Posted
on December 19, 2015
Many
of the 19th-Century people I've read about worked on more than one of
the great social movements of the day, and Mary Livermore is no
exception. Born on this date in 1820 in Massachusetts, and raised and
educated in New England, when she was 19 years old Livermore started
a job as a tutor on a Virginia plantation. Guess what she saw, first
hand, while on the job?
If
you guessed “slavery,” you are right. Livermore left the job,
quit Virginia, and became an abolitionist. She wrote anti-slavery
articles, and she worked to elect Abraham Lincoln as president.
During
the Civil War, she worked to promote knowledge of and achievement of
sanitation services, and she organized aid societies and visited
hospitals and generally did a lot of good.
After
the war, Livermore worked to achieve women's suffrage (the right to
vote). Unfortunately, she died before this goal was achieved, but
women won the right to vote in part because of her efforts.
Another
movement that Livermore worked hard on was the temperance movement.
She and other like her wanted to make drinking alcohol illegal. This
movement eventually succeeded—and then the experiment went horribly
awry, and alcohol was made legal again. I think this is one topic
Livermore was wrong about (and I don't drink even a smidge of
alcohol, myself!).
In
a list of who and what Mary Livermore was, I guess you could call her
a teacher, a tutor, a writer and editor, a sanitary official, and an
activist / social reformer.
As
you go about your own life, just remember Mary Livermore's example,
and participate in several different interesting jobs and worthy
causes, if you can.
Also
on this date:
It's
still time for Las
Posadas!
Plan
ahead:
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