Lucretia Mott: (1793-1880) abolitionist-feminist, quaker.
In 1848, the venerable abolitionist Quaker, Lucretia Coffin Mott (1793-1880) helped to organize the Seneca Falls Convention -- the first woman's rights conference. She delivered the opening and closing addresses. In Discourse on Woman (1850) Mott attributed the alleged inferiority of women to the oppression they had suffered. Lucretia Mott: Her Complete Speeches and Sermons (ed. Dana Greene, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1980) is an excellent collection of her work. The most satisfying biography remains Otelia Cromwell's Lucretia Mott (N.Y.: Russell & Russell, 1958). Margaret Hope Bacon's more recent biography Valiant Friend: The Life of Lucretia Mott (N.Y.: Walker, 1980) also provides valuable background.