Lucy Stone was an activist, trailblazer, and figured prominently at the forefront of the abolitionist and women\u2019s suffrage movement.\u00a0 Lucy was born in Massachusetts to a family of farmers, one of nine children.\u00a0 She acquired her anti-slavery roots from her parents and their Congregationalist faith.\u00a0 She distanced herself from the Congregational faith when the church criticized the abolitionist Grimke sisters for unbecoming feminine behavior for speaking against slavery to mixed audiences. She rebelled against her parents when she decided to go to college.<\/p>\n
At sixteen, she taught classes for several years saving her money for school.\u00a0 In 1843 she enrolled in Oberlin College.\u00a0 She continued to work her way through school by teaching and doing housework\u00a0 In 1847, she was the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a bachelor\u2019s degree graduating with honors.<\/p>\n
Following her graduation from college, Lucy began speaking on women\u2019s rights using her brother\u2019s pulpit as a starting point.\u00a0 Subsequently, she was hired by the Garrisonian Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society to give lectures on abolition.\u00a0 She took the opportunity to also speak on the behalf of women\u2019s suffrage.\u00a0 Her employers took umbrage at the joining of the two subjects, so she began to tour speaking on women\u2019s rights during the week and lecturing on anti-slavery for the Society on the weekends.\u00a0 This was the beginning of her career as a public speaker.<\/p>\n
Lucy Stone traveled the country lecturing on women\u2019s suffrage and anti-slavery.\u00a0 She became a persistent voice in the developing women\u2019s rights movement.\u00a0 She also advocated for other women\u2019s causes such as property rights, temperance, dress reform, and divorce.\u00a0 She was instrumental in the organization of the first annual convention on women\u2019s suffrage. Her speech at the 1850 convention is credited with transforming Susan B. Anthony into an advocate for women\u2019s suffrage.<\/p>\n
Lucy Stone continued her battle against slavery.\u00a0 She spoke to legislative groups, started petition drives, and championed the abolitionist movement.\u00a0 She traveled the country extensively becoming a well-known orator for abolition and women\u2019s suffrage.\u00a0 It was during a lecture tour in Cincinnati, Ohio on women\u2019s rights that Lucy Stone met a local businessman Henry Browne Blackwell.\u00a0 He came from a family of strong women and took an interest in Lucy although he was seven years her junior.\u00a0 He pursued her mostly through correspondence for two years before she would agree to marry him.\u00a0 They drafted a private agreement between them defining her personal and financial freedom within the confines of legal marriage.\u00a0 After a year, Lucy also decided to retain her maiden name.<\/p>\n
To protest a government that she was not permitted to participate in, Lucy Stone refused to pay property taxes on her separate personal property.\u00a0 As a result, to much public outcry, her household goods were seized at her New Jersey home to pay the debt.<\/p>\n
During the Civil War, Lucy Stone along with other abolitionist women\u2019s rights advocates formed the Women\u2019s National Loyal League which was committed to the emancipation and enfranchisement of all slaves.\u00a0 After the war, she founded the American Equal Rights Association which unified abolitionist and women\u2019s rights advocates in support of the extension of the right to vote for all, irrespective of race or sex.\u00a0 She was a staunch activist in support of the 13th<\/sup> amendment abolishing slavery.\u00a0 She supported the 14th<\/sup> Amendment which afforded civil rights to freed slaves but ensured the right to vote only to men.\u00a0 She also supported the 15th<\/sup> Amendment which protected equal rights irrespective of race.\u00a0 Lucy Stone resigned herself to the fact that these amendments were incomplete as regards to women\u2019s suffrage but did address the necessary question of race.\u00a0 This stance saw the split of the women\u2019s suffrage movement in protest to Congress\u2019 disregard to the issue of equal rights irrespective to sex.\u00a0 This division in the women\u2019s suffrage movement lasted for eighteen years when Lucy Stone\u2019s daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell worked to mend the fences between her mother and Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.<\/p>\n Lucy Stone was a woman of firsts.\u00a0 She was the first woman from Massachusetts to graduate from college.\u00a0 She was the first woman in the United States to keep her maiden name after getting married.\u00a0 She was also the first person in New England to be cremated.\u00a0 Lucy Stone was also known as an orator when women were not permitted to speak publicly.\u00a0 She was a very vocal activist for women\u2019s suffrage and property rights.\u00a0 Lucy Stone was a Republican!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lucy Stone was an activist, trailblazer, and figured prominently at the forefront of the abolitionist and women\u2019s suffrage movement.\u00a0 Lucy was born in Massachusetts to a family of farmers, one of nine children.\u00a0 She acquired her anti-slavery roots from her parents and their Congregationalist faith.\u00a0 She distanced herself from the Congregational faith when the church…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5417,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-historical"],"yoast_head":"\n