Lucretia Mott, 1793-1880

Among the many people who have sought or are seeking "equality for themselves or for others", there is, ironically, no equal to Lucretia Coffin Mott. She was a founder of the woman's rights movement, and as one of America's leading abolitionists, she fought not only slavery, but all forms of injustice and discrimination against Negroes. She was in sympathy with all sufferers, and she devoted her lifetime to the principles of political, economic and social equality for all human beings. Born January 3, 1793, on the island of Nantucket, Lucretia Coffin was the second of six children of Anna and Thomas Coffin, a Quaker sea captain. After Captain Coffin's ship was captured by the Spanish in Chile, he entered the mercantile business and the family moved to Boston. At the age of 13, Lucretia was sent to the Nine Partners Boarding School near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Within two years, she became a teacher at the school, and it was during this time that she met James Mott, grandson of the school superintendent and a teacher himself. In 1812, they were married in Philadelphia, where the Coffin family was then residing.

The Motts lived on Second Street, and while James was profitably involved in his father- in-law's business, his wife acquired many interests to avoid becoming "kitchenified." She immersed herself in the activities of the Twelfth Street Friends Meeting and studied the writing of William Penn. She soon became a popular preacher and gained the acquaintance of prominent Quakers and abolitionists, including Elias Hicks, founder of the Hicksite sect, and William Lloyd Garrison publisher of "The Liberator," America's leading, anti-slavery journal.

Ante-bellum Philadelphia was completely divided on the issue of slavery. A leading textile center, the city's economy depended considerably upon King Cotton and the southern slave economy. Persons opposed to slavery, notably the Quakers, boycotted products produced by slave labor, purchased instead "free goods," which were far more expensive and often of inferior quality.

In 1833 the American Anti-Slavery Society was founded at Philadelphia with a large convention in which the Motts were thoroughly involved. Its ladies auxiliary, necessitated by the pre-women's liberation climate which prevailed, was the Female Anti-Slavery Society which Lucretia personally organized. The Anti-Slavery Societies took a radical stand, seeking not only the abolition of slavery, but equality for all Negroes, Northern as well as Southern. Expectedly, Philadelphia's pro-slavery elements became increasingly antagonistic, and many meetings were broken up by riots and protests.

In 1840, Lucretia Mott was sent to the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, where she was refused a seat because she was a woman. Her persistence prevailed, however, and she made a speech at a breakfast meeting, to the astonishment of many of the delegates, as well as the London newspapers, which dubbed her "the Lioness of the Convention."

It came as no surprise when Mrs. Mott attended the first Woman's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848. It was here that she first became associated with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Following a second convention, at Rochester, both leaders were attacked by the New York Herald, which criticized Lucretia Mott's abolitionist as well as woman's rights ideas.

When the Motts were not attending conventions, they played host to a steady flow of visitors at home in Philadelphia. Their house continued as a headquarters for a wide variety of activities until 1857, when they moved from the city to Cheltenham Township.

"Roadside," their house on Old York Road, was situated on the large tract of land acquired in 1854 by their son-in-law, Edward M. Davis. Roadside was not the hectic delegate-filled household that their house in Philadelphia had been, but it became, instead, a stopping place for a different kind of traveler. The Motts were active in the establishment of the Underground Railroad, and enthusiastically they provided a station at Roadside. However brief their pause at Roadside, fugitive slaves always found the comfort and reassurance they needed to continue their escape to Canada and freedom.

This activity continued during the Civil War until the slaves of the southern states were granted their freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation. The date it became effective was January 1, 1863, which Lucretia Mott described as "a day of jubilee." Many abolitionists joyously pronounced that they were "out of business," but others, like Lucretia Mott, knew that the business of securing equality for all Americans was far from complete.

No sooner had the Motts closed their Underground Railway station, when the North Penn Railroad began bringing hundreds of Negro recruits to nearby Camp William Penn. The camp which trained nearly 11,000 soldiers between June, 1863, and August, 1864, became a principal preoccupation for Lucretia Mott. She visited frequently to preach to the soldiers, and she saw to it that furnishings were provided for their recreation hall. Officers and soldiers were frequent guests at Roadside, and in one of Lucretia Mott's letters, now preserved at the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore, she tells of having the Camp commander, Colonel Wagner, to dinner.

When the camp was moved from Cooke's Hill at Washington Lane and Church Road to more level ground adjacent to the future village of Camptown, it became almost an annex of the Mott household. "The barracks make a show from our back windows--the men are happy to be there this very cold weather--We perished partly driving out yesterday--no snow yet--Edw. Wetherill called here from the camp..." wrote Lucretia Mott in one of her typically encyclopedic letters.

As they left Camp William Penn for the battlefields of the south, the Negro regiments bid their farewell with fondness and appreciation, honoring the Motts by marching through the gates of Roadside in ceremonious processions.

After the War, the little old lady, by then well in her seventies, remained as active as she could, attending woman's rights meetings and furthering the cause of racial equality. When President Grant visited Jay Cooke in 1873, Mrs. Mott, at the age of 80, paid him a visit to plead for the lives of Indians condemned for refusal to move onto a reservation in California. As her strength declined in her final years, she remained at Roadside, corresponding with well-wishers and enjoying the company of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

When she died on November 11, 1880, Lucretia Coffin Mott left America a legacy of valuable accomplishments and lofty goals not yet accomplished. Of all the tribute bestowed upon that noble little Quaker lady, none is more meaningful than the naming of the village of LaMott, a community where men and women, black and white, live together proudly and peacefully--a living example of the equality she sought for all people.

LaMott History