Abolitionist and Feminist (1793–1880)
Lucretia Coffin, the daughter of a whaling captain, was educated in Quaker schools in New York before settling in Pennsylvania. In 1811 she married James Mott, in whom she found a loving companion and loyal ally in all her causes. She bore six children, but the death of her first son prompted a period of deep religious introspection. Afterward she was formally recognized as a Quaker minister.
The Motts were ardent abolitionists, forswearing cotton or any commerce in the fruits of slavery. These sentiments soon found their way into Lucretia’s preaching, drawing complaints from Quaker elders. After creating a stir when she rose to speak at an antislavery convention in Philadelphia, she founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. This work provoked an especially violent backlash. In one case, a hall where she was speaking was burned to the ground by a riotous mob.
When she was denied a chance to speak at an antislavery convention in London, her efforts shifted toward the feminist cause. The religion of Jesus, she insisted, was founded on a spirit of liberation, justice, and equality. In 1848 she helped organize the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, and read aloud its revolutionary manifesto, which began, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”
She continued in the struggle for justice and equality for all until her death on November 11, 1880.
“We deem it our duty, as professing Christians, to manifest our abhorrence of the flagrant injustice and deep sin of slavery by united and vigorous actions.” —Lucretia Mott
