Blackwell Family Lucy Stone Subject File Biographical Papers (education) [*(A. S. B.)*] [*Memoir*] Easter Sunday Apr. 5, 1885 With Papa gone to New Orleans, Mother told me, as we sat at table alone together, in answer to questions: She made her first public speech in 1845 or 6, while she was at Oberlin It was at a celebration of the anniversary of West Indian emancipation, Aug. 1, got up by the students. A colored class-mate of mother's, a young man named Day, asked her to come and speak for them, and she consented. It was in the new brick church, and she spoke in the pulpit, where sat President Mahan and Professor Thome. Professor Thome had something to do with the West Indian emancipation; his father had been a planter there and freed his slaves or something; mother couldn't exactly remember what. (Professor Thome was not a "Turveydrop," but he made a point of manners, deportment, grammar, &c. One unlucky, stupid student whom he was questioning in class did not know the answer, and so said, "I don't understand what you are driving at." Professor Thome replied, "I am not driving at anything, but I wanted you to do so and so." Well, mother spoke at the celebration, and immediately was summoned before the Ladies' Board to be rebuked. She was asked if she didn't feel embarrassed, or ashamed, or some- thing to be in the pulpit there with men. She said, "Why, no. It was only President Mahan and Professor Thome, whom we all know and like so well, I did not feel any more uncomfortable with them than if I had been with them in class." The ladies seemed to realize that she had done it very innocently, anddid not scold her much, only tried to impress upon her that it was an unbecoming thing to do, and that women were not to speak in public, but to keep silence in the churches, etc. (She was summoned before the Ladies' Board at another time, because she had told some of the other young women that she thought it was wrong for people to have such large families when they could not support them. She thought they ought to abstain. Being exhorted not to meddle in matters too high for her, she stood to her guns, insisting, though modestly, that she thought it was wrong for people to bring into the world families which they could not support, and compel the public to support them, as it would be for them to put their hand in her pocket and take out the same amount of money. Also that she thought the national health was greatly damaged by such excesses. What made it seem impertinent was that she looked so very young. She was 29 when she graduated, but did not look 20. She says Aunt Nettie was warned to beware of her, before she got to Oberlin was warned that there was a young woman among the students who held most dangerous opinions. Mother was a Garrisonian abolitionist, while all the rest at Oberlin (except I believe one young man,) were voting abolitionists. She was a suffragist; and though she was an Orthodox when she came to Oberlin, she was not "tight" Orthodox. She was in that frame of mind where she was ready to accept anything that presented itself to her as true. And Professor Phinney's lessons on the Trinity, and the discussions over the subject in the class, which lasted through a number of lessons, left her a Unitarian, and entirely clear about it in her own mind. She did not speak again till 1847, in her brother's church at Gardner. Woman's Rightswas brought in by her, but she doubts whether that were the set subject of the speech, as Woman's Rights as a question, was hardly formulated till the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. The time when she broke down was later, at West Brookfield. There was some sort of a township celebration, in which several towns joined. She was in the church as one of the audience, not expecting to speak. Somebody, she thinks Freeman Walker, had her called upon. She thought rapidly of a few things she might say ; and as she believed in women's speaking in public, and didn't like to back out, she went up to the pulpit to say them. She made her first few points, then got scared and forgot all the rest ; told them that she had not come expecting to speak, but when called upon had thought of some things that might be said -- but had now forgotten them. And so she took her seat. The first thing approaching a work of fiction she ever read was a tract called "The Last Soul," written she thinks by Elizabeth Stuart Phelp's grandfather -- about a young woman who died without joining the church, and was supposed, of course, to have gone straight to hell. They used to read this and find the horribleness of it thrilling. Then she read "The Children of the Abby" and "Lady of the Manor," and she remembers a picture of a lady sitting reading "by the soft light of an astral lamp", and how she thought she should like to be a lady too, and sit and read by a soft astral lamp. They had things very rough -- coarse ware for dishes, and broken ;and as a child she used to make special efforts to get one particular bowl to have her bread and milk in. It had fluted sides and a little yellow vine around the top. No curtains to the windows. Letters an Oberlin student named "Edward" writes asking L. S. to suggest which of the young ladies he had better ask to do his washing, and says, "Well, good night. Be a good girl. You tell me sometimes to be a good boy, and if I do anything wrong I always think of Lucy." [*Lucy Stone memoirs*] April 24, 1893. Mamma told us at breakfast how, when Col. Higginson was pastor of a church at Worcester, he was going to have a Christmas celebration for the children and told her that if she would come and tell the children a story, he would give her something. It was not money. She came. They had a big Christmas tree, and a hole in the ceiling through which Santa Claus came down on a ladder; and the children watched with most intent eyes. Col. Higginson gave her "Aurora Leigh". When Mamma had read it, she thought that that was not Mrs. Browning's last word -- that there was more to come. -- "although that was a great deal in itself."[*Item about journey to Oberlin 1843*] May 13, 1893, journeying through N. Y. with me on her way to Chicago, as the road ran along by the Mohawk River, mother recalled how she travelled over the same route on her way to Oberlin, with an anxious heart, for she was afraid she might not pass her examinations, after taking all the long journey to Oberlin. She travelled on a second class ticket, but they let her sit in the first class car. And as she sat studying her Greek grammar, Gen. Skinner, who sat in the seat behind her, looked over her shoulder, & saw the book, & asked herwhat she wanted to study Greek for. She told him it was to find out what the Bible taught about women. He [asked] said, "Why don't you study physiology, & learn about you own body?" She answered, "I have," He said, [have "Can] "How many bones have you in your hand & wrist?" She answered "19." When he found she had really studied physiology, he thought it might do for her to study Greek. He talked with her, & when he got off at Herkimer, he pointed out to her his brick house, & told her he should always be glad to hear of her welfare, & if she were ever passing through, to