Abby Kelley
Abby Kelley Foster | |
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suffragist | |
Spouse | Stephen Symonds Foster |
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Abby Kelley Foster (January 15, 1811 – January 14, 1887) was an American
Her former home of Liberty Farm in Worcester, Massachusetts, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.[2]
Early life
On January 15, 1811, Abigail (Abby) Kelley was born the seventh daughter of Wing and Lydia Kelley, farmers in
Abby returned to her parents' home to teach in local schools and, in 1835, helped her parents move to their new home in
Radicalization
Kelley's views became progressively more radical as she worked with abolitionists such as
Anti-slavery activity
Following the financial Panic of 1837, Kelley took charge of fundraising for the Lynn Female Society. She donated a generous portion of her own money to the American Anti-Slavery Society. With the encouragement of Angelina Grimke, Abby served as the Lynn Female Society's first delegate to the national convention of the Anti-Slavery Society in New York.[11] There she spoke out about fundraising and participated in drafting the Society's declaration for abolition. After the convention, Kelley became even more engaged in the Anti-Slavery Society, for which she distributed petitions, raised funds, and participated in conferences to raise public awareness.
In 1838, Kelley gave her first public speech to a "promiscuous" (mixed-gender) audience at the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, in Philadelphia. At this time women generally did not address such audiences in public forums. Despite vociferous protesters, Kelley eloquently proclaimed the doctrine of abolitionism. In the following months, she further established herself as a public figure by speaking to more mixed-gender crowds, such as that at the New England Anti-Slavery Convention.[12] She also worked on a committee composed of both genders.
Later in 1838, she moved to Connecticut to spread the anti-slavery message. By 1839, Kelley was fully involved in the Anti-Slavery Society, while still acknowledging Quaker tradition by refusing payment for her efforts. In 1841, however, she resigned from the Quakers over disputes about not allowing anti-slavery speakers in meeting houses (including the Uxbridge monthly meeting where she had attended with her family), and the group disowned her.[13][14][15]
In 1843, Kelley addressed the attendees at the Liberty Party convention in Buffalo, New York, becoming the first woman in America to speak at a national political convention.[16]
In the following years, Kelley contributed to the Anti-Slavery Society as a lecturer and fundraiser. Although she encountered constant objections to her public activism as a woman working closely with and presenting public lectures to men, Kelley continued her work. She often shared her platform with formerly enslaved Africans despite disapproval by some in the audience. "I rejoice to be identified with the despised people of color. If they are to be despised, so ought their advocates to be".[17] In October 1849, Kelley wrote to her friend, Milo Townsend, and told of the work she was doing for the anti-slavery society: "We know our cause is steadily onward".[18]
Some male members of the Society objected to the ideas propounded by Garrison, Kelley, and other radicals. As a result, when Kelley was elected to the national business committee of the Anti-Slavery Society, conservative members left in protest. The two groups of abolitionists officially severed. Pacifist radical abolitionists controlled the Society, who promoted complete egalitarianism, to be obtained without the aid of any government, as all such institutions were constructed on the violence of war. In 1854 Kelley became the Anti-Slavery Society's chief fundraiser and general financial agent, and in 1857 she took the position of general agent in charge of lecture and convention schedules.[10]
Kelley and her husband Stephen Symonds Foster—along with Sojourner Truth, Jonathan Walker, Marius Robinson, and Sallie Holley—reorganized the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society in 1853 in Adrian, Michigan.[19] The state society was founded in 1836 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[20]
Women's rights
Fighting for
After the American Civil War, Kelley supported passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. Some female activists resisted any amendment that did not include women's suffrage. Kelley split with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton due to their strong opposition to the amendment. After the amendment passed and Garrison dissolved the Anti-Slavery Society, Kelley continued to work for equal rights for both African Americans and women.[22]
In 1872, Kelley and her husband Stephen Symonds Foster refused to pay taxes on their jointly owned property; they argued that as Kelley could not vote, she was a victim of taxation without representation. Although their farm was consequently seized and sold and repurchased for them by friends,[2] Kelley continued her activism in the face of financial difficulties and poor health. She wrote letters to fellow radicals and other political figures until her death in 1887.
Marriage and family
After a four-year courtship, Kelley married fellow abolitionist Stephen Symonds Foster in 1845. In 1847, she and her husband purchased a farm in the Tatnuck region of Worcester, Massachusetts, and named it "Liberty Farm". She gave birth to their only daughter in 1847. She carried on an active correspondence and local meetings to work for the cause.
