October 5, 2008 Waterford Town Fair, Waterford, Virginia
There’s more to our story than day-to-day politics – and women’s reaction to it.
We are also focusing on women who shaped politics in the state years ago. That’s why one day we crouched before rows of worn tombstones looking for John and Emma Dutton’s graves in the Quaker cemetery in Waterford, Virginia. John M. Souders, a local historian, searched alongside us until we found the makers on one row deep into the cemetery.
The Duttons were pacifists during the Civil War. John Dutton ran a store in Waterford, but fled to Maryland to avoid conscription in the Confederate Army. His daughters, Lizzie and Lida, along with neighbor Sarah Steer, stayed behind and published an underground, pro-Union newspaper. The three women smuggled out the newspaper to Maryland, where it was published and distributed from Baltimore. The women wrote in a cheerful, chatty style about living through the war, but the consequences should they have been caught could have been dire.
In the second edition, the women editors wrote that their mission was to "cheer the weary soldier, and render material aid to the sick and wounded.’’ Abraham Lincoln was one of their many readers -- one of their newspapers was discovered among his belongings.
The Duttons married soldiers and moved away. Sarah, however, stayed in Waterford, and taught African-American children and adults in her home. She helped establish a schoolhouse for African-Americans, which closed in the 1950s. Even without having the privilege to vote themselves, these women found a way to make a difference. Lucky for their husbands that they worked through the power of the pen instead of the power of pain. Another Waterford husband wasn't so lucky -- his wife marched him to the polls on election day holding fast to his ear to ensure he would vote the way she wanted.
There’s more to our story than day-to-day politics – and women’s reaction to it.
We are also focusing on women who shaped politics in the state years ago. That’s why one day we crouched before rows of worn tombstones looking for John and Emma Dutton’s graves in the Quaker cemetery in Waterford, Virginia. John M. Souders, a local historian, searched alongside us until we found the makers on one row deep into the cemetery.
The Duttons were pacifists during the Civil War. John Dutton ran a store in Waterford, but fled to Maryland to avoid conscription in the Confederate Army. His daughters, Lizzie and Lida, along with neighbor Sarah Steer, stayed behind and published an underground, pro-Union newspaper. The three women smuggled out the newspaper to Maryland, where it was published and distributed from Baltimore. The women wrote in a cheerful, chatty style about living through the war, but the consequences should they have been caught could have been dire.
In the second edition, the women editors wrote that their mission was to "cheer the weary soldier, and render material aid to the sick and wounded.’’ Abraham Lincoln was one of their many readers -- one of their newspapers was discovered among his belongings.
The Duttons married soldiers and moved away. Sarah, however, stayed in Waterford, and taught African-American children and adults in her home. She helped establish a schoolhouse for African-Americans, which closed in the 1950s. Even without having the privilege to vote themselves, these women found a way to make a difference. Lucky for their husbands that they worked through the power of the pen instead of the power of pain. Another Waterford husband wasn't so lucky -- his wife marched him to the polls on election day holding fast to his ear to ensure he would vote the way she wanted.
