Gerrit Smith Papers 1762-1962

Seward, William Henry, 1801-1872

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William Henry Seward was born in Florida, Orange County, New York, on May 16, 1801. He was the son of Samuel S. Seward and Mary (Jennings) Seward. He graduated from Union College in 1820, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1822. In 1823, he moved to Auburn, New York, where he entered Judge Elijah Miller's law office. He married Frances Adeline Miller, Judge Miller's daughter, in 1824. Seward was interested in politics early in his career and became actively involved in the Anti-Masonic m...

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 1811-1896

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Harriet Beecher Stowe (b. June 14, 1811, Litchfield, Connecticut – d. July 1, 1896, Hartford, Connecticut) was an American abolitionist and author. She is the daughter of Rev. Lyman Beecher who preached against slavery. She is best known for writing Uncle Tom's Cabin. It became an instant and controversial best-seller, both in the United States and abroad. The novel had a major impact on Northerners' attitudes toward slavery and by the beginning of the Civil War had sold more than a million copi...

Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906

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Susan B. Anthony (born Susan Anthony; February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who became her lifelong friend and co-worker in social reform activ...

Dana, Charles A. (Charles Anderson), 1819-1897

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Charles Anderson Dana (August 8, 1819 – October 17, 1897) was an American journalist, author, and senior government official. He was a top aide to Horace Greeley as the managing editor of the powerful Republican newspaper New-York Tribune until 1862. During the American Civil War, he served as Assistant Secretary of War, playing especially the role of the liaison between the War Department and General Ulysses S. Grant. In 1868 he became the editor and part-owner of the New York Sun. He at first ...

Garrison, William Lloyd, 1805-1879

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Anti-slavery advocate. From the description of Circular and letter, 1848 Jan. 21, Boston, to Rev. Mr. Russell, South Hingham. (Boston Athenaeum). WorldCat record id: 231311718 Abolitionist and reformer William Lloyd Garrison was founder of the Boston abolitionist paper, The Liberator, and the New England Anti-Slavery Society. From the description of Papers, 1835-1873 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232007257 Abolitionist and lectur...

Stone, Lucy, 1818-1893

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Lucy Stone (b. Aug. 13, 1818, West Brookfield, MA–d. Oct. 18, 1893, Boston, MA) was born to parents Hannah Matthews and Francis Stone. At age 16, Stone began teaching in district schools always earning far less money than men. In 1847, she became the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree from Oberlin College. After college, Stone began her career with the Garrisonian Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and began giving public speeches on women's rights. In the fall of 1847, with...

Child, Lydia Maria, 1802-1880

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Lydia Maria Child was born Lydia Maria Francis in Medford, Massachusetts on February 11, 1802. She was born into an abolitionist family and was greatly influenced by her brother, Convers, who would later become a Unitarian Clergyman. After the death of her mother in 1814, Child moved to Maine to live with her sister and began teaching in Gardiner in 1819. While living in Maine, Child became increasingly interested in Native Americans and visited many nearby settlements. Child began actively writ...

Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910

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Julia Ward Howe, née Julia Ward, (born May 27, 1819, New York, New York, U.S.—died October 17, 1910, Newport, Rhode Island), American author and lecturer best known for her “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Julia Ward came of a well-to-do family and was educated privately. In 1843 she married educator Samuel Gridley Howe and took up residence in Boston. Always of a literary bent, she published her first volume of poetry, Passion Flowers, in 1854; this and subsequent works—including a poetry collec...

Foster, Abby Kelley, 1811-1887

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Abby Kelley Foster (January 15, 1811 – January 14, 1887) was an American abolitionist and radical social reformer active from the 1830s to 1870s. She became a fundraiser, lecturer and committee organizer for the influential American Anti-Slavery Society, where she worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and other radicals. She married fellow abolitionist and lecturer Stephen Symonds Foster, and they both worked for equal rights for women and for Africans enslaved in the Americas. Foster wa...

Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872

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Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and editor of the New-York Tribune, among the great newspapers of its time. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressman from New York, and was the unsuccessful candidate of the new Liberal Republican party in the 1872 presidential election against incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant, who won by a landslide. Greeley was born to a poor family in Amherst, New ...

Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892

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John Greenleaf Whittier was a wildly popular New England poet. A deeply committed and active abolitionist, he wrote many of his poems with a political agenda, although distinguished by an open-minded tolerance so often lacking in his fellow abolitionists. Although his works are somewhat marred by overtly political and overly sentimental works, the core of his output stands as fine, lyrical American verse. From the description of John Greenleaf Whittier letters, 1858 and 1876. (Pennsy...

