The Free and Fearless Lucy Stone

A repost about my favorite pioneer of women's rights.

Jan 20, 2025

She had great power as a speaker. A little, simple country girl, she had no tricks of oratory; but she spoke with a fervor of conviction, a complete forgetfulness of self, and an extraordinary natural eloquence that swayed great audiences as the wind sways a field of grain. Mobs would sometimes listen to her when they howled down every other speaker.
—Alice Stone Blackwell in her biography of her mother

This morning it’s cold enough to remind me of Massachusetts: the freeze is so widespread that it’s the same temperature in Roanoke as Boston. For that and other reasons, today seems like a good day to reshare this 2023 post about Lucy Stone, a remarkable New England abolitionist and pioneer of women’s rights.

I highly recommend Blackwell’s biography of her mother, a gem that I’m still grateful to have stumbled across.

Happy MLK Day. Hope you stay warm and safe today.

Days of Future Passed

The Free and Fearless Lucy Stone

Jody Frank

May 26, 2023

Sometimes a word’s etymology sets me back on my heels. I didn’t expect pioneer to come from paonier, "foot-soldier," an extended form of the French peon. But it makes sense. The people who forge new paths through the wilderness usually aren’t the ones the world calls its leaders—at least, not at the time. They travel on foot, poor and dusty, with only their personal strength and the help of a few comrades to rely on.

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Things Invisible to See

The Free and Fearless Lucy Stone

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