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Lady Deborah Moody 1586-1659
Lady Deborah Moody emigrated from England in 1639 in hopes of finding religious tolerance in the New World. In 1643 after being admonished from Massachusetts for failing to live up to the Puritan way of life, Lady Deborah Moody founded the town of Gravesend, New Netherland. That discovery marks her to be the only women to have started a village and the first women to own land in colonial America. In Gravesend she founded a town hall government, started a school, and set up a church. -
Lucretia Mott 1793-1880
Lucretia Mott worked alongside Elizabeth Stanton as a women's rights activist. She was a key figure in the Seneca Falls Convention and assisted in writing the Declaration of Sentiments. She helped spark the women's suffrage movement as did her friend Stanton. Mott's feminist philosophy and anti slavery views were projected through numerous speeches that reached thousands of listeners. She became a strong force in her time effecting the reforms of her day. -
Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli 1810-1850
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Margaret received from an early age an ample education enforced by her father Timothy Fuller. In 1840 she became the first editor of a journal called The Dial. Fuller, while in her 30's began to be known as the best-read amongst women and men in New England. Fuller advocated for many reforms such as women's rights, prison reforms, and the emancipation of slaves. Her book "Women in the Nineteenth Century" is amongst the first feminist work. -
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe 1811-1896
Harriet Beecher Stowe was a writer and her most prominent book "Uncle Toms Cabin" shed light on the cruelty and horror surrounding slavery. It portrayed the life of slaves. Through her book the anti-slavery movement became popularized. It gave the north the initiation to go against slavery. President Abrahan Lincoln later makes mentions that her novel is a great factor behind the civil war. -
Elizabeth Cady Stanton 1815-1902
Elizabeth Cady Staton in well known for her role in the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. This was the first women's right convention held in Seneca Falls, New York where she presented her Declaration of Sentiments written similarly to the Declaration of independence was. She initiated the first organized women's rights movements in United States and set in motion the women's suffrage movements. She was an American social activist and fought primarily for the equality amongst both genders. -
Elizabeth Blackwell 1821-1910
Elizabeth Blackwell is a pioneer in educating women in medicine. She was the first women in the United States to receive a medical degree. Despite the challenges of attending an all men institution and financing medical school, in 1849 she changed the face of American medicine. In 1856 she helped open the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. Blackwell became the leading public health activist and educator of her time. -
Harriet Tubman 1822-1913
Harriet Tubman was an African-American abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor. She was a former slave who in the course of 10 years helped free over 300 slaves to freedom. In 1863 she played a key role in a raid that helped free more than 700 slaves. She preached about her anti slavery views. Tubman said "I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves". -
Emily Dickinson 1830-1886
During the nineteenth century the American literary world was not welcoming to female writers. One such writer was Emily Dickinson, her work only gained popularity and recognition after her death. In fact only a handful was published during her time and the remaining nearly 2000 writings were published after her passing. Dickinson's innovated form of writing poetry was negatively critiqued but now scholars identify her work with the forerunner of modern poetry.