Grimké, Sarah Moore, 1792-1873

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Even though Sarah Moore Grimké was shy, she often spoke in front of large crowds with her sister Angelina. The two sisters became the first women to speak in front of a state legislature as representatives of the American Anti-Slavery Society. They also became active writers and speakers for women’s rights. Their ideas were so different from most of the ideas in the community that people burned their writings and angry mobs protested their speeches. However, Grimké and her sister would not let t...

Woodhull, Victoria C. (Victoria Claflin), 1838-1927

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Victoria C. Woodhull was a woman's rights pioneer who achieved notoriety on many fronts in Gilded Age America. She founded (with her sister Tennessee Claflin) a Wall Street brokerage, with the support and advice of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Woodhull used profits to publish Woodhull & Claflin Weekly, advocating female suffrage, free love, and other progressive causes. Later she addressed House committee on suffrage, and exposed the Beecher-Tilton scandal, implicating celebrated minister Henry War...

Blackwell, Antoinette Louisa Brown, 1825-1921

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Antoinette Louisa Brown, later Antoinette Brown Blackwell (May 20, 1825 – November 5, 1921), was the first woman to be ordained as a mainstream Protestant minister in the United States. She was a well-versed public speaker on the paramount issues of her time and distinguished herself from her contemporaries with her use of religious faith in her efforts to expand women's rights. Brown was born the youngest of seven in Henrietta, New York, to Joseph Brown and Abby Morse. Brown was recognized as...

Green, Beriah, 1795-1874

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Abolitionist clergyman; originally of New England; attended Middlebury College and Andover Seminary; teacher of biblical studies; taught at Western Reserve College, Hudson, Ohio, from 1830-1833; in 1832-1833 accepted an offer to head the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, N.Y. (later known as Whitestown Seminary), where capitalized on the abolitionist feelings at Oneida and worked to organize anti-slavery societies in other parts of New York; Oneida closed due to financial difficulties in 1844 but ...

Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862

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Martin Van Buren (b. Kinderhook, New York, December 5, 1782-d. July 24, 1862, Kinderhook, New York), studied law, was admitted to bar, New York, 1803; moved to Huson surrogate of Columbia Co.; member of State Senate, 1813-1820; attorney general of New York, 1815-1819; delegate to state constitutional convention, 1821; U.S. Senate Democrat, March 4, 1821-1828; Governor of New York, 1828-1829; U.s. Secretary of State, March 12, 1829 - August 1, 1831; Vice President, 1832; President, 1836-1840....

May, Samuel J. (Samuel Joseph), 1797-1871

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Samuel May was a Unitarian clergyman of Syracuse, New York with connections to national organizations related to anti-Slavery, temperance, and suffrage, among others. From the description of Samuel J. May diary, 1867. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 64691611 Samuel May was a Unitarian Clergyman of Syracuse, New York with connections to national organizations related to Freedman's Relief, Temperance, and Suffrage, among others. From the descripti...

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

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Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1818. He barely knew his mother, who lived on a different plantation and died when he was a young child and never discovered the identity of his father. When he turned eight years old, his slaveowner hired him out to work as a body servant in Baltimore. At an early age, Frederick realized there was a connection between literacy and freedom. Not allowed to attend school, he taught himself to read and wr...

Helper, Hinton Rowan, 1829-1909

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American writer and diplomat. From the description of Autograph letter signed : New York, to A.H. Rathbone, 1893 Aug. 23. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270470872 Author and diplomat. From the description of Letters of Hinton Rowan Helper, 1860-1901. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79450859 Hinton Rowan Helper, born December 27, 1829 in Davie County, North Carolina, was a Southern critic of slavery whose books inflamed the South. His objection to the syst...

Tilton, Théodore 1835-1907

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Theodore Tilton (1835-1907) was an American newspaper editor, journalist, poet, and supporter of women's suffrage. He and his wife were parishioners of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and Tilton worked as his assistant for eleven years, until 1874, when Tilton sued Beecher for adultery with Mrs. Tilton. The case received widespread public attention. Tilton subsequently moved to Paris where he lived for the rest of his life. From the guide to the Theodore Tilton Correspondence, 1865-1894,...

Smith, James McCune, 1813-1865

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Garnet, Henry Highland, 1815-1882

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Henry Highland Garnet was a prominent African-American clergyman and abolitionist. Theodore Tilton was a poet, abolitionist, and editor of the Congregationalist newspaper the Independent. From the description of Henry Highland Garnet letter to Theodore Tilton, 1859. (New-York Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 709966851 ...

Finney, Charles G., 1792-1875

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Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875), revivalist, educator, and second President of Oberlin College (1851-65), abandoned the practice of law after a dramatic religious conversion and, following ordination in the Presbyterian Church, launched a decade of extraordinarily successful revivals in New York state (1824-33). He left the Presbyterian Church in 1836 and identified himself as a Congregationalist from then on. Finney's brand of theological perfectionism helped to make Oberlin College famous...

