In Her Own Right : The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (50 page)

BOOK: In Her Own Right : The Life of Elizabeth Cady Stanton
8.3Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

8
. HBS to Amos Phelps, 17 April 1840, BPL.

9
. HBS to ECS, 1 Jan. 1840,
Letters
, 4–5; Theodore Weld to Louis Tappan, 10 April 1840,
Weld Letters
, 2:828; HBS to John Greenleaf Whittier, 18 April 1840, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. (hereafter HH).

10
. There has been confusion in primary sources about the wedding date. ECS gave 11 May in her autobiography, leading to speculation that she did not wish to remember it or that the printer erred.
80Y
, 71. Henry gave the correct date in his autobiography, although not until the third edition did he mention his bride’s name. Initially he identified her only as “the daughter of Daniel Cady.” HBS,
Recollections
, 1st ed., 37. Judging from their letters and other internal evidence, 1 May is the correct date.

11
.
80Y
, 71–72.

12
. HBS to GS, 17 April 1840, GSM-SU.

13
. Thomas,
Weld
; Katharine Lumpkin,
The Emancipation of Angelina Grimké
(Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1974); Gerda Lerner,
The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Woman’s Rights and Abolition
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967).

14
. Stephen W. Nissenbaum, “Careful Love: Sylvester Graham and the Emergence of Victorian Sexual Theory in America, 1830–1840” (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Wisconsin, 1968).

15
. Lumpkin,
Grimké
, 167; ECS to Angelina Weld, 25 June 1840, and Angelina Weld to Gerrit and Ann Smith, 18 June 1840,
Weld Letters
, 2:845–49, 842; HBS to GS, 10 May 1840, GSM-SU.

16
.
80Y
, 73; ECS to Angelina Weld, 25 June 1840,
Weld Letters
, 2:845–49.

17
. HBS to Whittier, 15 Feb. 1840, enclosing an announcement of the meeting, HH.

18
. Rice, “Henry Stanton,” 206–8; HBS,
Recollections
, 3d ed., 31.

19
. Mary Grew, diary describing the World Anti-Slavery Convention, London, 1840, transcribed by Alma Lutz, AL-AES; LM,
Slavery and “The Woman Question”: Lucretia Mott’s Diary of Her Visit to Great Britain to Attend the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840
, ed. Frederick B. Tolles, suppl. 23 to
Journal of the Friends Historical Society
(Haverford, Pa.: Friends Historical Assn., 1952).

20
. Rice, “Henry Stanton,” 141, 144, 207.

21
.
80Y
, 80–81.

22
. WLG to Helen Garrison, 27 June 1840,
The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison
, ed. Louis Ruchames, 4 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, Belknap Press, 1971–75), 2:655; LM,
Diary
, 41.

23
. ECS to Angelina Weld and Sarah Grimké, 25 June 1840,
Weld Letters
, 2:845–49; ECS to Edward Davis (LM’s son-in-law), 25 Dec. 1881 (condolence note), LM MSS, Friends Historical Society, Swarthmore College, Haverford, Pa. (hereafter FHS).

24
. Quoted in Otelia Cromwell,
Lucretia Mott
, 2d ed. (New York: Russell & Russell, 1971), 125.

25
. Margaret Hope Bacon,
Valiant Friend: The Life of Lucretia Mott
(New York: Walker, 1980), is an excellent biography of Stanton’s mentor.

26
.
HWS
, 1:419–21.

27
.
80Y
, 82.

28
. ECS to Edward Davis, 5 Dec. 1881, FHS;
80Y
, 103. HBS’s travel notes ran as “Glances at Men and Things” in the
New York American
, 1840–41. Those that were published in the
National Era
became
Sketches of Reforms and Reformers of Great Britain and Ireland
(New York: J. Wiley, 1849; reprint, Miami, Fla.: Mnemosyne, 1969).

29
. ECS to GS, 3 Aug. 1840, GSM-SU; Richard Webb quoted in Sarah Pugh to ECS, 24 March 1841, ECS-LC; Webb to Elizabeth Pease, 4 Nov. 1840, BPL.

30
.
80Y
, 100–101, 107. ECS had written frequently to her family during her trip, trying to promote a reconciliation. ECS to Daniel Eaton, 18 Aug. 1840, TSDL.

31
. HBS to GS, 8 Jan. 1841, GSM-SU; ECS to Elizabeth Neall, 25 Jan. 1841, Sydney Howard Gay MSS, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. (hereafter CU).

32
. James Birney to Lewis Tappan, 5 Feb. 1841,
Letters of James Gillespie Birney, 1831–18517
, ed. Dwight L. Dumond, 2 vols. (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1938; reprint, Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1966), 2:623; ECS to Elizabeth Smith, [1841?], AL MSS, VC;
80Y
, 111.

33
. HBS to ECS, [June 1943?], ECS-LC; ECS to Elizabeth Smith, [1841?], AL-VC; HBS to GS, 9 Sept. 1841, GSM-SU; Rice, “Henry Stanton,” 243–44. HBS studied under Judge Cady from 23 Feb. 1841 to 23 May 1842.

