Lucy Stone

Lucy Stone ( born August 13, 1818 in West Brookfield, Massachusetts, † October 18, 1893 in Dorchester, a suburb of Boston) was an American reformer, suffragist, abolitionist and journalist. As the first American wife they kept their birth name.

Life

Lucy Stone was the third daughter of nine children of the farmer Francis Stone and his wife Hannah Matthews. The education of children was closely monitored by their parents. Lucy was considered a precocious and highly intelligent. As one of the first women Lucy Stone studied theology at Oberlin College in Ohio; against the wishes of her parents and the college administration. There she met the seven years younger Antoinette Brown (1825-1921), with whom they soon became close friends. The two women fought first against the provision that women in the courses just listen and not allowed to speak.

In 1856, the women's rights activists Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown were sisters in law, as they are the Henry and Samuel Blackwell brothers were married within a year. Their sisters were the first American doctors Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell. From the marriage, which by all accounts was happy, was a daughter, Alice (1857-1950), out. Lucy Stone caused a controversy because it retained her birth name as a symbol of a woman's right to individuality after her marriage. Those women who followed their example, one called "Lucy Stoners ."

During the Civil War, "Mrs. committed Stone "for the" Women's National Loyal League ". 1866, she participated in the founding of the "American Equal Rights Association," and a year later she was elected president of the " New Jersey Women Suffrage Association ." In 1868, she helped build the "New England Women Suffrage Association "; a year later she moved with her family to Boston. Together with other women founded Lucy Stone in November 1866, the " American Woman 's Suffrage Association " ( AWSA ). In addition to her commitment to women's rights - she also vehemently for the abolition of slavery.

In 1870, " founded Mrs. Stone ", the " Woman's Journal, " the most important newspaper of the American women's movement, and was assisted in this by her husband, Henry Blackwell ( 1825-1909 ). Until her death, she was editor of this newspaper.

Worth mentioning

• Of May 1921 Ruth Hale founded the Women's Organization Lucy Stone League, which aimed, among other things, that women after marriage can retain their birth name. Among the co-founders were among other Jane Grant, wife of Harold Ross, and Beatrice Kaufman, wife of playwright George Simon Kaufman. Other members were Neysa McMein, Janet Flanner, Franklin Pierce Adams, Solita Solano, Anita Loos, Fannie Hurst and Blanche Oelrichs.

"What I have to be able to select them, to own property, etc., if I can not freely dispose of my body and its functions? "

Lucy Stone, 1847

Lucy Stone, circa 1878