Amelia+Bloomer+-+F08



"//It was a needed instrument to spread abroad the truth of a new gospel to woman, and I could not withhold my hand to stay the work I had begun. I saw not the end from the beginning and dreamed where to my propositions to society would lead me// ." -- Amelia Bloomer, describing her feelings on her newspaper.

//"Woman has too long rested satisfied in the circumscribed limits which corrupt customs and a perverted application of the Scriptures have marked out for her, and that it is time she should move in the enlarged sphere which her great Creator has assigned her." --// The Seneca Falls Declaration on Women's Rights, July 19-20, 1848

__**Amelia Bloomer**__

My name is Amelia Bloomer. I was born in Homer, New York in 1818 to a modest family. I have only had two years of formal education but have been told by peers that my mind is more mature than my body. At the age of 22, I married my darling husband, Dexter Bloomer, a lawyer and I now live in Seneca Falls, New York, with him at my side. It is he that encouraged and inspired me to write my feelings on women's rights in his own newspaper, //The Seneca Falls Courier.// From there on, it was progression of hearsay.

I am the first woman in the United States to ever own, operate and edit a newspaper for women. I felt driven in this direction because of the injustice that we, as women, have had to suffer for years, decades, maybe centuries. I believe my newspaper, //The Lily//, has inspired many other women to do the same; to speak openly about their views on social inequality. I use //The Lily// as a voice, not only to myself, but to my graceful fellow suffragette, Elizabeth Stanton, the very woman whom brought to me the idea of womens' suffrage. I am extremely dedicated to my part as a leader of the womens right's movement and will stay this way until the day that I die. I have even tried my damnedest to make fashionable clothing that will allow women to move and work easier whilst keeping their dignity. At first, many people would laugh when they saw me in the streets, but i have noticed that over the years these women have adopted this style -longer "bloomers" and shorter dresses- indeed finding it much more comfortable and practical than the average long skirt dress, just as i had envisioned. I just hope that works with my utmost objective. My ultimate goal is to get rights for women so that we, too, are free. Free to vote, free to go to places we have never been able to go before, free to take office in high positions of work, free to say and think whatever we please. I believe //The Lily// will get the word out to those trapped women and i hope it will spark their imagination, to one day bring our eventual goal; freedom.

Wasn't it the very Constitution in which you work, Mr Jackson, that gave the American people the dream of freedom? Didn't you make it come true? I personally think that you, as the President of the United States, can give us the supreme conformation of the ambition which, i know, is not my own. Look around you Mr President, a new age is evolving, a time in which we may be faced with tough decisions, harder ones than this, that's for sure. I ask for you and your administrations support in the accomplishment of social equality. We, the United States, will be known for this fact in future years. Imagine, the United States of America, the //first// nation in the world to give equal rights to women and in doing so influenced the world to follow.

__**Bibliography**__

"Amelia Bloomer." __Greatwomen.org__. National Women's Wall of Fame. 2 Oct. 2008 .

Kerley, Jessica P. "Amelia Bloomer." __Kenyon College__. 11 May 2001. 2 Oct. 2008 .