xt70rx937t9n_519 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4.dao.xml unknown 13.63 Cubic Feet 34 boxes, 2 folders, 3 items In safe - drawer 3 archival material 46m4 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Laura Clay papers Temperance. Women -- Political activity -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- United States -- History. Women -- Suffrage -- Kentucky. Women -- Suffrage -- United States. Woman's Century Calendar text Woman's Century Calendar 2020 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4/Box_33/Folder_7/Multipage24465.pdf 1900 1900 1900 section false xt70rx937t9n_519 xt70rx937t9n  

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LANDMARKS IN WOMAN’S CENTURY.

1800. Married women were not permitted in any country

to control their property, nor to will it away at

death; to all intents and purposes they did not own it. The
Common Law, in operation in England and the United States,
held husband and wife to be one, and that one the husband. The
legal existence of the wife was so merged in that of her husband,
she was said to be “dead in law." Not only did he control her
property, collect and use her wages, select the food and clothing
for herself and children, decide upon the education and religion
of their children, but to a very large extent he controlled her
“freedom of thought, speech and action." If she disagreed with
him, or in any way offended him, he possessed the legal right,
upheld by public opinion, to punish her; the courts only interfer-
ing when the chastisement exceeded the popular idea in severity.
At this time it was held by courts in England and the United
States, that a man in whipping his wife should be restricted to a
stick no larger than his thumb. Humane, affectionate husbands,
always better than the law, treated their wives as loved com-
panions, but upon the wives of fickle, untrue, ignorant and brutal
husbands, always numerous, the oppression of the law fell with
crushing force, and the wife had no redress. All possessions
passed into the hands of the husband at marriage. If a married
woman worked for wages, she could not legally collect them, as
they belonged to her husband. She could not make a will; sue

5

  

 

or be sued. Widows and unmarried women who might possess a
bank account did not go to a bank to transact their business, but
employed a male friend as an agent. They rarely managed their
own affairs; the opinion prevailed so commonly that women could
not possess business intelligence, they had neither confidence in
themselves nor public encouragement to attempt any ventures
of independence. Few occupations were open to women, and
these were monopolized by the poor. It was accounted a “ dis-
grace ” for women of the middle or upper classes to earn money.
The unmarried woman of such classes, dubbed “ old maid,”
forbidden by popular opinion to support herself, became a
dependent in the home of her nearest male relative. Pitied
because she had never “had a chance;” regarded with contempt,
as dependents always will be, she was condemned to a life of
involuntary service.

No college in the world admitted women. Men had so long
done the thinking for the average woman, it was universally be-
lieved no woman was capable of mastering the highest branches
of learning. The few women of genius who had appeared from
time to time were pronounced the “exception which proves the
rule.” The convents and boarding schools, wherein girls of
wealth were educated, taught nothing but the rudiments, while
the daughters of the poor received no education at all. Good
manners, polite address, music and dancing were considered the
only accomplishments necessary. Public schools were in many
places closed to girls, and when admitted they were dissuaded
from attempting the study of all branches except reading, writ-
ing, and elementary arithmetic.

6

      
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    

 In churches women were seated on one side and the men on
the other; as it was held that men “could not commend them-
selves to God unless relieved of the contaminating influence of
women.” Women were forbidden to pray or speak in the
churches, and, in many of them, even to sing in the choir. They
were forbidden any part in the business management of most
churches, and occupied much the same relationship to the church
as did child members.

It was considered highly immodest for awoman to appear upon
a business street without a male escort, and any woman seen upon
the street after dark was regarded with suspicion. More than'
one hundred years before, Ann Hutchinson, a godly woman, had
been cruelly persecuted for daring to “preach the gospel to
men.” So universally was this movement against her approved
that the voices of women were silenced everywhere. Not a
woman would have dared to speak in public, and few would have
given approval if she had.

The recital of the legal and social disabilities of women at the
beginning of the century is pitiful enough, but it can only partially
convey a full understanding of the timid, self-distrustful,untrained
character of the average woman of the day. Taught that it was
unwomanly to hold opinions upon serious subjects, that men most
admired clinging weakness in women, and that the one worthy
ambition was to secure their admiration, it is no wonder they
made little effort to think. The familiar simile of the oak and the
vine was nOt inappropriate at this time.

