Lucy Colman
July 26, 2012On this date in 1817, abolitionist infidel Lucy Colman (nee Danforth) was born in New England, a descendant of John and Priscilla Alden through her mother's side. She was twice widowed. When her second husband was killed in a work-related accident, Lucy was left to support her 7-year-old daughter. With workplace door after door slammed in her face because of her sex, Lucy discovered "woman's wrongs." She wrote: "I had given up the church, more because of its complicity with slavery than from a full understanding of the foolishness of its creeds."
She turned to teaching in Rochester, earning less than half what a male teacher made. Susan B. Anthony discovered her and invited her to address a teachers' association. Lucy created a sensation by urging the abolition of corporal punishment in schools (see quote). She became an abolitionist lecturer, sacrificing security, comfort and wages to work against slavery. Often mobbed, she found that the racist ringleaders were nearly always clergymen. Lucy became a "who's who" in the ranks of the women's movement. Frederick Douglass conducted the funeral for her daughter, who died suddenly at college. Lucy later taught at a "colored school" in Georgetown and held many philanthropic positions. She wrote regular columns for the leading freethought publication, The Truth Seeker. D. 1906.
“If your Bible is an argument for the degradation of woman, and the abuse by whipping of little children, I advise you to put it away, and use your common sense instead.”
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