Lucy Stone was an American reformer, who was a pioneer in the movement for women’s rights. In her lifetime, she achieved a number of important ‘firsts’ for which we can remember her. She was the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a college degree, and the first woman in the United States to keep her own name after marriage.
A year after she graduated, Lucy Stone was hired as an organizer of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In this paid position, she travelled giving speeches on abolition. She included speeches, as well, on women’s rights. Her speeches drew large crowds, and also provoked much hostility.
In 1855, Stone married Henry B. Blackwell, a man who was also active in the anti slavery movement. During the marriage service, they pledged that both partners would have absolutely equal rights in marriage. In protest against the laws that discriminated against women, Stone retained her own name. Over the next twenty years, Stone edited a feminist weekly magazine, and wrote a large number of leaflets on voting rights for women.
Lucy Stone died in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on 18th October, 1893. She even achieved a ‘first’ at death, by being the first person in New England to be cremated!
