Lucretia Mott

Februray 24, 2002

Lucretia Coffin was born in 1793. She was the daughter of a sea captain, she spent her childhood on Nantucket Island. She was brought up with the quaker faith which encouraged the equality of women. In 1811 she married James Mott and they made their home in Philadelphia. Soon she began to speak in Quaker meetings, developing confidence and eloquence that were rare at a time when women seldom spoke in public. 

In the 1830s she advocated the radical idea that slavery was sinful and must be abolished. She was one of several American delegates to the 1840 World's Anti-Slavery Convention in London, but the women were denied seats. How could women fight for the rights of others unless they enjoyed rights of their own? In 1848, while she was visiting her sister in Auburn, New York, she met with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and helped to plan the first woman's rights convention. She delivered the opening and closing addresses at the Seneca Falls Convention, and her husband James chaired the proceedings at the Wesleyan Chapel. 

Motivated by her religious convictions, she dedicated herself to the twin causes of antislavery and women's rights. She harbored runaway slaves in her Philadelphia home and agitated for African American suffrage and education when emancipation was finally won. Lucretia Coffin Mott died in 1880 at the age of 87.