Early Suffragette and Abolitionist Anna Dickinson Accepts Invitation to Give a Lecture for the Cause in 1869

Anna Dickinson. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1 page letter with original CDV photograph. May 22, 1869. American abolitionist and suffragette writes to accept an invitation to speak. Letter and envelope in her own hand, signed "Anna E. Dickinson". Dickinson accepts the invitation to speak in New Bedford, Massachusetts, at the height of her enormously successful lecturing career "if my terms are satisfactory and you let me hear from you soon again." Dickinson was one of the most successful lecturers of the 19th century. An advocate for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights, Dickinson was the first woman to give a political address before the United States Congress. Dickinson was raised Quaker, and unlike other Americans, Quakers encouraged women to speak in public. Dickinson was named the "Civil War's Joan of Arc" for her promotion of the Union. She also spoke about reconstruction, African-American's rights, women's rights, and related issues like venereal disease. Along with her career as a lecturer, she was a writer, and her radical work tackled negative viewpoints about interracial marriage and argued for technical training for workers, better treatment of prisoners, assistance for the poor, and compulsory education for all children. She was a friend of the famous women's rights activists Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony, who sometimes addressed Dickinson as "Chickie Dickie" The letter is in fine condition with some archival tape reinforcing the horizontal fold; Carte-de-visite is likewise in very good condition, showing Dickinson in sly profile with light foxing in upper left corner. In this letter she is doing what she loved most, advancing the cause of the oppressed in America.