BLACKWELL FAMILY
LUCY STONE

Fragmentary writings[N?q.
Short Eu Requiter.?]
Many town meetings
are to be held in this
state in March - and
if some of them [the]
women can vote for
school committee. 
Mother trims[?] the
school Election c?ves [?]
in April. Every woman
who wishes to use her opportunity
should see to it at
once. Poll tax women must
have registered last fall,
but [property] those who pay 
taxes on property can register
now, up to within two [weeks] to
4th Election. Their in no time
to lose. Take your last year
receipted tax bill and go
at once to the select mem. and
see your name in the register.
L.S.the article entitled "Property Rights in
Massachusetts," found on another page.
This is the law for wives in Massachusetts.
It differs in different States.     L.S.

PROPERTY RIGHTS OF WIVES.
We are in frequent receipt of letters asking
what are the exact property rights of
wives; how much the law gives to the
husband, and how much to the wife, and 
how much each is free to dispose of by
will. Mr. Percy A. Bridgham, of  this city,
who has so ably answered these questions
and many others, in the Boston Globe, has
kindly consented at my request to prepare
the article entitled "Property Rights in 
Massachusetts," found on another page.
This is the law for wives in Massachusetts.
It differs in different States.     L.S.The Fugitive Slave Law is a law and
must be obeyed.  Would a law can.
that one sixth of the population, who for no
crime were condemned to be murdered
should attempts to escape an undeserved
death by the halter, that all good
citizens should [?] their return to 
the gallows, [and if] would from prominent
clergymen preach the necessity of obedience
to such a law?  Would its press [fl?] for such
whole sale slaughter of the innocent?
Beffore such a law sprung upon us by a
drunken Congress like that which passed 
The Fugitive Slave Bill, covering the same 
number of victims, only that they are 
to be found in each family in the [?]
the subjects not yet pointed out.  But
to be described by a warrant, and the
executor of the law, to receive a larger
fee, if he succeed in the effecting the murder
and smaller if he does not.  The man
to be fined $1000 and imprisoned 6 months
who assists the victim of the law to prolong 
his life to the natural span.  Think [?]
[th?] when from each household some [?]
one, might be torn away by such an 
enactment. And its mangled body dragged 
to its last resting place, all [?]
and knew [?] upon whom the kindly decrees
would come. We should hear from pulpit
and press, sanctity of such a law &
the necessity of its maintenance, so long as
it is a law.  [?] no, [?] body would than 
know that there is a higher law.  All men
would say that resistance to tyrants is 
obedience to God.  The bible would be searched
and it would ring form pulpit to pulpit
said of Lord thou shall do no murder.  Every instance of
disobedience to wicked laws in the scripture
would be arrayed.  And we should be told 
they were written for our example.  The [?]
utterance of Shadrach [?] to Nibude.....
[?] it known acts then [???].  The fiery
furnace was before them, and death of
the most excruciating horror, threatened 
by a law that knew no change, and not
trampling it under their feet.  They braved
the worst infliction of a wicked king, well
knowing that right and justice
are always safe.  Choosing rather
his dominion, who is king of kings
Lord of lords.  And God stood with them 
in that burning fiery furnace, and
while they set at naught the vile enactment
his own arm draw from the cruel flame
it power to hurt, all unharmed they
came forth from that fiery ordeal
and the wicked law was made void by
the [?] by the kings seal

The golden image, in the plain
of Dura... Daniel, when the 
decree placed with the laws of the Medes
and Persians that it might not be 
repealed, Commanded that no petition
should be made of any God or 
king but Darius, threatening dreadful
punishment to the disobedient, went to 
his chamber, as was his want.EQUAL POLITICAL RIGHTS. 

Here is a form of petition for such of the women 
of Massachusetts to circulate and sign, as understand 
their rights, and mean to maintain them. 

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives
of Massachusetts, in General Court assembled: 

Whereas,the women of the State of Massachusetts 
are disenfranchised by the Constitution, solely on 
account of their sex - 

We do, respectfully, demand for them the right of 
suffrage; a right which involves all other rights of 
citizenship, and one that cannot, justly, be withheld, 
as the following admitted principles of government 
show:-

First. 'All men are born free and equal.'
Second. 'Government derives its just powers from 
the consent of the governed.'
Third. 'Taxation and representation are inseparable.'

We, the undersigned, therefore petition your honorable 
body to take the necessary steps for a revision of 
the Constitution, so that all citizens may enjoy equal 
political rights. 

doing any thing of the sort. We will, therefore, ask 
earnest thinkers, and those who believe that woman, 
even though married, should have some rights, to procure 
a supply of these almanacs, and, whenever a 
smart thing is uttered or attempted to the prejudice 
of the Woman's movement, just put one in the hand 
of the utterer, and ask him to be so good as to read it. 
He will generally refuse or neglect to do it thoroughly, 
but he will be apt to keep quiet on the subject 
thereafter.' 

