STONE, LUCY

Lucy Stone was one of the first leaders of the women's rights movement in the United States. A noted lecturer and writer, Stone spent most of her life working for women's suffrage. She is also believed to be the first married woman in the United States to keep her maiden name.

Stone was born on August 13, 1818, in West Brookfield, Massachusetts. Determined to attend college, she went to work as a teacher at the age of sixteen to earn money for the tuition. Nine years later she entered Oberlin College, the first coeducational college in the United States. While at Oberlin she formed the first women's college debating society. Stone was a fiery and forceful orator.

After graduating in 1847, Stone became a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, one of the leading abolitionist organizations of its time. Stone became convinced that parallels existed between the positions of women and slaves. In her view both were expected to be passive, cooperative, and obedient. In addition, the

legal status of both slaves and women was inferior to that of white men. Stone persuaded the society to allow her to spend part of her time speaking on the topic of women's rights. In 1850 she organized the first national Women's Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts.

"The flour-merchant … and the postman charge us no less on account of our sex, but when we endeavor to earn money to pay all these, then, indeed, we find the difference."
—Lucy Stone

In 1855 Stone married Henry B. Blackwell, an Ohio merchant and abolitionist. The couple entered into the marriage "under protest"; at their wedding they read and signed a document explicitly protesting the legal rights that were given to a husband over his wife. They omitted the word "obey" from the marriage vows and promised to treat each other equally. Stone also announced that she would not take her husband's name and would be addressed instead as Mrs. Stone. This action drew national attention,

and women who retained their maiden names were soon known as "Lucy Stoners."

After the Civil War Stone and Blackwell shifted their energies to women's suffrage. Although Stone was in agreement with elizabeth cady stanton and susan b. anthony on the goal of women's suffrage, she differed as to the best way to secure the vote for women. In 1869 Stone helped form the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). The AWSA worked for women's suffrage on a state by state basis, seeking amendments to state constitutions. Stanton and Anthony established a rival organization, the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), that sought an amendment to the U.S. Constitution similar to the fifteenth amendment that gave nonwhite men the right to vote. Whereas the AWSA concentrated on women's suffrage, the NWSA took a broader approach, lobbying for improvements in the legal status of women in areas such as family law as well as for suffrage.

Stone also helped found the Woman's Journal, a weekly suffrage journal, in 1870. She edited the journal for many years, eventually turning the task over to her daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, in 1882. As editor, Stone focused on the AWSA's goal of suffrage.

In 1890 the AWSA and the NWSA merged into the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Stone became the chair of the executive committee, and Stanton served as the first president. In that same year, Wyoming became the first state to meet Stone's goal as it entered the Union with a constitution that gave women the right to vote.

Stone died on October 19, 1893, in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

further readings

Blackwell, Alice Stone. 2001. Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Woman's Rights. Charlottesville: Univ. Press of Virginia.

Million, Joelle. 2003. Woman's Voice, Woman's Place: Lucy Stone and the Birth of the Woman's Rights Movement. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.

cross-references

Nineteenth Amendment.

Lucy Stone

Lucy Stone (1818-1893), American abolitionist, temperance worker, and woman's-suffrage leader, was the first important suffragist to retain her maiden name after marrying.

Lucy Stone was born in West Brookfield, Mass., on Aug. 13, 1818. At the age of 16 she began teaching school. For 9 years she saved her money and pursued her own studies. With some help from her father she finished her education at Oberlin College in 1847. That year she gave her first lecture on woman's rights from the pulpit of her brother's church. The following year she became an agent for the Antislavery Society. It was still rare for a woman to speak in public, rarer still for one to speak on woman's rights. The Antislavery Society disliked having the two causes confused, and so a compromise was arrived at by which Stone spoke for abolition on weekends, leaving the rest of the week free for woman's rights.

In 1855 Stone married noted abolitionist Henry B. Blackwell. The marriage service was distinguished by a joint protest against woman's disadvantaged state and a pledge that both partners would have absolutely equal rights in marriage. Blackwell was as good as his word. He became an ardent feminist and devoted much of his own time to the cause. Their daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, became a feminist and helped bring to completion her parents' great work.

After the Civil War, Stone broke with the radical feminists over the question of giving precedence to black males in the suffrage struggle. More committed to the antislavery movement than women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Stone accepted the argument that by confusing women's suffrage with black suffrage both would be lost and that the black's need was at this moment greater. In 1869 she was one of the organizers of the American Woman Suffrage Association, which differed from the Stantonites' organization, the National Woman Suffrage Association, in being more conservative and in having male members.

On Jan. 8, 1870, the American Association brought forth its paper, the Woman's Journal, as a rival to the National's weekly. Edited by Stone, Blackwell, and Mary Livermore, Woman's Journal appealed to the growing number of clubwomen, professional women, and the like who were reaching for greater freedom but were not yet ready to commit themselves to equal suffrage. Alice Stone Blackwell succeeded her parents as its editor, and, after the vote had been won, the magazine continued as the Woman Citizen, the organ of the League of Women Voters.

When the two wings of the suffrage movement were reunited in 1890 as the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Stone became one of its officers. She died on Oct. 18, 1893, in Boston.

Further Reading

Volumes 1 (1881) and 2 (1882) of the History of Woman Suffrage, edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, are helpful. Mrs. Stone's daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, published an affectionate account, Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Women's Rights (1930). A thorough study is Elinor Rice Hays, Morning Star: A Biography of Lucy Stone, 1818-1893 (1961). □

Stone, Lucy (1818–93) US feminist who co-organized the first US women's rights convention (1850). She established several organizations for women's suffrage and founded (1870) the Woman's Journal.