In the history of womens rights, and their leaders, few can compare with the determination and success of Lucy Stone. While many remember Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony for being the most active fighters for womens rights, perhaps Stone is even more important. The major goal for women in this time period was gaining womens suffrage. That is what many remember or associate with the convention at Seneca Falls. However, Stone was not only trying to gain womens suffrage, but also to give women other rights that they did not have at this time. In the mid-1800s, women were almost on the same social level as slaves. The slave owners were husbands. All of the womens earnings went to men, they could not legally write a will unless all of her belongings went to her husband. The husband was the sole owner of the children, and could do anything he wanted with them. There was a case where a man gave away a child to a complete stranger before the baby was even born. The husband could even legally beat his wife. This was the background for Stones and other womens rights leaders anger. Stone grew up watching her mother beg her father for money. With this in her background, Stone began her crusade for Women and Slaves rights.A college education is something that women take for granted today, but in the 1800s it was an extremely rare thing to see a woman in college. During the mid 1800s, schools like Oberlin and Elmira College began to accept women. Stones father did a wonderful thing (by 19th century standards) in loaning her the money to pay for her college education. Stone was the first woman to get a college education in Massachusetts, graduating from Oberlin College in 1843. Her first major protest was at the time of her graduation. Stone was asked to write a commencement speech for her class. But she refused, because someone else would have had to read her speech. Women were not allowed, even at Oberlin, to give a p...
