Stoners

I learned recently that women who use their birth names after marriage are sometimes called "Lucy Stoners." The phrase originated with Lucy Stone, the first recorded American woman to keep her name upon marriage. She's got a cool story...

Born in 1818, she watched her father rule the family by "divine right." She was determined to learn Hebrew and Latin so that she could correct the mistranslation she was confident lay behind such words. Later on, she would challenge churches with restrictions on women voting, speaking, etc.

Disturbed when her mother had to beg her father for money, she wanted an education. Although she learned faster than her brother, he was educated and she was not. To pay for college, she had to work 9 years earning low female wages teaching and housecleaning. To attend college, she had one choice - Oberlin was the only school that admitted women. She was the first woman to graduate college in Massachusetts.

In college men had to hold debates as part of the curriculum, and women had to attend to provide the audience. She was asked to write a commencement speech but declined because somebody else would have to read it (women were not allowed to give a public address). Shortly after graduation she gave her first of many public speeches. She became a frequent speaker and writer on women's suffage, women's rights, and the abolition of slavery.

Free in her thinking, she thought she'd stay free and single in life as well. She met a dude named Henry Blackwell, however, who was also anti-slavery and pro-women's rights and whose sister became the first female physician in the US. Their marriage ceremony renounced the marriage laws at the time and announced she would keep her name and keep her property in her name.

Shortly thereafter, she refuxed to pay property taxes. She protested the "taxation without representation" endured by women because they could not vote.

She and Henry actively supported the 14th Amendment giving the vote to black men. She supported this despite the fact that it would be the first time the Constitution mentioned "male citizens" specifically. Other women suffragists (including Susan B. Anthony of $1 coin fame) split with her on this matter and opposed the 14th Amendment.

She was progressive even in death: She was the first person in New England to be cremated.