Prophetic Women

March 11, 2012

Abigail Adams, author of the reading just presented, was the wife of John Adams, second President of the United States of America. She was also the mother of John Quincy Adams, our nation’s sixth President. Although the American Unitarian Association was not yet in existence, both John and Abigail ascribed to the idea of Unitarianism, as well as other liberal religious views. Although she had no formal education, Abigail’s father, a Congregational minister, and other relatives had extensive libraries, and she read voraciously, becoming knowledgeable in diverse subjects, including poetry, philosophy and politics. She possessed a keen intellect, an irreverent wit and an independent spirit.

John Adams and Abigail Smith met when she was fourteen and he was twenty-three. Despite the differences in their ages and the fact that she had never attended school and he had two degrees from Harvard, they found themselves to be intellectually compatible. Their friendship blossomed into romance, and they were married on October 25th, 1764, just shy of her twentieth birthday, and his twenty-ninth. John’s law practice in Boston flourished, and he quickly became a leader in local and national politics. When he went off with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others to found a new nation, Abigail was left behind to run the family farm and raise their five children.

Although John and Abigail Adams were not your typical late eighteenth century American colonial couple, the great disparity separating their spheres of activity and influence was all too common. Man’s sphere was the entire world. Woman’s sphere was to take care of the man and to bear and raise his children. If she had spare time and energy, she could also do church and charity work, although she was not permitted to speak in church, such as from the pulpit, she could not vote on church issues, and she could not speak publicly anywhere if the audience included men.

Despite the fact that women were restricted from any participation in politics or government, Abigail was very much interested in both subjects. So, one day in the Spring of 1776, she sat down in her little farm house in Braintree, Massachusetts and wrote a letter to her husband, who at the time was in Philadelphia where he and Jefferson and others were drafting a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution for the new nation they were creating. In her letter Abigail suggested to her husband that he and the other founding fathers should include some laws in the new constitution that would protect the rights and liberties of women. This would be a significant improvement over existing English law under which women were considered the property of men, had no rights to the money they earned, and had few avenues to enable them to live independently of their fathers or husbands. As a result, their lives were severely restricted, and they often had no means of escape from severely abusive relationships. Drawing a parallel between the plight of women and the situation of the American colonies that spurred the drive for independence from Britain, Abigail hinted that, if women were not given a voice or representation in the new government, they might have to resort to their own rebellion.

In reply to his wife’s letter, John Adams said that her suggestions made him laugh. He went on to explain that it was precisely women’s lack of power that made them so endearing to the hearts of men, and that if they had equal rights they wouldn’t be so darn loveable. And this response was from a man who, throughout his political career, held frank intellectual discussions with his wife about politics and government, both in person and by letter, as evidenced by the archives containing volumes of letters they exchanged. Perhaps John Adams thought Abigail was the exception that proved the rule of woman’s natural inferiority to man.

This widely held prejudice was based on religious and philosophical grounds. Both fields, coincidentally dominated by men, provided ample evidence that women “were inferior in intelligence, reasoning, and morality and were useful mainly for bearing children, doing domestic chores, and serving men.” The letters of the apostle Paul in the New Testament of the Christian Bible were often cited as proof. In his first letter to the apostle, Peter, Paul said that men should give honor to their wives “as unto the weaker vessel.” In his letter to the Ephesians he said that wives should “submit yourselves unto your own husbands.”

The so-called Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason that swept across western Europe in the eighteenth century apparently did not consider women capable of either enlightenment or reason. In the novel, Emile, published in 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau explained the basic differences between men and women. He said: “The man should be strong and active; the woman should be weak and passive; the one must have both the power and the will; it is enough that the other should offer little resistance.” He went on to say that woman’s education should focus on making her pleasing to man. He said woman should: “be pleasing in his sight, to win his respect and love, to train him in childhood, to tend him in manhood, to counsel and console, to make his life pleasant and happy. These are the duties of woman for all time, and this is what she should be taught when she is young.”

One might suppose that, in light of all the amazing accomplishments achieved by many notable women in the nineteenth century despite formidable obstacles, the myth of their inferiority to men would finally fall by the wayside. Some of these women were Universalists or Unitarians. In 1844 Margaret Fuller became one of the first women journalists at a major American newspaper. In 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the United States to graduate from medical school. In 1863 Olympia Brown became the first woman to graduate from a theological school and the first woman to be ordained as a minister by any religious denomination.

