Early Civil Rights Leaders from the Ohio River Valley
Ulysses S. Grant: Civil Rights Leader
Grant’s story really began with his parents, who both opposed slavery. The conviction against owning slaves resulted in Ulysses’ father Jesse changed parties and moved from Kentucky. Jesse even worked alongside staunch abolitionist Owen Brown, father of the infamous John Brown of Harpers Ferry fame, prior to the Civil War. It took Ulysses time to truly understand the full meaning of that conviction and once the war began, he came to realize that all people should be treated with respect and dignity. One of the major issues Grant dealt with during the Civil War was how to utilize the influx of escaped slaves in a way that would save both the freedmen and the Union. Despite immense challenges and public scrutiny, he did what he knew was right and his hope never wavered. He sent women and children to safe camps behind Union lines and followed Lincoln’s call for training African- Americans as soldiers and allowed them to help fight for their own freedom. His letters to his family and colleagues, prove that Grant devoted all his character, clout and strength behind that effort.
Chris Burns is a Civil War historian and lifelong Cincinnati resident. In 2016, Burns completed 16 years of research for an upcoming book about Ulysses S. Grant with noted historian Dr. James A. Ramage. He currently speaks on various aspects of Ulysses S. Grant’s life, as well as the Siege of Cincinnati. Burns is a former adjunct history faculty-member at NKU and is currently employed as Marketing and Education Manager at Encore Technologies. His passion is bringing history to life.
Chris Burns is a Civil War historian and lifelong Cincinnati resident. In 2016, Burns completed 16 years of research for an upcoming book about Ulysses S. Grant with noted historian Dr. James A. Ramage. He currently speaks on various aspects of Ulysses S. Grant’s life, as well as the Siege of Cincinnati. Burns is a former adjunct history faculty-member at NKU and is currently employed as Marketing and Education Manager at Encore Technologies. His passion is bringing history to life.
Fertile Soil For Rebellion: Women’s Rights and the Ohio River Valley
This paper will explore how the Ohio River Valley became a locus for critical institutions and individuals in the early women’s rights movement. In the 1830s, Henry Stanton and his professor Theodore Weld left the Lane Theological Seminary after it suppressed abolition activities and joined the nascent Oberlin College. After graduation, Stanton became an itinerant abolitionist and married Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who, together with Lucretia Mott, a Philadelphia Quaker (and distant cousin of Levi Coffin), led the women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York. Another Oberlin graduate, Lucy Stone, became the first paid women’s rights lecturer in the nation. Antoinette Brown, Stone’s Oberlin compatriot, became one of the first women preachers in the United States and an important figure in the suffrage movement.
Two Cincinnati families, the Beechers and the Blackwells, produced men and women who led the suffrage movement for decades. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in US history to earn a medical degree.
The Ohio River Valley was also a setting for reform. Robert Dale Owen, from New Harmony, Indiana, pioneered in making divorce easier, a goal Stanton defended so that women could exit unhappy or abusive marriages. And it was in Ohio that Sojourner Truth most famously added her women’s rights “voice,” with its unique vernacular that combined common sense with gentle mockery.
Susan L. Poulson is a full professor of United States history at the University of Scranton, where she has taught Recent U.S. History, U.S. Women’s History, and the History of the U.S. for more than two decades after earning my PhD at Georgetown University. Poulson’s earlier interests for research and publication were in the history of women’s higher education. Anticipating the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, she is currently writing a history of the women’s suffrage movement tentatively titled, A Great Movement for Liberty: The Long Struggle for Women’s Rights.
Two Cincinnati families, the Beechers and the Blackwells, produced men and women who led the suffrage movement for decades. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in US history to earn a medical degree.
The Ohio River Valley was also a setting for reform. Robert Dale Owen, from New Harmony, Indiana, pioneered in making divorce easier, a goal Stanton defended so that women could exit unhappy or abusive marriages. And it was in Ohio that Sojourner Truth most famously added her women’s rights “voice,” with its unique vernacular that combined common sense with gentle mockery.
Susan L. Poulson is a full professor of United States history at the University of Scranton, where she has taught Recent U.S. History, U.S. Women’s History, and the History of the U.S. for more than two decades after earning my PhD at Georgetown University. Poulson’s earlier interests for research and publication were in the history of women’s higher education. Anticipating the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, she is currently writing a history of the women’s suffrage movement tentatively titled, A Great Movement for Liberty: The Long Struggle for Women’s Rights.