Product Overview
Clarina Nichols (1810-1885) was set apart from other 19th century women activistsboth physically and emotionally. As one of the few feminists to follow the nations westward expansion, Nichols was separated from the womens movement just as it began to flourish under the leadership of Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other Easterners. Unlike many activists, Nichols personally experienced some of the most troubling heartbreaks and hardships that a married woman of her day could know. This hard-won knowledge led her to sacrifice both health and financial well-being to right the wrongs that were tolerated in her time. Driven by a deep inner need to end the mistreatment of women, Clarina Nichols left the comforts of her Vermont home and moved West to the wild frontier of Bleeding Kansas, where her sons fought alongside John Brown and she helped shaped the states new Constitution to free slaves and give women rights they had no where else in America. Nowfor the first timethe story of Clarina Nichols comes alive thanks to Diane Eickhoff, whose meticulous, six-year quest to collect and analyze Nicholss scattered writings and papers has yielded a richer understanding of this remarkable pioneer. Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Womens Rights is an original piece of scholarship praised by academic historians, yet it is written for general readers, like the thousands of people who have heard Eickhoff perform Nicholss speeches at chautauquas and other humanities events. Amply illustrated, with detailed notes and an appendix that includes a concise history of the early womens movement, Revolutionary Heart is more than an engaging biography; it is a window into an unjustly overlooked period in American history about the three great 19th century reform movementsabolition, womens rights and temperance.
