as the “Father of Public Education”
-Between the years of 1839-1844, in this bookshop, the conversations led by Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) would popularize the Transcendentalist Movement in N.E.
-Noted as America’s 1st true feminist
-She and some of her closest friends, including Thoreau, Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, presidential candidate Horace Greeley, congregated at this location
-Having received an intense classical education from her dad, she became an intellectual prodigy at a young age. Her career of achievements began when she won admittance to the male-only halls of Harvard’s library.
-Each one of her conversations at this shop focused on one philosophical question (Socratic Method)
-Spectators were dazzled by her ability to think outside her “Social Sphere” (socially accepted roles)
-The Transcendentalist Movement pursued the self-perfection of self
-A lasting result of these conversations was the publication of Woman in the Nineteenth Century in 1845- feminist classic
-In 1840, joined forces with Ralph Waldo Emerson and published the transcendentalist journal The Dial
-Invited by Horace Greeley to move to NYC to work for the New York Tribune and became the first woman journalist to work for the paper
Maria Weston Chapman’s home also located here on West Street
-It was near this location on October 21, 1835, that one of the most notorious events of the feminist emancipation movement would take place
-Since no hall would rent to BFASS since they had invited prominent British abolitionist George Thompson to speak, the meeting was set to be conducted at the MA Anti-Slavery Society offices nearby, but a mob of men grew to menace the “petticoat politicians.”
-Mayor told women to leave, Chapman refused and they eventually walked in pairs, each black woman linking arms with a white woman, and met at her home to conduct mtg.
-After the women left, Garrison was attacked while at the offices
-Put a rope around him and dragged him through the streets to the mayor’s office
-He was placed in protective custody in jail overnight
-Advised to leave Boston for a while, which he did
-“Garrison Mob” / “Mob of Gentlemen of Property and Standing”
Park Street Church
-William Lloyd Garrison first spoke out publicly against slavery on July 4, 1829
-He was dragged to Boston Common and beaten.
-In 1840, 1st International convention of Anti-Slavery Societies convened in London
-Refused to allow American women, incl. Lucretia Mott, who had been elected as an official delegate, to have any voice/representation, Garrison refused to participate in the convention and overlooked from a small gallery with other male abolitionists.
-His silence dominated the entire convention
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia resolved at that convention to hold a convention to advocate the rights of women.
Boston Common
-In 1851, passersby were astounded to see Amelia Bloomer standing on Boston Common wearing pantaloon-like (pants) clothing
-The term “bloomers” is highly misleading since Amelia Bloomer had no part in the origination of this style
-The pantaloons were also worn by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
-First adorned by the actress Fanny Kemble
-The women eventually abandoned the outfit, deciding it was distracting public attention from the real matter at hand
-Bloomer’s real accomplishments lie in the fact that she was the first woman to own, operate, and edit a newspaper for women entitled The Lily (1849)
Tremont Temple and 5 Park Street (Paulist Fathers Building)
-Most BFASS members were active in Boston’s free churches, no pew fees- Baptist Tremont Temple was one such church
-1860- Mob action to expel Negro speakers from temple.
-In 1869, prominent national lecturer Mary Rice Livermore first spoke here about woman’s suffrage
-She would serve as the first editor of The Women’s Journal, which was published on Park Street starting in 1870
State House
-Doric Hall - 1996 legislature decided that more women needed to be honored within the State House
-“Hear Us” Women’s Leadership Project
Dorothea Dix – improving lives of patients. Her life consisted of three impressive careers.
1st career: Teacher
- Girls were not allowed to attend public schools, but could be taught privately by other women
- Opened a school for young girls (wealthy in one room, poor in another) in her grandmother’s mansion in Boston- ran school 1822-1836
- Came to be known as “little dame schools”
2nd career: Spokeswoman for the mentally disabled
- 1841- Visited a women’s jail to teach a class
- Found drunks, criminals, prostitutes, and mentally retarded confined to same room, which had NO HEAT, NO furniture, and smelled FOUL.
- Their justification was “The insane do not feel heat or cold.”
- After surveying jails & poorhouses in MA for over a year, she prepared a statement to the MA legislature telling of her findings.
- MA granted money to improve Worcester State Hospital
- Visited every state east of Mississippi River and many European hospitals/facilities.
- Played major part in founding 32 mental hospitals, 15 schools for feeble-minded, 1 school for the blind, and many training facilities for nurses.
- Established libraries in prisons, mental hospitals
3rd career: Supt. of Army nurses for Union during Civil War.
Lucy Stone
Sarah Parker Remond - Anti-slavery speaker
-Bought tickets by mail to see a show and was refused entrance upon arrival because she was black
-Refused to sit in the section designated for African Americans- sued the theatre- won $500
Nurses Hall
Clara Barton (b. 1821 in North Oxford, MA)
-Founder of the American Red Cross- 1881
-“Angel of the Battlefield”
-Because she administered so much direct aid and supplies to soldiers during Civil War.
-Est. 1st office to coordinate information on missing soldiers
Lt. Frances Slanger – born 1913 in Poland & emigrated to South End, Boston
-Landed on the beaches of Normandy with first hospital platoon on 10 June 1944 (WWII)
-Graduated Boston City Hospital School of Nursing
-1st American nurse killed in action after D Day invasion- 21 Oct. 1944
Louisa May Alcott - during Civil War, worked as nurse in Georgetown for 6 wks
- Contracted typhoid - died of typhoid treatment (March 6, 1888)
Beacon Hill
-In 1908, two women wished to attend law school and asked Arthur MacLean, an attorney to tutor them.
-Portia School of Law: the first and only school to provide exclusive legal training to women
-In 1920, first degrees were awarded to 39 women
-In 1923, first African American woman was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar and she was a graduate of Portia
-The school still exists, though is now called New England School of Law and is located on Stuart Street in the Theatre District
Chestnut Street
-The Quaker Friends House - Quaker women were very active members of the abolition movement and of Non-Resistance
-Thankful Southwick, member of the BFASS introduced a resolution for purchasing free produce in1838 in Philadelphia
-#13 through #17 - Designed by Charles Bulfinch around 1806
-Owned by Hepzibah Clarke Swan - broke tradition since it was rare for women to own property in their own name during early 1800s.