Antoinette Brown Blackwell

Basic Information

Antoinette Brown Blackwell was born in Rochester, NY in 1825 and passed in 1921 in the city of Elizabeth, NJ. Antoinette was married to Samuel C. Blackwell who was born in England, UK in 1823 and passed in 1901 Cincinnati, OH. They were both survived by Agnes Blackwell Jones, Ethel Blackwell Robinson, Edith Blackwell, Florence Blackwell Mayhew, and Grace Blackwell. Brown Blackwell wrote many books, was an ordained minister in the Unitarian Church and even got the chance to cast a vote although, she was on her sunset years at the time of the election.

Background Information

Brown Blackwell came from a line of military men as her grandfather Joseph Brown, and another Joseph Brown, her father both served in the military (Harvard Square Library, 2017). Brown’s family were very progressive and even from the age of a youth, Brown Blackwell exhibited a zealous personality. She married Samuel C. Blackwell after being the first woman to pastor a marriage. Brown Blackwell preached her last sermon at the age of ninety and at the age of ninety-five she was able to vote for the first time (Julien S. Murphy, 1991, p.185).

Contributions to the First Wave

The Orthodox Congregationalist Church in Southern Butler, New York, in 1852 was where Brown Blackwell became the first woman to be ordained as a minister of a major religious denomination in America (Julien S. Murphy, 1991, p.186). Orthodox Congregationalist Church accepted her where her own alma mater Oberlin did not. Oberlin was very much liberal but they were conservative on their stance with Brown Blackwell’s ordination. In 1853 Brown was appointed as a delegate to the World’s Temperance Convention in New York City (Rochester Regional Library Council). That was also the same year that Brown Blackwell was ordained as a minister. Brown Blackwell was also the first to officiate a marriage ceremony as an ordained minister (Mace, 2017). During her time as an ordained minister, she began to doubt herself and after her first year she resigned and began to turn to science to help her with some of her ailing questions. This came at a time when women were beginning to turn away from the Bible and turn to science for their answers in fields like physiology, psychology, and the Unitarian Church.

Brown Blackwell published many books that were each influenced by her involvement with movements or her personal work at the time. While working in the slums of New York, she wrote many newspaper articles that she later published in a book titled, Shadows of Our Social System. Among her other books are Studies in General Science (1869), The Sexes Throughout Nature (1875), The Physical Basis of Immortality (1876), and The Philosophy of Individuality (1893). In 1871 she published a novel The Island Neighbors, and in 1902 a book of poetry entitled Sea Drift; or Tribute to the Ocean (Rochester Regional Library Council).

During her time in New Jersey she was a key actress in the theater of feminism. She founded the New Jersey Women’s Suffrage Association in 1867, and supported the leadership of her sister-in-law Lucy Stone in meetings of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), founded in 1869 (Rochester Regional Library Council).

“In what portion of the inspired volume do we find any commandment forbidding woman to act as public teacher, provided she has a message worth communicating, and will deliver it in a manner worthy of her high vocation? Surely nowhere if not in the passages we have just been considering.”

~ Antoinette Brown Blackwell (Munson, E., & Dickinson, G., 1998, p.115)

Analysis and Conclusion

Brown Blackwell was truly a pioneering force in the first wave of women’s rights and she was one of many who got to enjoy the fruits of the suffrage fight. Brown Blackwell’s progressive upbringing helped to foster a zealous progressive-minded attitude that allowed her to push into spaces where women like her were previously not allowed. Brown Blackwell also wrote many books on philosophy. Brown Blackwell’s legacy will forever be remembered as we continue to educate/remind the next generation of the struggles that enabled them to maneuver society the way they do now.

References

Mace, Emily. Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, (1825-1921) (2012, September 29). Unitarian Universalist Association Archives, Retrieved October 29, 2019, from https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/antoinette-brown-blackwell/.

Munson, E., & Dickinson, G. (2010, March 25). Hearing Women Speak: Antoinette Brown Blackwell and the Dilemma of Authority. Journal of Women’s History, Johns Hopkins University Press, 10 (1).Retrieved October 29, 2019, from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/364195/summary

Murphy, J. S. (1991, January 1). Antoinette Brown Blackwell. A History of Women Philosophers pp 185-196 Volume 3 Retrieved October 29, 2019, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-011-3790-4_11

Rochester Regional Library Council (No Date) Antoinette Brown Blackwell. Western New York Suffragists: Winning the vote Retrieved November 13, 2019, from https://rrlc.org/winningthevote/biographies/antoinette-brown-blackwell/.