Mott, Lucretia, 1793-1880

Lucretia Mott (née Coffin) was born Jan. 3, 1793 in Nantucket, MA. She was a descendent of Peter Folger and Mary Morrell Folger and a cousin of Framer Benjamin Franklin. Mott became a teacher; her interest in women's rights began when she discovered that male teachers at the school were paid significantly more than female staff.

A well known abolitionist, Mott considered slavery to be evil, a Quaker view. When she moved to Philadelphia, she became Quaker minister. Along with white and black women, Mott helped found the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. She attended all three national Anti-Slavery Conventions of American Women (1837, 1838, 1839). In June 1840, Mott and her husband attended the General Anti-Slavery Convention, better known as the World's Anti-Slavery Convention, in London, England, even though she was not allowed to vote. It was there she started a friendship with Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

In 1848, Mott and Cady Stanton organized the Seneca Falls Convention and Mott was elected the first president of the American Equal Rights Association but resigned from the association in 1868. In 1864, Mott and several other Quakers incorporated Swarthmore College. She was a leading voice in the Universal Peace Union.

On April 10, 1811, Lucretia married James Mott and their children all became active in the anti-slavery and other reform movements. Her sister, Martha Coffin Wright, was also a well known abolitionist and woman's rights activist. Mott's great-granddaughter, May Hallowell Loud, was a well known artist. She died Nov. 11, 1880 in Cheltenham, PA.