Abby Kelley Foster died January 14, 1887, one day before her 76th birthday.[24]
Legacy and honors
Liberty Farm in Worcester, Massachusetts, the home of Abby Kelley and Stephen Symonds Foster, was designated a National Historic Landmark because of its association with their lives of working for abolitionism. It is privately owned and not open for visits.[2]
Abby's House, a shelter for women that opened in Worcester in 1976, is named in her honor.[25]
In 2011, she was inducted into the
Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School, a K-12 school in Worcester, Massachusetts, that opened in 1998, is named in her honor.
See also
- List of civil rights activists
- List of suffragists and suffragettes
- List of women's rights activists
- Come-outer
Citations
- ^ Sterling 1991, pp. 1–3, 14.
- ^ a b c d e "Liberty Farm". NPS. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- ^ "Valley Sites - Millville, Uxbridge: Friends Meetinghouse". NPS. Archived from the original on 2011-10-27. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- ^ "The Uxbridge Meeting House". Archived from the original on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Sterling 1991, pp. 14–18.
- ^ Sterling 1991, p. 19.
- ^ Sterling 1991, pp. 19–25.
- ^ Sterling 1991, pp. 26–35.
- ^ Sterling 1991, pp. 1–3, 41–59, 230.
- ^ a b Morin 1994, pp. 19–20.
- ^ Sterling 1991, pp. 37–43.
- ^ a b "In defense of Woman and the Slave..." NPS. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- ^ Morin 1994, p. 19.
- ^ Sterling 1991, p. 123.
- ^ Buffum, Lucille (1914). Elizabeth Buffum Chase- Her Life and its Environment. W. B. Clarke Co.
- ^ Johnson, Reinhard O. "The Liberty Party, 1840-1848: Antislavery Third-Party Politics in the United States." Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2009, p.1647
- ^ Sterling 1991, p. 86.
- ^ "Abby Kelley Foster resumes lecturing". Worcester Women's History Project. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- JSTOR 44174961– via Jstor.
- ^ Mull, Carol E. "Signal of Liberty". Ann Arbor District Library. Retrieved 2022-03-30.
- ^ "Abby Kelley Foster at First National Woman's Rights Convention". Worcester Women's History Project. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- ^ Morin 1994, pp. 25–27.
- ^ Sterling 1991, p. 3.
- ^ Morin 1994, p. 27.
- ^ "Who Is Abby Kelley Foster?". Abby's House. Retrieved 2015-03-23.
- ^ National Women's Hall of Fame
- ^ "Abby Kelley Foster". Retrieved November 7, 2023.
References
- ISBN 0-393-03026-1.
- Cirillo, Frank J. "Waiting for the Perfect Moment: Abby Kelley Foster and Stephen Foster’s Union War" in New Perspectives on the Union War edited by Gary W. Gallagher and Elizabeth R. Varon (Fordham UP, 2019) pp. 9-38 online
- Mayer, Henry (1998). All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. ISBN 0-312-18740-8.
- Pease, Jane, William Pease. "Foster, Abby Kelley." American National Biography. Feb. 2000 <http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00236.html>.
- Bacon, Margaret Hope (1974). I speak for my slave sister: the life of Abby Kelley Foster. Crowell. ISBN 978-0-690-00515-8.
- Morin, Isobel V. (1994). Women Who Reformed Politics. Oliver Press. pp. 13–27. ISBN 978-1-881508-16-8.
- Greene, Richard E. (2002). C. James Trotman (ed.). Multiculturalism: roots and realities: Abby Kelley Foster. Indiana University Press. pp. 170–183. ISBN 978-0-253-34002-3.
- Melder, Keith (1994). Jean Fagan Yellin, John C. Van Horne (ed.). The Abolitionist sisterhood: women's political culture in Antebellum America:Abby Kelley and the Process of Liberation. Cornell University Press. pp. 231–247. ISBN 978-0-8014-8011-9.
- "Abby Kelley Foster, Papers, 1836-1975 Online Finding Aid". American Antiquarian Society.
External links
- Worcester Women's History Project:
- Liberty Farm Archived 2015-01-13 at the Wayback Machine, National Historic Landmark, former home of Abby Kelley Foster, National Park Service
- Portrait of Abby Kelley Foster by Charlotte Wharton
- What Did Abby Say? - Assumption College
- Abby Kelley Foster papers from Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections