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May 23, 2012 |
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Image:MatildaJoslynGage.jpeg|thumb|right|200px| Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) was a women's suffrage|suffragist, a Native Americans in the United States|Native American activist, an Abolitionism|abolitionist, a Free thought|freethinker, and a prolific author, who was "born with a hatred of oppression". Joslyn Gage spent her childhood in a house which was a station of the underground railroad. She faced prison for her actions under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 which criminalized assistance to escaped slavery|slaves. Even though she was beset by both financial and physical (cardiac) problems throughout her life, her work for women's rights was extensive, practical, and often brilliantly executed. Gage became involved in the women's rights movement in 1853 when she decided to speak at the National Women's Rights Convention in Syracuse, New York|Syracuse, New York. She served as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1875 to 1876. During the 1876 convention, she successfully argued against a group of police who claimed the association was holding an illegal assembly. They left without pressing charges. Gage was considered to be more radical than either Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton (with whom she wrote A History of Woman Suffrage). Along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton|Cady Stanton, she was a vocal critic of the Christian Church, which put her at odds with conservative suffragists such as Frances Willard and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Rather than arguing that women deserved the vote because their feminine morality would then properly influence legislation (as the WCTU did), she argued that they deserved suffrage as a 'natural right'. Gage was well-educated and a prolific writer. She corresponded with numerous newspapers, reporting on developments in the women's suffrage|female suffrage movement. In 1878 she bought the Ballot Box, a monthly journal of a Toledo, Ohio suffrage association, when its editor Susan Williams decided to retire. Gage turned it into The National Citizen and Ballot Box, explaining her intentions for the paper thus:
Gage became its primary editor for the next three years (until 1881), producing and publishing essays on a wide range of issues. Each issue bore the words 'The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword', and included regular columns about prominent women in history and female inventors. Gage wrote clearly, logically, and often with a dry wit and a well-honed sense of irony. Writing about laws which allowed a man to will his children to a guardian unrelated to their mother, Gage observed:
As a result of the campaigning of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association under Gage, the state of New York granted female suffrage for electing members of the school boards. Gage ensured that every woman in her area (Fayetteville) had the opportunity to vote by writing letters making them aware of their rights, and sitting at the polls making sure nobody was turned away. In 1871, Gage was part of a group of 10 women who attempted to vote. Reportedly, she stood by and argued with the polling officials on behalf of each individual woman. She supported Victoria Woodhull and (later) Ulysses S Grant in the 1872 U.S. presidential election, 1872|presidential election. In 1873 she defended Susan B. Anthony when Anthony was placed on trial for having voted in that election, making compelling legal and moral arguments. Gage unsuccessfully tried to prevent the conservative takeover of the women's suffrage movement. Susan B. Anthony who had helped to found the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), was primarily concerned with gaining the vote, an outlook which Gage found too narrow. Conservative suffragists were drawn into the organisation, and these women tended not to support general social reform, or attacks on the church. The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), part of the conservative wing of the suffrage movement (and formerly at odds with the National), was open to the prospect of merging with the NWSA under Anthony, while Anthony was working toward unifying the suffrage movement under the single goal of gaining the vote. The merger of the two organisations, pushed through by Anthony under controversial circumstances, produced the National American Suffrage Association in 1890. While Stanton and Gage maintained their radical positions, they found that the only women's issue really unifying the National American was the move for suffrage. This prompted Gage to establish the Women's National Liberal Union (WNLU) in 1890, of which she was president until her death (by stroke) in 1898. Attracting more radical members than the National American, the WNLU was the perfect mouthpiece for her attacks on religion. She became the editor of the official journal of the WNLU, The Liberal Thinker. Gage was an avid opponent of the various Christian churches, and she strongly supported the separation of church and state|separation of the church and the state, believing "that the greatest injury to the world has arisen from theological laws,-from a union of Church and State". She wrote in October 1881,
In 1893, she published Woman, Church and State, a book which outlined the variety of ways in which Christianity had oppressed women and reinforced patriarchy|patriarchal systems. It was wide-ranging and built extensively upon arguments and ideas she had previously put forth in speeches (and in a chapter of History of Woman Suffrage which bore the same name). Like many other suffragists, Gage considered abortion a regrettable tragedy, although her views on the subject were more complex than simple opposition, and may seem confusing to those familiar with the modern abortion debate. In 1868, she wrote a letter to The Revolution (a women's rights paper edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury), supporting the typical women's rights view of the time that abortion was an institution supported, dominated and furthered by men. Gage wrote:
While Gage opposed abortion on principle, blaming it on the 'selfish desire' of husbands to maintain their wealth by reducing their offspring, her letter called not for the outlawing of abortions, but for the turning of the decision over to the woman in question. Gage was quite concerned with the rights of a woman over her own life and body. In 1881 she wrote, on the subject of divorce:
Works about Native Americans in the United States by Lewis Henry Morgan and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft also influenced Gage. She decried the brutal treatment of Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans in her writings and public speeches. She was angered that the Federal government of the United States attempted to confer citizenship (including suffrage) upon Native Americans (who, Gage argued, opposed taxation, and generally did not seek citizenship) while still withholding the vote from women. She wrote in 1878:
In her 1893 work Woman, Church and State she cited the Iroquois society, among others, as a 'Matriarchate' in which women had true power, noting that a system of descent through the female line and female property rights led to a more equal relationship between men and women. Gage spent time among the Iroquois and received the name Karonienhawi - "she who holds the sky" - upon her initiation into the Wolf Clan. She was admitted into the Iroquois Council of Matrons. Gage was the wife of Henry Hill Gage, with whom she had four children, and mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum. Gage acted as editor of The National Citizen and Ballot Box, May 1879 - October 1881, (available on microfilm) and as editor of The Liberal Thinker, from 1890 - onwards. These publications offered her the opportunity to publish essays and opinion pieces. The following is a partial list of published works:
US-bio-stub poli-bio-stub Category:1826 births|Gage, Matilda Joslyn Category:1898 deaths|Gage, Matilda Joslyn Category:Native Americans' rights activists|Gage, Matilda Joslyn Category:U.S. women's rights activists|Gage, Matilda Joslyn Category:History of women's rights in the United States|Gage, Matilda Joslyn Category:Suffragists|Gage, Matilda Joslyn Category:Feminists|Gage, Matilda Joslyn Category:Women writers|Gage, Matilda Joslyn This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Matilda Joslyn Gage".
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