Amy+R.

​ Lucretia Mott by Amy Ritter

Have you ever heard of Lucy Stone,Susan B. Anthony, or Elizabeth Stanton? Well, I was their mentor in the struggle for Women's Rights. Hello, my name is Lucretia Mott. I was born on January 3, 1793 in Nantucket, Mass. Most people have never heard of me, but that's okay, you'll be the lucky few to hear my story. ​ My father was Thomas Coffin, and the captain of the Hepzibah. My mother's name was Anna Folger. I had 5 brothers and sisters. We were a family of Quakers. ​ On April 10, 1811, James Mott married me. Before we were married, my husband was a teacher at Nine Partners, where I went to school. This was my first encounter with men getting paid more than women. James received the same amount of pay as the most mature and experienced of the women teachers. After I taught school for 2 years here, I became a Quaker minister. Later, James became a cotton and wool merchant and I disliked this because the slaves picked the cotton and I was against slavery. ​ As I grew older, I became famous for my speeches against slavery and for women's rights. I went to the American Anti-Slavery Society meeting in 1833 with my husband. When they refused to allow women to speak, I helped organize the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. ​ My husband James founded the Pennsylvainia Anti-Slavery Society and I served on the Executive Committee. I led a delegation to New York in 1837 for the First Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women. After we held the second one in Philadelphia, rioters burned down the hall and came looking for my house, but did not find it. This shook me up, but did not stop me. In 1840, I went to the first World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London and met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. We were inspired to hold the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. Here we passed the Declaration of Sentiments which demanded more rights for women like better pay,jobs, education, and,of course, the right to vote. ​ ​ ​ My speeches inspired many and,in 1850, one of my speeches was recorded and printed by a journalist. It was called the __Discouse of Women__. It was a milestone on the long road to social reform. Women's Rights are not a privlege but a God-given right. ​ Even after the Civil War, I worked for black and female suffrage. I was elected president of the American Equal Rights Ass. in 1865. I also helped to establish Swathmore College for blacks in 1869, one of the first of it's kind. Also, our home was a stop on the Under Ground Railroad. Sadly, James died in 1868. Later in 1880, I too died of pneumonia. We had been married for 56 years and had 6 children. We lived a long & happy life and worked hard for what we believed in and thought was right.