Many Universalist and Unitarian women became leaders in social justice causes, including the movement to abolish slavery, prison and mental hospital reform, women’s suffrage and education reform, including increasing educational opportunities for women. They did so out of a desire to put their religious faith in action. According to Dorothy May Emerson, author of Standing Before Us, an anthology of fifty Universalist and Unitarian women social justice activists from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century: “Women (as opposed to men) were often the ones to activate and demonstrate the values of their faith, such as freedom, tolerance, acceptance, and individual rights. They translated liberal theology into real work to promote justice in the world and, at the same time, struggled with inequities in their own religious institutions.”

Yet, despite the accomplishments of these and many other women, their inferiority continued to be asserted into the late nineteenth century and beyond. In his book, Descent of Man, published in 1887, George Romanes, a naturalist and friend of Charles Darwin, said: “Seeing that the average brain-weight of women is about five ounces less than that of men, on merely anatomical grounds we should be prepared to expect a marked inferiority of intellectual power in the former.” According to June Edwards, author and assistant professor of education at the State University of New York at Oneonta, Romanes used Darwin’s theory of evolution to prove that no amount of education would close the gap. In his book he goes on to state: “It must take many centuries for heredity to produce the missing five ounces of the female brain.”

There were some prominent men of the nineteenth century who supported and affirmed the advance of women. The radical Unitarian minister, Theodore Parker, invited women ministers to speak from his pulpit. The abolitionist leader, William Lloyd Garrison, welcomed women who wanted to join the campaign to end slavery. Ralph Waldo Emerson asked Margaret Fuller to become editor of The Dial, a Transcendentalist literary journal. Other women who attempted to enlarge their sphere were not so fortunate.

Julia Ward was born on May 27, 1819 in New York City. Her father was a wealthy Wall Street banker, and no expense was spared in her education. She had several governesses and special tutors, and she learned French, Italian and Spanish, as well as Greek and Hebrew, but she was quite jealous of her brothers, who learned chemistry, mathematics and other subjects that were not taught to young women. Julia was a gifted writer, and during her late teens and early twenties, she had several essays published in various New York City periodicals.

In 1841, while visiting Boston, Julia met and fell in love with a much older man, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who was the head of the Perkins School for the Blind. They were married two years later. Though in many ways a liberal, including being an ardent abolitionist, Dr. Howe firmly believed that women’s place was in the home. He disapproved of Julia’s writing and forbade her to publish any more articles. Conceding to her husband’s wishes, Julia bore six children and channeled her energies into domestic concerns.

During this time she read extensively, developing a program of self-education that continued for the rest of her life. In 1854 and 1857 she wrote two collections of poetry that were published anonymously. Unfortunately, it soon became known that she was the author, and her husband was furious! Because of the conflict created by Julia’s gift that craved expression and Dr. Howe’s firm belief that women should have no public life whatsoever, the remaining years of their marriage were tumultuous and marked by several periods of living apart. At one point Dr. Howe demanded that they get a divorce, but Julia refused.

At the same time Dr. and Julia Howe waged their marital civil war, the United States was fast approaching its own civil war that was soon to be fought on a massive scale. In November 1861, about seven months after the war began, Julia’s friend, the Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke, invited her to join him on a visit to Washington, D.C. Apparently, Reverend Clarke did not share Dr. Howe’s view about women’s place being in the home, for he helped arrange an invitation for Julia to give a speech to the troops of the Army of the Potomac. Although resisting the idea, Julia finally consented and gave the first of what would eventually be many public appearances throughout the rest of her career.

Being aware of Julia’s gifts as a poet and a writer, Reverend Clarke suggested that she write some new lyrics to a popular song that had a stirring tune but depressing lyrics about the radical abolitionist, John Brown. Julia had already been thinking the same thing herself, and early the next day she wrote the lyrics to what would become known as “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It is perhaps ironic that the author of one of the most famous war songs in the world would then go on to attempt to develop an international network of women working for peace. Toward the goal of world peace, in 1870 Julia wrote the following “Mother’s Day Proclamation:
“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

"From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.”

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient, and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”

After the Civil War, Julia Ward Howe became deeply involved in the women’s suffrage movement. In doing so she developed a life-long relationship with another woman who spent most of her life breaking down the barriers of the so-called “women’s sphere.” That woman was Lucy Stone.

