Clarina Nichols: A Woman Alone

Woman in high-necked dress with long curls

Clarina Nichols was a woman alone for most of her life. And some of the time she was married, she was miserable. Like D.R. Anthony, Nichols emigrated to Kansas in 1854 with one of the earliest parties of the Emigrant Aid Company. By the time she set foot in Kansas, D.R. had returned east to […]

The Lady Who Made This Big War

Susan B Anthony family

That is how Abraham Lincoln is said to have greeted Harriet Beecher Stowe when he met her many years after the publication of her shocking 1852 bestseller Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which gave slavery a face and a heart by telling it through the eyes of individuals. Read about Harriet, her book and its amazing success by clicking here.Even […]

Vineyard Woman with Nerves of Steel

Susan B Anthony family

Today’s heroine for Women’s History Month is Beulah Vanderhoop of Martha’s Vineyard, a maritime conductor on the Underground Railroad in the 1850s. She had the courage it took to assist as many as eight ex-slaves to safety and in my novel, profoundly affected Annie Osborn of Edgartown. Though Vanderhoop is firmly grounded in history, the […]

The death of Susan B. Anthony: when she retired her red shawl

Folded red shawl with long red fringe

Today we commemorate the death of Susan B. Anthony. According to Susan’s official biography, it was said that Washingtonians marked spring each year with two signs:  the return of Congress to the nation’s capital and the return of Miss Anthony in her red shawl to lobby Congress. In her later years, the shawl was such […]

The Scandal of Speaking in Public

Susan B Anthony family

The National Women’s History Project salutes “countless millions of women who planned, organized, lectured, wrote, marched, petitioned, lobbied, paraded, and broke new ground in every field imaginable, [making] our world…irrevocably changed. Women and men in our generation, and the ones that will follow us, are living the legacy of women’s rights won against staggering odds in […]

Half the Sky

You may know how these American women hold up half the sky: Elizabeth Cady Stanton Susan. B. Anthony Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Van Lew* Clarina Howard Nichols* Lucy Stone* Elizabeth Blackwell.* Clara Barton.* Elizabeth Ann Seton.* Antoinette Brown Blackwell.* (Names with asterisk are identified below)

When Free Speech isn’t Free

Susan B Anthony family

It almost cost Frederick Douglass his home to publish his newspaper in the Talman Building in Rochester, pictured here; and Harriet Jacobs, an author who operated a reading room with her brother one floor up, couldn’t make her rent, either.

Abolition Families Join Forces in Rochester, NY

Black and white hands joined together

In 1847,  two prominent abolition families became neighbors when Frederick Douglass settled in Rochester, NY near the Anthonys. There, he began publishing his abolitionist paper The North Star (later called Frederick Douglass’ Paper). Douglass established his writing and speaking career in New Bedford (near Boston). Eventually, however, his rising fame threatened or inspired jealousy in […]

Catch my book on TV today!

Susan B Anthony family

The Truth About Daniel was featured today on FOX morning news. Click here to watch the newscast. I liked how they included images, but you may be confused about the picture of people standing in front of a house. It’s not Daniel’s house in Missouri, but the Anthony farm in Rochester. As far as we […]

Penning a (Love) Letter

Susan B Anthony family

Valentine’s Day’s coming up, and I will be on Rochester’s WHAMTV31 at 8:50 AM to discuss The Truth About Daniel, which is among other things, a love story. (Plese note: earlier, the channel was listed as 13. The correct channel is actually 31) Let’s consider this romantic painting, which I love for for many reasons. First […]