Grimké, Angelina Emily 1805-1879

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Truth, Sojourner, 1799-1883

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Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree, c. 1797, Swartekill, New York-died November 26, 1883), African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist best-known for her speech on racial inequalities, "Ain't I a Woman?", delivered extemporaneously in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention. Truth was born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. She devoted her life to the abolitionist cause and helped to recruit black troops for the Union Army. Although Truth ...

Weld, Theodore Dwight, 1803-1895

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Writer Weld, the husband of Angelina Grimké, was active in the abolitionist and temperance movements. For additional biographical information, see Dictionary of American Biography and Who Was Who in America, 1607-1896 (1963). From the description of Letters, 1880-1890 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232007533 Theodore Dwight Weld was born in Hampton, Connecticut on November 23, 1803. An advocate and crusader for temperance, abolition and women's right...

Van Vechten, Jacob, 1788-1871

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Pillsbury, Parker, 1809-1898

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American abolitionist. From the description of Letters to Henry David Thoreau [manuscript], 1861 April 9 & 13. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647814558 Massachusetts born abolitionist and labor agent for the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and American anti-slavery societies. From the description of Letter, Aug. 27, 1864. (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library). WorldCat record id: 53791439 ...

Astor, John Jacob, 1763-1848

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John Jacob Astor organized the American Fur Company in 1808, and the Pacific Fur Company in 1810. In the spring of 1811 he established a post at Astoria on the Columbia River, but sold it to British interests in 1813. By 1817 Astor had gained control of all the Mississippi Valley posts of the Northwest and Southwest Companies. The Columbia Fur Company, one of Astor's major competitors, was absorbed in 1827. By 1834 Astor tired of the fur business and sold all of his interests. From t...

Conkling, Alfred, 1789-1874

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Calkins, Caleb.

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Noyes, John Humphrey, 1811-1886

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Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, Mrs.

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Smith, Elizabeth Oakes Prince, 1806-1893

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Elizabeth Oakes Smith was a notably intelligent, talented, and accomplished 19th century American author. She first published poems in her husband's newspapers, began to write in earnest to alleviate financial concerns, and produced a remarkably capable and diverse body of work including poetry, essays, children's stories, novels, and non-fiction. She became one of the first women lecturers, speaking on women's rights and abolition. She was well-connected and well-respected by her peers, and mai...

Howe, S. G. (Samuel Gridley), 1801-1876

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Physician, reformer, and husband of Julia Ward Howe. From the description of Papers, 1868. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 46344998 Humanitarian crusader for many causes including Greek freedom, education for the disabled, prison reform, abolition, and black suffrage, Howe founded the Perkins School for the Blind and was the chairman of the Massachusetts Board of State Charities. When just out of the Harvard Medical School, he went to Greece as an army surgeon...

Weed, Thurlow, 1797-1882

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Thurlow Weed, politician and journalist, was born in Cairo, N.Y., on 15 November 1797. He married Catherine Ostrander in 1818. Weed was a leader of the anti-Masonic movement of the 1820's and 30's, a New York assemblyman from 1829-1831, and a key member of the Whig Party and then the Republican Party. From 1824-1826 Weed was the owner and editor of Rochester Telegraph. He published Anti-Masonic Enquirer, and from 1829-1863 he worked as a reporter and editor for the anti-Masons' paper, Albany Eve...

Mann, Horace, 1796-1859

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Horace Mann was an educator and a statesman who greatly advanced the cause of universal, free, non-sectarian public schools. Mann also advocated temperance, abolition, hospitals for the mentally ill, and women's rights. From the description of Horace Mann Letter, 1858. (University of the Pacific). WorldCat record id: 213372958 Horace Mann, "Father of our Public Schools," was born in Franklin, Massachusetts on May 4, 1796. His family was poor and his father di...

Pierpont, John, 1785-1866,

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Unitarian clergyman, poet, and reformer. From the description of Papers of John Pierpont [manuscript], 1825-1885. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647953935 American poet. From the description of Passing away -- a dream : autograph manuscript copy of the poem signed, [1837 or later]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 560671584 John Pierpont was born in Connecticut in 1785; he graduated from Yale in 1804 and tried several professions before beco...

Stanton, Henry B. (Henry Brewster), 1805-1887

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Journalist, lawyer, reformer, and New York state legislator. From the description of Henry B. Stanton correspondence, 1852-1857. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70980521 Anti-slavery orator; husband of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. From the description of Letter to Olive Risley Seward, 1871 October 19. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 49944554 ...

Tappan, Lewis, 1788-1873

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Merchant and antislavery leader. From the description of The papers of Lewis Tappan [microform], 1809-1903. (Washington State University). WorldCat record id: 29852969 Abolitionist from New York State; assisted the Amistad slaves; among the founders of the American Missionary Association in 1846, which began more than 100 anti-slavery Congregational churches throughout the Midwest, and after the American Civil War, founded numerous schools and colleges to aid in the educatio...

