Antoinette Louisa Brown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Antoinette Brown, later Antoinette Brown Blackwell (May 20, 1825 – November 5, 1921), was the first woman to be ordained as a minister in the United States, when she was called to be the pastor of the Congregational church in South Butler, New York in 1853. Her ordination, however, was not recognized by her denomination.

Brown was born in Henrietta, New York, the daughter of Joseph Brown and Abby Morse. She spoke in church in her youth. She studied at the Monroe County Academy and taught for a few years.

She graduated from Oberlin College in 1847 and studied at the Oberlin Seminary until 1850, when she was refused a degree and ordination due to her gender. In 1854 she left that church to become a member of the Unitarian Church.

In 1856 she married Samuel Charles Blackwell, brother of Elizabeth Blackwell, one of the first female graduates of a medical school in the United States. Her husband's brother, Henry B. Blackwell, had married Antoinette's college friend, Lucy Stone. She and her husband resided in New York City and New Jersey. They had seven children, but two died in infancy.

She was a prominent speaker at many Women's Rights and Abolitionism meetings. She also lectured on behalf of the poor of New York City. Oberlin College awarded her honorary degrees in 1878 and 1908. She was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1920, at age 95, she was the only participant of the 1850 Women's Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, to see the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. She voted for Warren G. Harding in the 1920 presidential election.

Brown was the author of several books in the fields of theology and philosophy. She also combined science and philosophy, writing The Sexes Throughout Nature in 1875, in which she argued that evolution resulted in two sexes that were different but equal. She also wrote a novel, The Island Neighbors, in 1871, and a collection of poetry, Sea Drift, in 1902.

Antoinette Brown Blackwell died at the age of 96 in Elizabeth, New Jersey.