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Abby Kelley Foster (January 15, 1811 – January 14, 1887) was an American abolitionist and radical social reformer active from the 1830s to 1870s. She became a fundraiser, lecturer and committee organizer for the influential American Anti-Slavery Society, where she worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and other radicals. She married fellow abolitionist and lecturer Stephen Symonds Foster in 1845, and they both worked for equal rights for women and for Africans enslaved in the Americas.
Her former home of Liberty Farm in Worcester, Massachusetts, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
Abby returned to her parents' home to teach in local schools and, in 1835, helped her parents move to their new home in Millbury. Then in 1836, she moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, where she taught at a local school. There she met fellow Quakers who preached the ideas of dietary restriction, temperance, pacifism, and antislavery. She became interested in the health theories of Sylvester Graham and gained a general interest in the abolition of slavery after hearing a lecture by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of the abolitionist publication The Liberator. Kelley joined the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Lynn and was soon elected to a committee charged with collecting signatures for petitions to the Federal government to end slavery in the District of Columbia. Kelley passionately carried out her assignment, and in 1837 collected the signatures of nearly half the women of Lynn.
In 1838, Kelley gave her first public speech to a "promiscuous" (mixed-gender) audience at the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, in Philadelphia. At this time women generally did not address such audiences in public forums. Despite vociferous protesters, Kelley eloquently proclaimed the doctrine of abolitionism. In the following months, she further established herself as a public figure by speaking to more mixed-gender crowds, such as that at the New England Anti-Slavery Convention. She also worked on a committee composed of both genders.
Later in 1838, she moved to Connecticut to spread the anti-slavery message. By 1839, Kelley was fully involved in the Anti-Slavery Society, while still acknowledging Quaker tradition by refusing payment for her efforts. In 1841, however, she resigned from the Quakers over disputes about not allowing anti-slavery speakers in meeting houses (including the Uxbridge monthly meeting where she had attended with her family), and the group disowned her.
In 1843, Kelley addressed the attendees at the Liberty Party convention in Buffalo, New York, becoming the first woman in America to speak at a national political convention.Johnson, Reinhard O. The Liberty Party, 1840–1848: Antislavery Third-Party Politics in the United States. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2009, p. 1647
In the following years, Kelley contributed to the Anti-Slavery Society as a lecturer and fundraiser. Although she encountered constant objections to her public activism as a woman working closely with and presenting public lectures to men, Kelley continued her work. She often shared her platform with formerly enslaved Africans despite disapproval by some in the audience. "I rejoice to be identified with the despised people of color. If they are to be despised, so ought their advocates to be". In October 1849, Kelley wrote to her friend, Milo Townsend, and told of the work she was doing for the anti-slavery society: "We know our cause is steadily onward".
Some male members of the Society objected to the ideas propounded by Garrison, Kelley, and other radicals. As a result, when Kelley was elected to the national business committee of the Anti-Slavery Society, conservative members left in protest. The two groups of abolitionists officially severed. Pacifist radical abolitionists controlled the Society, who promoted complete egalitarianism, to be obtained without the aid of any government, as all such institutions were constructed on the violence of war. In 1854 Kelley became the Anti-Slavery Society's chief fundraiser and general financial agent, and in 1857 she took the position of general agent in charge of lecture and convention schedules.
Kelley and her husband Stephen Symonds Fosteralong with Sojourner Truth, Jonathan Walker, Marius Robinson, and the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society in 1853 in Adrian, Michigan. The state society was founded in 1836 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
After the American Civil War, Kelley supported passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. Some female activists resisted any amendment that did not include women's suffrage. Kelley split with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton due to their strong opposition to the amendment. After the amendment passed and Garrison dissolved the Anti-Slavery Society, Kelley continued to work for equal rights for both African Americans and women.
In 1872, Kelley and her husband Stephen Symonds Foster refused to pay taxes on their jointly owned property; they argued that as Kelley could not vote, she was a victim of taxation without representation. Although their farm was consequently seized and sold and repurchased for them by friends, Kelley continued her activism in the face of financial difficulties and poor health. She wrote letters to fellow radicals and other political figures until her death in 1887.
Abby Kelley Foster died January 14, 1887, one day before her 76th birthday.
Abby's House, a shelter for women that opened in Worcester in 1976, is named in her honor.
In 2011, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. National Women's Hall of Fame she was also inducted in 2011 to the National Abolition Hall of Fame.
Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School, a K-12 school in Worcester, Massachusetts, that opened in 1998, is named in her honor.
Marriage and family
After a four-year courtship, Kelley married fellow abolitionist Stephen Symonds Foster in 1845. In 1847, she and her husband purchased a farm in the Tatnuck region of Worcester, Massachusetts, and named it "Liberty Farm". She gave birth to their only daughter in 1847. The farm served both as a stop on the Underground Railroad and as a refuge for fellow reformers. Kelley continued her efforts as a lecturer and fundraiser throughout the North until 1850, when declining health forced her to reduce traveling. She carried on an active correspondence and local meetings to work for the cause.
Legacy and honors
Liberty Farm in Worcester, Massachusetts, the home of Abby Kelley and Stephen Symonds Foster, was designated a National Historic Landmark because of its association with their lives of working for abolitionism. It is privately owned and not open for visits.
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Categories: 1811 Births, 1887 Deaths, American Quakers, Suffragists From Massachusetts, American Tax Resisters, American Women's Rights Activists, People From Millbury, Massachusetts, People From Pelham, Massachusetts, People From Uxbridge, Massachusetts, People From Worcester, Massachusetts, American Social Reformers, Underground Railroad People, Burials At Hope Cemetery, Quaker Abolitionists, Quaker Feminists, American Women Civil Rights Activists
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