Lucretia Mott Evaluates the Talent Pool

Quaker abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Lucretia Coffin Mott presided over the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1848. Three months later she wrote to Elizabeth Cady Stanton requesting Stanton’s help to hold a “Woman’s Rights’ Meeting” in Philadelphia, noting that there is “a deep interest in the cause.” “Few however are accustomed to public speaking,” and she expresses frustrations about several possible speakers. She suggested feminist works that Stanton could consult for a history she was planning to write and expressed frustration that friends Angelina and Sarah Grimké are undependable—“after such a flash & such an effectual extinguishment.” In a postscript, Mott discusses collecting winter clothing for “Refugees in Canada,” an effort to assist African Americans who fled from slavery in the United States.