Abby Kelley - Women's Rights

Women's Rights

Fighting for women’s rights soon became a new priority for many ultra abolitionists and Kelley was among them speaking on women's rights in Seneca Falls, New York five years before the Seneca Falls convention would be held there. Kelley influenced future suffragists such as Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone by encouraging them to take on a role in political activism. She helped organize and was a key speaker at the first National Women's Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1850. (The Seneca Falls Convention, held in 1848, was not national).

After the American Civil War, Kelley supported passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. Some female activists resisted any amendment that did not include women’s suffrage. Kelley split with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton due to their strong opposition to the amendment. After the amendment passed and Garrison dissolved the Anti-Slavery Society, Kelley continued to work for equal rights for both African Americans and women.

In 1872, Kelley and her husband Stephen Symonds Foster refused to pay taxes on their jointly owned property; they argued that as Kelley could not vote, she was a victim of taxation without representation. Although their farm was consequently seized and sold and repurchased for them by friends, Kelley continued her activism in the face of financial difficulties and poor health. She wrote letters to fellow radicals and other political figures until her death in 1887.