A few protests against these conditionshad been made—the
premonitions of the coming revolt. Mary Wollstonecraft, in her

 

  

 

 

“Vindication of the Rights of Women,” had plead eloquently for
larger opportunities for women and especially for education,
saying, “Women can not be injured by the experiment, for it is
not in the power of men to render them more insignificant than
they are at present.” The public had received her appeal in the
hostile spirit unfortunately customary when a wholly new idea is
presented, and Henry Walpole doubtless reflected public opinion
when he called her a “hyena in petticoats." Condorcet had made
a plea for full liberty for women, including enfranchisement, at
the close of the French Revolution, and was supported by a con-
siderable following of representative men and women. Mistress
Margaret Brenty the owner of a vast estate in Maryland, had
demanded a voice in colonial affairs; and Abigail Adams had
plead for larger liberty for women at the close of the American
Revolution; but these were the voices of seers, rather than
expressions of common opinion. Women were satisfied with their
lot, and men believed they were fulfilling the highest possibilities
of womankind. It was upon such conditions the curtain of
the nineteenth century rose; the century which the prophetic.
voice of Victor Hugo has proclaimed to be the “Century of
Woman.”

1801. At this time, in all boarding-schools for girls, Dr.

Gregory’s “Legacy to My Daughters” was com-

mended to all pupils as an approved guide to conduct. He said:

“ If you happen to have any learning, keep it a profound secret,

especially from men, who look with a jealous, malignant eye on a

woman of great parts and a cultivated understanding.” The
sentence is a fair sample of the contents of the book.

8

m

 m

1802. Jean Jacques Rousseau, who had so largely influ-
enced the thought of France during the closing years
of the eighteenth century, and whose philosophy had called forth
Mary Wollstonecraft’s “Vindication of Women,” was still a guide
in social thought, and his advice was reflected in the opinion of
the day. He said: “ The education of women should always be
relative to that of man. To please, to be useful to Us; to make
Us love and esteem them, to educate Us when young, to take
care of Us when grown up, to advise, to console Us, to render
Our lives easy and agreeable; these are the duties of women at
all times, and what they should be taught from their infancy."

1803. A man sold his wife as a cow in the Sheffield mar—
ket (England), for a guinea. Newspapers com-
mented upon it as a common occurrence.

I804. The pulpits at this t1me gave frequent expositions

of the necessary subordination of women, quoting

from St. Ambrose, as though inspired: “Adam was beguiled by

Eve, not Eve by Adam. It is just that woman should take as her

ruler him whom she incited to sin, that he may not fall a second
time through female levity. ”

fl

1805. It was pronounced ‘good form” for a modest
girl to faint often, and especially if frightened.

Robust health for women among the upper classes was consid-
ered quite indelicate. Dr. Gregory counseled girls “not to
dance with spirit when gaiety of heart would make them feel
eloquent,” lest men who beheld them might either suppose that

9

 

  

a.

 

 

LUCRETIA MOTT

 

 

 

 

 they were not entirely dependent on their protection for their
safety, or entertain dark suspicions as to their modesty.

i806. The study of Geography was not often permitted
to girls, being considered “ indelicate ” as well as
useless.

1807. Women property holders of New Jersey were dis-

franchised, having been permitted to vote until this

time, a property qualification being required of all voters. Under

this law a large number of them had voted for every presidential
candidate until this date.

1808, A man sold his wife in Knaresborough (England)
for Sixpence and a quid of tobacco. Daily news-
papers speak of such events growing 2‘00 common.

1809. The Legislature of Connecticut gave married women

the right to make a will. It was the first State to

enact such a law. In all the United States, England, and the

Continent of Europe married women could not will property left
them by their relatives.

Thirty-five women and children were found employed in fac-
tories of the United States.

1810. The “Napoleonic Code,” agitated and amended
throughout a period of several preceding years, was

finally adopted as the fundamental law of France, Belgium and
parts of Germany. With slight modifications, it became the law of

II

 

  

   

the countries of Southern Europe as well. It varied little in gen-
eral effect from the Common Law of England and fastened upon
the women of those countries, who before this time had enjoyed
considerable liberty, disabilities which will only be removed by
decades of agitation. Under this law the married woman occu-
pies a position little better than a chattel. It can be best de-
scribed as putting into law that saying of Napoleon: “There is
one thing that is not French, and that is that a woman can do as
she pleases.”