Previously, it had been my understanding that Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were the prime movers behind the women’s suffrage movement. So, I was somewhat surprised when I recently learned that Lucy Stone was just as much an influential leader. In fact, Susan B. Anthony said that it was Lucy Stone’s moving speech delivered at the end of the National Women’s Rights Convention on October 24th, 1850 in Worcester, Massachusetts that served as the catalyst for her own involvement in the women’s suffrage movement. Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote that: "Lucy Stone was the first person by whom the heart of the American public was deeply stirred on the woman question." Together, all three women were known as “the nineteenth century triumvirate of women’s suffrage and feminism.”

While Abigail Adams was raised in a prominent family and Julia Ward Howe came from a wealthy family, Lucy Stone was born into very modest circumstances. Although her father had a small farm that provided a modest, but steady, income, he also drank a lot, and his wife often had to steal money from his purse to provide basic necessities. Like Abigail and Julia, Lucy was born into a world that presumed women’s inferiority to men, but her mother, Hannah, believed that it was important for girls to receive the same education as boys. So, the girls in the family were sent to the local public school along with the boys.

When Lucy wanted to go to college like her brothers, her father refused to provide funds to further her education. So, at age 15 she began working as a teacher, and for ten years she saved money to pay her own way. She then enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio, which was the only college in the United States that accepted female students. It was also the only college in the country to admit African Americans. To earn money while at Oberlin, she taught a class of fugitive slaves and freedmen. While her own experiences of discrimination for being a woman led to a life-long career as a feminist, hearing first-hand accounts of the horrors of slavery from her students touched her so deeply in her heart that she became
convinced that she needed to help slavery come to an end, and that she should advocate for the rights of African Americans.

At Oberlin, Lucy took courses in rhetoric, or public speaking, but because the Christian Bible forbade women from speaking in public, all the women students could do to develop their skills was to listen to male students having debates. So, she and some other female students formed a secret debating society that held meetings and debates in a wooded area near the college. They posted a sentry to prevent them from being caught engaging in such unladylike behavior.

During her senior year at Oberlin, Lucy Stone decided that she would embark on a career as a public lecturer on behalf of the anti-slavery movement and women’s rights. In 1847 she graduated, becoming the first woman from the state of Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She then did, in fact, spend the rest of her life speaking out against slavery, on behalf of the rights of African Americans, and on behalf of the rights of women.

After graduation she returned to Massachusetts, and in October that year she delivered her first public presentation on the topic: “The Province of Women.” This took place at the Evangelical Congregational Church in Gardner, Massachusetts, where her older brother, Bowman, was minister. Although she, like her brother, was raised in the Congregational Church, in 1851 she was expelled from the congregation to which her family belonged, primarily because of her staunch public support of abolition, an issue on which the Congregational Church refused to take a side.

As a matter of fact, the conflict between Lucy Stone and the Congregational Church began when she was still a child. At that time, whenever anyone would quote the Bible as justification for women’s subordinate relationship to men, she: “declared that when she grew up, she'd learn Greek and Hebrew so she could correct the mistranslations that she was confident lay behind such verses,” a goal which she did eventually accomplish. When she was kicked out of the Congregational Church, she joined a Unitarian congregation.

As her reputation for being a powerful charismatic speaker grew, Lucy Stone rose to prominence in the women’s rights and abolitionist movements of New England.
In 1852 she met Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and they formed a powerful coalition on behalf of suffrage and other women’s rights causes. Unfortunately, a rift rose between them, and they ended up forming two separate women’s suffrage organizations. One of the issues was the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended voting rights to African American men, but not to women of either race. While Lucy Stone staunchly and publicly supported the measure, Anthony and Stanton refused to endorse it, unless voting rights for all women were also included.

Another contentious issue was Lucy Stone’s firm belief in grass roots efforts on behalf of achieving women’s suffrage. To that end, she helped form education and action committees in every town and city where she spoke, and she appeared before every state legislature in the country, attempting to persuade them to amend state laws that denied women’s rights. Stanton and Anthony thought it best to work toward amending the federal constitution. In 1887 Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe and others worked to resolve the differences dividing the two organizations, resulting in a merger into one group, the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Sadly, Stanton, Anthony and Stone all died before the promised-land was reached in 1920 when Tennessee became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

One woman who did live long enough to cast her vote in 1920 was Antoinette Brown Blackwell. She was a classmate of Lucy Stone’s when they were both students at Oberlin College, and they became lifelong friends, as well as sisters-in-law, each of them marrying a brother of Elizabeth Blackwell, our country’s first woman physician. Speaking of being first, Olympia Brown is rightly recognized as the first woman to be ordained a minister by a national religious denomination when she was ordained by the Universalist Church of America on June 25th, 1863. However, Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained ten years earlier in 1853 by the Congregation al Church, the only distinction being that her ordination was not recognized by the entire denomination, and Olympia Brown’s ordination was so recognized.

