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COLLECTION Identifier: A/B632a3

Letters of Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell, 1871-1913

Overview

Letters of minister, abolitionist, and women's rights activist Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell.

Dates

  • Creation: 1871-1913

Language of Materials

Materials in English.

Access Restrictions:

Access. Originals closed; use digital images.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright. Papers created by Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell are in the public domain.

Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.

Extent

1 folder

The collection consists of handwritten letters from Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell to suffragist and Harper's Bazaar editor Mary Louise Booth re: suffrage, suffragist Victoria Woodhull, and the possibility of an article of Blackwell's being published in the magazine; to Professor Peckham requesting the professor's view of Blackwell's book The Physical Basis of Immortality; and to philanthropist and educator Emily Howland. Topics in the letters to Howland include Blackwell's travel plans (including a 1912 trip to Panama and Venezuela, and the impact of her worsening eyesight on future travel), a book on life and death Blackwell was writing, and the 1913 suffrage parade.

BIOGRAPHY

Antoinette Brown Blackwell was born in Henrietta, New York, in 1825, the daughter of Joseph and Abby Morse Brown. She had six older siblings. Blackwell joined the Congregational Church at the age of nine and soon began preaching during services. She enrolled at Oberlin College in 1846, receiving her Bachelor's Degree the following year. She then applied for admission to Oberlin's theological school. The school allowed her to attend classes but without formal credit for them. During this period, Blackwell began lecturing widely on abolition, temperance, and women's rights, as well as writing what is now considered feminist theology. In 1850, she spoke at the National Women's Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts. Other speakers included Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott, and Lucy Stone.

In 1851, she was granted a license to preach by the Congregational Church and the following year she became minister of a Congregationalist Church in South Butler, New York. Luther Lee, a socially radical Methodist minister ordained her, making her the first woman to be ordained as a minister in the United States. In 1854, due to poor health and doctrinal doubts, she resigned her position with the church, focusing instead on her work for women's rights. Blackwell differed from many other women's rights activists in that she believed that improving women's position in society was of more immediate importance than suffrage: she believed that men could not effectively represent women politically and therefore the right to vote held little benefit for women unless it was paired with a stronger role societal role. In 1869, Blackwell joined Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and others in forming the American Woman Suffrage Association, which differed from Susan B. Anthony's National Woman Suffrage Association on several key points.

Blackwell did not initially intend to marry, feeling that she was more independent as a single woman. However, her views changed after meeting businessman Samuel Blackwell, the brother of Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, and the two married in 1856. They had seven children, two of whom died in infancy. Blackwell continued lecturing after her marriage, but her continued disagreements with others in the women's rights movement, and her growing domestic responsibilities, led her to temporarily give up her public speaking career. As her children grew older and required less care, she began writing books on issues of gender, science, religion, and philosophy.

She received honorary Master's and Doctoral degrees from Oberlin College in 1878 and 1908. Also in 1878, the American Unitarian Association accepted her as a minister and she resumed speaking in churches and on the lecture circuit. She was one of the founders of the Unitarian Society of Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1903, and served as its minister. Blackwell's books include Studies in General Science (1869), The Sexes Throughout Nature (1875), The Physical Basis of Immortality (1876), The Philosophy of Individuality (1893), The Making of the Universe(1914), The Social Side of Mind and Action (1915), She also wrote a novel, The Island Neighbors (1871) and a book of poetry, Sea Drift (1902). She died in 1921.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Accession numbers: 236, 965, 1165

The letters of Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell were acquired from Goodspeed's Bookshop and Paul Richards between 1960 and 1967.

Related Material:

There is related material at the Schlesinger Library; see Letters of Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell, 1890-1894 (A/B632a3a); Papers of Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell, 1842-1921 (A/B632a3b); Papers of the Blackwell family, 1784-1944 (A-77); Papers of the Blackwell family, 1835-1963 (A-145); Papers of the Blackwell family, 1831-1981 (MC 411); and Additional papers of the Blackwell family, 1851-1972 (MC 715).

Processing Information

Processed:

By: Schlesinger Library staff

Updated and additional description added: October 2020

By: Susan Earle.

The Schlesinger Library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.  Finding aids may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.

Author
Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Language of description
eng
Sponsor
Processing of this collection was made possible by the Radcliffe Class of 1955 Manuscript Processing Fund.
EAD ID
sch01852

Repository Details

Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository

The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.

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