1793-
1880.
American social
activist in many fields:
women's suffrage,
temperance,
abolitionism. She was a
Quaker, which gave her a background of speaking out in
meetings (and also a
pacifist outlook). She was born Lucretia Coffin and married James Mott in
1811; he encouraged her work for these causes.
Her anti-slavery work prompted the start of the women's rights movement when she and other female delegates were refused seats at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840. In 1848, she helped to organize the Seneca Falls, NY Women's Rights Convention and presided over their first meeting.
She was chosen as the first president of the Equal
Rights Association in May 1866. During this time she tried to heal the breach between Elizabeth Cady
Stanton/Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone over the immediate goal of the women's movement: suffrage for
freedmen and all women? or suffrage for the freed slaves first? (This problem was solved within a few years when freedmen were granted the vote.) She continued working until her death.