call upon him, And he went out & got her some ice cream, which was very refreshing & comforting to her, for she was living on short commons -- probably out of a lunch basket, but she does not remember just how. Afterwords, when she began to be known, he sent her documents from Washington occasionally. He took credit to himself for getting women [a] chance to work in the U.S. Treasury. Oct. 8, 1893. She told me she went to Mt. Holyoke for less than a year -- probably for only one term -- about 1837 or 8. Then her sister Rhoda died, and her mother was so broken-hearted that Mamma had not the heart to leave her. While at Mt. Holyoke, Mamma kept one of the little yellow collection-boxes of the Anti-Slavery Society, with a kneeling slave on it, holding up manacled hands with the motto, "Am I not a man and a brother!" She put all the pennies she could spare into this instead of into the missionary boxes which were in vogue at the Seminary. Mamma's brother was at Amherst, and had the Liberator and used to send it to her when he had read it ; and she used to put it into the reading room. For some time they could not find out who did it ; but when they asked her, she said it was she. Mary Lyon said to her, "Now the slavery question is a very grave question, and a question upon which the best people are divided." Mamma is not sure whether Miss Lyon asked her not to put the Liberator into the reading-room. May 8, 1891. Later in the evening Mother told me some more about Paxton. That was where the big boys had pitched the last teacher (a man) out into a snow-drift, when the committee asked her to come and fill out the unfinished term. She had finished teaching one winter school, and was at home and there was a glowing open fire, and her sister Rhoda had spread a bright-colored shawl of their mother's over a table brought in, and the old farm-house looked warm and bright, when they came and asked Lucy to go to Paxton. They told her nothing of the trouble they had had, but only that they had heard of her as a good teacher, and would be glad to have her come, etc. She was saving up to go to Oberlin, and was glad of every dollar, and went. The ring-leader in pitching out the last teacher, stood on the door-step, a big boy of 17 or 18, and said as she passed him, "Are you going to lick me?" She took no notice, but after calling the roll, came around and said something pleasant to each of them about their studies, etc. She found him studying arithmetic, and told him if he got into trouble with any of his sums to come to her and she would explain them, asked him which of his studies he liked best, etc. She got him entirely won over. "I never had an ounce of trouble with him." He was always ready to help her about doing things. It was the custom for the boys to build the fire and the girls to sweep the school-house. Somebody had to be responsible for seeing that the fire was built, and whenever there was any doubt about a question as to who should do it, this boy would always speak up, "I will do it, Miss Stone." One day the boys and girls had been sliding on the ice, and one of the girls fell and broke her wrist. Mother examined it, saw that the bone was put out, and said,"One of you must go for the doctor," and this boy was off like a shot. [*(From leaves of a Note Book, in writing of H.BB.)*] Lucy's first school was in North Braintree. She taught school at Bainfield [*? New Braintree?*] and boarded with Fairbanks. Sarah at home. Eliza died March, 1838 Rhoda " July 1839 [Lucy was in Gardner, January 1851, when Emma was born.] Lucy began to lecture in Spring of 1848. Went to Boston to attend anniversaries in the Spring of 1848, hoping she might be asked to lecture. On her way back she stopped at Worcester to visit Abby Kelley Foster. Abby K asked her why she did not lecture. She said: "How can I? No one has asked for me." Abby said: "- I will write to-day to Mr. May." She did so. Mr. May wrote to Lucy and in the summer of 1848 she began. In many of her lectures she made her own appointments. At first she usually went with Stephen Foster or Parker Pillsbury, or others. Harriet and Frank lived at Coy's Hill from Spring of 1844 to Spring of 1851. In the Spring of 1851 Frankbought this farm. Lucy's first Bloomer was in summer of 1849. She made a Bloomer for home use, but did not wear it abroad. In a year or two after she said she would make all her dresses so. Deacon Henshaw's daughter, Sarah, adopted it. She was plump. and looked very conspicuous in it. Lucy looked well in Bloomer dress, because so small and slight. The district school was taught by several young men students of Amherst. After Lucy had become conspicuous it was thought that Sarah was the better scholar of the two, —"the smartest" — Aunt Sarah tried to persuade Lucy to put lace on her pantalettes, as the school girls dressed, but Lucy scorned it. Jan. 30-1888 Mother told us at supper how she went to Oberlin to college-- her journey. She could only afford a second-class ticket, but she got into first-class car, and they let her stay there, though she showed them her ticket. But by and by her conscience troubled her, and she went and asked for the second-class car, and instead of the second-class they put her into the immigrant car. It was clean, but intolerably close and smelly, and very hot. At Buffalo she went on board a steamer to go to Cleveland; couldn't afford a berth; passed the night on deck, among freight, horses, etc. — equivalent to a storage passage. There were men there; also two young women and an old one. The latter said to mother, "I am old, and can sit up as well as not, but you young ones ought to sleep," and I think she gave Mother her place. Anyway, Mother slept on a bag of oats, or some other freight. Their steamer passed another steamer and the two "spoke" each other with their whistles,and mother felt quite excited and as if they were going to war, when the vessels ran up their two great prows and "howled at each other." It was all so new to her, she said, and there was a certain largeness about it that she liked. From Illyria to Oberlin she went by stage over a corduroy road which bumped amazingly. She arrived "so hot and so dusty, and afraid I should not have money enough, and I hoped I could get some teaching" She went to President Mahan at once, to whom Uncle Bo had given her a letter of introduction, saying that she would by glad to get some teaching in the preparatory department, and that as she had been teaching for some years, she was probably capable of it. (President Mahan had preached for Uncle Bo.) He told her they never let anybody teach in the preparatory department till they had been there a year -- the idea being to make sure first of their morals, and that they were fit to be trusted with a class. And she wondered how she should get through, with only $70. But she thinks she got some teaching that same fall. She also told how a lot of the students, herself and Aunt Nettie among them, got a long, large hay-wagon and drove to Vermillion, to the lake. They all felt gay and had brought dressing-gowns etc., and all went in bathing. When they came out she missed Aunt Nettie, and ran along the beach looking for her, first one way and then