Lucretia Coffin: Women's Right Activist, Religious Reformer and Abolitionist

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Lucretia Coffin was born on January 3, 1793 in Nantucket, Massachusetts. Lucretia was a women’s rights activist and was opposed to slavery. Lucretia grew up to be a women’s rights activist, religious reformer, and abolitionist. She was strongly opposed to slavery and was devoted to her work as an abolitionist. As she became older, word spread that she could speak in such a way that could convince her audience to join her anti-slavery boycott; however, there were people that were against the idea of ending slavery and would continually challenge her beliefs. When Lucretia was a child, she was always horrified by slavery. She grew up with Quaker parents. Quakers believe that slavery, as well as warfare goes against God’s teachings. Her early believes about abolition were in part formed by her parent’s influence and her faith. In 1804, her family moved to Boston and at the age of thirteen Lucretia and her sister attended a Quaker boarding school in New York, ‘’Nine Partners Quaker Boarding School’’. She worked as an assistant in teaching. While attending the Quaker boarding school she met James Mott, her future husband. The couple married in 1811 and moved to Philadelphia. Soon after they had six children. Five of which grew into adulthood. In 1817, Lucretia’s youngest son passed away at the age of three of disease. A couple of years before her son’s death, a family tragedy happened in 1815 when Lucretia’s father died, leaving her mom in debt and the whole family in financial hardship. While in financial need, James Mott found a job in his Uncle Scott’s cotton mill, sold plows and afterwards became a bank clerk. His boycott of slave products lead him to selling mainly wool, rather than cotton because he too believed that ... ... middle of paper ... ...over the inconsistent conflict concerning the Fourteenth Amendment, Lucretia joined with Anthony and Stanton to form the “National Woman Suffrage Association”, devoted to creating a federal amendment granting women the vote. Lucretia and her husband wanted to open a Quaker institution of higher learning. It was named Swarthmore College. When the college had been chartered in 1864, she and James had insisted it be coeducational.For years she was vice president of the Universal Peace Union. In 1870 she was elected president of the Pennsylvania Peace Society, an office she held until her death. Mott grew to believe that a new spirit was at work in the world that demanded active involvement in reform Works Cited http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00494.html http://www.mott.pomona.edu/ http://www.biography.com/people/lucretia-mott-9416590#awesm=~oDw9qACfIdGdIb

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