Antoinette brown blackwell biography sample
Antoinette Brown Blackwell
American philosopher
Antoinette Brown Blackwell | |
|---|---|
Blackwell, c. 1900 | |
| Born | Antoinette Louisa Brown (1825-05-20)May 20, 1825 Henrietta, New York |
| Died | November 5, 1921(1921-11-05) (aged 96) Elizabeth, New Jersey |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Antoinette Blackwell |
| Known for | First woman American ordained minister, Women's rights |
| Spouse | Samuel Charles Blackwell |
| Children | 7 |
Antoinette Louisa Brown, later Antoinette Brown Blackwell (May 20, 1825 – November 5, 1921), was the first woman to be ordained as a mainstream Protestant minister in the United States. She was a well-versed public speaker on the paramount issues of her time and distinguished herself from her contemporaries with her use of religious faith in her efforts to expand women's rights.
Early life and education
Brown was born the youngest of seven in Henrietta, New York, to Joseph Brown and Abby Morse. Brown was recognized as highly intelligent as early as three years old. The preaching of evangelist Charles Grandison Finney from nearby Rochester led Brown's family to join the Congregational Church. After daring to inject a prayer into her family's religious observance, Brown was accepted into the church before the age of nine. Shortly after becoming a member of the congregation, she began to preach during Sunday meetings. In 1841 at the age of 16, after completing her requisite early schooling at Monroe County Academy, Brown taught school herself. She did not intend to spend her life teaching and so she set her sights on a degree in theology from Oberlin College and a career in the pulpit.
For four years, Antoinette taught school and saved enough money to cover the cost of her tuition at Oberlin College in Ohio. Supported by her parents, who believed not only in equal education for men and women, but also for blacks, she enrolled at Oberlin College in 1846. At the college, she completed t by Davida Foy Crabtree| published on Mar 1, 2019 Blackwell did not study science, but she became a popular author, publishing Studies in General Science (1869)—and ten other books in the physical and social sciences. She was impressed by the expanding world of science and by much of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859). In her second book, The Sexes Throughout Nature (1875), she argued strongly for the equality of the sexes—making distinctions between equality and sameness and insisting, for example, that male and female lions each had attributes that strengthened the species. Darwin made lists of men and women in almost any field, but he always argued that males were superior. Blackwell objected, collecting her own data and using Darwin’s research, she compared male and female strengths and deficits, declaring that males and females of the same species were true equivalents. Blackwell thought that Darwin’s opinions were socially repugnant and scientifically in error, because “Men see clearly and think sharply when their sympathies are keenly enlisted, but not otherwise” Read more about “The Woman Who Challenged Darwin’s Sexism” in Smithsonian Magazine, November 201 Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921), was the first woman to be ordained as a minister in the United States. She was also a well-versed public speaker on the social reform issues of her time, and used her religious faith in her efforts to expand women’s rights. Always ahead of her time, she wrote prolifically on religion and science, constructing a theoretical foundation for sexual equality. Early Years One Sunday when Antoinette was eight, a visiting preacher challenged the people of her family’s church to give their lives to God. The following week Antoinette told her Sunday School teacher that she wanted to be a minister. The teacher firmly cautioned her that girls could not be ministers. At the age of sixteen, after completing her requisite early schooling at Monroe County Academy (1838-1840), Brown became a schoolteacher. However, she was not content with that profession and soon set her sights on a degree from Oberlin College in Ohio. In four years of teaching, she saved enough money to cover the cost of her tuition. Supported by her parents, who believed in equal education for men and women, Brown enrolled at Oberlin in 1846. After receiving her literary degree (the prescribed course for women students) in 1847, Brown requested to be admitted to the theology department in order to train for the ministry. Although Oberlin espoused education for women, the administration opposed the idea of a female engaging in any kind of theological training. Brown’s family were also against this. Brown was adamant and finally, as a comp Known for: first woman in the United States ordained by a congregation in a major Christian denomination Dates: May 20, 1825 - November 5, 1921 Occupation: minister, reformer, suffragist, lecturer, writer Born on a farm in frontier New York, Antoinette Brown Blackwell was the seventh of ten children. She was active from the age of nine in her local Congregational church, and decided to become a minister. After teaching for a few years, she enrolled in one of the few colleges open to women, Oberlin College, taking the women's curriculum and then the theological course. However, she and another woman student were not permitted to graduate from that course, because of their gender. At Oberlin College, a fellow student, Lucy Stone, became a close friend, and they maintained this friendship throughout life. After college, not seeing options in ministry, Antoinette Brown began lecturing on women's rights, enslavement, and temperance. Then she found a position in 1853 at the South Butler Congregational Church in Wayne County, New York. She was paid the small annual salary (even for that time) of $300. It was not long, however, before Antoinette Brown realized that her religious views and ideas about women's equality were more liberal than those of the Congregationalists. An experience in 1853 also may have added to her unhappiness: she atttended the World's Temperance Convention but, though a delegate, was refused the right to speak. She asked to be let go from her ministerial position in 1854. After some months in New York City working as a reformer while writing of her experiences for the New York Tribune, she married Samuel Blackwell on January 24, 1856. She met him at the 1853 temperance convention, and discovered that he shared many of her beliefs and values, including supporting women's equality. Antoinette's friend Luc New Insights about Antoinette Brown Blackwell
The United Church of Christ honors the life of Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825-1921). In 1853 she was the first woman ordained to Christian ministry in a mainstream Protestant denomination in the United States.
Blackwell knew that people would think her brash to take on great men of science, but she felt she had no alternative. “Only a woman can approach the subject from a feminine standpoint; and there are none but beginners among us in this class of investigations. However great the disadvantages. . . , these will never be lessened by waiting.”
Blackwell was a pioneer ordained woman minister, a relentless advocate for women’s rights, and a skilled science writer challenging masculine assumptions.First Ordained Woman Minister and Social Reformer
Antoinette Louisa Brown was born in Henrietta, New York on May 20, 1825, the daughter of Joseph and Abby Morse Brown. From childhood on she preferred writing and men’s farm chores to housework. Brown’s parents were very religious and, during her childhood, they were inspired by the many of the revivals sweeping through upstate New York at that time.Antoinette Brown Blackwell
Antoinette Brown Blackwell Biography
Oberlin College
Ministry and Marriage