the other. At last she found her in a dry gully that had been washed out by the rains. She could not get her bathing dress off; she was so fat and it was so wet, it stuck to her like her skin. Mother helped her peel it off; Aunt Nettie was glad to see her arrive to her assistance, for she could not have got it off alone, and she and Mother were great friends.May 8, 1891. Mother said that for teaching her first school, she received a dollar a week; later she got $1.50, and $2.00, as she got larger and larger schools; and finally she had $16 a month, which was called "very good pay for a woman." About 1840, she taught several winters in Paxton. Once her brother, who was teaching in the central village of W. Brookfield, was taken ill, and she came and taught his school for two weeks as his substitute. She taught all the things he did, but the committee would give her only a woman's pay. Apropos of a letter from Mrs. Virginia D. Young describing an interview with the editor of the Charleston News [?] Courier, which touched and pleased her, Mother told her in [1869] (?) (1867) at the time of the suffrage Amendment Campaign in Kansas, when they hoped so much to carry it, she went to Horace Greeley and pleaded with him with all her might to come out for it in the Tribune, for the Tribune then was an immense power, and was taken everywhere in Kansas. She pleaded with him, presenting her cause with such earnestness that the tears stood in her eyes. Mr. Greeley said, "When you have been whipped as many times as I have, you won't cry about it." "All the same, when he was whipped afterwards, he not only cried about it, but he broke his heart and died," Mamma said. --He would not do what she wished, but he indicated a space of about a finger's length and said: "You may have a space of that length in the Tribune as often as you like," to say what she pleased. But of course that was nothing like having the whole great weight of the paper cast for it editorially, she said. The tears stood in her eyes in telling me about it. Later in the evening she told some more about Paxton. That was where thebig boys had pitched the last teacher (a man) out into a snow-drift, when the committee asked her to come and fill out the unfinished term. She had finished teaching one winter school, and was at home, and there was a glowing open fire, and her sister Rhoda had spread a bright-colored shawl of their Mothers over a table brought in, and the old farm house looked warm and bright, when they came and asked Mother to go to Paxton -- told her nothing of the trouble they had had, but only that they had heard of her as a good teacher, and would be glad to have her come, etc. She was saving up to go to Oberlin, and was glad of every dollar, and went. The ring-leader in pitching the last teacher out, stood on the door-step, -- a big boy of 17 or 18, and said as she passed him, "Are you going to lick me?" She took no notice, but after calling the roll, came around and said something pleasant to each of them, asked them about their studies, etc. She found him studying arithmetic, and told him if he got into trouble with any of his sums to come to her and she would explain them, asked him which of his studies he liked best, etc. She got him entirely won over. "I never had an ounce of trouble with him." He was always ready to help her about doing things. It was the custom for the boys to build the fire and the girls to sweep the school house. Somebody had to be responsible for seeing that the fire was built, and whenever there was any question as to who should do it, this boy would always speak up, "I will do it, Miss Stone." One day the boys and girls had been sliding on the ice, and one of the girls fell and broke her wrist. Mother examined it, saw that the bone was put out, and said, "One of you must go for the doctor," and this boy was off at once like a shot. In an article in a magazine issued by Oberlin College, Lucy Stone is quoted as having said, " I joined the Congregational Church when very young, but I became a Unitarian after hearing Prof. Finney's lectures on God." Aunt Sarah, writing to Mamma from Gardner, Mass., June 7, 1846, says: Father paid me principal & interest for the money I let you have, when I was at home, so you wont have that to think of any more. Father seemed very willing I should get what I wanted when I was at home. He says he is not going to have the 'poor fever' any more, for it is of no use, but I am afraid mother never will get cured of the malady. I heard her talking with father, & he concluded that it was best to wait till fall before he got me much. What I get then will depend very much on mother. xx I suppose, my dear sister, you will think I have done wrong in coming back toWard 15. Republican Ticket WITH Women Voters' Candidates For School Committee. For Mayor, AUGUSTUS P. MARTIN. For Street Commissioner, SAMUEL HICHBORN. For Alderman, Seventh Aldermanic District, CHARLES M. BROMWICH. For School Committee, CHARLES C. PERKINS. LUCIA M. PEABODY. EMILY A. FIFIELD. WILLIAM GASTON. FRANCIS A. WALKER. SAMUEL ELIOT. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. THOMAS GAFFIELD. For Common Council, SAMUEL KELLEY. ROBERT PROVAN. AUGUSTUS C. RICHMOND. 2 New England to live. I know, as you say, that at the West, society is in a forming state, & right influences are needed to make it what it should be; but here society is formed, & from foundation to top stone it is all wrong, & must be formed anew before society can be made right in the Western world, for from New England flow all the influences that are to reform or destroy over guilty land. think it requires a great deal more decision of character, united with Christian principle, to live a true life here than in almost any place. Abby Kelly Foster asked B(owman) when 2 New England to live. I know, as you say, that at the West, society is in a forming state, & right influences are needed to make it what it should be; but here society is formed, & from foundation to top stone it is all wrong, & must be formed anew before society can be made right in the Western world, for from New England flow all the influences that are to reform or destroy our guilty land. I think it requires a great deal more decision of character, united with Christian principle, to live a true life here than in almost any place. Abby Kelly Foster asked B(owman) when 3 he was in Boston if he know that you was going to be a lecturer when you got through at Oberlin. Did you tell her so? Now, my own dearest sister, if you decide to pursue that course, let your decision be made nowhere else than at the throne of grace. If God bid you, Go! and his strength will be sufficient for you. If you go without his permission, dearly as I love you, I shall pray the God of Israel to send his angel to stand in your path as he did in the path of Balaam, so that you can turn neither to the right hand nor the left. xx When I was going from Cohoes to Troy in the stage, I found a last year's graduate from Oberlin. Said he was acquainted with you, & spoke very much in your praise. His name was Whitney. I dreamed last night that you Ward 15. Republican Ticket WITH Women Voters' Candidates For School Committee. For Mayor, AUGUSTUS P. MARTIN. For Street Commissioner, SAMUEL HICHBORN. For Alderman, Seventh Aldermanic District, CHARLES M. BROMWICH. For School Committee, CHARLES C. PERKINS. LUCIA M. PEABODY. EMILY A. FIFIELD. WILLIAM GASTON. FRANCIS A. WALKER. SAMUEL ELIOT. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. THOMAS GAFFIELD. For Common Council, SAMUEL KELLEY. ROBERT PROVAN. AUGUSTUS C. RICHMOND. 4 I was going to be married to a Mr. Green & go missionary to Africa, but I have not much faith that my dream will prove true.Ward 15. Republican Ticket WITH Women Voters' Candidates For School Committee. For Mayor, AUGUSTUS P. MARTIN For Street Commissioner, SAMUEL HICHBORN. For Alderman, Seventh Aldermanic District, CHARLES M. BROMWICH. For School Committee, CHARLES C. PERKINS. LUCIA M. PEABODY. EMILY A. FIFIELD. WILLIAM GASTON. FRANCIS A. WALKER. SAMUEL ELIÒT. WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. THOMAS GAFFIELD. For Common Council, SAMUEL KELLY. ROBERT PROVAN. AUGUSTUS C. RICHMOND. room-mate, Miss Chapman, sends her love. She is a very good girl, but a little flirty. You can send me three times by private conveyance, if you will. By Prof. Walker at one time, then Freeman W. at another, and Freeman at another. I have got some rice corn to send home by Luther. Is Phebe homesick having Luther gone? Give my love to her. I think, occasionally, what Mother will do to get the house cleaned this Spring, since there is no Lucy there to do it, or Sarah either. I hope you wont try to do it yourself, if it is not cleaned. The people here are making their gardens, and the wild flowers are in full bloom. I think the season is much more forward here than at the East. I send this by Mr. Richardson, one of my classmates whose health has failed, so that he has to go home. Two of the ladies in my class have been dismissed for irregular behavior. Don't you expect I shall be? I can have The Liberator every week from The Evangelist office, and The Emancipator from a Baptist minister. So that I can get Anti-Slavery news. Apr. 12." 9 o'clock. I have just heard a lecture from Prof. Fairchild, on Fourierism. One would think from the lecture, it was the personification of all evil. I suppose you have read that Cassius M. Clay has freed his slaves. Good!! I am afraid Texas will be annexed, what shall we do then? I have looked over the letter, and am afraid you can't read it. Brother Frank, where are you going to be this summer. There is a Mr. Mason here who says he presumes you knew him in Bangor, - a sandy-haired man. LucyJune 30, 1888. Mother told at supper how she went to Oberlin to college, - her journey. She could only afford a second-class ticket, but she got into a first-class car, and they let her stay there, though she showed them her ticket. But by-and-by her conscience troubled her, and she went and asked for the second-class car, and instead of the second-class car, they put her into the immigrant car. It was clean, but intolerably close and smelly, and very hot. At Buffalo she went on board a steamer to go to Cleveland; couldn't afford a berth; passed the night on deck, among freight, horses etc. - equivalent to a steerage passage. There were men there, also two young women and an old one. The latter said to Mother, "I am old and can sit up as well as not, but you young ones ought to sleep," -- and I think she gave Mother her place. Anyway, Mother slept on a bag of oats, or some other freight. Their steamer passed another steamer, and the two "spoke" each other with their whistles, and Mother felt quite elated and excited as if it were going to war, when the vessels ran up their two great prows and "howled at each other." It was all so new to her, she said, and there was a certain largeness about it that she liked. From Ilyria to Oberline she went by stage over a corduroy road which bumped amazingly. She arrived "so hot and dusty, and afraid I should not have money enough, and I hoped I could get some teaching." She went to President Mahan at once, to whom Uncle Bo had given her a letter of introduction, saying that she would be glad to get some teaching in the preparatory department, and that as she had been teaching for some years, she was probably capable of it. (President Mahan had preached for Uncle Bo.) Hee told her they never let anybody teach in the preparatory department till they had been there a year,--the idea being to make sure first of their morals, and that they were fit to be trusted with a class. And she wondered how she should get through, with only $70. But she thinks she got some teaching that same fall. She also told how a lot of the students, herself and Aunt Nettie among them, got a long, large hay-wagon and drove to Vermilion, to the lake. They all felt gay, and had brought dressing-gowns, &c., and all went in bathing. When they came out she missed Aunt Nettie, and ran along the beach looking for her, first one way, and then the other. At last she found her in a dry gully that had been washed out by the rains. She could not get her bathing-dress off; she was so fat and it was so wet, it stuck to her like skin. Mother helped her to peel it off. Aunt Nettie was glad to see her arrive to her assistance, for she could not have got it off alone, and she and Mother were great friends. The first time Mother over saw a field of daisies was when she went to give an anti-slavery lecture at Georgetown, Mass.[*ASB's memoir*] The first time Mamma ever saw a field of daisies was when she went to give an anti-slavery lecture at Georgetown, Mass May 8. 1891. Mother said that for teaching her first school, she received a dollar a week; later she got $1.50 and $2.00, as she got larger and larger schools; and finally she had $16.00 a month, which was called "very good pay for a woman." About 1840, she taught several winters in Paxton. Once her brother, who was teaching in the central village of West Brookfield, was taken ill, and she came and taught his school for two weeks as his substitute. She taught all the things he did, but the committee would give her only a woman's pay.by her sister Mrs. Sarah Stone Lawrence Aunt Sarah's Reminiscences of L.S. Gardner, Aug. 11, 1898. [Aunt Sarah] Mrs. Lawrence says that the Lady Principal of Oberlin used to go around and examine to see whether the girls kept their rooms well swept and neat, and she used to look under the beds. She told them once that she always found Miss Stone's room clean. [Mamma] Lucy said, "I always know when you have been there, Miss Adams, for you always leave the hem of the vallance on my bed turned up." (omit Aunt Sarah says Mamma always kept her drawers in beautiful order, and that when she (Sarah) went and peeped in, Mamma always knew it, even if she was sure that she had only looked in, and had not touched anything.Woman's Journal Aug 21-1897. p. 265 H. B. B writes It was in the Academy at Warren that Lucy Stone began, with the proceeds of her small earnings as a teacher of a district school, her pursuit of the higher education----boarding with her kind friend Mrs. Mansfield, and cheered by the sympathy of Mrs. Mary Ann Blair.Aug 12, 1898. Aunt Sarah says that she and Mamma attended the Quackenboag Seminary at Warren. They rented a room near