Sydney Smith, in a characteristic essay, made a witty, gallant
plea for better educational opportunities for women, in which he
said: “Women may be inferior beings, but there seems to be no
reason why a woman of forty should be as ignorant as a boy of
twelve.”

1811. During this period women were not infrequently
dipped in a river, while fastened to a board pro-
vided for the purpose, amid the jeers of lookers on, the punish~
ment being adapted especially to “ scolds.” It seems to have
been a crime which men never committed. The law, although
obsolete, was discovered never to have been repealed in New
Jersey when a belated case was brought up in 1889. The woman
was fined instead of being dipped, doubtless because the ma-
chinery had worn out, or modern officers of the law had never
learned the method of its operation.

1812. Courts held at this period, reflecting public opinion,
that where husband and wife differed in religion,
the children should be taught the husband’s faith, and that the

[2

 

     

6 0‘

 

     

Wife should teach it to her children, “even though she did not
believe it.”

1813. Divorces in which women were complainants were
almost unknown at this period, common opinion
’ holding it to be the wife’s duty to bear abuse and tyranny to any
’ 6‘ extent, and that she violated her marital obligations if she at-
tempted to relieve herself of the burden. Few cases were on
record in the early part of the century where women had applied
for divorces in the United States, and as late as 1847 it was re-
ported that only three were recorded in England.

1814. Women were teaching in the country districts dur-

ing summer months, when schools were small,

Wages were about one-third those paid to men teachers. It was

believed women could not “ manage boys,” and the winter schools
attended by boys were given up to men entirely.

.9

1815. Several secret societies, with differing objects,
arose at this time in England, to which women were

invited to membership, the first recognition of the possibility of
their services which had been made.

1816. In families of the poor, at this date and for years

after, women not infrequently supported the hus-

band and family by hard manual labor, the profligate husband col—
lecting and spending the wages which were his by law.

p, .
‘ ”‘0 1817. It was not uncommon, at this date and for years
after, for husbands to will their children away
from their wives to other guardians. They could do this legally

 

13

  

    
   
 
   
   
   
 
 
 
 
  
  
   

 

in all States. Even unborn babies could be, and were, so
willed away.

1818. A husband, in a fit of drunkenness or anger, who
punished his wife by whipping (mildly), turned her

out of doors in the cold, shut her up in a room without a meal,
etc., was upheld by the courts. The wife and child occupied

practically the same relation to the husband. He was guardian
of both.

1819. The number of women engaged in typesetting was

increasing. They were not welcomed, however, by

male co-workers, who found many ways of making life disagree-

able to them. From this period a sex struggle in thisindustry has

continued to the end of the century, ending in the full acceptance

of women in the printers’ unions, with full union pay for union
women printers.

1820, France permitted taxes paid by a widow to be

counted to the credit of a son, grandson, or son-in-

law, in order to give him sufficient property to entitle him to
vote.

Gov. DeWitt Clinton of New York, in his annual message, said:
“ I cannot omit to call your attention to the Academy for Female
Education at Waterford; this is the only attempt ever made in this
country to promote education of the female sex by the patronage
of government." (This academy was established by Mrs. Emma
Willard, and was afterwards combined with the Troy Seminary.)
The Legislature incorporated the Waterford Academy.

I4

    

     

    

1821. Troy Female Seminary was opened by Mrs. Emma

Willard, the first institution in the United States

offering “higher education” to women. Mrs. Willard is known

as the pioneer of the “Higher Education for Women.” Much

of the early contest concerning the advisability of educating women
beyond the rudiments was centered around this institution.

1822. From the year 1789 to 1822 girls had only been
permitted to attend the public schools of Boston in

the summer months,when there were not enough boys to fill them,
and then only to the number of vacant seats created by the
absence of the boys. For a portion of the time, when admitted to
the schools, they were only permitted to go two hours in the

afternoon.

1823. Women were beginning to make application for
patents, and this year recorded several applications.
Their inventions at this date were mainly small household con-

veniences.

1824. A New York woman was found, during a revival at

her church, praying with three women “under con-

viction " in an ante-room, during the general services. She was

stopped, reproved, and held up to the scorn of the church, since

she had violated the direct command of Scripture, and had not

remained “silent in the churches.” History does not record

whether the souls of these women were saved through masculine
prayer, or lost for the want of feminine prayer.

15

  

    

1825. William Thompson, an economist, published in

England, “An appeal of one—half the human race,

women, against the pretentions of the other half, men, to retain
them in political and hence in civil and domestic slavery.”

