American reformer Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) was a leader in the struggle for women's rights in the nineteenth century. A onetime leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association, she wrote numerous speeches, essays, and books that analyzed the role of women throughout history and provided arguments for rejecting the traditions that perpetuated the oppression of women, African slaves, Native Americans, and other minorities in America.

Matilda Joslyn Gage was a leading figure in the women's suffrage movement of the late 1800s in the United States. A colleague of such prominent women's rights activists as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gage became a primary voice of the movement with her numerous speeches and feminist writings. Her works often stressed the historic accomplishments of women and the way in which men had frequently taken credit for or denied women's contributions. Gage herself was denied recognition of her achievements...