Work Of Lucy Stone example essay topic

In the history of women's rights, and their leaders, few can compare with the determination and success of Lucy Stone. While many remember Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony for being the most active fighters for women's rights, perhaps Stone is even more important. The major goal for women in this time period was gaining women's suffrage. That is what many remember or associate with the convention at Seneca Falls.

However, Stone was not only trying to gain women's suffrage, but also to give women other rights that they did not have at this time. In the mid-1800's, women were almost on the same social level as slaves. The slave owners were husbands. All of the women's earnings went to men, they could not legally write a will unless all of her belongings went to her husband. The husband was the sole owner of the children, and could do anything he wanted with them. There was a case where a man gave away a child to a complete stranger before the baby was even born.

The husband could even legally beat his wife. This was the background for Stone's and other women's rights leaders' anger. Stone grew up watching her mother beg her father for money. With this in her background, Stone began her crusade for Women and Slave's rights. A college education is something that women take for granted today, but in the 1800's it was an extremely rare thing to see a woman in college.

During the mid 1800's, schools like Oberlin and Elmira College began to accept women. Stone's father did a wonderful thing (by 19th century standards) in loaning her the money to pay for her college education. Stone was the first woman to get a college education in Massachusetts, graduating from Oberlin College in 1843. Her first major protest was at the time of her graduation.

Stone was asked to write a commencement speech for her class. But she refused, because someone else would have had to read her speech. Women were not allowed, even at Oberlin, to give a public address. She started out as a guest lecturer speaking out against slavery.

Stone was a known as a major abolitionist in the pre-civil war period. At this time, the other Women's rights leaders wondered if her abolition speaking would take away from their cause. Could she be doing more? Stone thought she could, so she decided to speak on Women's Rights during the week and on Abolition on the weekends. Stone was now charging money to hear her talk, but people were more than happy to pay. She was very controversial at this time, and many people were offended by what she had to say.

There was a general idea at this time among men that people in favor of women's rights had some sort of mental problem. The thought of a woman traveling around speaking drew many people the same way a sideshow would at a circus. After the civil war, in 1868, the 14th amendment was passed. This guaranteed equal protection under the laws, but to the dismay of women's rights leaders, the original proposal was that it would only apply to men. Stone, being a little less extreme as her peers, supported the bill. Others, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton were opposed to this bill.

They felt that, although it is a major gain for blacks, it was a setback for women and they wouldn't stand for it. This was the first of many splits in these female leaders. Stanton and Anthony were much more extreme than Stone, although Stone was viewed by those on the outside as extremely radical. The split in the women's rights movement gave life to two different organizations.

Stone, alongside her husband Henry Blackwell, in 1869 founded the American Women Suffrage Association (AWSA). The AWSA was formed almost in protest of the National Women Suffrage Association (NWSA). The difference was not in intention, but approach. The NWSA was almost too radical for Stone. They wanted to obtain suffrage by one national amendment.

The AWSA thought it more rational to try to get suffrage by convincing each state to go along with it so it would be easier to get an amendment. Stone, in 1870, would found The Women's Journal. This was a weekly newsletter devoted to advancing the status of Women in America. When Lucy and Blackwell's daughter Alice graduated from Boston University, she became the editor. Stone is known today for many things, among them being the first woman to graduate from college in Massachusetts, one of the first women not to change their name after marriage, and forming The Women's Journal and NWSA.

Without Stone and Blackwell, the change in opinion of women in the United States would have been much slower than it was. Women all over the United States owe much to the work of Lucy Stone..