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Who Was Lucretia Mott?: 19th Century Agitator

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Some of you may have been lucky enough to see the play The Agitators at Theatre Horizon this spring (https://theatrehorizon.org/shows/theagitators.php ). This two-person play tells the story of the long relationship between Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. For decades Anthony, Douglas and others worked both to abolish slavery and to gain the right for women to vote.

While not present in the play, Lucretia Mott fought alongside Anthony and Douglass. Excluded from the Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 because she was a woman, Mott helped begin the modern Women’s Suffrage Movement. Mott attended the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, along with Frederick Douglass. With the passage of the 19th Ammendment, women gained the right to vote on August 18, 1920 (one hundred years ago this month.)

There was a scene in The Agitators in which Anthony and Douglass shelter in the basement of a church, as an angry mob threatens their safety.  Similar scenes took place here in Norristown. In 1852 Lucretia Mott came to the newly-erected Norristown Friends Meeting. While in Norristown Mott and Frederick Douglass spoke at the Norristown Baptist Church. Reportedly, protesters threw rocks at the church when they spoke, and Mott and Douglass raised a stir when they left the church arm-in-arm.

Quakers like Mott and Anthony played an important role in social reforms in the 19th century. While small in numbers, Quakers still work for social change.  Organizations like the American Friends Services Committee (https://www.afsc.org/) advocate for the rights of all people.

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