After her ordination, Reverend Blackwell served for five years as rector of a Congregational Church in South Butler, New York. In time, her beliefs in Congregational theology waned, and she left her position, turning her energies to working for women’s rights and other social reforms. She returned to her religious calling in 1902 when, at age 77, she helped found the Unitarian Society of Elizabeth, New Jersey, serving for a time as its minister. Notwithstanding the significant progress that women have made in a variety of social reform movements, it could be argued that it is in the institution of religion that the most progress has been made. In 1914, 61 years after the ordination of Antoinette Brown Blackwell as its first woman minister, the Congregational Church (today known as the United Church of Christ) listed 84 women ministers. That same year, the Universalist Church of America, 51 years after making Olympia Brown its first woman minister, listed 75 women among its ordained clergy.

Curiously, the American Unitarian Association, while theologically progressive in many other ways, had only 17 women ministers at the time, fewer even than the Free Baptist Church, which had 50 women clergy. Today, I can proudly tell you that half the ministers in the Unitarian Universalist Association are women. That sounds like full equality to me, but perhaps we should wait until a woman is elected president of the UUA before we celebrate that momentous milestone.

Besides, there are plenty of other things that we can celebrate. We can celebrate the fact that all professional fields are now open to women and that many women have become leaders in those fields, including politics and government. Women now have the right to vote in every country in the world except one, Saudi Arabia, and that is expected to change within the next few years. As women’s sphere has expanded to nearly equal that of men, many men have displayed a willingness to take up a fairer share of the responsibilities of hearth and home.

There is still a lot of progress to be made, not only in regard to women’s rights, but also in the areas of racial and sexual minorities and prison and legal reform. Women currently make at least 20% less than men for identical work. One in three women will be sexually or physically abused during their lifetimes. Today, the United States incarcerates a higher percentage of its citizens than any other nation in the world. One of ten African American men between the ages of 25 and 29 are in prison or jail. There are more African American men in prison than there are in college. If you are convicted of murder, you are seven times more likely to receive the death penalty if you are African American.

Not only women and African Americans are current targets for discrimination. On June 9th, 2011, the state of Alabama enacted the most draconian anti-immigration law in the United States. Records of legislators discussing the law show them using the words “Hispanic” and “illegal immigrant” interchangeably. Right wing pundits tell us that all Muslims, including people who look like they might be Muslims, should be viewed as potential terrorists. And, our LGBTQ sisters and brothers continue to be demonized in the name of religion.

In the face of all this, you may, like me, feel too small and powerless to confront
the immensely powerful forces of injustice that surround us today. Yet, the living tradition of our Unitarian Universalist faith challenges us to do just that: “to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love.” Perhaps we can turn to another of the women whose lives we celebrate today for inspiration and courage.

Frances Gage was born in 1808 on a farm near Marietta, Ohio. In 1821 she married an abolitionist. Inspired by her Universalist religious faith she devoted much of her adult life to ending slavery and to promoting rights for women. In addition to raising eight children, she was an author, poet, editor and lecturer. In May 1851 she was asked to address the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention, which was held at the Universalist Church in Akron, Ohio. I think it’s safe to say that the conditions we face today are no worse than those faced by social justice reformers in 1851. Perhaps the following words that Frances Gage used to encourage her audience then, can provide inspiration for us today as we continue to struggle for justice. Here is what she said:

“Permit me to draw a comparison between the situation of our forefathers in the wilderness, (who had not) so much as even a bridle path through its dark depths, and our present position. The old land of moral, social and political privilege seems too narrow for our wants; its soil answers not to our growing, and we feel that we see clearly a better country that we might inhabit. But there are mountains of established law and custom to overcome; a wilderness of prejudice to be subdued; a powerful foe of selfishness and self-interest to overthrow; wild beasts of pride, envy, malice and hate to destroy. But for the sake of our children and our children’s children, we have entered upon the work, hoping and praying that we may be guided by wisdom, sustained by love, and led and cheered by the earnest hope of doing good.”

May it be so.

Thank you.
Copyright © 2012 by James J. Galik