Mary Ann Blair's house, and boarded themselves. They got most of their provisions from home. They made their own mush, but had from home their brown bread, beans, etc. They did the same way while studying at Wilbraham. Mr. Pearl, principal of the Quackenboag Seminary, wanted his young ladies to learn to dance, and had a dancing class, but Mamma and Aunt Sarah refused to attend it, having conscientious scruples. Mamma was always a popular pupil, because she was a good scholar, and well-behaved. In 1837, in the church at North Brookfield, while Mamma was teaching school there (she thinks) and boarding with her cousin Delindy Edmunds, (by marriage Johnson) there was the regular (she thinks quadrennial) meeting of the Association of Congregational ministers. Mamma went with her cousin. The body of the church was black with ministers, and in the gallery there were ladies and laymen. In those days everybody bowed down to the clergy- the Protestants just as the Catholics do now. There had been a great hubbub about the public speaking of Abby Kelley and Grimke sisters; and a "Pastoral Letter" had been prepared for that meeting, to silence the women. Whittier calls it the Brookfield bull, and has a poem about it. While it was being read, Rev. Dr. Blagden (who married Wendell Phillip's sister) walked up and down the aisle, turning his head from side to side and looking at the women in the gallery as much as to say, "Now! Now we have silencedyou!" Mamma listened in great indignation, and at every aggravating sentence nudged her cousin with her elbow, so that her cousin said her side was sore - or black and blue. "I was young enough then so that my indignation blazed." And Mother told her cousin that if she ever had anything to say in public, she would say it, and all the more because of their pastoral letter.Excerpts from Lucy Stone's Preparation for Public Speaking by Lillian F. O'Connor Records show that Porter's Rhetorical Reader and Whatley's Logic and Rhetoric were listed in the Oberlin course of study as were "Rhetorical Exercises", and it did not occur to Lucy that sex would be the deciding factor in the practical application of rhetorical principles. (Oberlin College Catalogue, 1839. cited in Fletcher & Wilkins, The Beginning of College Education for Women. pp. 12, 13.) Lucy Stone's career at Oberlin was one long protest against such a view. (Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College...I, 291-2.) The Ladies' Board (disapproval of girls' debate). (Hosford, F.J., Father Shipherd's Magna Charta, pp. 24-26.) On occasions of debate and discussion in Professor James Thome's class, the girls sat quietly and listened until one day Lucy and her great friend and classmate Antoinette Brown took the rostrum and with the permission of Professor Thome carried on a debate...Professor Thome's position on "woman's Sphere": (Thome, J.A., An Address to the Females of Ohio...Ohio Anti- Slavery Society, 1836, p. 16.) "We need your aid, but on the threshold of this work, we find ourselves surrounded by a sentiment as corrupt as it is prevalent, which denies the primary duties and responsibilities of woman. It is broadly insinuated- nay, boldly disclosed by those in high places and echoed by the press - that woman has no duties of a public nature...no right to exert an active influence for the cessation of cruelty, and the promotion of peace, purity, and love. If such sentiments as these are not yet embed into a theory and taught by a system in our pulpits and seminaries, they are at least...so generally credited that their fallacy has to be proved. A sphere is arrogantly 2 assigned to woman narrowed down to the circuit of the parlor... We have no sympathy with such sentiments...We hold that it is the chief end of woman as well as man to glorify God...her duty to contribute and be active in the common welfare...to inquire into the merits of every such cause which is before the public mind...Here is a woman's sphere!" Accounts of the happening (debate in Prof. Thome's class) are in Fletcher, Oberliniana and Hosford, as well as Oberlin Alumni Magazine (Blackwell). Denied practice in formal class because of the presence of masculine colleagues, Lucy nevertheless found opportunity to speak before groups of her feminine compeers. In a meeting of the Young Ladies Association of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, held on June 5, 1846, Miss L.Stone maintained the negative side of the question, "Is it the duty of Christians in the United States to go to foreign missions while there are three millions of heathens in our own country?" On September 2, 1846, the Young Ladies Association elected Miss L.Stone President; and on the sixteenth of the same month, the President, Miss L.Stone, delivered a talk entitled, "Wasted Intellect". Lucy's activities in the Association continued during her last year in college and included a declamation (untitled) given on February 12, and a composition read on June 30, also untitled. Though no names are given of participants for the discussion on February 26, Lucy must have been present -- absence entailed a fine of six cents -- and we can be sure she would contribute her views on the topic of the day: "Question: Would it be for the advantage of our country to have a National Costume established by Law? Discussion was thrown open for all."-3- Lucy also served as critic in the Young Ladies Association having been elected on May 6, 1846, and again on March 12, 1847. Though the duties of the critic are not outlined in the Constitution, the entry "Remarks of the critic" under dates of June 5, 1846, June 2 and 9, 1847, seems to indicate a group situation in which a speaker might develop audience awareness by the exercise of tact and other persuasive elements of speech. The name of Lucy Stone appears for the last time in the official chronicle on August 11, 1847, when she made a "Budget Report," (Constitution and Minutes of the Young Ladies Association of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, 1846-50.) Another organization to which Lucy belonged during her college career was the Oberlin Female Reform Society: she was elected Secretary and Treasurer on August 12, 1845, "for the ensuing year." There is one other entry concerning her; she was one of a committee of three which presented resolutions of sympathy with the Oberlin Female Reform Society concerning unspecified difficulties existing in the Board. (Constitution and Minutes of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, 1846-50.) No definite statement can be made as to the manner or degree in which these activities improved Lucy Stone's speaking abilities. The record shows only that she was an active member contributing to discussion, debate, and declamation; and that she was a popular member serving in various elective offices. The records of the early teachers of English...have disappeared. The charging records of the Oberlin Library, faded and wrinkled with age, show a list of fifty-five withdrawals under the name of Lucy Stone....Book number "280" withdrawn on March 4, 1846 is....Blair's Rhetoric. (Oberlin College Library, v.II, III.) -4- ...One place where Lucy DID NOT have an opportunity to to practice