Elizabeth Blackwell - part I

June 14, 2010

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Elizabeth Blackwell was born on February 3, 1821, near Bristol, England. Her mother was Hannah Lane and her father Samuel Blackwell. She was the third of nine surviving children. They were raised in a close-knit, highly religious and moral family, in a house on Wilson Street, off Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol.

Elizabeth parents were religious Quakers. They had the intimate conviction that all men and women were equal in the eyes of God.

Because of their religious and moral beliefs they were anti-slavery, abolitionists, and Elizabeth's father was involved in social reform. Samuel Blackwell was a prominent sugar refiner in the British port city of Bristol, and he always thought, in spite of the dominant ideas of those days, that his daughters should get the same education as his sons. All his children received &#&homeschool&#& education, that is, their teachers were private tutors at home.

Unfortunately Samuel Blackwell's business was destroyed by fire one night when Elizabeth was 11 years old. After this misfortune, for financial reasons, and wanting to help abolish slavery, in 1832 her father decided to leave his country and the whole family moved to the Unites States.

In New York City they became deeply involved in the American abolitionist movement, attending meetings. They help an escaped slave for several weeks, hiding him in their home while he was on his way to Canada.

Samuel's business weren't prosperous at first in New York City, and when he was offered to open a refinery in Ohio, where no slaves were needed to harvest the sugar, he accepted the opportunity and they moved to Cincinnati. Lamentably three months later Samuel Blackwell died, in 1837, leaving his grieving family without financial resources.

Those were very difficult days for sure, living in a strange city, among strangers, and without Samuel, but they didn't surrender.

Year later, when Samuel Blackwell's children were adults, following their father's example they supported the anti-slavery movement and campaigned passionately for women's rights.

Elizabeth Blackwell, who was seventeen years old, her two older sisters Anna and Marian, and their mother, opened in Cincinnati a &#& private school&#&, which they sustained satisfactorily several years, to support the family.