Ray, Charles B.

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White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918

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The second International Peace Conference was held at the Hague in 1907. From the description of Hague Peace Conference documents, 1907. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 64052217 Ambassador to Russia; first president of Cornell University. From the description of Andrew Dickson White papers, 1901-1902. (New York State Historical Documents). WorldCat record id: 155410378 Andrew Dickson White was born at Homer, New York, November 7, 1832. ...

Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1887

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Abolitionist; orator; pastor of Plymouth Church, 1847-1887. From the description of Papers, [ca.1847]-1937, 1847-1887 (bulk) (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155459715 American Congregational clergyman, lecturer, reformer, and author. From the guide to the Henry Ward Beecher papers, 1851-1896, n.d, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.) Congregationalist minister. From the description of Sermon notes, [n.d.], 1893, 18...

Delavan, Edward C. (Edward Cornelius), 1793-1871

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6t43vtw (person)

Schenectady, N.Y. temperance activist and publisher of temperance journals. From the description of Letter : Schenectady, to G.W. Clinton, Buffalo, 1869 Oct. 22. (Buffalo History Museum). WorldCat record id: 34657019 Reformer and businessman. From the description of Edward C. Delavan correspondence, 1834-1842. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79423585 ...

Clay, Cassius Marcellus, 1810-1903

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Cassius Marcellus Clay was born to Sally Lewis and Green Clay, one of the wealthiest planters and slaveholders in Kentucky, who became a prominent politician. He was one of six children who survived to adulthood, of seven born. Clay was a member of a large and influential political family. His older brother Brutus J. Clay became a politician at the state and federal levels. They were cousins of both Kentucky politician Henry Clay and Alabama governor Clement Comer Clay. Cassius' sister Elizab...

Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe, 1793-1864

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Epithet: Vice-president of the American Ethnological Society British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000561.0x0000a9 Author, Indian agent and ethnologist. From the description of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft papers, 1826-1841. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 34418398 Henry Schoolcraft was an ethnologist, geologist, Indian agent, and glass manufacturer. From th...

Liberty Party (Madison County, N.Y.)

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Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 1815-1902

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Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, New York in 1815. She organized the first Women's Rights Convention at Senecca Falls, New York, in 1848 and for more than fifty years thereafter was a crusader for women's rights, especially women's suffrage. She died in New York City in 1902....

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874

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Congressman, philanthropist, reformer. From the description of Letter, 1840 May 16. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122379141 Gerrit Smith resided in Peterboro (N.H.?) at the time of these writings and was a strong supporter of emancipation and African American rights. Upon his death the African American citizens of Buffalo paid him a formal tribute. From the description of Letters and broadsides, 1868-1871. (Buffalo History Museum). WorldCat record id: 34178334 ...

Conkling, Roscoe, 1829-1888

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Roscoe Conkling was a New York politician and lawyer, serving in Congress as both Senator and Representative. He resigned abruptly to protest Federal appointments in New York, and returned to his law practice. He later declined an appointment to the United States Supreme Court. From the description of Roscoe Conkling letter to D.B. Sickels, 1876 Apr. 20. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 52734482 Roscoe Conkling was a Senator (1867-81) and Congre...

Sumner, Charles, 1811-1874

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Massachusetts lawyer and U.S. Senator, 1851-1874. He was an ardent abolitionist who attacked the south in his "crime against Kansas" speech in 1856. Two days later he was assaulted in the Senate, receiving injuries that took him years to recover from. From the description of Letters, 1858-1869. (Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library). WorldCat record id: 55768315 Born in Boston, Mass., the U.S. statesman Charles Sumner studied law at Harvard and practiced law in his native ci...

Littlejohn, De Witt Clinton, 1818-1892

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Davis, Paulina W. (Paulina Wright), 1813-1876

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Feminist, reformer, and suffragist, Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis was born in Bloomfield, N.Y. Her second marriage, in 1849, was to Thomas Davis, manufacturer and state representative; they adopted two daughters. For biographical information, see Notable American Women, 1607-1950 (1971). From the description of Letter, 1873. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232007096 Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis was a reformer interested in abolition, temperance, women's rights, and ...

Liberty Party (U.S. : 1840-1848)

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Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer, 1804-1894

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Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was at the center of the Transcendentalist movement in New England. Although she wrote and published many works, she is best remembered for her support and friendship of Emerson, Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller and many others. She published the journal Dial, founded the famous West Street Book Shop and Publishing House, and introduced kindergarten to America. From the description of Elizabeth Palmer Peabody letters, 1846-1854. (Pennsylvania State University Libra...