When this notice was given in the Tribune, a large 
demand as immediately made for the Almanac at 
the Anti-Slavery Office, and as it deserves a place in 
every family, allow me to say to the readers of THE 
LIBERATOR, that it is for sale by R. F. Wallcut, at 
21 Cornhill, Boston; price, six cents. For two three 
cent stamps and one cent stamp for postage, it can 
be sent to any part of the Union. It is sold at fifty 
cents per dozen; and in these 'hard times,' young
women, out of employment, may turn an honest penny 
by ordering a supply, and selling to the families 
in their town, and what is more, may give information, 
by this means, to those who would not otherwise 
get it, and who only stand aloof from the Woman's 
movement, because they do not know what it claims. 

I was rejoiced to see that the last Westminster Review, 
in the article on 'Female Dress,' gives cordial 
approval of the objects on the Dress Reform Association 
in this country, 
Very respectfully,  LUCY STONE. 



[*p 63 
Apr 16/52*]
LUCY STONE 
An Agent of the Mass. Anti-Slavery Society, will 
lecture as follows : — 
Fitchburg,       Sunday,                         April        18. 
Milford,           Monday,                          "           19.
Woonsocket,   Tuesday,                          "           20. 
Cumberland,   Thursday,                         "           22. 
Olneyville,       Saturday and Sunday,      "  24 & 25.   

(Continued from H. B. Blackwell &
Lucy Stone Book)

Condition of women today throughout the
world is the greatest social curse, the greatest
drawback to progress.  It is the reason we have
war, and national debt, and oppressive taxes, and
poverty, and destitution — all these things are
directly or indirectly the result of the subjection
of women by men.  This country, with all its opportunities
for women, does not yet give her any


voice in saying whether we shall have peace or war,
a silver currency or a gold currency, tariff or
free trade, license or prohibition.  On no 
question of national importance can a woman
have any voice excepting in the four States which
have given women full suffrage.  This country
has been called the paradise of women; but
to-day it is still literally true, the world over, that
the great majority of women are slaves.  Not a
third of the human race is born in homes
such as we know.  The great mass of women
to-day are born in polygamous relations; they 
have not one husband for life.  If you could realize
the conditions women have been under
since the beginning of the world, and under
which they still exist, if you could realize
the obstacles that still stand in women's
path to-day in spite of all that has been done
for them, you would feel that the noblest
of all reforms is to secure for women equal

rights and equal suffrage.
When Lucy Stone began to speak for
woman's rights — and I think she made the
most effective addresses ever given on that subject,—
she gave three lectures.  The first was on
the Social and Industrial Disabilities of Women;
the second, which she usually delivered the following
night, was on the Legal and Political Disabilities of
Women; and the third on the Religious Disabilities
of Women.  In those three lectures she covered
the whole ground of the equal rights movement more
completely than it has ever been done before or
since.
Women then, far more than now, found
it difficult to earn a living.  It was almost
impossible for them to find anything o do.
Public sentiment, which is as strong as law,
forbade it, and the industrial freedom which
has since come to them has come largely from
the influence of the women and men who have


worked to give women equal rights.  Today a woman
can earn about half as much as a man for work
equally well done.  That is a great disability, but
it is a great deal better to earn half as much
than to earn nothing at all.
When Lucy Stone taught school for
a dollar a week, she was a better teacher
than the men who were getting five or six
times that amount.  In a neighboring town there
was a school where unruly boys had pitched the
former teacher headlong into a snow-drift, and
he did not dare go back.  Another man was
employed but he found it impossible to stay.
Then the school directors invited Lucy to take
that school.  She accepted without hesitation.
The  pupils did not throw her into a snow-drift.
She had not taught there a week
before the very boys that had thrown the
male teacher into a snow-drift were her
warmest friends and supporters and she
had a perfectly harmonious school.  So you see
women in a womanly way, can govern as effectively
as men.
I can hardly describe the difficulties with
which a woman then contended.  Lucy Stone was
excommunicated from the Congregational Church of
West Brookfield, and so was Deacon Henshaw, for
no other reason than that they invited Abby
Kelley to come here and plead the cause of the 
slave.  It was regarded as such a breach of 
propriety for a woman to speak in  public
that they turned that noble man and woman
out of church, and for years their names were
excluded from its books.  It was so in every
department of life — industrial, educational,
religious.  That a woman could be a
minister was regarded as impossible.  When
Lucy, at Oberlin, announced to her friend and
classmate, Antoinette Brown, that she was
going to try to get women the right to


vote, Antoinette said, "I am going to try to become
an ordained minister ".   Lucy laughed,
and said, "I think  I can get women the 
right to vote, but you will never be able to get
women the right to be ministers."  But women 
have been ordained ministers for thirty years,
though they have not yet voted in Massachusetts.
This is because it requires only a few liberal-minded
ministers to ordain a woman.  She does not have
to go to the Legislature for permission to hold a
prayer-meeting or to teach; if she did she might
not have obtained the right to do it yet.  But
because she can do it, she does do it, and does
it well, as you know.  So in regard to everything
else.  Things that are to-day customary, that 
are matters of course, would have been regarded
then as an outrage for a woman to do.  A
married woman could not make a will.
Married women could not be guardians of
their own children, or any other children.Women were subordinate to men to a degree that
nobody nowadays can realize.  The old doctrines
supposed to belong to St. Paul, as translated—
mistranslated—were regarded as putting a
woman in a position if entire inferiority.  We
have outgrown all that.  The great work of
preparation for the suffrage of women has been
accomplished.  To-day there is no objection
formerly used against woman suffrage which
has not been answered by experience.  They
said the home would be destroyed, and the
best homes I have ever known have been
those of suffragists.
I will read the protest that Lucy
and I made on the first day of May, 1855.
It was read at our wedding. Colonel Higginson
performed the marriage ceremony, (he was then


a minister in Worcester) sent it to the Boston
Traveler and Worcester Spy.  It was published
and attracted considerable attention.  We were
much blamed and censured, for having made it,
yet today it seems very harmless.
My friends, I want to say that after nearly
forty years of married life — during which I cannot
recall a word or action on the part of Lucy Stone
that was not just what it ought to have been, a
life of ideal happiness, a life to which I look
back, as some people look forward to Heaven
as a paradise which has passed away —
want to say that every word of that marriage 
protest I stand by to-day.  I believe that
when men and women recognize the equality
of the marriage relation, divorces will be few,
and happiness in marriage will become the
rule, and never until then.
When Lucy came to Boston in
1870, to establish the Woman's Journal, and

I accompanied her (giving up my business in New
York for the purpose), me could not have 
accomplished it had it not been for the cooperation
of Mary A. Livermore.  She had been editing a
woman suffrage paper in Chicago, The Agitator.
She brought on the subscription list of The Agitator
to Boston, she took the editorship of the Woman's
Journal, and for two years she retained it,
until the demand for her services as a lecturer
became so great that she felt compelled to
give it up, and Lucy and I had to take it
ourselves.  The three women whose names
will always be associated in history above all
others with the woman suffrage cause in Massachusetts,
and I think I may say in the whole
Union, are Lucy Stone, Mary A. Livermore, and
Julia Ward Howe.

Notes of a lecturer or composition our woman's
rights, undated, written on blue
paper; almost illegible in places;
seems to belong to very early
period - perhaps Oberlin times.

Just demands refused, lest,
when granted, unjust demands
should be made - Pattern Uliss
Brooks - Woman's influence more
than woman's self. The most
hopeless wrong is that which
has grown to wear the appearance
of right. Man has so much
to do to get political preferment
for himself that he has no
time to look after the wrongs
of woman.
Imaginary opposition of interests
is the real reason why woman is
allowed no legal existence, as
though, if she gained, the manmust lose.There are homes
where there is a social equality
English women who have suf-
ficient property, vote for East
India Director, but are sneered at
if they ask to vote for officers of
the home government.  Every
reform is objected to, till it comes
to be accepted, and then, everybody
wonders that anybody should ever
have doubted its utility.  Man
may forget his farm, or his
counting room, but the mother --
("can never forget her child", was
doubtless the substance of the
close of this sentence.)
Women made gross by
mingling in politics - if politics
necessarily makes man gross,
they had better be abandoned;
but if men have only allowed

themselves to become clowns,
and fear that women will do
so too if they come in contact
with them, then let men mend
their manners, and there will
be an end of the corruption.
Edinburgh Review - Mrs. Reed (Reese?)
Page 91.
We would have every object
of ambition as open to woman as
to man, sure that the natural
distinctions will keep each in
its proper place - equality and
equal civil rights are very different
things.
Suppose some woman is so
unfortunate as to have married
a man so narrow - souled that he
is unwilling that she shall enjoy
equal political rights, and so
constantly annoys her.  Will a
noble woman, for the sake of


quiet, pay the price of the rendition
of a heaven given right, and the
more perfect development of
character which arises from the
exercise of that right?  All
who live, have a right to claim
that the intention of the giver of
life shall be fulfilled.  The existence
of a faculty presupposes the right
to its legitimate exercise.  A
sacrifice of human rights on
other altars bleeding victims gasp
and die, but here the offering is
a deathless soul - not in one brief
hour to be consumed, but
clarified, fettered, agonised, during
all the days of its earthly existence,
at last it goes to the eternal a
miserable abortion.
Human rights do not defend
upon the degree, but upon the

character of the mental manifestations.
The grand business of governments
is the protection of rights, and of
the rights of all, who have rights to
protect.
No more harm in voting than in
receiving the visit of the tax-gatherer.
When a daughter is seduced, they
can have no compensation to
revived hopes and affections