34
.
80Y
, 111–12; ECS to Elizabeth Neall, 26 Nov. [1842?], Gay MSS, CU.

35
. ECS to Elizabeth Neall, 26 Nov. [1842?], Gay MSS, CU; ECS to Elizabeth Pease, 12 Feb. 1842, BPL.

36
. ECS to Elizabeth Neall, 26 Nov. [1842?], Gay MSS, CU.

37
. ECS to LM, [1841?],
CE
, 35; ECS to Rebecca Eyster, 1 May 1847,
Letters
, 15–16. See also introduction.

38
.
80Y
, 120.

39
. Elizabeth Neall to Abby Kimber, 11 Dec. 1841, Gay MSS, CU; Rice, “Henry Stanton,” 245–47.

40
. HBS to Birney, 19 April 1843,
Birney Letters
, 2:734–46.

41
. Norma Basch, “Her Separate Estate: Married Women’s Property Rights Legislation in New York State, 1848–1862” (Ph.D. diss., New York Univ., 1977); Peggy A. Rabkin,
Fathers to Daughters: The Legal Foundations of Female Emancipation
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1980), also traces the enactment of the New York law. For Rose and Davis, see
NAW
articles by Alice Felt Tyler.

42
. HBS to ECS, 30 March [1844?], [Oct. 1842?], and [Oct. 1842?], ECS-LC; Elizabeth Neall to Abby Kimber, 11 Dec. 1841, Gay MSS, CU; Sarah Grimké to ECS, 31 Dec. 1842, TS-DL.

43
.
80Y
, 136.

44
. Ibid., 138–39.

45
. ECS to Elizabeth Neall Gay, 3 Feb. [1846?], Gay MSS, CU;
80Y
, 127, 132; ECS to Margaret L. Cady, 17 July 1845,
Letters
, 13–14.

46
. Gerda Lerner, “The Political Activities of Antislavery Women,”
The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1979), 126.

47
.
CE
, 42; ECS also discussed the idea with Frederick Douglass, ECS diary, 30 Nov. 1885,
Letters
, 228–29.

48
.
Letters
, 11; ECS to Elizabeth Neall Gay, 3 Feb. [1846?], Gay MSS, CU.

49
. HBS to GS, 23 Dec. 1844, GSM-SU.

4. SENECA FALLS SENTIMENTS, 1848
 

1
. Henry Stowell,
A History of Seneca Falls, New York, 1779–1862
(reprint, Seneca Falls Historical Society, 1975), 7. Seneca Falls Historical Society hereafter SFHS.

2
. HBS to GS, 6 July 1844, GSM-SU.

3
. Daniel Cady to HBS, 15 Sept. 185[2], ECS-LC; HBS,
Recollections
, 3d ed., 170–71; Rice, “Henry Stanton,” 340–42.

4
. Letters to author from Fulton County clerk, 1 Aug. 1977, and from Hanns Kuttner, 27 Nov. 1979.

5
.
80Y
, 143–44.

6
. Harriot Stanton Blatch, address to National Woman’s party, 19 July 1923, Seneca Falls, ECS-LC.

7
. ECS to ESM, [winter 1847?], AL-VC.

8
.
80Y
, 145–47.

9
. Ibid., 147–48.

10
. Ibid.

11
.
HWS
, 1:68.

12
. For Wright see Bacon,
Valiant Friend;
Cromwell,
Mott
.

13
. John E. Becker,
A History of the Village of Waterloo, New York
(Waterloo: Waterloo Library and Historical Society, 1949). Additional information compiled by Hanns Kuttner. See also Judith Wellman, “The Signers of the Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls, 1848” (paper presented at the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa., June 1976).

14
. A. Day Bradley, “Progressive Friends in Michigan and New York,”
Quaker History
52 (Autumn 1963):95–103.

15
.
Seneca County Courier
, 14 July 1848 (reprint, SFHS).

16
.
HWS
, 1:68–69.

17
. “Declaration of Sentiments,”
HWS
, 1:70–71. All subsequent quotations refer to this copy.

18
. DuBois,
Feminism and Suffrage
, traces the intellectual history of Stanton’s feminism.

19
. Bacon,
Valiant Friend
, 128.

20
. Recalled Margaret Stanton Lawrence, who was not born until 1852, “Dad, who also spoke and worked for the cause of woman . . . was so amazed at her daring when . . . she would not follow his advice, that he left town.” “Seventy-two Years Ago: Mrs. Stanton and the First Women’s Rights’ Convention” (typed copy of letter to the editor of the
Indianapolis Star
, 12 Nov. 1920), SFHS;
CE
, 46.

21
. ECS first repeated the story about her father to Theodore Tilton, “Stanton,” 347. It also appears in Janet Cowing, “Mrs. Stanton, Our Pioneer Suffragist,”
State Service
3 (May 1919): 14; and Elizabeth G. Delavan, “Elizabeth Cady Stanton” (typescript, 1938), 8, SFHS, an essay written for the Comment Club of Des Moines, Iowa. Both Cowing and Delavan conducted interviews of older Seneca Falls residents.

