History of Pelham, (Hampshire County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Abby Kelley Foster, reformer, was born in Pelham, Mass., Jan. 15, 1811. She was of Irish-Quaker parentage and was educated at the Friends school, Providence, R.I. She taught in Worcester, Millbury and Lynn, Mass. In 1837 she gave up her school and became a public lecturer in the anti-slavery movement. She is accredited with being the first woman in America to address mixed audiences on a political subject, and she was received with great disfavor. She helped to organize the Webster anti-slavery society, and in 1840 was admitted as a member of the American anti-slavery society, which act caused a division in the society. She made lecturing tours through the middle states, and while in Pennsylvania met Stephen Symonds Foster, the well known abolition agitator, and was married to him at New Brighton, Pa., Dec. 21, 1845. They continued their work together, and in 1850 they took up the advocacy of woman suffrage and prohibition, spending their leisure time between lecture engagements on her farm near Worcester, Mass. Mrs. Foster objected to the principle of taxation without representation, and suffered her cows to be sold, and finally her farm, rather than pay taxes when not allowed to vote. She died in Worcester, Mass., Jan. 14, 1887.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Pelham, (Hampshire County) Massachusetts

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