Anna Elizabeth Dickinson

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In: 19th Century Women, Abolition, Activists, Civil War, Women's Rights, Writing

Anna Dickinson (1842-1932) was a major celebrity of her time. She drew crowds of thousands, headlined newspapers, and consorted with the major figures of the day. For an ordinary girl from a nondescript family, this was a heady experience, especially since she found this fame at a young age. She was only sixteen when newspapers started taking notice of her. Early readers of my forthcoming novel have said the character of Anna is arrogant and hard to like. And she is. As a writer, I felt that this was the truest way to represent her personality and explain the choices she made. My characterization ofRead More →

Anna Dickinson

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In: 19th Century Women, Abolition, Activists, Civil War, Women's Rights

Once upon a time, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (1842 to 1932) was one of the most well-known women in America. She was an intrepid abolitionist and believer in women’s rights. During the Civil War, she gave rousing anti-slavery speeches and was hired by the Republican party to campaign on behalf of their candidates, something unheard of for a woman of her time. The spectacle of a diminutive girl spouting fiery words drew large crowds. The newspapers called her America’s Shining Star, the Woman of the Hour, and America’s Joan of Arc. Today, she is forgotten. My upcoming novel That Dickinson Girl tells the fictionalized story ofRead More →

Caroline Dall 19th century author

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In: 19th Century Women, Authors, Literature, Religion, Women's Rights

I am not the first, nor will I be the last, to track down the contributions of those whose histories and work have been forgotten. In 1861, the prolific writer, feminist, and transcendentalist, Caroline Wells Healey Dall, better known as Mrs. Dall, wrote Historical Pictures Retouched: a Volume of Miscellanies. In this volume, Dall wrote studies of over forty women, ranging from those of ancient times to her own contemporaries who were not given the importance they deserved. Such a work of research was to be expected from a woman who wrote such diverse works as the history of Egypt, women’s rights, children’s books, novels,Read More →

Rose Winslow American Suffragette

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In: 19th Century Women, Women's Rights

“God knows we don’t want other women ever to have to do this over again.” Rose Winslow Rose Winslow  was brought as a baby to the United States by her Polish parents so that she could grow up in a free democratic country.  Her father labored as a coal miner and steel worker and as a child Rose suffered from tuberculous which left her in poor physical health all her life. She became a union organizer  and joined Alice Paul in the suffrage movement. In November 1917 she was the first to join Alice Paul in a hunger strike to demand the passage of the 19th amendment givingRead More →