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Sep 26, 2024 · Lucretia Mott: Spiritual Warrior for Human Rights. Facebook LinkedIn X. It seems as if a day rarely goes by when I’m not inundated with opinions both inane and profound in a never-ending stream across social media platforms. It can be overwhelming and discouraging, and I often find myself seeking refuge in the pages of old books.
- Lucretia Mott’s Quaker Upbringing
- Fierce Abolitionist
- Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Women’s Rights Convention
- Swarthmore College Co-Founder
- Lucretia Mott’s Legacy
- HISTORY Vault: Women's History
- Sources
Born on January 3, 1793, in Nantucket, Massachusetts, Mott was raised in a family of Quakers, the second of five children.
Abiding by the Quaker tenet that men and women were equal in the eyes of God, Mott grew up with parents who lived out their faith: Her father Thomas Coffin worked in the whaling industry and raised his children to live with a strong sense of purpose, and her mother, Anna Folger, ran a small store, setting the tone for Mott’s industry.
While at Quaker boarding school in New York, Mott excelled both in her education and personal life. As a teenager, she became an assistant teacher and met her future husband, James Mott. However, she was shocked when she soon realized the wage disparity between male and female teachers.
Lucretia’s family eventually moved to Philadelphia in 1809, with James accompanying them. The young couple married two years later and had six children.
Despite being barely five feet tall and 100 pounds, Mott was an indomitable figure. After continuously encountering the evils of slavery while traveling to religious meetings across state lines, she became an outspoken leader of moral and social reform.
With James encouraging her many causes, she evolved into a fiery, charismatic orator and became a preacher in her 20s. Both she and James became passionate abolitionists.
The abolitionist movement in the 1830s was not a popular cause — even in the northern states. In fact, it was commonplace to hear stories of mob violence against abolitionists. Yet this did not deter Mott: In 1833, she founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.
Five years later, she hosted the second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in Philadelphia, which brought 175 black and white female abolitionists together from 10 states.
Mott’s fight against slavery continued, but in 1840, her activism would adopt an additional cause that would change the course of history forever.
That year she and James were selected as Pennsylvania delegates to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. When they arrived, many of the male abolitionists refused to let female delegates into the convention, deeming it was not their place to participate.
In 1848 Stanton and Mott launched a Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York. To make a bold statement, Mott helped pen the Declaration of Sentiments, a purposefully crafted reworking of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”
At the Seneca Falls Convention, Mott, Stanton and other fellow feminist leaders demanded that women be seen as equals in all areas of life – not only in relation to marriage and family, but also from an educational, economic and religious standpoint.
The convention was deemed highly controversial, yet progressive thinkers like Frederick Douglass famously attended.
For Mott, abolitionism and women’s rights went hand in hand, and she continued to fight fearlessly for both issues. After the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, Mott became part of the Underground Railroad, aiding a runaway slave to safe passage and freedom.
Among her many accomplishments, Mott, along with her husband and other Quaker leaders, founded Swarthmore College in Philadelphia in 1864, as a co-educational institute of higher learning.
Over the years, Swarthmore College has consistently ranked as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the nation.
Mott died on November 11, 1880, at her home in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, after suffering from pneumonia. She was 87 years old.
Although she didn’t live to see the day women won the right to vote under the 19th Amendment, Mott is credited with igniting the women’s rights movement and serving as mentor to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who continued Mott’s work after she died.
Mott stands as one of the most radical feminist reformers of her day, tirelessly pushing for equal voting, education and economic rights for all who were disadvantaged and disenfranchised.
American author Susan Jacoby wrote: “When Mott died in 1880, she was widely judged by her contemporaries … as the greatest American woman of the nineteenth century.”
Stream acclaimed women's history documentaries in HISTORY Vault.
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Lucretia Mott. Library of Congress.
Lucretia Coffin Mott. American National Biography.
“Lucretia Mott: Woman of Courage.” Scholastic.
Lucretia Mott. National Women’s History Museum.
- 3 min
Mott’s willingness to speak uncomfortable truths made her among the most famous women of her day, sharing stages with such icons as Sojourner Truth. In 1848 a group led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and including Lucretia Mott, called a convention on women’s rights: the Seneca Falls Convention.
Lucretia Mott (née Coffin; January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) was an American Quaker, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer. She had formed the idea of reforming the position of women in society when she was amongst the women excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840.
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Lucretia Coffin Mott was an early feminist activist and strong advocate for ending slavery. A powerful orator, she dedicated her life to speaking out against racial and gender injustice.
