United States Capitol Historical Society

The Life of Lucretia Mott: Suffragist and Abolitionist with Jamie Stiehm

Join us for an exploration of the life and legacy of suffragist and abolitionist, Lucretia Mott, presented by author Jamie Stiehm.

Jamie Stiehm will discuss American political history’s best kept secret: the Philadelphia Quaker Lucretia Mott. She lived on the front lines of the two great 19th century human rights movements for enslaved people and women. The American Anti-Slavery Society was founded in 1833 in the Mott living room.

Her fame came from her radiant speaking voice. Multitudes came to hear Mott as she spoke across the northern states, from Boston to Ohio. Frederick Douglass praised her as bearing a message of “light and love.”

In 1843, John Quincy Adams invited her to speak to Southern slaveowners in Congress. In 1848, Mott was the main speaker and the founder of the American women’s rights movement in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

A major figure, Mott is one of the three women portrayed in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda sculpture, the Suffrage Monument.

Like all USCHS programs, this webinar is free and open to the public; registration is required.

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