Matilda Joslyn Gage's Voice PDF

## 10 Matilda Joslyn Gage MARCH 24, 1826-MARCH 18, 1898 THE SOUL MUST ASSERT ITS OWN SUPREMACY OR DIE. HAVE YOU EVER heard the saying, "Children should be seen and not heard"? Some adults think children should speak only when they are spoken to. Otherwise they should stay out of the conversation of...

## 10 Matilda Joslyn Gage MARCH 24, 1826-MARCH 18, 1898 THE SOUL MUST ASSERT ITS OWN SUPREMACY OR DIE. HAVE YOU EVER heard the saying, "Children should be seen and not heard"? Some adults think children should speak only when they are spoken to. Otherwise they should stay out of the conversation of adults, and out of their way. That wasn't the way it was in Matilda Joslyn's house. She was an only child whose parents wanted her to think for herself. Her opinions were considered, and every question she asked was answered. Her father, a doctor in Cicero, New York, took her on his rounds and taught her Greek, math, and science. To learn about anatomy and the systems of the body, she helped him dissect small animals. The slavery debate raged throughout Matilda's childhood. The Joslyn house was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Her abolitionist feelings were fanned into flame when she heard Abby Kelley Foster speak. She began handing out pamphlets and asking people to sign petitions. “I think I was born with a hatred of oppression,” she said. At age eighteen, Matilda married Henry H. Gage, a shopkeeper, and they had four children. Their home in Fayetteville, New York, became a center for reform activity. Matilda championed the rights of African Americans, workers, and women. In 1852, she gave her first speech at a women's rights convention in Syracuse. She was twenty-six years old and the youngest person to speak-she stood on the platform holding her daughter's hand. Tall and graceful, she spoke hesitantly at first, but gained confidence as she went along. Unlike suffragists whose faith formed the basis of their activism, Matilda blamed religion for limiting women's lives. After the Syracuse convention, a newspaper editor called the gathering "satanic." A local minister wrote a letter to the editor outlining his anti-suffrage views. Matilda struck back in the newspaper, signing herself as "M". The debate raged between "M" and the minister until finally he demanded to know who he was debating. Readers were surprised to learn that it was a woman using history, philosophy, religion, and literature to make her points. When it came to women's place in society, Matilda didn't have to look far for inspiration. She lived in central New York State, side-by-side with Native American communities. She became fascinated with their way of life, which didn't force women to beg for respect. Matilda's son-in-law, L. Frank Baum, wrote *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*, a book made famous by the 1939 movie, *The Wizard of Oz*. Baum's books often featured women in nontraditional roles. In many of his stories, myths of who holds power are shattered, such as when the wizard is shown to be an ordinary man. In 1875, while she was president of the National Woman Suffrage Association, Matilda wrote a series of articles on the Iroquois tribes of central New York for the *New York Evening Post*. She wanted our government to be like theirs, with women and men participating equally. "Never was justice more perfect, never civilization higher," Matilda wrote. She spent the rest of her life writing about Native American societies. To honor Matilda, the Mohawk nation adopted her into the Wolf Clan in 1893 and gave her the name Ka-ron-ien-ha-wi, meaning "She who holds the sky." As a member, Matilda could vote on tribal matters, including the naming of its chief. How ironic that honor was! In 1871, Matilda had been turned away when she tried to vote in her local school board election. She could vote in her adopted nation, but not in her birth nation. She was determined to change that. From 1878 to 1881, Matilda owned and edited a suffrage newspaper, *The National Citizen and Ballot Box*. In it, she wrote essays about women's issues regarding not only the vote, but the home, marriage, church, and societal customs. Each issue was headed with the motto, "The Pen Is Mightier than the Sword." In 1893, she wrote the book that became her legacy, *Woman, Church and State*. In it, she described how she believed that throughout history, the Christian faith and its male leaders had conspired to oppress women. Through Matilda's leadership, New York State granted women the right to vote for school board members in 1880. On the first election day, she staked out the polls to make sure women were not turned away. Yet, in 1893, New York took away that right-educators were unhappy that women were electing female board members. Matilda, a frail woman who had heart trouble all her life, died just two years before the dawning of the 1900s, a new century in which a third generation of women would need to continue the fight. But Matilda's words rang out still- "The soul must assert its own supremacy or die!"- guiding them with her call for women to take their rightful place in society. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage wrote a huge book about the suffrage movement. Their *History of Woman Suffrage* was published in three volumes and was three thousand pages long. Still, it covered the movement only up to 1885! Three more volumes were added in the 1900s by Ida Husted Harper and other women working for the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Were suffragists dreaming up something new when they called for women to have a say in government and society? Hardly! For hundreds of years, Native Americans had lived in the Seneca Falls area. The Haudenosaunee, an alliance of six Iroquois tribes, lived alongside white communities. Lucretia Mott visited the Cattaraugus, a Seneca tribe, a month before the Seneca Falls convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was known to bless a meal saying, "Heavenly Father and Mother," addressing a female deity as Native Americans would. She would have met them through her cousin, the abolitionist Gerrit Smith, who freely invited Native Americans into his home. Matilda was working on a book about the Haudenosaunee when she died. The Haudenosaunee were a matriarchal society, one that was ruled by women. Women held property and passed it down through their families, and children were part of the mother's clan. Women could choose the kind of work they wanted to do, and communal work was overseen by women. Laws were made with input from women. The right to rule was passed down through a wife's family. Tribal chiefs were chosen and removed by women. Treaties made between tribes needed the approval of women, and women could end treaties or veto war. In this society, women held the power. A picture of Matilda Joslyn Gage is shown. The picture is surrounded by illustrations. The illustrations show: - A white wolf walking - Two clouds - A star - A crescent moon - Two hands reaching up as if in prayer - A bearded man in a white coat - A little girl in a dress holding the man's hand - A star Beneath the picture in a yellow speech bubble it says: "I think I WAS Born with a HATRED of Oppression".