Career
Though prominent enough in her time to merit her own chapter in Anthony"s History of Woman Suffrage, Nichols has been overlooked since 1900 and only recently have her contributions to equal rights undergone a reassessment. Born in West Townshend, Vermont, into a prosperous New England family, Clarina Nichols fell on hard times after a disastrous early marriage. She helped organize the fledgling women's movement in the East.
In October 1852, she helped organize the first of several petitions submitted to the Vermont legislature to give women the right to vote in school meetings
When the Kansas-Nebraska Acting of 1854 threatened to establish slavery outside of the South, Clarina Nichols uprooted her family to become a pioneer and activist in Kansas. Her efforts helped catapult her adopted state into the forefront of women's rights, gaining the respect and support of such women as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
She died in 1885 in California, where she pioneered and agitated to the education She was an active Underground Railroad Station Master and Conductor while living in Quindaro, Kansas.
She left a letter telling about a time when a Freedom Seeker named Caroline was brought to her house.
Freedom Seeker, Caroline"s slave master and other slave hunters were camped on the edge of town and looking for her. Clarina tells of hiding Caroline in an empty cistern overnight and then sending her on the road North as soon as it was safe.
