Henry Brown Blackwell was an English-born American social reformer and advocate for women's rights. He was publisher and editor of Woman's Journal starting from 1870 untill his death.
Background
Henry Blackwell was born on May 4, 1825, in Bristol, England, the son of Samuel and Hannah (Lane) Blackwell and brother of Elizabeth Blackwell. Samuel Blackwell was an advanced Liberal and a great admirer of American institutions. In 1832 the family came to New York City where the father engaged in sugar refining. The Blackwells took an active interest in the antislavery movement and their Long Island home was soon a refuge for persecuted abolitionists. In 1838 they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. A short time after, Samuel Blackwell died and left his widow with nine children to support.
Education
With the exception of one year at Kemper College in St. Louis Blackwell obtained most of his education through reading.
Career
Henry Blackwell became an office boy, later drifting into milling and then into the hardware business. In 1853 he made his first speech for woman suffrage at a convention in Cleveland, Ohio. During the same year he attended a legislative hearing in Massachusetts at which Lucy Stone spoke in support of a woman suffrage petition. This meeting was the beginning of his courtship of Lucy Stone. After promising to devote himself to the work of advancing woman suffrage, he obtained Miss Stone's consent to marriage. On the day of their marriage, May 1, 1855, they published a joint protest against the inequalities in the marriage law. This protest was widely distributed and attracted much attention.
Soon after his marriage Blackwell moved with his wife to New Jersey where he engaged in book-selling, sugar refining, and real estate, making money in each venture. In 1867 he wrote a message to the Southern legislatures proposing the extension of woman suffrage in the South as a counterbalance to negro suffrage. When the American Woman Suffrage Association was organized in 1869, Blackwell was financially able to devote most of his time to it. In 1870, when the Woman's Journal was founded in Boston, he contributed a substantial sum of money. Later when an editor was needed who would work without salary, he consented to fill the place and remained editor of the Journal until his death, which occurred in Dorchester, Massachussets.
Achievements
Personality
Blackwell was a kindly, sympathetic person, always willing to aid humanitarian causes.