Stone, Lucy (1818-1893), helped organize the women’s rights movement in the United States. She was one of the first American women to lecture on women’s rights and probably the nation’s first married woman to keep her maiden name.
Stone was born on Aug. 13, 1818, near West Brookfield, Massachusetts. Few women of her day went to college, but Stone began to teach school at the age of 16 to earn money so she could go. She entered Oberlin College in 1843 and joined the abolitionist movement there. In 1847, she became one of the first Massachusetts women to earn a college degree. After graduating from college, Stone lectured in the United States and Canada on abolitionism and, later, on women’s rights. She viewed slavery and widespread discrimination against women as linked evils of society. Stone helped organize the first national convention on equal rights for women, held in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1850.
In 1855, Stone married Henry Blackwell, a merchant and abolitionist. They omitted the word obey from their marriage vows and promised to treat each other equally. Stone continued to use her maiden name and even refused to open mail addressed to Mrs. Henry Blackwell. The phrase Lucy Stoners came to refer to women who kept their maiden names after marriage.
In 1869, Stone helped establish the American Woman Suffrage Association, which worked for women’s right to vote. Stone also founded the group’s newspaper, Woman’s Journal. She died on Oct. 18, 1893.
