Lucy Stone
Overview
Lucy Stone was a prominent American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged and prevented from public speaking. Stone was the first recorded American woman to retain her own last name after marriage.

Stone's organizational activities for the cause of women's rights yielded tangible gains in the difficult political environment of the 19th century.
Quotations

We want rights. The flour merchant, the house-builder, and the postman charge us no less on account of our sex; but when we endeavor to earn money to pay all these, then, indeed, we find the interest.

Remark made at a National Woman's Rights Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. (1855) as quoted in Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings (1972) by Miriam Schnier

Too much has already been said and written about "women's sphere". Leave women, then, to find their sphere.

Remark made at a National Woman's Rights Convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. (1855), quoted in Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings (1972) by Miriam Schnier

I know not what you believe of God, but I believe He gave yearnings and longings to be filled, and that He did not mean all our time should be devoted to feeding and clothing the body.

"Disappointment Is the Lot of Women" oration (October 17 –1855-10-18) quoted in Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Antony, and Mathilda Gage, History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 1 (1881)

All over this land women have no political existence. Laws pass over our heads that we can not unmake. Our property is taken from us without our consent. The babes we bear in anguish and carry in our arms are not ours.

Speech as president of a national convention of the Woman's National Loyal League (1863-05-14)

I believe that the influence of woman will save the country before every other power.

Arguing for woman suffrage at an anniversary celebration of the Equal Rights Association (1869-05-12); as quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, Vol. 2 (1882) by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

 
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