Unbound
1878 · Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1878. Unbound. Very good. This lot contains an albumin cdv photograph (2.5” x 4”) of Mary A. Livermore and an autographed card (3.5” x 2.25”) dates 15 April 1878. The backstamp reads “Warren, / Boston and Cambridgeport, / Mass.” Both in nice shape. . Mary Ashton Rice Livermore graduated from Boston’s public schools and continued her education at an all-girls academy in Charlestown, Massachusetts. After graduation she accepted an offer from James and Helen Jones to serve as the teacher at their thousand-acre, 76-slave tobacco plantation, St. Leon, near Boydton, Virginia. (She changed their name to Henderson in her autobiography.) The Jones treated her like a member of their family with free reign of their extensive library which she described as “a liberal education in itself.” Although she treasured her relationship with them and found James to be a fair and just “master” who did not condone corporal punishment of his slaves, she was appalled after witnessing an unauthorized whipping of a slave by a disobedient overseer, and after three years returned home as a self-described “pronounced abolitionist.” Livermore took no active role in the anti-slavery movement as she knew from her personal experiences that the caricatures of southerners as sadists, polygamists, and cannibals perpetrated by William Garrisson and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were patently false.
In Massachusetts, she met and married a minister, Daniel Livermore. In 1856, she and Daniel moved to Kansas along with other abolitionists. Fortunately, for Mary had not wanted to relocate, Daniel disliked frontier life, and the couple relocated to Chicago where they published a magazine, the New Covenant. Some of Mary’s surviving articles show that while she supported a traditional social views, she applauded women, like Elizabeth Blackwell, who took active roles to improve the lives of others. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Mary became active in the Chicago branch of the volunteer U. S. Sanitary Commission (USSC) and began to visit Union hospitals in Southern Illinois and Missouri where she learned to care for and comfort the wounded and with time became its leader of the Chicago branch.
Recognizing rural women as an untapped reservoir of support, she convinced USSC leadership to allow her to form branches in every county seats of the Northwest, she became an expert bureaucrat. The capstone of her effort was the creation and management of the massive fundraising event, the famous Northwestern Sanitary Commission Fair.
Following the war, Mary helped organize the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association, lobbied for a law granting property rights to married women, and published a magazine promoting women’s voting rights. When a schism appeared in the women’s movement between those who supported equal rights for blacks and those who did not, Mary sided with those who did and threw her support behind the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), serving as it present in 1875-6.
(For more information, see “The emergence of a suffragist: Mary Livermore, Civil War activism, and the moral power of women” at the Free Library website.) . (Inventory #: 010513)
In Massachusetts, she met and married a minister, Daniel Livermore. In 1856, she and Daniel moved to Kansas along with other abolitionists. Fortunately, for Mary had not wanted to relocate, Daniel disliked frontier life, and the couple relocated to Chicago where they published a magazine, the New Covenant. Some of Mary’s surviving articles show that while she supported a traditional social views, she applauded women, like Elizabeth Blackwell, who took active roles to improve the lives of others. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Mary became active in the Chicago branch of the volunteer U. S. Sanitary Commission (USSC) and began to visit Union hospitals in Southern Illinois and Missouri where she learned to care for and comfort the wounded and with time became its leader of the Chicago branch.
Recognizing rural women as an untapped reservoir of support, she convinced USSC leadership to allow her to form branches in every county seats of the Northwest, she became an expert bureaucrat. The capstone of her effort was the creation and management of the massive fundraising event, the famous Northwestern Sanitary Commission Fair.
Following the war, Mary helped organize the Illinois Woman Suffrage Association, lobbied for a law granting property rights to married women, and published a magazine promoting women’s voting rights. When a schism appeared in the women’s movement between those who supported equal rights for blacks and those who did not, Mary sided with those who did and threw her support behind the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), serving as it present in 1875-6.
(For more information, see “The emergence of a suffragist: Mary Livermore, Civil War activism, and the moral power of women” at the Free Library website.) . (Inventory #: 010513)
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