In her engaging biography, Emerson’s Daughters, Kate Culkin brings out of the shadows two of “Concord’s favorite daughters,” Ellen and Edith, who had a “sisterhood built on correspondence,” and whose contributions have been all but lost until now.
In 1883, Lidian Emerson, widow of Ralph Waldo Emerson, hosted a gathering in her Concord home for Sarah Winnemucca, a Native American woman whose book Life Among the Piutes, Their Wrongs and Claims had recently been published. Mrs. Emerson and her friends were stalwart campaigners for human rights, and Sarah was on a mission to win justice for her people. This was just the kind of gathering that might help Sarah’s cause.
In 1837, Concord, Massachusetts was not a town recognized for its great abolitionist stance against slavery. During the 1830s and the 1840s, Concord was a town of nearly 2,000 residents with only a few dozen giving abolitionism much thought — let alone taking any action against slavery.
Concord’s transformation from a town that considered abolitionism as something of little concern to a town internationally recognized as a strong hub in the abolitionist movement began in the home of Mrs. Samuel Barrett. For years, prominent Concord women would rotate meeting in each other’s homes and talk of whom and how to help Concord’s neediest residents. They called themselves the Concord Female Charitable Society and the charitable work they accomplished was admirable. The Charitable Society also served as a political voice for these Concord women — a welcome outlet given the prescribed and narrow roles
for women at
that time.
