Abby Folsom
Encyclopedia
Abigail Folsom was an 19th-Century American feminist and abolitionist. Ralph Waldo Emerson
termed her “the flea of conventions” for her habit of insisting on a woman’s right to speak, which would derail abolitionist and other conferences. One source relates the following anecdote:
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
termed her “the flea of conventions” for her habit of insisting on a woman’s right to speak, which would derail abolitionist and other conferences. One source relates the following anecdote:
She was often removed from the halls she afflicted by gentle force. As she was a nonresistantPacifismPacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
, she never struck back, save with her tongue which was keen enough. One day Wendell PhillipsWendell PhillipsWendell Phillips was an American abolitionist, advocate for Native Americans, and orator. He was an exceptional orator and agitator, advocate and lawyer, writer and debater.-Education:...
and two others placed her in a chair and were carrying her down the aisle through the crowd when she exclaimed: “I’m better off than my master was. He had but one ass to ride — I have three to carry me.”
See also
- Morris, Charles E. III “‘Our Capital Aversion’: Abigail Folsom, Madness, & Radical Antislavery Praxis” Women's Studies in Communication 22 March 2001