22
. Lawrence, “Sketch,” 18.

23
. LM to ECS, 16 July 1848, ECS-LC; Wellman, “Signers of the Declaration,” 4;
HWS
, 1:69.

24
.
Proceedings of the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention
(reprint, SFHS);
HWS
, 1:69–74. Subsequent quotations refer to the
Proceedings
.

25
. “Her voice . . . was weak and timid, and did not reach the remote parts of
the house.” Amelia Bloomer, “Early Recollections of Mrs. Stanton,”
New Era:
1 (Nov. 1885):339, ECS–LC. Mrs. Bloomer did not sign the Declaration, and there is some doubt that she actually attended the meeting.

26
.
HWS
, 1:809–10.

27
.
Seneca County Courier
, 21 July 1848 (reprint, SFHS).

28
. Ibid.;
HWS
, 1:804–5.

29
.
HWS
, 1:74;
CE
, 53–54.

30
. ECS to George Cooper, 14 Sept. 1848, and ECS to LM, 30 Sept. 1848,
Letters
, 18–22.

31
. ECS to Cooper, 14 Sept. 1848, ibid., 18–20.

32
.
HWS
, 1:75–80; ECS to Amy Post, 24 Sept. [1848], Harper MSS, HEHL.

33
. ECS to Amy Post, 24 Sept. [1848], Harper MSS, HEHL.

34
. LM to ECS, 3 Oct. 1848, ECS-LC.

35
.
80Y
, 157; Lawrence, “Seventy-two Years Ago.”

36
. ECS speech, 2 Aug. 1848, Cott,
Bonds of Womanhood
, 195.

5. BONDS OF AFFECTION, 1849–55
 

1
. LM to ECS, 3 Oct. 1848, and 11 Sept. 1851, ECS-LC; ECS to LM, 26 Sept. 1849, WLG-SSC.

2
. Blanche Glassman Hersh,
The Slavery of Sex: Feminist-Abolitionists in America
(Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1978), discusses the marital arrangements of fifty-one women active in this era, including ECS.

3
.
80Y
, 151–52.

4
. Amelia Bloomer,
The Life and Writings of Amelia Bloomer
, ed. Dexter C. Bloomer (Boston: Arena, 1895; reprint, New York: Schocken Books, 1974).

5
. HBS to GS, 2 May 1849, GSM-SU; ECS to ESM, 30 April 1850, AL-VC.

6
.
Seneca County Courier
, 21 July 1848.

7
. ECS to ESM, 20 April 1850,
Letters
, 24;
HWS
, 1:810.

8
.
HWS
, 1:242; Paulina W. Davis to ECS, July 1850, ECS-LC.

9
. ECS to HBS, 2 Sept. 1851,
Letters
, 35; ECS to Amy Post, 4 Dec. 1850,
Letters
, 24–25. Reports of the national women’s rights conventions were published annually; a complete set can be found at HH.

10
. Mrs. Sillias Mynderse to ECS, [Feb. 1851], ECS-LC; Delavan, “Stanton,” 6; ECS to ESM, [Feb. 1851], ECS-LC; ECS to HBS, 13 Feb. 1851,
Letters
, 26.

11
. HBS to ECS, [Feb.], 15 Feb., and 6 March 1851, ECS-LC.

12
. HBS,
Recollections
, 3d ed., 167–68.

13
. ECS to ESM, 4 June 1851,
Letters
, 28–31; Rice, “Henry Stanton,” 338.

14
. HBS,
Recollections
, 3d ed., 170; HBS to Charles Sumner, 13 May 1851, Sumner MSS, HH; Daniel Cady to HBS, 15 Sept. 1851, ECS-LC. Judge Cady had been away from home when Eleazar died and may have been sensitive on questions concerning sons.

15
.
HWS
, 1:457–58;
80Y
, 163–64.

16
. Cowing, “Pioneer Suffragist,” 15; [A.E. Hemon (piano teacher)], “Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Some Reminiscences of Her Family Life at Seneca Falls, New York” (typescript, n.d.), SFHS; Robert Brewster Stanton, “Reminiscences” (n.d.), NYPL; Daniel Cady to Daniel C. Stanton, 3 July 1850, ECS-LC.

17
. Thomas,
Weld
, 227–31; ECS and HBS to Theodore Weld, 22 Sept. 1848, Weld-Grimké MSS, Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; ECS to SBA, 1 Dec. 1858, Harper MSS, HEHL.

18
. ECS to Daniel C. Stanton, 2 May 1852,
Letters
, 42; HBS to “Sons,” 22 Feb. 1854, ECS-LC.

Other books

Clang by E. Davies
The House by the Liffey by Niki Phillips
The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein
Take No Prisoners by John Grant
A Little Folly by Jude Morgan
Unforgettable by Shanna Vollentine