Lucretia Mott became a figure of national importance in the abolition and women's rights movements of the mid nineteenth century. A prominent woman in the public domain and the mother of six children, Mott contributed Quaker ideals of nonviolence and simple living in accordance with moral beliefs to the abolition and the women's rights movements. While Mott gained fame as an orator, she tended not to supplement her generally extemporaneous speeches with written words. Indeed, Mott always found writing difficult, and--aside from a brief autobiography, diary entries, and letters to her family and friends (which she found so burdensome that she often delegated the task to her husband)--she did not leave behind a significant body of written work. This fact perhaps explains why, although prominent in the nineteenth century, Lucretia Mott is today less well known than other antislavery and women's rights activists.

Lucretia Coffin was born...