public speaking was on the platform on her graduation day. (Fletcher, p.269.) The speakers Lucy heard must have had an impact upon her ideas and speaking techniques. ...Mary Lyon....Angelina Grimke (?) Abby Kelley told her audiences what she thought was wrong with them...called them "thieves", "Cradle-plunderers" etc. No such epithets were ever hurled by Lucy Stone, if extant texts are representative. (Brigance, p.161, 167.) (Fletcher, p.267.) ... Admiration for William Lloyd Garrison....No record that she ever heard Webster, Clay, Calhoun, but she might have studied their speeches. Certainly Lucy Stone did have opportunity to hear good speakers. During her years at Oberlin Lucy heard Sunday sermons by such ardent Abolitionists as Charles A. Finney, the President, Professor James Harris Fairchild and Theodore Weld. .... Her persuasive techniques as evinced in her adaptation of material to the particular audience does not resemble the "blood and thunder" ideal so much as it does the more tempered expressions of Beecher. (The Oberlin Evangelist, Vols. VII,VIII, LX, Crocker, in Speech Monograms, Vol. VI, 1939) Personal characteristics of courage and perseverence, determination and lack of false pride ..... a great deal of truth in Theodore Parker's comment: "Whether we like it or not, little woman, God made you an orator!" Always, she had the support of her brothers ...in the slow progress of American women... constant support from the "best brains and warmest hearts." (Tyler, Freedom's Ferment, pp. 450-1) Helen Hunt Jackson ... attended a meeting of the women suffragists with her mind fully made up to ridicule both the-5- women and proceedings when she wrote her copy for the New York Tribune. Lucy Stone was one of the speakers. H.H. Said to T.W.Higginson, "Do you think I could ever write one word against anything that a woman with a voice like that wants to have done" (American Orators....p.87.) Lucy's preparation for public speaking is probably easier to trace - because of the Oberlin College records, meagre as they are - than is that of any one of her feminine contemporaries. But what a "forward and shameless and unsexed" individual she was when her conduct is compared to that of the eminent Catherine Beecher and Emma Willard who appeared in public with a written speech and had the "womanly dignity" to sit while a man - usually a minister - read her words for her. Dorothea Dix followed the same procedure. (See title page of Willard lecture and Tyler, p. 254 and 306.) Lucy Stone herself probably felt that her "preparation" for public speaking was never finished. Studious and diligent as she was she must have continued in her attempt to "do herself and her cause justice" by means of further work and practice....... She was characterized by the Oberlin Review (Oct. 25, 1893) as "A gifted orator, Lucy Stone will ever be associated with those noble souls who pleaded so eloquently for the abolishment of slavery, and who played so essential a part in securing that end." That she was able to plead eloquently seems to be due more to her own determination to secure help than to any formal aid extended to her. -6- BIBLIOGRAPHY I. Primary Sources On Stone: Constitution and Minutes of Oberlin Moral Reform Society from Nov. 4, 1835. MS. Constitution and Minutes of the Young Ladies Association of Oberlin Collegiate Institute. 1846-1850. MS. Oberlin College Library (Book charging record). Numbers 2 and 3, 1842-47. MS. The Cleveland (Ohio) Leader. July 5, 1883. The Oberlin Review. Vol. 21, 1893-94, No.5, Oct.25, 1893. Blackwell, Alice Stone, Lucy Stone Pioneer of Woman's Rights Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, American Orators and Oratory. The Imperial Press. Cleveland , 1901. 91p. A series of lectures delivered at Western Reserve University by a personal acquaintance of Lucy Stone. He discusses her style of oratory in Lecture 3, "Anti-Slavery and Lyceus Oratory." On Oberlin: Bulletin of Oberlin College. New Series, Number 343, March 20, 1937, entitled, "The Beginning of College Education for Women....".... contains reprints of courses of study for 1835, 1838, 1839...... Fairchild, James Harris. Oberlin: Its Origin, Progress, and Results. Oberlin, Shankland and Harmon, 1860. A talk by the President....1860. Fletcher, Robert Samuel. A History of Oberlin College from its Foundation through the Civil War. Oberlin, Oberlin College. 1943, 2v. [*v. next page*] Shan ? , A.L. and DeBrower, C., Oberlinians...Anecdotes.... 1833-83. Cleveland, Home Publishing Co. (Chapter X, pp.96-110, material on Lucy Stone.) Thome, James A., An Address to the Females of Ohio....April, 1836. Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. 1836. 16p.-7- Hosford, Frances Juliette, Father Shipherd's Magna Charta, A Century of Co-Education in Oberlin College. Boston, Marshall Jones Co., 1943. 180p. The Oberlin Alumni Magazine. Vol. XXIII, No. 5. February, 1927, pp.7-10. Printed at Oberlin College. (Article on Lucy Stone by Frances Hosford.) The Oberlin Evangelist, Oberlin, Fitch. Vols VI-XIII, 1844-51. Searched, but contained no speeches by women, except graduation essay of Antoinette Brown, Sept. 1847, pp.156-57. *See preceding page for end of alphabet.* II. Secondary Sources Logan, Mrs. John A., The Part Taken by Women in American History. Wilmington, Del., Perry-Nolle Co., 1912. 927 p. Minnigerode, Meade, The Fabulous Forties - 1840-50. A Presentation of Private Life. New York and London, Putnam, 1924. 345 p. Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, New Viewpoints in American History. New York, Macmillan, 1928. 299p. Chapter VI on the struggle of women for larger rights …. Tyler, Alice Felt, Freedom's Ferment, Phases of American Social History to 1860. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1944. 608p. Part III - "Humanitarian Crusades". Willard, Emma, The Advancement of Female Education. Boston, 1833. 48p. III. Rhetoric Blair, Hugh, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Phila., Kay and Troutman, 1848, - but Lucy Stone used an earlier edition. Brigance, William Norwood, A History and Criticism of American Public Address. New York, McGraw-Hill. 1030 pp. 2v. "Woman's Introduction to the American Platform" by Doris Yoakum, pp.153-193. Cooper, Lane, Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric. New York, Appleton, 1932. Yoakum, Doris, An Historical Survey of the Public Speaking Activities of Women in America from 1828-1860. Univ. Southern Calif., March, 1935. An unpublished dissertation. Excerpts from Lucy Stone's Preparation for Public Speaking by Lilian F. O'Connor ...................... Records show that Porter's Rhetorical Reader and Whately's Logic and Rhetoric were listed in the Oberlin course of study as were "Rhetorical Exercises", and it did not occur to Lucy that sex would be the deciding factor in the practical application of rhetorical principles. {Oberlin College Catalogue, 1839, cited in Fletcher & Wilkins, The Beginning of College Education for Women, pp. 12,13.) Lucy Stone's career at Oberlin was one long protest against such a view. (Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College ... I, 291-2.) The Ladies' Board (disapproval of girls' debate). (Hosford, F.J., Father Shipherd's Magna Chart, pp. 24-26.) On occasions of debate and discussion in Professor James Thome's class, the girls sat quietly and listened until one day Lucy and her great friend and classmate Antionette Brown took the rostrum and with the permission of Professor Thome carried on a debate ... Professor Thome's position on "woman's Sphere": (Thome, J.A., An Address to the Females of Ohio... Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, 1836, p.16.) "We need your aid, but on the threshhold of this work, we find ourselves surrounded by a sentiment as corrupt as it is prevalent, which denies the primary duties and responsibilities of woman. It is broadly insinuated- nay, boldly disclosed by those in high places and echoed by the press - that woman has no duties of a public nature... no right to exert an active influence for the cessation of cruelty, and the promotion of peace, purity, and love. If such sentiments as these are not yet embodied into a theory and taught by a system in our pulpits and seminaries, they are at least ... so generally credited that their fallacy has to be proved. A sphere is arrogantly-2- assigned to woman narrowed down to the circuit of the parlor... We have no sympathy with such sentiments...We hold that it is the chief end of woman as well as man to glorify God...her duty to contribute and be active in the common welfare...to inquire into the merits of every such cause which is before the public mind...Here is woman's sphere!" Accounts of happening (debate in Prof. Thome's class) are in Fletcher, Oberlinians and Hosford, as well as Oberlin Alumni Magazine (Blackwell). Denied practice in formal class because of the presence of masculine colleagues, Lucy nevertheless found opportunity to speak before groups of her feminine compeers. In a meeting of the Young Ladies Association of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, held on June 5, 1846, Miss L. Stone maintained the negative side of the question, "Is it the duty of Christians in the United States to go to foreign missions while there are three millions of heathens in our own country?" On September 2, 1846, the Young Ladies Association elected Miss L. Stone President; and on the sixteenth or the same month, the President, Miss L. Stone, delivered a talk entitled, "Wasted Intellect". Lucy's activities in the Association continued during her last year in college and include a declamation (untitled) given on February 12, and a composition read on June 30, also untitled. Though no names are given of participants for the discussion on February 26, Lucy must have been present -- absence entailed a fine of six cents -- and we can be sure she would contribute her views on the topic of the day: "Questions: Would it be for the advantage of our country to have a National Costume established by Law? Discussion was thrown open for all." -3- Lucy also served as critic in the Young Ladies Association having been elected on May 6, 1846, and again on March 12, 1847. Though the cuties of the critic are not outlined in the Constitution, the entry "Remarks of the critic" under dates of June 5, 1846, June 2 and 9, 1847, seems to indicate a group situation in which a speaker might develop audience awareness by the exercise of tact and other persuasive elements of speech. The name of Lucy Stone appears for the last time in the official chronicle on August 11, 1847, when she made a "Budget Report," (Constitution and Minutes of the Young Ladies Association of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, 1846-50.) Another organization to which Lucy belonged during her college career was the Oberlin Female Reform Society; she was elected Secretary and Treasurer on August 12, 1845, "for the ensuing year." There is one other entry concerning her: she was one of a committee of three which presented resolutions of sympathy with the Oberlin Female Reform Society concerning unspecified difficulties existing in the Board. (Constitution and Minutes of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, 1846-50.) No definite statement can be made as to the manner or degree in which these activities improved Lucy Stone's speaking abilities. The record shows only that she was an active member contributing to discussion, debate, and declamation; and that she was a popular member serving in various elective offices. The records of the early teachers of English... have disappeared. The charging records of the Oberlin Library, faded and wrinkled with age, show a list of fifty-five withdrawals under the name of Lucy Stone. . . . Book number "280" withdrawn on March 4, 1846 is . . . . Blair's Rhetoric. (Oberlin College Library, v. II, III.)-4- ...One place where Lucy DID NOT have an opportunity to to practice public speaking was on the platform on her graduation day. (Fletcher, p.269.) The speakers Lucy heard must have had an impact upon her ideas and speaking techniques. ...Mary Lyon.... Angelina Grimke (?) Abby Kelley told her audiences what she thought was wrong with them...called them "thieves", "Cradle-plunderers" etc. No such epithets were ever hurled by Lucy Stone, if extant texts are representative. (Brigance, p.161, 167.) (Fletcher,p.267.) ... Admiration for William Lloyd Garrison....No record that she ever heard Webster, Clay, Calhoun, but she might have studied their speeches. Certainly Lucy Stone did have opportunity to hear good speakers. During her years at Oberlin Lucy heard Sunday sermons by such ardent Abolitionists as Charles A. Finney, the President, Professor James Harris Fairchild and Theodore Weld. .... Her persuasive techniques as evinced in her adaptation of material to the particular audience does not resemble the "blood and thunder" ideal so much as it does the more tempered expressions of Beecher. (The Oberlin Evangelist, Vols. VII, VIII, LX. Crocker, in Speech Monograms,Vol. VI, 1939) Personal characteristics of courage and perseverance, determination and lack of false pride ..... a great deal of truth in Theodore Parker's comment: "Whether we like it or not, little woman, God made you an orator!" Always, she had the support of her brothers ...In the slow progress of American women... constant support from the "best brains and warmest hearts." (Tyler,Freedom's Ferment, pp.450-1) Helen Hunt Jackson ... attended a meeting of the women suffragists with her mind fully made up to ridicule both the -5- women and the proceedings when she wrote her copy for the New York Tribune. Lucy Stone was one of the speakers. H. H. Said to T. W. Higginson, "Do you think I could ever write one word against anything that a woman with a voice like that wants to have done?" (American Orators....p.87.) Lucy's prepartation for public speaking is probably easier to trace - because of the Oberlin College records, meagre as they are - than is that of any one of her feminine contemporaries. But what a "froward and shameless and unsexed" individual she was when her conduct is compared to that of the eminent Catherine Beecher and Emma Willard who appeared in public with a written speech and had the "womanly dignity" to sit while a man - usually a minister - read her words for her. Dorothea Dix followed the same procedure. (See title page of Willard lecture and Tyler, p.254 and 306.) Lucy Stone herself probably felt that her "preparation" for public speaking was never finished. Studious and diligent as she was she must have continued in her attempt to "do herself and her cause justice" by means of further work and practice........ She was characterized by the Oberlin Review (Oct. 25, 1893) as "A gifted orator, Lucy Stone will ever be associated with those noble souls who pleaded so eloquently for the abolishment of slavery, and who played so essential a part in securing that end." That she was able to plead eloquently seems to be due more to her own determination to secure help than to any formal aid extended to her.-4- ...One place where Lucy DID NOT have an opportunity to to practice public speaking was on the platform on her graduation day. (Fletcher, p.269.) The speakers Lucy heard must have had an impact upon her ideas and speaking techniques. ...Mary Lyon....Angelina Grimke (?) Abby Kelley told her audiences what she thought was wrong with them...called them "thieves", "Cradle-plunderers" etc. No such epithets were ever hurled by Lucy Stone, if extant texts are representative. (Brigance, p.161, 167.) (Fletcher, p.267.) ... Admiration for William Lloyd Garrison....No record that she ever heard Webster, Clay, Calhoun, but she might have studied their speeches. Certainly Lucy Stone did have opportunity to hear good speakers. During her years at Oberlin Lucy heard Sunday sermons by such ardent Abolitionists as Charles A. Finney, the President, Professor James Harris Fairchild and Theodore Weld. .... Her persuasive techniques as evinced in her adaptation of material to the particular audience does not resemble the "blood and thunder" ideal so much as it does the more tempered expressions of Beecher. (The Oberlin Evangelist, Vols. VII,VIII, LX, Crocker, in Speech Monograms, Vol. VI, 1939) Personal characteristics of courage and perseverence, determination and lack of false pride ..... a great deal of truth in Theodore Parker's comment: "Whether we like it or not, little woman, God made you an orator!" Always, she had the support of her brothers ...in the slow progress of American women... constant support from the "best brains and warmest hearts." (Tyler, Freedom's Ferment, pp. 450-1) Helen Hunt Jackson ... attended a meeting of the women suffragists with her mind fully made up to ridicule both the -5- women and the proceedings when she wrote her copy for the New York Tribune. Lucy Stone was one of the speakers. H.H. said to T.W. Higginson, "Do you think I could ever write one word against anything that a woman with a voice like that wants to have done?" (American Orators....p. 87.) Lucy's preparation for public speaking is probably easier to trace - because of the Oberlin College records, meagre as they are - than is that of any one of her feminine contemporaries. But what a "froward and shameless and unsexed" individual she was when her conduct is compared to that of the eminent Catherine Beecher and Emma Willard who appeared in public with a written speech and had the "womanly dignity" to sit while a man - usually a minister - read her words for her. Dorothea Dix followed the same procedure. (See title page of Willard lecture and Tyler, p. 254 and 306.) Lucy Stone herself probably felt that her "preparation" for public speaking was never finished. Studious and diligent as she was she must have continued in her attempt to "do herself and her cause justice" by means of further work and practice......... She was characterized by the Oberlin Review (Oct. 25, 1893) as "A gifted orator, Lucy Stone will ever be associated with those noble souls who pleaded so eloquently for the abolishment of slavery, and who played so essential a part in securing that end." That she was able to plead eloquently seems to be due more to her own determination to secure help than to any formal aid extended to her.-6- BIBLIOGRAPHY I. Primary Sources On Stone: Constitution and Minutes of the Oberlin Moral Reform Society from Nov. 4, 1835. MS. Constitution and Minutes of the Young Ladies Association of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, 1846-1850. MS. Oberlin College Library (Book charging record), Numbers 2 and 3, 1842-47, MS. The Cleveland (Ohio) Leader, July 5, 1883. The Oberlin Review, Vol. 21, 1893-94, No. 5, Oct. 25, 1893. Blackwell, Alice Stone, Lucy Stone Pioneer of Woman's Rights Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, American Orators and Oratory. The Imperial Press, Cleveland, 1901. 91p. A series of lectures delivered at Western Reserve University by a personal acquaintance of Lucy Stone. He discusses her style of oratory in Lecture 3, "Anti-Slavery and Lyceum Oratory." On Oberlin: Bulletin of Oberlin College, New Series, Number 343, March 20, 1937, entitled, "The Beginning of College Education for Women...." …. contains reprints of courses of study for 1835, 1838, 1839…. Fairchild, James Harris, Oberlin: Its Origin, Progress, and Results. Oberlin, Shankland and Harmon, 1860. A talk by the President….1860. Fletcher, Robert Samuel, A History of Oberlin College from its Foundation through the Civil War. Oberlin, Oberlin College, 1943. 2 v. [*V. next page*] Shan ?, A. L. and DeBrower, C., Oberlinians...Anecdotes... 1833-83. Cleveland, House Publishing Co. (Chapter X, pp.96-110, material on Lucy Stone.) Thome, James A., An Address to the Females of Ohio … April, 1836. Ohio Anti-Slavery Society. 1836. 16p. -7- Hosford, Frances Juliette, Father Shipherd's Magna Charta, A Century of Co-Education in Oberlin College. Boston, Marshall Jones Co., 1943. 180p. The Oberlin Alumni Magazine. Vol. XXIII, No. 5. February, 1927, pp.7-10. Printed at Oberlin College. (Article on Lucy Stone by Frances Hosford.) The Oberlin Evangelist, Oberlin, Fitch. Vols VI-XIII, 1844-51. Searched, but contained no speeches by women, except graduation essay of Antoinette Brown, Sept. 1847, pp.156-57. *See preceding page for end of alphabet.* II. Secondary Sources Logan, Mrs. John A., The Part Taken by Women in American History. Wilmington, Del., Perry-Nolle Co., 1912. 927 p. Minnigerode, Meade, The Fabulous Forties - 1840-50. A Presentation of Private Life. New York and London, Putnam, 1924. 345 p. Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, New Viewpoints in American History. New York, Macmillan, 1928. 299p. Chapter VI on the struggle of women for larger rights …. Tyler, Alice Felt, Freedom's Ferment, Phases of American Social History to 1860. Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1944. 608p. Part III - "Humanitarian Crusades". Willard, Emma, Te Advancement of Female Education. Boston, 1833. 48p. III. Rhetoric Blair, Hugh, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Phila., Kay and Troutman, 1848, - but Lucy Stone used an earlier edition. Brigance, William Norwood, A History and Criticism of American Public Address. New York, McGraw-Hill. 1030 pp. 2v. Doris Yoakum, pp.153-193. Cooper, Lane, Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric. New York, Appleton, 1932. Yoakum, Doris, An Historical Survey of the Public Speaking Activities of Women in America from 1828-1860. Univ. Southern Calif., March, 1935. An unpublished dissertation.