Friday, September 12, 2025
Tonight the topic of Lucretia Mott came up, and it stirred memories in me which I'll explain. For some reason, she really stirs people up.
There are several reasons. First was that she was a very strong speaker, so that virtually everything she said was memorable and seemed to cut through time to speak to us today. She was born into a New England seafaring family and they seemed to be intense by nature, whether they were whaling or traveling around the world. But she ended up in Philadelphia, heart of the civilized world at the time, being a champion of women's rights and other things.
Second was I think that the times she lived in were very intense. People wrestled with basic questions of human freedom and dignity. In short, she had many opportunities to use her clear strong voice for the power of good.
One year I did a play for the dozen or so kids in our southern Illinois meeting in Carbondale. I wrote up this play based on very basic research into her life, and I learned a lot, though much of it I've forgotten and had to remind myself by digging out the rtf which you too can have by following the links on this template, free, right here online. Anyway the play was a success in our small town (Carbondale) and we were invited to perform it up in St. Louis, two hours north. Not every kid could make it so there was some shifting around of parts, etc. But the St. Louis meeting was much bigger and several of the old-timers were history buffs. Boy did they get stirred up! They came and congratulated us and wanted to talk the fine points of history - they agreed with everything that was written (unlike the Bartram play), but it just stirred them up to see the Quakers' role in that part of our early history. The main actors and actresses of course were glorying in just remembering their lines and delivering them well. The parents of our meeting had heard most of these lines dozens of times in the course of practicing; I know that I myself had the whole play well memorized by that time. In fact we might have even said to the new kids (replacement actors) - if you can't remember the line, just look at us in the front row and we'll give it to you.
It was all worth it, because so many people were so excited to see history played out right on their stage, in the meeting house. That's my main memory of that St. Louis meeting.
Lucretia, you made a difference.
There are several reasons. First was that she was a very strong speaker, so that virtually everything she said was memorable and seemed to cut through time to speak to us today. She was born into a New England seafaring family and they seemed to be intense by nature, whether they were whaling or traveling around the world. But she ended up in Philadelphia, heart of the civilized world at the time, being a champion of women's rights and other things.
Second was I think that the times she lived in were very intense. People wrestled with basic questions of human freedom and dignity. In short, she had many opportunities to use her clear strong voice for the power of good.
One year I did a play for the dozen or so kids in our southern Illinois meeting in Carbondale. I wrote up this play based on very basic research into her life, and I learned a lot, though much of it I've forgotten and had to remind myself by digging out the rtf which you too can have by following the links on this template, free, right here online. Anyway the play was a success in our small town (Carbondale) and we were invited to perform it up in St. Louis, two hours north. Not every kid could make it so there was some shifting around of parts, etc. But the St. Louis meeting was much bigger and several of the old-timers were history buffs. Boy did they get stirred up! They came and congratulated us and wanted to talk the fine points of history - they agreed with everything that was written (unlike the Bartram play), but it just stirred them up to see the Quakers' role in that part of our early history. The main actors and actresses of course were glorying in just remembering their lines and delivering them well. The parents of our meeting had heard most of these lines dozens of times in the course of practicing; I know that I myself had the whole play well memorized by that time. In fact we might have even said to the new kids (replacement actors) - if you can't remember the line, just look at us in the front row and we'll give it to you.
It was all worth it, because so many people were so excited to see history played out right on their stage, in the meeting house. That's my main memory of that St. Louis meeting.
Lucretia, you made a difference.
