Born: 28 October 1842, United States
Died: 22 October 1932
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Anna Elizabeth Dickinson was a prominent American orator and advocate for abolition and women’s rights. Anna Dickinson made history as the first woman to address the United States Congress. Her eloquence played a vital role in bolstering the Republican Party during the crucial 1863 elections, just before the Civil War. Notably, she was also the first white woman to conquer Colorado’s Longs Peak, Lincoln Peak, and Elbert Peak, even riding a mule during her ascent, and the second woman to reach the summit of Pike’s Peak.
In 1857, Dickinson began her public speaking career, focusing on gender equality at a Progressive Friends meeting. She continued to address various topics, including abolition and women’s rights.
In 1860, she discussed “The Rights and Wrongs of Women” in Philadelphia and spoke before the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. In 1861, her two-hour speech on the same topic, supported by Lucretia Mott, left a significant mark on the Emancipation movement.
Her prominence grew in 1862 when she earned the nickname “The Girl Orator” after speaking at the Boston Music Hall. During the Civil War, she also visited hospitals and camps. In 1863, she campaigned for pro-Union Republican candidates and gained the moniker “Civil War’s Joan of Arc.”
In 1864, she made history by speaking in the United States House of Representatives. After the Civil War, she continued as a celebrated lyceum speaker for nearly a decade, addressing various social issues. Despite her advocacy for women’s rights, she did not align with the suffrage movement. Her career as a lecturer declined when audiences favored entertainment over serious topics.
In 1867, Mark Twain lauded her speaking skills, noting her remarkable confidence and compelling delivery. However, her confrontational style and political stances led to a decline in speaking engagements after she campaigned for Republicans in the 1888 presidential election.
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Author and war-time lecturer
Her father was a Philadelphia merchant and a devout Quaker. Her mother was of aristocratic family and of much refinement and nobility and character. The family was reduced to poverty. Anna was a restless, willful, and imaginative child, who caused all about her much anxiety.
Ambition and will power carried her over many hard places. Her more wealthy schoolmates made sport of her clothes. This stung her to more intense action. She read everything within her reach. For months she slept not more than five hours in the twenty-four. She had a passion for oratory, and on one occasion scrubbed a sidewalk for twenty-five cents that she might hear Wendell Phillips lecture on “The Lost Arts.”
Her fiery character is seen in the following incident: As she was about to accept a position as a teacher of a district school, the committeeman remarked in an insulting tone, “A man taught this school and we gave him twenty-five dollars a month; but we should not give a girl more than sixteen dollars.” In her wrathful price she answered, “Sir, are you are a fool, or do you take me for one? I am too poor to-day to buy a pair of cotton gloves, but I would rather go in rags than degrade my womanhood by accepting anything at your hands.” She was penniless and at last accepted a place as a saleswoman in a store, but soon gave that up because she was expected to misrepresent the goods.
In 1860 She made her first speech on “Woman’s Rights and Wrongs” before the Association of Progressive Friends.
She obtained a position in the new U.S. Mint, but after the battler of Ball’s Bluff she declared, “This battle was not lost through ignorance or incompetence, but through the treason of the commanding general.” For this she was dismissed.
From this time she turned to lecture the field and made her lecturing her profession. She was afterwards thankful for her discharge from the mint, though the way seemed dark at the time. In fact there were many other dark days. Few women have known greater trials or more splendid triumphs.
Early in 1863 she went to Concord, New Hampshire, to lecture. It was her last appointment for the season. She had no money and the only prospective income was the ten dollars promised her for the lecture. She had sought to find employment without success and was weary and disheartened.
But her lecture on “Hospital Life” was such a success that the Republican leaders said, “If we can get a girl to make that speech all through New Hampshire, we can carry the state ticket in the coming election.” On March 1st she began her tour of triumph, which ended in a Republican victory. The governor-elect made a personal acknowledgment that her magnetic, eloquent speeches had secured his election.
The tide had turned. Connecticut sought her. The cause of the party there seemed lost, but through her efforts victory was achieved. She was given one hundred dollars per night, and for her speech the night before election received four hundred dollars.
Everywhere there was a perfect furore [sic] to hear this gifted girl. She was called “The New Joan of Arc.”
She was next invited to Pennsylvania and sent into the mining region, because, as some one said, “no man dared go there to speak.” She was often assaulted with stones and rotten eggs, and received not one dollar for her services.
One of the greatest honors of her life was the invitation to speak in the Hall of Representatives. Here assembled to hear her one of the most notable audiences that ever met in Washington. It was composed of senators, representatives, foreign diplomats, the chief justice, the president, and Washington society generally. The proceeds of the lecture were over one thousand dollars and were devoted to the National Freedmen’s Relief Society.
One of her notable lectures, many times delivered after the close of the war, was “Woman’s Work and Wages.” On this she could speak with the burning eloquence of experience.
IW note: Correspondence to Dickinson from a woman named Ida appears to show at least one intimate episode with another woman, referring to Dickinson “tempting [Ida] to kiss her sweet mouth.”