Radical Friend: Amy Kirby Post and Her Activist Worlds

447 Pages·2018·9.44 MB·English

by  Nancy A Hewitt

Radical Friend
Radical Friend
Amy Kirby Post and Her Activist Worlds
NANCY A. HEWITT
The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill
© 2018 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Set in Charis and Lato by Westchester Publishing Services
Manufactured in the United States of America
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hewitt, Nancy A., 1951– author.
Title: Radical friend : Amy Kirby Post and her activist worlds / Nancy A. Hewitt.
Description: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017044377 | ISBN 9781469640327 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781469640334 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Post, Amy Kirby, 1802– | Quaker women—New York (State)—Biography. | Social
reformers—New York (State)—Biography. | Women radicals—New York (State)—Biography. | Social
movements—United States—History—19th century.
Classification: LCC BX7795.P65 H49 2018 | DDC 289.6092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017044377
For Mary M. Huth, who inspired me to begin
For Irene Hewitt, Will Hewitt, and Neerja Bhatnager, who cheered me on
&
For Steven F. Lawson, who sustained me to the end
Contents
Cast of Characters
Introduction
1 Family and Faith, 1790–1828
2 Frontier Friends, 1828–1836
3 Worldly Associations, 1836–1841
4 Abolitionist Bonds, 1842–1847
5 Orchestrating Change, 1847–1848
6 Shifting Alliances, 1849–1853
7 Practical Righteousness, 1854–1861
8 Coming Together, 1862–1872
9 Sustaining Visions, 1873–1889
Photographs
Acknowledgments
Note on Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Map
City of Rochester, 1851, 90
Cast of Characters
Jericho and Westbury Family and F/friends
Amy Kirby (AK), b. 1802, d. 1889
Mary Seaman Kirby, AK’s mother, d. 1854
Jacob Kirby, AK’s father, d. 1859
Mary W. Kirby, AK’s sister, b. 1791 m. John Willis Hannah Kirby, AK’s sister,
b. 1799, d. 1827 m. Isaac Post, 1821; daughter Mary, b. 1823; son Edmund, b.
1825
Elizabeth Kirby, AK’s sister, b. 1814 m. James Mott Sarah Kirby, AK’s sister, b.
1818
Esther Seaman and Willet Robbins, AK’s aunt and uncle Mary Robbins, b. 1806,
AK’s first cousin and confidante m. Joseph Post 1828, Isaac Post’s brother
John and Rebecca Ketcham, AK’s cousins
Jemima Seaman, Mary Seaman Kirby’s cousin m. Elias Hicks 1771, Quaker
minister and antislavery advocate Isaac Post, b. 1798, d. 1872, Westbury,
N.Y.; moves to Ledyard, N.Y., after marrying Hannah Kirby in 1821
Phebe Post Willis and Lydia Post Rushmore, Isaac Post’s married sisters
Edmund and Joseph Post, Isaac Post’s brothers
Charles Willets, Isaac Post’s first cousin and AK’s fiancé, d. 1826
Amy Willis and Anna Greene, AK’s childhood friends Society of Friends
Traveling Ministers and Visitors
Elias Hicks, advocate of reforming Quaker practices and leader of Hicksite
faction Lucretia and James Mott, Kirby cousins and weighty Philadelphia
Hicksite Friends Anna Braithewaite, English Friend opposed to Elias Hicks’s
views Priscilla Coffin Hunt Cadwalader, Hicksite minister Joseph John
Gurney, English reform-minded minister, visited central N.Y. late 1830s
Rachel Hicks and George White, Hicksite ministers opposed to worldly
activism Isaac Hopper, prominent Hicksite, disowned for exciting discord
over worldly activism Thomas and Mary Ann M’Clintock, Philadelphia
Hicksites, moved to Waterloo, N.Y.
Charles Townsend, Hicksite visitor to Genesee Yearly Meeting 1835
Ledyard and Central New York Family and F/friends
Amy Kirby m. Isaac Post, 1828 in Ledyard
Stepchildren: Mary and Edmund (d. 1830); sons Jacob (b. 1829), Joseph (b.
1832), Henry (b. 1834) Sarah Kirby, Amy Kirby Post’s (AKP) sister, b. 1818,
spends extended time in central N.Y.
Phebe Post Willis, stayed with Posts after traveling with Lucretia Mott Rhoda
and Elias DeGarmo, Post F/friends, moved to Rochester in 1834
Sarah and Benjamin Fish, Post F/riends, moved to Rochester c. 1829
Anna Greene, F/friend of AKP
Benjamin and Mary Howland, Orthodox Quaker neighbors of the Posts Lydia
and Abigail Mott, AKP cousins, Abolitionists (Ab) Sarah and Phebe Thayer,
AKP cousin and her daughter, Ab Esther and Frances Titus, AKP cousin and
daughter, Ab, later Freedmen’s Aid Susan White, Post F/friend, m. Elias Doty
1833, Ab Hannah Willets, F/friend of AKP
Rochester, N.Y., Family Members
Amy and Isaac Post, move to Rochester in 1836
Children: Mary Post m. William Hallowell 1843; Jacob Post m. Jennie Curtis
1857; Joseph Post m. Mary Jane (Mate) Ashley 1854; Henry, b. 1834, d.
1837; Mathilda, b. 1840, d. 1844; Willet, b. 1847, m. Josephine Wheeler 1877
Sarah Kirby, m. Jeffries Hallowell 1838, moves to Rochester; Hallowell, d. 1844
m. Edmund Willis 1853, Isaac’s nephew, moves to Rochester in 1838
George and Ann Willets, Isaac Post cousins, move to Rochester c. 1848
Post Servants
Sarah Birney, Irish servant, hired 1847
Bridget Head, Irish servant, hired c. 1848
Mary Dale (Johnson), English servant, hired 1849; boards with AKP, 1870–80
Henry Van Auken, hired boy, c. 1876–80
Activists Living with Posts
William C. Nell, lives with Posts 1847–49 and 1851–52
Frances Nell, William Nell’s sister, lives with Posts 1848