Clarina Howard Nichols was Vermont’s first feminist, but she had a different approach than her more fiery, and better known peers of the day like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Nichols was inspired to activism by the personal turmoil of her failed first marriage.
Author Marilyn Blackwell calls her style of politics the "politics of motherhood." Nichols lobbied hard for women’s rights but was much more traditional and conservative than many other feminist activists. She was a native Vermonter, and began her career here, but later traveled west to Kansas, to fight for women’s rights and against slavery on the frontier.
Click on the Listen icon to hear Mitch Wertlieb’s interview with Marilyn Blackwell.