1826. Boston, amid a storm of opposition, opened a high
school for girls.

1827. Von Baer discovered the ovule, the reproductive

cell of the maternal organism, and demonstrated

that its protoplasm contributed at least half to the embryo child.

Before this time, it was held that the mother had no essential

share in the formation of the child, the comparison being made

that “man was the seed and woman the soil." The proof of

equal physical responsibility of parents opened the question of

the extent of the mental and moral responsibility resting upon
the mother. ’

1828. Boston closed its Girls’ High School, yielding to the

clamor of opposition. In the words of the School

Committee of 1854, it had been an “alarming success.” The

school had been full and not a girl had quitted it in the eighteen
months of its existence, in spite of the harsh criticism.

The Grimke Sisters, of South Carolina, freed their slaves and
went North. They began speaking publicly in favor of abolition,
and were many times mobbed. The same year, Frances Wright
began lecturing on “Union of Church and State.” No woman
had been known to speak upon a public platform in the United

16

    

     

    

States before this date. Undoubtedly, the bitter, intolerant
opposition to the public speaking of women, which continued
many years, was more intense because most of the early women
speakers were advocates of abolition, an extremely unpopular
cause. The Grimke Sisters were forced to undergo cruel and
savage persecution, and deserve the title of martyrs.

1829, Higher mathematics had been entirely excluded

from the curriculum of all girls' schools before the

opening of Troy Seminary. At this date a public examination in

geometry took place at Troy, which excited an amazing amount

of comment, the press almost unanimously condemning such
studies for women as entirely beyond their mental grasp.

I830, Abby Kelly began speaking about this time. She

was more than once pelted with bad eggs and

mobbed in Providence. Abby Kelly and the Grimke Sisters

were the pioneers who, more than any others, made it possible for
women who followed to enjoy the right of free public speech.

183i. France gave widows full right to choose their

. proxy among their relatives, who might be credited

with their taxes, and therefore given a vote. This privilege (?)
was lost at a later date.

Mary Somrnerville published her “Mechanism of the Heavens,”
and threw confusion into the camp of the enemies of woman’s
progress, it having been supposed impossible for a woman to
produce a book of such unquestioned originality and value.

17

    

 

.1832. Lydia Maria Child published her “ History of

Women,” in which she demonstrated the oppressive
conditions under which they suffered in all countries, and plead
for larger freedom.

Catherine Beecher opened a school for girls in Cincinnati
on lines of higher education.

1833. The Female Anti-Slavery Society was formed in
Philadelphia; believed to be the first woman's
organization in the world.

Oberlin College was established on co-educational plan, ad-
mitting girls on same terms as boys. Its curriculum was of
high standard. Forty-four students entered at the beginning,
fifteen of them being girls. This was the first school in the
world to offer girls a college education.

1834, Prudence Crandall, a Quaker woman of Canter—
bury, Conn., had established a school for colored

girls, in 1832. The united opposition to higher education for
girls and abolition was concentrated upon her. The persecution
of herself and school surpassed understanding. “The good
people of Canterbury” proceeded at once to devise ways and
means to suppress the school. They secured an act from the
State Legislature prohibiting

it

private schools for non-resident
colored persons,” and the joy on receipt of its passage was mani-
fested in Canterbury by the ringing of church bells. She was
twice arrested, tried and convicted, but carried her case to the
Supreme Court, where she was upheld on a technicality. Mean-

while. all shops and meeting—houses were closed to her and her

IS

 

 

    

      

 

    

pupils; carriage in public conveyances was denied them;
physicians would not wait upon them; not a shop would sell them
a morsel of food; her friends were forbidden to visit her under
penalty of the law; her well was filled with manure, and water
from other sources refused; the house was assaulted with rotten
eggs and stones, and at last set on fire, in 1834, her persecution
having continued without abatement for two years.

1835. The Boston Female Anti—Slavery Society held its
annual meeting for election of officers. From six
to ten thousand men, many “ gentlemen of property and in-
fluence,” gathered about the hall, demanding the adjournment of
the meeting, composed of fifteen to twenty women. At last the
Mayor appeared and ordered them to adjourn, “assuring them
that he could not guarantee them protection any longer.” The
society adjourned to the home of its president, and the mob
turned upon William Lloyd Garrison in an adjoining room, carried
him out, tore his clothes, and the authorities were obliged to put
him in jail for safety.
Married women of Ohio authorized to make a will.

