Ladies Walk

Boston Public Library, Bates Reading Room

700 Boylston Street

Busts of Lucy Stone and of her daughter Alice Stone Blackwell (1857-1950) sit together on top of the mantel. The bust of Lucy Stone was sculpted by Anne Whitney in 1892 for the exhibition at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1904 it was presented to the Boston Public Library by Judith Winsor Smith, a local suffrage activist. Anne Whitney was one of America’s most distinguished sculptors. She also did the statues of Sam Adams at Faneuil Hall and of Charles Sumner in Harvard Square.

The bust of Lucy Stone’s only child Alice Stone Blackwell was sculpted by Frances Rich and presented to the library by the League of Women Voters of Boston. Alice Stone Blackwell was an active suffragist in her own right, carrying on her mother’s work at the Woman’s Journal, and embracing many other liberal causes throughout her life.

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Massachusetts State House

24 Beacon Street

Lucy Stone is one of six women represented in the bas-relief mural Hear Us by Sheila Levrant de Bretteville and Susan Sellers, 1999. The mural, part of the State House Women’s Leadership Project initiated to make State House art more inclusive, was commissioned by The Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Each of these women were chosen for having made a major contribution to the government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. To learn more about the mural, take home the handsome pamphlet describing the project. Lucy Stone addressed the Massachusetts Legislature in the Senate chambers in 1853, calling for equal rights for women. She was an exceptionally talented public speaker with unusual power over her audience. Lucy Stone had toured the country speaking for abolition and women’s rights and was one of the first women in the United States to make a career of lecturing.

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Old South Meeting House

310 Washington Street

On August 18, 1771, Phillis Wheatley, who was very religious, became a member of this church. Old South Meeting House, which has been a museum since 1878, honors Phillis Wheatley with a wonderful exhibit. Be sure to go in to see the inside of this lovely, historic church and a copy of her book of poems. Remember that at the time churches in Boston were not integrated, so Phillis Wheatley had to sit in the gallery out of sight of white congregants and the minister. Further, many doubted an enslaved African woman could write poetry, so the publisher required that she be interrogated by a committee of 18 distinguished male leaders, including John Hancock, who then officially confirmed that she was indeed the author of the poetry.

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Corner of Beach and Tyler Streets

This is where Phillis Wheatley landed in Boston on July 11, 1761, on the slave ship “Phillis.” She was named after the ship by Susannah and John Wheatley when they purchased her here at Griffins Wharf. Notice the marker placed here by the Bostonian Society. Imagine Phillis Wheatley, a small child, age 7 or 8, speaking no English, coming off the ship after a very long voyage during which she must have suffered terribly, then riding in a carriage back to the Wheatley mansion. Who could have dreamed that she would become the mother of African-American literature?

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Old State House

206 Washington Street

On July 18, 1776, Abigail Adams went to the Old State House, then called the New Town House, where the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time in Massachusetts. This poster, created 167 years after the event, closely matches Abigail’s description.

She wrote her husband John: “Last Thursday … I went with the Multitude into Kings Street to hear the proclamation for independence read and proclamed…When Col. Crafts read from the Belcona of the State House the Proclamation, great attention was given to every word. As soon as he ended, the cry from the Belcona was God Save our American States and then 3 cheers which rended the air, the Bells rang, the privateers fired, the forts and Batteries, the cannon were discharged, the platoons followed and every face appeard joyfull….After dinner the kings arms were taken down from the State House and every vestige of him from every place in which it appeard and burnt in King Street. Thus ends royall Authority in this State and all the people shall say Amen”
Letter, July 21, 1776

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Corner of State and Kilby Streets

As you stand at this corner, look at this print of the buildings and streets. Phillis Wheatley lived right on this corner in the heart of the city in the Wheatley’s mansion, at what was then King Street and Mackerel Lane, from 1761-1774. From the windows of the mansion she could have seen lots of comings and goings and lots of “revolutionary” action, including patriots protesting the Stamp Act, or the Redcoats marching up from the harbor. Many of her poems were inspired by nearby events such as the Boston Massacre.

In this house, Phillis Wheatley proved herself a genius, learning English in only 16 months with the Wheatley’s daughter Mary as her tutor, and then going on to master Greek and Latin and write poetry. Phillis Wheatley’s Book of Poems was published in England in 1773. In 1774, 300 copies arrived in Boston and sold quickly. That same year, at age 21, Phillis Wheatley became a free woman, and, when the Wheatleys left their mansion during the conflicts surrounding the occupation of Boston by British troops, she moved to Providence, RI, to live with Mary Wheatley. She also wrote a special letter to the Reverend Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian Christian missionary, about freedom. An excerpt from it is on the Women’s Memorial.

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Faneuil Hall

4 South Market Street

As you can see, Lucy Stone is the only woman represented in all of Faneuil Hall! She joined the men in 2001. Her bust was done by artist Lloyd Lillie. His other work includes a statue of Abigail Adams in Quincy and a sculpture of 19 assembled bronze figures at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY. He also did the statues of James Michael Curley and Red Auerbach here in Boston.

In 1873, on the 100th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Lucy Stone organized a suffrage meeting she named the New England Women’s Tea Party. The call said: The women of New England who believe that “TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION IS TYRANNY” and that our forefathers were justified in resisting despotic power by throwing the tea into Boston Harbor, hereby invite the men and women of New England to unite with them in celebrating the One Hundredth Anniversary of that event, in Faneuil Hall, on MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING, DEC 15, from 4 to 9 P.M.

The December 20 edition of the Woman’s Journal reported that “Long before the hour appointed for the opening of the meeting, the crowd began to assemble, and at 4 o’clock the Hall was literally packed solid with a dense mass of humanity, composed of ladies and gentlemen representing all classes in life who were interested in the object of the meeting – the elevation of Woman to an equality with men in citizenship, no less than the celebration of the patriotic deed of our forefathers.”

In her speech, Lucy Stone, introduced as “the founder of the feast,” said “We are taxed, and we have no representation. We are governed without our consent. We are fined, imprisoned, and hung with no jury trial by our peers. We have no legal right to our children, nor power to sell our land, nor will our money.”

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