Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/592

Rh not until the agitation is over and the question settled that we realize they were all a part of a great whole.

Women, as well as men, were interested in the questions which led up to the war. Northern women took part in the agitation for the abolition of slavery and were among the best and most convincing speakers.

The name of Abby Kelly Foster was known throughout the North, as was that of Lucretia Mott. It was but natural when the World's Abolition Convention was called in London in 1840 that women should be elected delegates to that body. Lucretia Mott, a Quaker preacher of refinement, culture, brain power and influence, was one of these delegates. Henry Stanton, another delegate, had brought with him his bride, Elizabeth Cady, and as these two, with the other women, repaired to the gallery, and there listened to the debates on the question in which they were so vitally interested, they grew more and more incensed each day.

William Lloyd Garrison, probably the most powerful man of the Abolition movement, was delayed in transit, and when he arrived and found that the women delegates had been denied seats he refused to take his place on the floor. He knew the part they had played in the abolition cause, and he believed in justice and equality for all human beings, women as well as slaves.

The action of the men delegates showed clearly to Mrs. Mott and Mrs. Stanton the place the world set apart for them, and they resolved that, upon their return to America, they would make a public demand for the proper recognition of women.

There were then no such easy ways of traveling or communication as there are now. Mrs. Mott's attention was still on the slave, and Mrs. Stanton's on her little family, whose members came close together, and it was not till eight years later, in 1848, that they carried out their determination and