Matilda Joslyn Gage

Biography: Matilda Joslyn Gage

American reformer Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898) was a leader in the struggle for women's rights in the nineteenth century. A onetime leader of the National Woman Suffrage Association, she wrote numerous speeches, essays, and books that analyzed the role of women throughout history and provided arguments for rejecting the traditions that perpetuated the oppression of women, African slaves, Native Americans, and other minorities in America.

Matilda Joslyn Gage was a leading figure in the women's suffrage movement of the late 1800s in the United States. A colleague of such prominent women's rights activists as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Gage became a primary voice of the movement with her numerous speeches and feminist writings. Her works often stressed the historic accomplishments of women and the way in which men had frequently taken credit for or denied women's contributions. Gage herself was denied recognition of her achievements when she left the mainstream women's suffrage organization to form a more radical group; the resulting animosity led Anthony and Stanton to remove references to Gage in their book on the history of the suffrage movement. Because of this lack of documentation on Gage's role, she has often been overlooked by the generations that followed her.

Gage was born on March 24, 1826, in Cicero, New York. Her parents, Hezekiah and Helen Leslie Joslyn, were both supporters of liberal social reforms and took an active role in the education of their only child. Her father, who was a doctor, took charge of Gage's early schooling, instructing her at home in subjects such as Greek, physiology, and mathematics. Her learning was supplemented by her exposure to the ideas of scientists, philosophers, and theologians who were frequent guests of her parents. As she grew older, however, her parents decided she needed a more formal education and enrolled her in the Clinton New York Liberal Institute.

Used Literary Talents for Reform

Gage ended her schooling at the age of 18 when she married businessman Henry H. Gage. The couple, who eventually had four children, first settled in Syracuse, New York, but later moved to Fayetteville, New York. Gage continued to study independently to expand her knowledge, taking a particular interest in theology - a subject she would pursue throughout her life. In order to read original versions of the Bible, for instance, she furthered her studies of Greek and taught herself Hebrew. She also began to devote her energies to various social causes. An active abolitionist, she opened her home to escaped slaves as a stop on the Underground Railroad. As a supporter of the temperance movement to outlaw alcohol, she composed articles and gave speeches on the topic at meetings and conventions. The talent for organization and communication that she displayed in these activities were later devoted to the main work of her life - the fight for women's rights, including the right to vote.

Her days in the women's rights movement began when Gage delivered a speech at the Third National Women's Rights Convention in 1852 in Syracuse. Although, at the age of 26, she was the youngest speaker at the event, her words were so well-received that they were later published and circulated to gain support for the cause. Gage's talk focused on the numerous accomplishments of women throughout history and the need for women to escape the legal and economic shackles placed on them by society. She drew a parallel between the limited rights of women in America and the institution of slavery, stating that both forms of oppression stemmed from the same patriarchal attitudes. Over the next decade, Gage increased her stature in women's rights circles, holding a number of organization posts, writing articles, and giving speeches.

Elected Head of Suffrage Group

In 1869, Gage played a central role in the creation of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) and became a member of the group's advisory council. Throughout the 1870s, she was in the forefront of the increasingly radical statements and actions of the women's rights movement. In 1873, Susan B. Anthony was arrested for her illegal attempt to vote in New York. Gage joined Anthony in attempting to convince prospective jurors of the rightness of their struggle. Traveling to various townships across the state, she presented a reasoned and spirited speech titled "The United States on Trial, Not Susan B. Anthony." After her election to the top posts in both the National and New York suffrage organizations in 1875, Gage appeared before the U.S. Congress to testify in favor of a suffrage bill under consideration. When the government failed to pass the measure, she wrote a strongly worded protest that was circulated at the NWSA convention in Washington, D.C., in January of 1876. The essay declared that women should not participate in upcoming celebrations of the country's centennial because the nation was not a true democracy, but an inequitable power-system controlled by men. These statements raised the ire of government officials, and police were sent to close down the convention on the grounds that it was an illegal assembly. Gage refused to put an end to the gathering, telling enthusiastic supporters that if arrested, she would continue the convention in jail.

In May of that year, Gage willingly handed over her national post to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, acknowledging the importance of having the most widely-known suffragist in the country represent the group during the centennial. She began to focus her efforts even more on writing in order to spread her ideas on women's rights and other social reforms. In 1878, she began a three-year tenure as editor of the NWSA newspaper, National Citizen and Ballot Box. Her articles covered such topics as the treatment of women prisoners, prostitution, the plight of Native Americans, and the role of Christianity in the oppression of women. These writings became the basis of many NWSA policies and inspired some court cases challenging the limits of women's rights.

Documented Women's Fight for Suffrage

With Stanton, Gage contributed a great deal of writing to the ambitious task of compiling a complete history of women's fight for suffrage. The first volume of the 3,000 page, three-part History of Woman Suffrage appeared in 1881. The two women also collaborated on a revised version of the Bible published under the title The Women's Bible. Gage applied her previous Biblical studies to research on the Old Testament for the project's Revising Committee. Her other literary work of that time included an 1880 pamphlet - "Who Planned the Tennessee Campaign of 1862?" - that showed how a woman by the name of Anna Ella Carroll had actually masterminded a critical military maneuver of the Civil War, but had not been given credit for the idea. Later in her life, Gage's writings would develop her ideas on religion and women's rights. In her 1893 book, Woman, Church, and State, she outlines a lengthy history of oppression of women by the Christian church, citing as evidence the burning of accused witches, the end of the early Church's allowance for women deacons, and the negative role of woman in the doctrine of original sin. Gage lamented the absence of the feminine in traditional concepts of God, and shocked one gathering of women in 1888 by opening a meeting with a prayer to a female God. Her attempts to extend feminist thought in this way did not find sympathy with many women activists, who found her concepts too radical.

In 1889, the NWSA merged with the other major national suffrage organization, the American Woman Suffrage Society, a more conservative body. Gage did not approve of the ideological compromises that the NWSA had made by joining the new organization, known as the National-American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). She launched a more liberal organization, the Women's National Liberal Union (WNLU), which pushed for such measures as the abolition of prayer in public schools, the improvement of prisons, and the creation of labor unions. Cady and Stanton were angered by Gage's creation of the WNLU, feeling that the organization detracted from the goal of presenting a strong, unified women's lobby. Not only did they publicly condemn her efforts, they removed all references to her from the fourth volume of the History of Woman Suffrage; consequently, Gage would be ignored by many later historians.

In her final years, Gage was forced to retire from her reform activities due to her declining health. She moved to Chicago to stay in the home of one of her daughters and died there of a brain embolism on March 18, 1898. While her name has not been remembered as well as other suffragists such as Anthony and Stanton, Gage's extensive body of feminist literature serves as a record of the philosophy that drove the women's rights movement in her day. The rediscovery of these works by scholars is gradually reestablishing her reputation as one of the most influential voices among nineteenth-century woman reformers.

Early activities

Matilda Gage spent her childhood in a house which was a station of the underground railroad. She faced prison for her actions under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 which criminalized assistance to escaped slaves. Even though she was beset by both financial and physical (cardiac) problems throughout her life, her work for women's rights was extensive, practical, and often brilliantly executed.

Gage became involved in the women's rights movement in 1852 when she decided to speak at the National Women's Rights Convention in Syracuse, New York. She served as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association from 1875 to 1876, and served as either Chair of the Executive Committee or Vice President for over twenty years. During the 1876 convention, she successfully argued against a group of police who claimed the association was holding an illegal assembly. They left without pressing charges.

Gage was considered to be more radical than either Susan B. Anthony or Elizabeth Cady Stanton (with whom she wrote History of Woman Suffrage). Along with Stanton, she was a vocal critic of the Christian Church, which put her at odds with conservative suffragists such as Frances Willard and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Rather than arguing that women deserved the vote because their feminine morality would then properly influence legislation (as the WCTU did), she argued that they deserved suffrage as a 'natural right'.

Despite her opposition to the Church, Gage was in her own way deeply religious, and she joined Stanton's Revising Committee to write The Woman's Bible. She became a theosophist and encouraged her children and their spouses to do so, some of whom did.

Editor of The National Citizen

Gage was well-educated and a prolific writer--the most gifted and educated woman of her age, claimed her devoted son-in-law, L. Frank Baum. She corresponded with numerous newspapers, reporting on developments in the woman suffrage movement. In 1878 she bought the Ballot Box, a monthly journal of a Toledo, Ohio suffrage association, when its editor, Sarah R.L. Williams, decided to retire. Gage turned it into The National Citizen and Ballot Box, explaining her intentions for the paper thus:

Its especial object will be to secure national protection to women citizens in the exercise of their rights to vote...it will oppose Class Legislation of whatever form...Women of every class, condition, rank and name will find this paper their friend (Reference: "Prospectus", page 1)

Gage became its primary editor for the next three years (until 1881), producing and publishing essays on a wide range of issues. Each edition bore the words 'The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword', and included regular columns about prominent women in history and female inventors. Gage wrote clearly, logically, and often with a dry wit and a well-honed sense of irony. Writing about laws which allowed a man to will his children to a guardian unrelated to their mother, Gage observed:

It is sometimes better to be a dead man than a live woman. (Reference: "All The Rights I Want" page 2.)

Political activities

As a result of the campaigning of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association under Gage, the state of New York granted female suffrage for electing members of the school boards. Gage ensured that every woman in her area (Fayetteville, New York) had the opportunity to vote by writing letters making them aware of their rights, and sitting at the polls making sure nobody was turned away.

In 1871, Gage was part of a group of 10 women who attempted to vote. Reportedly, she stood by and argued with the polling officials on behalf of each individual woman. She supported Victoria Woodhull and (later) Ulysses S Grant in the 1872 presidential election. In 1873 she defended Susan B. Anthony when Anthony was placed on trial for having voted in that election, making compelling legal and moral arguments.

In 1884, Gage was an Elector-at-Large for Belva Lockwood and the Equal Rights Party.

Founder of the Women's National Liberal Union

Gage unsuccessfully tried to prevent the conservative takeover of the women's suffrage movement. Susan B. Anthony who had helped to found the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), was primarily concerned with gaining the vote, an outlook which Gage found too narrow. Conservative suffragists were drawn into the organisation, and these women tended not to support general social reform, or attacks on the church.

The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), part of the conservative wing of the suffrage movement (and formerly at odds with the National), was open to the prospect of merging with the NWSA under Anthony, while Anthony was working toward unifying the suffrage movement under the single goal of gaining the vote. The merger of the two organizations, pushed through by Lucy Stone, Alice Stone Blackwell and Anthony, produced the National American Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890. While Stanton and Gage maintained their radical positions, they found that the only women's issue really unifying the NAWSA was the move for suffrage.

This prompted Gage to establish the Women's National Liberal Union (WNLU) in 1890, of which she was president until her death (by stroke) in 1898. Attracting more radical members than NAWSA, the WNLU was the perfect mouthpiece for her attacks on religion. She became the editor of the official journal of the WNLU, The Liberal Thinker.

Gage was an avid opponent of the various Christian churches, and she strongly supported the separation of church and state, believing "that the greatest injury to the world has arisen from theological laws,-from a union of Church and State". She wrote in October 1881,

Believing this country to be a political and not a religious organisation...the editor of the NATIONAL CITIZEN will use all her influence of voice and pen against "Sabbath Laws", the uses of the "Bible in School," and pre-eminently against an amendment which shall introduce "God in the Constitution." (Reference: "God in the Constitution", page 2)

In 1893, she published Woman, Church and State, a book which outlined the variety of ways in which Christianity had oppressed women and reinforced patriarchal systems. It was wide-ranging and built extensively upon arguments and ideas she had previously put forth in speeches (and in a chapter of History of Woman Suffrage which bore the same name).

Views on social issues

Like many other suffragists, Gage considered abortion a regrettable tragedy, although her views on the subject were more complex than simple opposition. In 1868, she wrote a letter to The Revolution (a women's rights paper edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury), supporting the typical women's rights view of the time that abortion was an institution supported, dominated and furthered by men. Gage opposed abortion on principle, blaming it on the 'selfish desire' of husbands to maintain their wealth by reducing their offspring:

"The short article on "Child Murder" in your paper of March 12 that touched a subject which lies deeper down in woman's wrongs than any other. This is the denial of the right to herself ... nowhere has the marital union of the sexes been one in which woman has had control over her own body.

Enforced motherhood is a crime against the body of the mother and the soul of the child....But the crime of abortion is not one in which the guilt lies solely or even chiefly with the woman....I hesitate not to assert that most of this crime of "child murder," "abortion," "infanticide," lies at the door of the male sex.

Many a woman has laughed a silent, derisive laugh at the decisions of eminent medical and legal authorities, in cases of crimes committed against her as a woman. Never, until she sits as juror on such trials, will or can just decisions be rendered." (Reference: "Is Woman Her Own?" pages 215-216.)

Gage was quite concerned with the rights of a woman over her own life and body. In 1881 she wrote, on the subject of divorce:

"When they preach as does Rev. Crummell, of "the hidden mystery of generation, the wondrous secret of propagated life, committed to the trust of woman," they bring up a self-evident fact of nature which needs no other inspiration, to show the world that the mother, and the not the father, is the true head of the family, and that she should be able to free herself from the adulterous husband, keeping her own body a holy temple for its divine-human uses, of which as priestess and holder of the altar she alone should have control. (Reference: "A Sermon Against Woman," page 2.)

Other feminists of the period referred to "voluntary motherhood," achieved through consensual nonprocreative sexual practices, periodic or permanent sexual abstinence, or (most importantly) the right of a woman (especially a wife) to refuse sex.^{[citation needed]}

Works about Native Americans in the United States by Lewis Henry Morgan and Henry Rowe Schoolcraft also influenced Gage. She decried the brutal treatment of Native Americans in her writings and public speeches. She was angered that the Federal government of the United States attempted to confer citizenship (including suffrage) upon Native Americans (who, Gage argued, opposed taxation, and generally did not seek citizenship) while still withholding the vote from women. She wrote in 1878:

"That the Indians have been oppressed - are now, is true, but the United States has treaties with them, recognising them as distinct political communities, and duty towards them demands not an enforced citizenship but a faithful living up to its obligations on the part of the government." (Reference: "Indian Citizenship," page 2)

In her 1893 work Woman, Church and State she cited the Iroquois society, among others, as a 'Matriarchate' in which women had true power, noting that a system of descent through the female line and female property rights led to a more equal relationship between men and women. Gage spent time among the Iroquois and received the name Karonienhawi - "she who holds the sky" - upon her initiation into the Wolf Clan. She was admitted into the Iroquois Council of Matrons.

Family

A daughter of the early abolitionist Hezekiah Joslyn, Gage was the wife of Henry Hill Gage, with whom she had five children: Charles Henry (who died in infancy), Helen Leslie, Thomas Clarkson, Julia Louise, and Maud. Gage maintained residence in Fayetteville, New York for the majority of her life. Though Gage was cremated, there is a memorial stone at Fayetteville Cemetery that bears her slogan "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven. That word is Liberty."

Maud, who was ten years younger than Julia, initially horrified her mother when she chose to marry The Wonderful Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum at a time when he was a struggling actor with only a handful of plays (of which only The Maid of Arran survives) to his writing credit. However, a few minutes after the initial announcement, Gage started laughing, apparently realizing that her emphasis on all individuals making up their own minds was not lost on her headstrong daughter, who gave up a chance at a law career when the opportunity for women was rare. Gage spent six months of every year with Maud and Frank, and died in the Baum home in Chicago, Illinois in 1898.

Gage’s son Thomas Clarkson Gage and his wife Sophia had a daughter named Dorothy Louise Gage, who was born in Bloomington, IL, on June 11, 1898 and died just five months later on Nov. 11, 1898.^[1] The death so upset the child’s aunt Maud, who had always longed for a daughter, that she required medical attention. Thomas Clarkson Gage’s child was the namesake of her uncle Frank Baum’s famed fictional character, Dorothy Gale.^[2] In 1996, Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, a biographer of Matilda Joslyn Gage, located young Dorothy’s grave in Bloomington. A memorial was erected in the child’s memory at her gravesite on May 21, 1997. This child is often mistaken for her cousin of the same name, Dorothy Louise Gage (1883-1889), Helen Leslie (Gage) Gage’s child.^[3] As theosophists, both the Baums and the Gages believed in reincarnation, and thought this child might have been Matilda Joslyn Gage, whose personal spark is apparently written into the character.

In The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story, Gage was played by Rue McClanahan, whose relationship with Frank was wrongly portrayed as antagonistic, and falsely presented Gage as the inspiration for the Wicked Witch of the West.^{[citation needed]} Annette O'Toole played Maud, and Nancy Morgan and Pat Skipper played Helen and Charles, respectively.

Publications

Gage acted as editor of The National Citizen and Ballot Box, May 1878 - October 1881, (available on microfilm) and as editor of The Liberal Thinker, from 1890 - onwards. These publications offered her the opportunity to publish essays and opinion pieces. The following is a partial list of published works:

"Is Woman Her Own?", published in The Revolution, April 9, 1868, ed. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Parker Pillsbury. pp 215-216.
"Prospectus", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. May 1878 p 1.
"Indian Citizenship", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. May 1878 p 2.
"All The Rights I Want", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. January 1879 p 2.
"A Sermon Against Woman", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. September 1881 p 2.
"God in the Constitution", published in The National Citizen and Ballot Box, ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. October 1881 p 2.
Woman As Inventor, 1870, Fayetteville, NY: F.A. Darling
History of Woman Suffrage, 1881, Chapters by Cady Stanton, E., Anthony, S.B., Gage, M. E. J., Harper, I.H. (published again in 1985 by Salem NH: Ayer Company)
The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, 14 and 21 March, 1891, editor and editorials. It is possible she wrote some previous unsigned editorials, rather than L. Frank Baum, for whom she completed the paper's run.
Woman, Church and State, 1893 (published again in 1980 by Watertowne MA: Persephone Press)

The Matilda effect

In 1993, scientific historian Margaret W. Rossiter coined the term "Matilda effect", after Matilda Gage, to identify the social situation where woman scientists inaccurately receive less credit for their scientific work than an objective examination of their actual effort would reveal. The "Matilda effect" is a corollary to the "Matthew effect", which was postulated by the sociologist Robert K. Merton.

References

Notes

^ Willingham, Elaine. “The Story of Dorothy Gage, the Namesake for Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz..” (1998) http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/dorothygage.html
^ Willingham, Elaine. “The Story of Dorothy Gage, the Namesake for Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz..” (1998) http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/dorothygage.html
^ Willingham, Elaine. “The Story of Dorothy Gage, the Namesake for Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz..” (1998) http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/dorothygage.html

Bibliography

Brammer, Leila R. "Excluded from Suffrage History: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Nineteenth Century American Feminist", 2000, Greenwood Publishing Group Inc. ISBN 0-313-30467-X ISSN 0147-104X
Gordon, Linda. Woman's Body, Woman's Right: Birth Control in America (New York, Penguin, 1990), pp. 95-115: "Voluntary Motherhood"
Rivette, Barbara S. Rivette. Fayetteville’s First Woman Voter: Matilda Joslyn Gage. (Fayetteville, New York: Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, 2006)
Margaret W. Rossiter: The ~~Matthew~~ Matilda Effect in Science. in: Social Studies of Science. Sage Publ., London 23.1993, S. 325-341. ISSN 0306-3127
Wagner, Sally Roesch. Matilda Joslyn Gage: She Who Holds the Sky. (Aberdeen, South Dakota: Sky Carrier Press, 1998)
Wagner, Sally Roesch. The Wonderful Mother of Oz (Fayetteville, New York: The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, 2003)

External links

The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation
Will of Matilda Joslyn Gage
Matilda Joslyn Gage Papers.Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.