Amy and Isaac Post - Women's Suffrage

Women's Suffrage

In 1848, Amy began to be involved as an organizer in the women's movement. Acting upon her beliefs in equality for women, Post attended the 1848 Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY. Amy Kirby Post and Mary Post, her stepdaughter, were two of the one hundred women who signed the Declaration of Sentiments. At the convention, Post was among the few radical women who advocated for woman to be the head of the Adjourned Convention. Post, her stepdaughter, and two other female abolitionists organized the Rochester Woman’s Rights Convention, held two weeks after, which placed emphasis on women’s economic equality. The Seneca Falls convention was only one of many women’s rights conventions that she attended throughout her life. In 1853, she signed the “The Just and Equal Rights of Women” resolution. Accompanied by Lucy Coleman, Post visited fugitive slave colonies in Canada, and attended conventions all through the North. Post became good friends with Harriet Ann Jacobs, who she encouraged to write Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in 1861 (published under the name "Linda Brent").

Amy served the community in practical and tangible ways, such as collecting food, medical supplies, and clothing for freed slaves during the Civil War. After the War, Post became a member of both the Equal Rights Association and the National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1872, Amy Kirby Post successfully registered herself to vote, but unlike Susan B. Anthony, she was turned away at the polls and unable to cast her vote. Undaunted, Post continued her women’s equality work throughout her life, and in 1885 became one of the founding members of the Women’s Political Club. In 1888, Post traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the International Council of Women, the largest women’s convention at that time.