Lucretia Mott

Hello! My name is Lucretia Mott. I was born on a chilly day, January 3rd, 1793, on a little island called Nantucket in Massachusetts. My family were Quakers, which is a religion that teaches that every single person is equal and has a special 'inner light.' Growing up, I learned that it didn't matter if you were a boy or a girl, or what the color of your skin was—everyone deserved to be treated with kindness and fairness.

When I grew up, I became a teacher. I loved it, but I soon noticed something that wasn't fair at all: the male teachers were paid much more money than the female teachers for doing the same job! This was one of the first times I knew I had to speak up. In 1811, I married a wonderful man named James Mott. We both believed that slavery was wrong. We decided we would not buy things like cotton or sugar that were made by enslaved people. In 1833, I helped start a group called the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society so that women could work together to help end slavery.

My work against slavery took me all the way to London, England, in 1840 for a big meeting. But when I got there, the men in charge said women weren't allowed to speak! We had to sit behind a curtain. It was there I met a new friend, Elizabeth Cady Stanton. We were both so frustrated! We decided right then that women needed to have their own meetings to fight for their rights. A few years later, in 1848, we did it! We organized the very first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. It was a place where we could finally talk about all the ways women deserved to be treated as equals.

I kept working for fairness my whole life. I believed that 'any great change must expect opposition.' I lived to be 87 years old, and I saw the end of slavery in our country, which brought me great joy. Though I didn't get to see women win the right to vote, the work I did with my friends helped start a movement that made it happen later. Today, people remember me as someone who used her voice to speak up for others and who always believed in equality for all.