upnorth's review
4.0
I picked this up for research, and ended up enjoying it too! Stone is mostly remembered for not taking her husband's name. But she was a leader in the early women's rights movement, an abolitionist and suffragist, and brilliant charismatic orator. According to this, she split with Anthony and Stanton over the 15th amendment and their collaboration with racists and with a group that promoted total sexual freedom and non-monogamy -- a split in the movement that her daughter later would help mend.
She also wore the Bloomer reform dress for a few years, and a letter from her to Anthony is quoted in this book, scoffing at the idea that the main problem with it was that it detracted from their credibility. "No, no, Susan, it is all a pretense that the cause will suffer. I wish that the dress gave me no other troubles; but I am annoyed to death by people who recognize me by my clothes, and when I get a seat in the cars, they will get a seat by me and bore me for a whole day with the stupidest stuff in the world. Much of that I should escape if I dressed like others."
I also loved the story in this of the first, illicit, women's debate society at Oberlin. Stone saved up her income from teaching for nine years in order to go to college there (women were first admitted in 1837). They met in secret, out in the woods, with "posted sentinels" at first, and an older Black friend let them use her parlor in the winter so long as it was women only--the white ladies of the town were opposed to women speaking in public.
Blackwell adored both her parents and carried on their activism, and she seamlessly combines family memories, letters and documents, and interviews. Of course it's hard to know how much could be corroborated by other sources, but she is a lively and clear writer, is not flowery, and does not romanticize.
She also wore the Bloomer reform dress for a few years, and a letter from her to Anthony is quoted in this book, scoffing at the idea that the main problem with it was that it detracted from their credibility. "No, no, Susan, it is all a pretense that the cause will suffer. I wish that the dress gave me no other troubles; but I am annoyed to death by people who recognize me by my clothes, and when I get a seat in the cars, they will get a seat by me and bore me for a whole day with the stupidest stuff in the world. Much of that I should escape if I dressed like others."
I also loved the story in this of the first, illicit, women's debate society at Oberlin. Stone saved up her income from teaching for nine years in order to go to college there (women were first admitted in 1837). They met in secret, out in the woods, with "posted sentinels" at first, and an older Black friend let them use her parlor in the winter so long as it was women only--the white ladies of the town were opposed to women speaking in public.
Blackwell adored both her parents and carried on their activism, and she seamlessly combines family memories, letters and documents, and interviews. Of course it's hard to know how much could be corroborated by other sources, but she is a lively and clear writer, is not flowery, and does not romanticize.
More...