The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

The Agitators

Dorothy Wickenden Sheds Light on the Strength & Perseverance of Three Women Who Fought for Abolition & Women’s Rights

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PHOTOS by Kendall Hammes  To watch the interview, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWcSlStw8_E

Wickenden Urges a Visit to Auburn, NY, to Help Support a Bicentennial Event Celebrating Harriet Tubman’s Birth.

Plus other Highlights from a Chappaqua Library Author Talk

On Tuesday, March 8th, the Chappaqua Library invited Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of The New Yorker and author of a new book, The Agitators, to a virtual discussion with Grace Bennett, editor and publisher of Inside Press Magazines. In her book, Wickenden successfully weaves the lives of three women in the mid-1800s whose outrage about the lack of rights for women propelled them to act, sometimes against all odds.  

During the abolition movement–Francis A. Seward, Martha Coffin Wright, and Harriet Tubman–positively channeled their anger and resentment to having their voices heard. The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Human Rights illustrates how the women leaned on each other for support and with their strength and perseverance helped abolish slavery and gain the right to divorce and to vote. 

Wickenden who is also a moderator for The New Yorker weekly’s podcasts admitted proudly that her book was a labor of love that took seven years to complete. She spoke about the importance of writing books about women’s struggles with social justice and she is hoping to shed some light on the forgotten who were the women of that epic historical time in America.

In addition to her extensive research, Wickenden told Bennett that she found her inspiration from reading her grandmother’s letters which depicted a period when women were seeking work outside the home. Coincidentally, her grandmother grew up in Auburn, NY, which is the very same place where Harriett Tubman resided for over 50 years, shepherding and housing former slaves. She urges her readers to go and visit Auburn which has since been revitalized and, this year, is honoring the Bicentennial of Harriet Tubman’s birth. 

Joan Kuhn, program coordinator for the Chappaqua Library, welcomed Wickenden and Bennett to the Author Talk. Considering Chappaqua’s own history, Bennett noted the many references in the book made to Horace Greeley who founded The New York Tribune newspaper, an important vehicle for promoting abolition. Wickenden discussed the Tribune’s influence on the women and also the deep division of the nation’s media in those times, too! She also offered an explanation about the Quakers’ influence on those who made it their moral obligation to speak about the abolition of slavery.

You can still get a signed copy of Wickenden’s book at Scattered Books in Chappaqua. It would make a perfect gift for many young women who are interested in learning about the women’s suffrage movement!   

To listen to the entire interview, visit:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWcSlStw8_E

Kendall Hammes, a junior at Horace Greeley High School, lives with her parents and two sisters in Chappaqua. She spends her time playing tennis, swimming and photographing. This is her first contribution to the Inside Press.

INSIDE THOUGHTS About Dorothy Wickenden’s The Agitators. Please Join a Chappaqua Library Author Talk on March 8th!

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Black History Month thought:
 
I know I’ve been a bit MIA. Well, I’ve been closing local magazines, that’s true, but I’ve also been very much engrossed in the story of a beautiful friendship of three tenacious, history transforming women, to whom our country owes an enormous debt.
 
I’m not even midway yet in its 300-plus pages, as I prepare to interview author Dorothy Wickenden for the virtual Chappaqua Library event on March 8 (see link below to register), but page by page…
 
I’m also reminded about the horrors that took place, of an ingrained slave and master system in this country that so, so, so many were perfectly content to keep in place for eternity. The reality of slavery, of this gross violation of humanity in our United States of America, will forever send chills and will forever be a massive stain on the history of this nation. But what might be most compelling about ‘The Agitators: Three Women who Fought for Abolition and Human Rights’ is the unique chops it took to push back, the clearheaded boldness, the sheer determination to rise above the expectations of the day, to navigate dueling roles as young mothers and wives also continuously expected to defer to their husbands, held back by either their expanding bellies or even their constricting attire, while at the same time sailing on uncharted, treacherous waters against a too often hateful tide, too often in their own backyards.
 
And most remarkable and fascinating was the merging of the struggles… achieving abolition and women’s rights seemed to go hand in hand in author Dorothy Wickenden’s telling of the era and these three women’s stories… which makes sense. When one evil exists, more evils get free reign too. Isn’t that always the way? I’ll look forward to hearing more from Wickenden on the duality of the struggle.
 
And how to reconcile that these women were deemed ‘dangerous’ in those treacherous times? We should all be so ‘dangerous’ in the face of pure evil.
 
In the world of Holocaust survivors and their descendants, we talk about ‘the righteous’ and ‘the upstanders’ who came to the rescue of Jewish victims in a multitude of ways despite the dangers of doing so.
 
Martha Coffin Wright and Frances Adeline Seward fall squarely in that category to me, and Harriet Tubman is in a class all to herself, a tortured slave who literally had to claw her way to freedom and then never stopped fighting for the people left behind, still in shackles, still terrified and in acute danger day in and day out. She fought for the freed individuals, slaves who had escaped, still living in fear of the danger of ‘slave catchers’ of the day… I have no words. Tubman fought hard and continued the struggle to her last days, right into her own old age, and into their old age, too.
 
I will never forget the incredible alliance between these three women as they worked in tandem with other heroes and SHeroes of the day to reverse and eradicate the evil that overtook this country. I’m so glad Dorothy Wickenden has meticulously pieced together the story of their friendship, and I can’t wait to (and excited and honored to) ask this brilliant author some key questions, too.
 
Ms. Wickenden has offered to visit Scattered Books ahead of the event to sign copies which you can pre-order at  info@scatteredbooks.com
Hope you will join us at this Chappaqua Library sponsored, virtual event.  Here’s the link for registering:

Chappaqua Library Author Talk with Dorothy Wickenden, Author of The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought For Abolition and Women’s Rights

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March 8 @ 7pm

Dorothy Wickenden Photo by Jayme Grodi

From the executive editor of The New Yorker, comes The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights, a riveting, provocative and revelatory history of abolition and women’s rights, told through the story of 3 women–Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward and Martha Wright–in the years before, during and after the Civil War.

“These friends are the examples we need right now–another time of divisiveness and dissension over our nation’s purpose ‘to form a more perfect union.’” –Hillary Rodham Clinton

Ms. Wickenden has offered to visit Scattered Books ahead of the event to sign copies which you can pre-order at  info@scatteredbooks.com

Grace Bennett, publisher and editor, Inside Press, will interview Ms. Wickenden.

Please register at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KJ6nv9HYRVS6VrlH-z2i5Q