Eight hundred women of New York petitioned Congress for the
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. It was then be-
lieved by most people that women had no right to petition, and
that it was indelicate to do so. It required brave women to
circulate a petition and brave women to sign it.

Dr. Harriot K. Hunt began practising medicine in Boston,
although not a graduate of a medical school, none admitting
women. In later years, the Pennsylvania Women’s Medical Col-
lege gave her an honorary degree.

19

  

 

 

1836. Ernestine L. Rose and Paulina Wright Davis

attempted to circulate petitions in New York for

property rights for married women, but succeeded in securing only

five names. “Some women said men would laugh at them, others

that they had rights enough; while men said the women had too

many rights already.” Judge Hertell made a futile effort to
secure such a law from the Legislature of that State.

Ernestine L. Rose addressed the Legislature of Michigan, ask-
ing enfranchisement of women—the first address given by a woman
before a Legislature. From this date to the end of the century
women have constantly addressed Legislatures. Scarcely a law
has been enacted or amended concerning the legal, civil, and
political rights of women, that has not come as the result of
petitions and hearings conducted by women. Much of the edu-
cation of public sentiment which has permitted the general liberty
of the women of this generation came through the influence of
Legislative hearings. In the early days, these were conducted
entirely by suffragists in the interest of women’s rights; in later
years, other women have availed themselves of the extended
freedom, and have held numerous hearings in the interest of re-
forms and philanthropies.

Abraham Lincoln made his famous declaration in favor of poli-
tical equality for women, twelve years before the Seneca Falls
Convention.

The Female Anti-Slavery Society held a public meeting ad-
dressed by women, believed to be the first public meeting man-
aged and addressed by women not Quakers.

20

 1837. John Quincy Adams, in his famous Congressional

contest for the “right of petition,” introduced

several petitions from women for the abolition of slavery in the
District of Columbia.

The National Female Anti-Slavery Convention was held in New
York City, with seventy-two delegates present—the first repre-
sentative body of women ever convened.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia was torn down and set on
fire while Angelina Grimke was speaking—the mob incensed
partly because a woman was speaking, and partly because she
spoke on slavery.

Angelina Grimk addressed the Legislature of Massachusetts
011 slavery.

Mt. Holyoke (Mass) Seminary was established by Mary Lyon,
and offered “higher education” to women.

Sarah Grimke, in vigorous English, said: “If sewing societies,
the fruits of whose industry are now expended in supporting and
educating young men for the ministry, were to withdraw their
contributions to these objects and give them where they are more
needed, to the advancement of their own Sex in useful learning,
the next generation might furnish sufficient proof that in intelli-
gence and ability to master the whole circle of sciences, woman is
not inferior to man, and instead of a sensible woman being
regarded as she now is—a lapse of nature—they would be quite
as common as sensible men. ”

Catherine Beecher published an “ Essay on Slavery, ” with refer-
ence to the “Duty of American Females." It was answered by

21

 

  

 

a pastoral letter issued by the general association of the Con-
gregational Churches of Massachusetts, in which they bitterly
condemned all attempts of women to do public work of any
kind, and especially public speaking. Among other things they
said:

“We appreciate the unostentatious prayers and efforts of
women in advancing the cause of religion at home and abroad,
and in leading religious inquirers to the pastor for instructions
but when she assumes the place and tone of man as a public
reformer, our care and protection of her seems unnecessary; we put
ourselves in self-defense against her; she yields the power which
God has given her for protection, and her character becomes un-
natural. We say these things not to discourage proper influence
against sin, but to secure such reformation as we believe is
Scriptural and will be permanent.”

Sarah Grimke took issue, and entered vigorous protest against
the implied statement that pastors, and not women, should give
instructions to inquirers, saying: “The business of men and
women who are ordained of God to preach the unsearchable
riches of Christ to a lost and perishing world is to lead souls to
Christ, and not to pastors, for instruction." John Greenleaf
Whittier “poured out his indignation in thrilling denunciations,”

and Maria Weston Chapman “in humorous verse held the letter
up to ridicule.”

This controversy may be said to have raised the “Woman's
Rights” agitation into public notice, and from this time it became
a “ burning question ” in the abolition societies.

22

  

 

 

 

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

I838. Mary Gove Nichols gave public lectures on anatomy,

eliciting much public comment; the public press

condemning the indelicacy of the act, and ridiculing the possi-
bility of any woman understanding the subject.

