Background
Lucretia Coffin was born on January 3, 1793, on the island of Nantucket, Massachussets, United States. Her father was the master of a whaling ship and her mother a storekeeper. The family became Quakers and in 1804 moved to the mainland.
James and Lucretia Mott, 1842
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Lucretia Coffin was born on January 3, 1793, on the island of Nantucket, Massachussets, United States. Her father was the master of a whaling ship and her mother a storekeeper. The family became Quakers and in 1804 moved to the mainland.
Sent at the age of 13 to the Friends Boarding School at Nine Partners, near Poughkeepsie, N. Y. , she was a student for two years.
Lucretia became a teacher in the Nine Partners School after graduation. Her interest in women's rights began when she discovered that male teachers at the school were paid significantly more than female staff.
Although Mott was a radical abolitionist, she was not a typical agitator. At a time when the causes of woman's rights and abolition attracted vivid personalities, she was outstanding for her gentle manners and disarmingly soft ways. Mott attended all three national Anti-Slavery Conventions of American Women (1837, 1838, 1839). In 1840 Mott was one of a band of women who accompanied Garrison to London for a world antislavery convention. The orthodox Quakers and English abolitionists who dominated the meeting refused to seat them, fearing the convention would seem ridiculous if females participated. Garrison, who sat with the rejected women in the gallery, noted the contradiction in having a convention to abolish slavery "and at its threshold depriving half the world of their liberty." Like most of the American women, Mott found the experience wounding.
At the convention, Mott met the young Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who attended it with her husband. Their friendship developed, although both were busy wives and mothers, and Mott was involved in promoting peace, temperance, and abolition along with woman's rights. Mott inspired her young protégé, who in time grew more radical than her mentor. This became apparent at the Woman's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, called by Stanton - the first such convention. Mott thought its resolution asking for woman's suffrage to be too far in advance of public opinion.
During the Civil War, Mott spoke on behalf of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. She was deeply distressed by the split in the woman's-rights movement that developed in late 1866.
Lucretia Mott helped to found the first antislavery society for women and later, with other militant abolitionist women, helped William Lloyd Garrison take over the American Antislavery Society. She also organized the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention and signed the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, was a founder and president of the Northern Association for the Relief and Employment of Poor Women in Philadelphia. Mott is commemorated in a sculpture by Adelaide Johnson at the United States Capitol, unveiled in 1921.
At the age of 28 Mott became a Quaker minister, and when the denomination divided over matters of doctrine she supported the liberal, or Hicksite, faction.
Lucretia opposed the War with Mexico. After the Civil War, Mott increased her efforts to end war and violence.
Lucretia was a beloved figure, especially because her sweet character was complemented by unswerving dedication to principle.
Quotes from others about the person
Susan Jacoby writes, "When Mott died in 1880, she was widely judged by her contemporaries... as the greatest American woman of the nineteenth century."
"She is proof that it is possible for a woman to widen her sphere without deserting it."
On April 10, 1811, Lucretia Coffin married James Mott at Pine Street Meeting in Philadelphia. They had six children. Their second child, Thomas Mott, died at age two. Their surviving children all became active in the anti-slavery and other reform movements, following in their parents' paths.
