"All the great family of mankind are bound up in one bundle. When we aim a blow at our neighbor’s rights our own are by the same blow destroyed. Can we look upon the wrongs of millions—can we see their flow of tears and grief and blood, and not feel our hearts drawn out in sympathy?"
Abby Kelley was born to Quaker farmers, but even from an early age she was aware of the inequality in how she was treated when compared to the boys she grew up with. As a young adult, she expanded her radial beliefs when she heard prominent anti-slavery advocate William Lloyd Garrison speak. She quit her position as a teach and immediately joined the Female Anti-Slavery Society, where she quickly earned herself the respect of many of her companions. She was elected to serve on a committee whose duty was to circulate petitions to gather support before they were to be sent to the federal government. In short order, she'd gained the support, and signatures, of half the women in town.
But she wasn't content to simply gather signatures. She was called to speak, even though there were strong social prohibitions against women speaking in public. Undaunted, she braved a torrent of abuse in order to make herself heard. She was routinely castigated in the press for her behavior, was at least once forcibly removed from a meeting of Orthodox Quakers because she refused to stop speaking, was regularly pelted with eggs and rotten produce (and worse), and was often forced to give her speeches in the outdoors because she was barred from speaking at organized events.
No matter. Instead of shutting her up, all that she endured simply worked to make her even more revolutionary in her beliefs. She began advocating for true equality between the races and between the genders. She influenced feminist foremothers like Susan B. Anthony, and then called them out when they refused to support the 15th amendment. Her work in Seneca Falls during the early abolitionist meetings set the foundation for the women's rights conventions that came afterward.
Her radicalism was applied to all aspects of her life. She was a strong proponent of "come-outerism" -- the idea that abolitionists could not stay in churches that did not condemn slavery. She encouraged anti-slavery activists to call out their churches and confront any clergy who did not forcefully stand on the side of abolition, and in every town where she spoke, she made it a point to publicly question their church leaders.
She married another radical abolitionist, Stephen Foster, and when they weren't busy traveling the country together speaking on the abolitionist and feminist speaking circuit, they worked on the farm they purchased, which they named "Liberty Farm." It was here where they raised their daughter Paulina, although Abby only took a few years off from organizing and speaking engagements. Contrary to the domestic ideal being pushed on middle class white women of the era, she was adamant that women could be mothers and wives and still have an active life outside the home.
Frederick Douglass wrote of Abby, "Her youth and simple Quaker beauty, combined with her wonderful earnestness, her large knowledge and great logical power bore down all opposition wherever she spoke, though she was pelted with foul eggs and no less foul words from the noisy mobs which attended us."
For further reading:
National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum: Abby Kelly Foster bio
Civil War Women: Abby Kelley post
New England Historical Society: "Abby Kelley Shakes Up Seneca Falls"
Ahead of Her Time: Abby Kelley and the Politics of Antislavery by Dorothy Sterling (Amazon)
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