Foster, Abigail Kelley (redirected from Abigail Kelley)

Foster, Abigail Kelley, 1810–87, American abolitionist and advocate of women's rights, b. near Amherst, Mass. Abby Kelley, as she was known to her contemporaries, began her crusade against slavery in 1837 after teaching in several Quaker schools. In 1845 she married Stephen S. Foster, a radical abolitionist and reformer. As one of the first female lecturers before sexually mixed audiences, she was often greeted by listeners with extreme hostility. After suffering a great deal of abuse, even from fellow abolitionists, she began to devote more of her efforts toward women's rights. During the last 30 years of her active life, she was prominent as a suffragist.

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Foster, Abigail Kelley

 orig. Abigail Kelley

(born Jan. 15, 1810, Pelham, Mass., U.S.—died Jan. 14, 1887, Worcester, Mass.) U.S. abolitionist. She became active in a branch of the Female Anti-Slavery Society in the 1830s, and in 1838 she helped William Lloyd Garrison organize the New England Non-Resistance Society. Her long career as a political lecturer brought her national fame and notoriety, in part because she addressed mixed audiences (of both men and women). In 1845 she married Stephen S. Foster (1809–81), a prominent abolitionist who joined her lecture tour. In the 1850s she added temperance and women's rights to her lecture topics.

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Foster, Abigail Kelley See Kelley, Abby.