Kentucky granted school suffrage to widows with children and
property.

1839. The American Anti-Slavery Society, composed of
men and women, affirmed by resolution the right of women to
labor for abolition, thus sanctioning public work of women.

1840, Harriet Martineau visited the United States, and

reported seven occupations only open to women—

teaching, needle-work, keeping boarders, working in cotton
factories, typesetting, bookbinding, and household service.

The Legislature of Texas gave married women the right to
make a will.

A division of the Anti-Slavery Society was created over the
right of women to hold office and take public part in organized
anti—slavery work, a portion of the society repudiating the reso—
lution of the year before.

AWorld’s Anti-Slavery Convention was held in London, with
women delegates from America. After stormy discussion, in
which it was vehemently declared that “all order would be at an
end ” if the women delegates were admitted, it was voted to bar
them out. William Lloyd Garrison and Nathaniel I’. Rogers
refused to sit in the convention after this action, but sat in the
gallery with the women. Lucretia Mott, a rejected delegate, and

24

 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the wife of a delegate, indignant at the
treatment the women had received, planned to call a convention
upon their return to America, which should consider the status of
women and plan a method for improving it.

1841. Three young women, Mary Hosford, Elizabeth S.

Prall and Caroline M. Rudd, were graduated at

Oberlin with degrees, the first women in the world to bear this
distinguished honor.

1842. Physiology was considered up to this date, and
some years after, highly “indelicate” for girls.

Graduates of Troy Seminary report seeing thick paper pasted
over illustrations of the human body in text-books, having been
accounted by parents too indecent for students to observe. In a
school taught by one of Mrs. \Villard’s graduates, the mothers
left the room in a body when the examination in physiology was

called.
1843. The Legislature of Alabama gave power to married
women to make a will.
1844. Control of their own property granted married

women of Maine—the first State and the first
country to permit such liberty in modern times.

Paulina Wright Davis lectured on physiology and used a mani-
kin for illustration. She reported that “women frequently
dropped their veils, shocked at the indelicacy, ran out of the
room, or even fainted at sight of it.”

25

 

  

 

1845. Equality of inheritance given son and daughter,
and wife given equal rights with husband in com-
mon property in Sweden.

Margaret Fuller published her “Women of the 19th Century,"
a clarion appeal for equal rights for women.

Illinois permitted married women to make a will.

Kentucky amended its law and granted school suffrage to both
widows and spinsters having taxable property.

1846. \Vomen permitted by Parliamentary act to carry on
business in their own name in Sweden.

Elias Howe invented the sewing machine, the first model
“ being able to sew ten times as fast as a woman.”
greatly lightened the burdens of women.

The invention

Anaesthetics were discovered, and being used in cases of severe
suffering at maternity brought forth several sermons upon the
subject, the clergymen declaring that such relief from pain was
contrary to scripture, since pain at maternity was a part of the
“Curse.”

1847. Vermont gave married women power to make a will.

Lucy Stone, graduating at Oberlin, fourteen years after it had
been opened, was told one of the professors would read her gradu-
ating essay, as it would be “indelicate ” to read it herself before
a promiscuous audience. She refused to have it read, since she
was not permitted to read it herself. Thirty—six years later the
trustees of Oberlin invited her to give the chief address at the

26

 fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the college. She also began
the year of her graduation to speak for “woman’s rights,” and
reported that she had often had eggs thrown at her, but never
any “bad eggs,” as the earlier speakers had had, showing a
delicate improvement in popular sentiment since the days when-
Frances Wright, the Grimke Sisters and Abby Kelly opened the
way.

Maria Mitchell attracted the attention of the world to the
scholastic possibilities of women by discovering a telescopic comet,
for which she received a gold medal from the King of Denmark.

1848. A call for a Woman's Rights Convention to be held

at Seneca Falls, New York, was issued, without sig-

nature, by Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Mary Ann McClintock. At the appointed hour the
little Wesleyan Methodist church was filled. James Mott was
made chairman. A declaration of principles was presented, and
the convention resolved to inaugurate an organized movement
to secure to women the control of their own property and wages;
to secure educational opportunities for them; to Open industries
and educate public sentiment to approve of self-support for
women; to obtain more favorable laws concerning all their rela-
tions to the State; and, lastly, to secure their enfranchisement.
One hundred men and women s