Abigail Jane Scott Duniway of Oregon devoted more than four decades of her life to the cause of equal rights for women. With only a country schooling and six months at formal academy, and with responsibility for an invalid farmer husband and six children, Abigail nonetheless became a school teacher, milliner, businesswoman, author, journalist, and vigorous proponent of equal rights. Well-read, well-informed, and broadly interested in public issues, trends, and reforms of the day, including abolition 1 , tem
As one of the most public women of her day, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, Abigail Scott Duniway already is well-known to many. But largely inaccessible or missing from the historical record altogether are the primary documents that tell the story of her career. This site makes many of these documents available, so that interested readers may learn about her and her times from her own words.
The campaign for equal suffrage was comprised of more than characters and events, more than interest groups and political strategy, more even than ideologies and attitudes. It ultimately was a persuasive campaign, comprised of ideas and arguments, claims and counter-claims, justifications and appeals. Its characters were speakers (and writers) and audiences. Its events were rhetorical acts (speeches, editorials, leaflets, rallies, and so on). From this perspective, the question of central concern is: How di