page 97
FRANCES D. GAGE 129
CLARINA HOWARD NICHOLS 193
PAULINA WRIGHT DAVIS 273
LUCRETIA MOTT 369
ANTOINETTE L. BROWN 449
AMELIA BLOOMER 497
SUSAN B. ANTHONY 577
MARTHA C. WRIGHT 641
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON 721
MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE 753

INTRODUCTION.

The prolonged slavery of woman is the darkest page in human history. A
survey of the condition of the race through those barbarous periods,
when physical force governed the world, when the motto, "might makes
right," was the law, enables one to account, for the origin of woman's
subjection to man without referring the fact to the general
inferiority of the sex, or Nature's law.

Writers on this question differ as to the cause of the universal
degradation of woman in all periods and nations.

One of the greatest minds of the century has thrown a ray of light on
this gloomy picture by tracing the origin of woman's slavery to the
same principle of selfishness and love of power in man that has thus
far dominated all weaker nations and classes. This brings hope of
final emancipation, for as all nations and classes are gradually, one
after another, asserting and maintaining their independence, the path
is clear for woman to follow. The slavish instinct of an oppressed
class has led her to toil patiently through the ages, giving all and
asking little, cheerfully sharing with man all perils and privations
by land and sea, that husband and sons might attain honor and success.
Justice and freedom for herself is her latest and highest demand.

Another writer asserts that the tyranny of man over woman has its
roots, after all, in his nobler feelings; his love, his chivalry, and
his desire to protect woman in the barbarous periods of pillage, lust,
and war. But wherever the roots may be traced, the results at this
hour are equally disastrous to woman. Her best interests and happiness
do not seem to have been consulted in the arrangements made f