Check out this awesome guest post by my former intern and good friend, Krystie Yandoli. She's currently a first year at Syracuse University and a Women's Studies major (who-hoo!).
Too often, the winners write history. Unfortunately even the women's rights movement is tainted with this reality--important people get shoved aside when it comes down to who receives credit and becomes a part of the history books. Matilda Joslyn Gage is a victim of this, but as far as I'm concerned she's going to make a comeback.
Gage was one of the original suffragists in the 1800's fighting for her and every other female's full citizenship and right to vote. She was a part of the unstoppable friendship trio that consisted of her, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony. The latter may sound most familiar, and evidence shows this is because of Gage's two "buddies" pushing her out of history.
Gage's relevance to this part of American History is imperative. The women's rights movement would have fared very differently without her contributions to significant moments like writing and presenting "The Women's Declaration," advocating for a more equal dress code, and her famous speech at the 1852 convention after Seneca Falls.
The beginning of the end of Gage's close involvement with Stanton and Anthony was a financial crisis that inevitably led to the demise of their friendship. For economical purposes, Anthony joined forces with another group of women fighting for the vote. (Shocker, money played a role in destroying friendships and noble causes.) Gage did not support this because once they obtained the vote, members of this group wanted to diminish the goals of the women's rights movement.
The beauty (and horror) of history, however, is you can't hide from it forever. Sally Roesch Wagner, resident of Fayetteville, New York, discovered the truth about Gage's involvement in the women's suffrage movement by accident. Through a family friend she was able to uncover old documents and personal letters of Matilda Joslyn Gage. After writing three books and creating the Gage Foundation she was given the opportunity to teach an Honors class at Syracuse University strictly about Matilda Joslyn Gage in relation to the history of the suffrage movement.
The transfer of knowledge is a beautiful thing. The students of Sally's class, myself included, are now responsible to spread the word about Gage's absence in history. As an aspiring writer I wanted to honor Gage by telling her story in as many forums I possibly can. After all, she did her fair share of writing for publications in San Francisco, New York, Fayetteville, and Syracuse.
Thank you, Ms. Gage, for working your butt off to accomplish women's suffrage without receiving any of the credit (or being a drama queen about it). Hopefully your place in history will be restored with the help of feminists today.
To find out more about Gage and her fascinating history check out her foundation and books authored by Sally Roesch Wagner.
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Yeah, Matilda Gage is awesome and always forgotten.
I would (and have many times) argue the main factor in her being ignored is her relationship to Christianity. She branched off from Stanton and Anthony to focus her efforts on criticizing and reforming the sexism in the Christian Church. Gage and Stanton had discussed creating a feminist anti-Church organization (remember that Stanton wrote The Woman's Bible and was also interested in reforming the Church), but in the end, Stanton chose to join Anthony's NAWSA (that included the WCTU), and Gage formed her own uber-radical (and uber-awesome, in my opinion) WNLU, which challenged the Church and worked in alliance with other radicals of the time to do other things.
As someone super interested in the progressive and reforming work of women (and others) related to Christianity, I am saddened that most people are unaware of Gage and her Church-reform goals. What might even be worse than Gage's lack of celebrity is the fact that Stanton left the Church work behind to join Anthony's movement to get "real" work done. (Though I can appreciate the positive aspects of Anthony's collaboration with the more conservative women's group -- btw, do we call the Women's Christian Temperance Union "feminists"?) And, while I'm on this topic... it's fascinating that the WCTU (identified as Christian by their name) got to be included in Anthony's group, but Gage (someone trying to get rid of Christian sexism) was "too radical."
I could go on for days...
Thanks for posting about Matilda Gage. We need more members in her fan club!
Great post! At this moment, my "to-do list" notebook (which I use at work) is right here on the desk next to me. My mom bought it for me last summer because of the Gage quote written on its cover: "We must not forget that this country owes its birth to disobedience to law." I love it when people at the office ask about it, because then I get to tell them about Gage.
I just watched Ken Burn's documentary on Stanton and Anthony on Netflix last night, and Gage's name came up a few times, but she was never featured. I thought to myself, "Hmm, shouldn't I know who she was?" So thanks for this, Krystie, I'll do some catching up and spreading the word!
Money always has and still does play the largest role in any social movement group. Even the most well intentioned have been swayed by greed. It often stops good people from being better, or turns them outright bad.
Anyway, thanks for the info. I had never heard of Gage before, I'm sad to say.
Thanks for spreading information on this clearly remarkable woman. When I see that there have always been women, writing angry letters, getting together and talking about their rights, demonstrating and taking action, I feel like I'm a part of the long fight, cause I'm here with you lot, doing the same thing. It gives me hope that the fight will keep going beyond us.