Quakers Honor Centenary of the Death of Lucretia Coffin Mott

Q u a ke rs H o n o r C e n te n a r y o f t h e 1 3 D e a t h o f L u c re t ia C o ffi n M ot t

AS THIS YEAR is the 100th anniversary of the death of Lucretia Coffin Mott, May 10th has been chosen as the date to honor her as the outstanding pioneer of the Equal Rights movement in America. In Philadelphia, the Lucretia Mott Centennial Coalition is planning a memorial banquet, calling on all women's and human rights groups, in particular, to join in the celebration on this day, and to honor Mrs. Mott in the course of the year.

At the time of her death on November 11, 1880, at her residence in Philadelphia, Lucretia Mott was 87 years, 10 months and 8 days in age. She has outlived her contemporaries but her work would never be forgotten. In her life is reflected the spiritual growth of the equal rights movement in this country, and she was called the most venerated woman in America. Her statue is in the crypt of the U.S. Capitol, and the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) was named in her honor by another leader, Alice Paul.

Born in Nantucket on January 3, 1793, the daughter of Captain Thomas Coffin and Anna (Folger) Coffin, her first home stood on the corner of Fair Street and a little lane leading to Pine Street, now called Lucretia Mott Lane. The location became the mansion of Capt. Obed Starbuck, now called the Ship's Inn. Her father subsequently built a dwelling next door to the south, at the corner of School Street, later the home of Captain Thaddeus C. Defriez, now the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Jelleme. It was in this house that Mrs. Coffin, during the prolonged absence of her husband on a whaling voyage, opened a small store in her front room where she conducted a business in dry goods. Lucretia remembered this experience as an introduction in mercantile affairs. At this time she attended a school down the little street.

Captain Coffin went through a trying time in 1802 when his ship, the Trial, was captured by South American insurgents, and he lost his vessel and the cargo. Upon returning home he decided to move his family to Boston, where Lucretia, then eleven years of age, attended private schools. In 1806, the child was sent to Dutchess County, New York, to the Quaker School at Nine Partners. She remained here three years, and in her last year became an assistant teacher at the age of sixteen. Still seeking a business opportunity, her father moved his family to Philadelphia, where she met her husband, James Mott, and where they were married in 1811.

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Despite the fact that she was the mother of six children and was a devoted parent, she had become an approved Minister in the Society of Friends, and made several extensive religious visits throughout the New England, Atlantic and Southern states. Her interest was in the moral as well as the theological issues, and she became an advocate of women's rights early in her career. She also sided with Elias Hicks in his work of liberal thought in the ranks of the Quakers. In one of her oft-quoted statements she declared:

"My convictions led me to adhere to the sufficiency of the light within us, resting on truth as authority, rather than taking authority for truth."

In 1840 she attended the "World's Antislavery Convention" in London, where she was internationally recognized as an eloquent and inspired orator. Her active mind, directed and developed by the teachings of the Friends, and with the inherited force of Tristram Coffin, Peter Folger, Thomas Macy, and others of her forebears, took a wider range than had previously been customary with woman, and she was acknowledged as the most gifted woman of her time. One of her associates described her thus: "She was the bright morning star of intellectual freedom of women in America, and her power of speech was almost devine."

As was to be expected she visited her Island home on many occasions. At these times she would recall her childhood days, the school she attended and her mother's little shop at their Fair Street home. She would often remark on the great pleasure of greeting her acquaintances and friends on Nantucket.

At a meeting held in Boston in her later years, she remarked:

"Therefore, I say, preach your truth. . . and I will say that if these pure principles have their place in us, and are brought forth by faithfulness, by obedience, into practice, the difficulties and doubts that we have to surmount will be easily conquered. There will be a power higher than these. Let it be called the Great Spirit of the Indians, the Quaker 'Inner Light' of George Fox, the 'Blessed Mary,' Mother of Jesus of the Catholics, or Burmah, the Hindu's God - they will all be one, and there will come to be such faith and such liberty as shall redeem the world."

This was the true spirit of Lucretia Mott, and the message which should be best remembered on this centennial of her passing. —E.A. Stackpole^