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Despite strict roles for men and women by class and race, and strong criticism of unconventional behavior during the early 1800s, activists and agitators chose to live their lives with greater freedom than they had been born into. Step by step on the long path of achieving more rights for all people, the perseverance, stubbornness and determination of women like Betsey Bailey, Harriet Bailey and Anna Murray, all women central to Frederick Douglass’s life, passed on a better world for all. While the amount of correspondence and information about the great orator’s life has been available to researchers, what’s been known about the key role of women in the social reform movements of the 1900s is finally coming to light for interested readers.

This is part one of a three-part series that was published in The Epitaph, a newsletter put out by The Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery. You can download it as a PDF for free.

Genesee Country, composed of Allegany, Genesee, Wyoming, Livingston, Monroe and Ontario Counties near the Genesee River in western New York, is rich in local history with national importance. The Seneca and Algonkin nations once called this lush land home, and after the American Revolution, settlers came in hordes to till the soil and raise families. The region later became a hotbed of activity for abolitionists, early supporters of women's rights and religious movements that influenced the entire United States. In this book, author and local historian Rose O'Keefe chronicles the sites where these and other important events took place. Join her on a tour of Genesee Country's legacies.