Marriage and Family
On November 18, 1836, at age 20, Cannon married James Swisshelm, from a nearby town. Jane was strong-willed, and her marriage was difficult. They moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 1838, where James intended to go into business with his brother Samuel. This is where Jane first encountered slavery, which made a strong impression on her. Nearby was a man who had sold away his own mixed-race children. She wrote in her autobiography of some of the sights she saw and stories she heard.
In 1839, against her husband's wishes, she moved to Philadelphia to care for her ailing mother. After her mother's death, she headed a girls' seminary in Butler, Pennsylvania. Two years later, she rejoined her husband on his farm, which she called Swissvale, east of Pittsburgh. (Today the area is Edgewood).
Read more about this topic: Jane Swisshelm
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and/or family:
“But not gold in commercial quantities,
Just enough gold to make the engagement rings
And marriage rings of those who owned the farm.
What gold more innocent could one have asked for?”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“True spoiling is nothing to do with what a child owns or with amount of attention he gets. he can have the major part of your income, living space and attention and not be spoiled, or he can have very little and be spoiled. It is not what he gets that is at issue. It is how and why he gets it. Spoiling is to do with the family balance of power.”
—Penelope Leach (20th century)