Anna Elizabeth Dickinson
Anna was the youngest of five children, and was raised by her mother. Mrs. Dickinson taught Anna at home for a while, then sent her to the Friends' Select School of Philadelphia, after which she attended the Greenwood Institute of New Brighton.
After the early death of her husband, Mrs. Dickinson experienced financial difficulties, so Anna earned her keep by working as a copyist and a school teacher while still in her teens.
At age thirteen, Anna submitted an essay to William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper, “The Liberator.” Garrison was a radical reformer who advocated the immediate abolition of slavery. He arranged speaking engagements for Anna, and as she toured the New England states, she quickly gained popularity.
In 1860, Anna began earning modest fees for delivering public speeches on abolitionism and women’s rights. This was a rarity. Few women in the Civil War era spoke before a mixed audience, and certainly not about such controversial topics.
As a young unmarried Quaker woman, Anna pushed the boundaries of mid-nineteenth century society to its limits and beyond. By her twenties, she was attracting large crowds that were drawn to her passionate rhetoric.
Though she was physically frail and occasionally suffered throat problems, Anna spoke with a powerful voice. Within a few short years, she was commenting on the progress of the Civil War and criticizing President Abraham Lincoln for his refusal to renounce slavery.
By 1863, morale in the North was at an all-time low. President Lincoln and his fellow Republicans were determined to continue the Civil War, but they needed to elect Republicans to positions of power.
Although Anna had become very popular, she was having a hard time supporting her mother and sister on the money she was making on the lecture circuit. Her big break came when the chairman of the New Hampshire State Republican Committee invited her to speak in favor of their gubernatorial candidate, for a generous fee.
Campaign organizers in other states asked Anna to speak for them. By the end of 1863, the Republicans had scored some key victories in New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maine, Pennsylvania, and New York. And Anna was given much of the credit. For a woman, and one so young, this was a monumental achievement.
One committee chairman commented, “I regret that Providence has furnished only one woman for such a crisis as this. I wish we had fifty Anna Dickinson’s scattered all over the country telling people the truth.”
Due to her success in the 1863 elections, Anna was the first woman to be invited to speak before Congress. President Lincoln and his wife attended part of her speech, and even though she was critical of Lincoln, they greatly respected her. But respect wasn’t enough to put food on her table.
After the Civil War, she was forced to find other ways to make money. She was nearly successful as an actress, but was so hated by the press for her oratorical success that her plays were given bad reviews.
She had a complicated relationship with the women’s movement when she chose to focus on securing the vote for black men before women. But she forged lifelong relationships with suffragist Susan B. Anthony and journalist Whitelaw Reid.
When her popularity waned in the early 1870s, Anna wrote several novels, but they were largely unsuccessful. The public was less kind to a middle-aged feminist than a passionate teenager. About that time, she began to struggle with her physical and mental health.
With middle age came poverty, illness, and alcoholism. Her lowest point came in 1891, when the sister she had supported for years committed Anna to the Pennsylvania State Hospital for the Insane. Her stay there was brief, but humiliating. She spent her last 40 years in relative obscurity in New York. Anna died, a broken woman, in 1932, at the age of 90.
Anna Dickinson's contributions to the abolition of slavery, women's rights, and the North's success during the Civil War have been long forgotten, but she deserves respect and admiration for her achievements. After all, she was often called the Joan of Arc of the Civil War era.
Copyright © 2007 Maggie MacLean
Tags:
