Description
There were no microphones in the struggle for suffrage. Radio didn't yet exist. Public lectures were the only way to hear new ideas, and giving a public lecture in halls like NYC’s Cooper Union or the Academy of Music in Phila. meant projecting your voice to a crowd of
Anna Dickinson gave her first public lecture in 1860, at age 18. A radical Republican who disdained Lincoln as too soft on slavery, she quickly became a political sensation. She was adopted by abolitionist luminaries like Lucretia Mott, Robert Purvis, and William Lloyd Garrison.
Speaking without notes, Dickinson crafted complex legal arguments against slavery. Over the next two years she became increasingly famous, commanding substantial fees. She was merciless with hecklers, Confederates, and anti-war Democrats known as Copperheads. Tomorrow: Congress.