Catharine A. F. Stebbins
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Catharine A. Fish Stebbins (August 17, 1823 - 1904) was an American abolitionist and suffragist. She lectured against slavery and fought for her right to vote in New York and Michigan.
Biography
[edit]Stebbins was born Catherine A. Fish in Farmington, New York to a family of radical Quakers on August 17, 1823.[1][2][3] Her mother was Sarah D. Bills Fish.[1] The family moved to Rochester, New York when Stebbins was five and her parents started an abolitionist group in the city.[1] Stebbins was involved as young as age twelve, collecting names for anti-slavery petitions.[2][3] She assisted her family in operating one of the first waystations of the Underground Railroad in the city of Rochester, New York.[3]
Stebbins became a teacher in Rochester.[1] In 1842, she joined the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society (WNYASS).[3] She married Giles Badger Stebbins in August 1846 in Sodus Bay.[2] Her husband was an abolitionist as well, and together, they lectured and were involved in peaceful demonstrations for women's suffrage and the end of slavery.[4] In 1848, Stebbins was at the first Woman's Rights Convention, where she was an active participant and contributed a resolution to the convention.[2] In the early 1850s, she and her husband moved to Michigan.[2]
When the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was founded in 1861, she joined.[1] She and her husband also spoke that same year at the Michigan State Anti-Slavery Society.[4] She was also anti-war and was opposed to her brother joining the Union during the Civil War.[5] She helped refugees from the war.[2]
In 1871, Stebbins attempted to register to vote in Michigan, but was denied.[2] She then went with Nannette B. Gardner, who was asserting her right to vote as a widow and a taxpayer.[2] Gardner was given the right to vote, but Stebbins was never able to register.[2] In 1880, Stebbins was in charge of the Detroit NWSA convention.[6] Stebbins was also on the committee to work on The Woman's Bible.[7]
Stebbins died in 1904.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton, eds. (1893). A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life. New York: Charles Wells Moulton. pp. 681–682. ISBN 9780722217139.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Catharine A. F. Stebbins". Western New York Suffragists: Winning the Vote. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
- ^ a b c d Snodgrass, Mary Ellen (2015-03-26). The Underground Railroad: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations. Routledge. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-317-45416-8.
- ^ a b Weiner 2013, p. 188.
- ^ Hewitt, Nancy A. (2018). Radical Friend : Amy Kirby Post and Her Activist Worlds. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-4696-4033-4. OCLC 1029343355 – via Project MUSE.
- ^ "News of the Week". Isabella County Enterprise. 2 June 1880. Retrieved 9 January 2020 – via Digital Michigan Newspapers.
- ^ "The Woman's Bible". Evening Star. 24 January 1896. Retrieved 9 January 2020 – via Chronicling America.
Sources
[edit]- Weiner, Dana Elizabeth (2013). Race and Rights : Fighting Slavery and Prejudice in the Old Northwest, 1830-1870. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern University Press. ISBN 978-1-60909-072-2. OCLC 893673924 – via Project MUSE.
External links
[edit]- Letters from Catharine A. F. Stebbins in the Digital Commonwealth collection
- Fish Family Papers, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester