Frances Harriet Whipple Green McDougall

Frances Harriet Whipple Green McDougall (1805–1878) was an abolitionist, poet, novelist, editor, botanist, spiritualist medium, and advocate of women's, voters', and workers' rights. In contrast to many other 19th-century women writers, throughout most of her adult life she earned her living as an author; at the same time she often donated her writing for causes she believed in, such as the abolition of slavery. She stands out in History of Rhode Island.

She was born as Frances Harriet Whipple on a farm in Smithfield, Rhode Island. She descended from two of the state's oldest, most distinguished families, but after her father's serious financial reversal she had to earn her own living at a very early age. She gained local recognition for her poetry and in 1838 anonymously penned a best-seller: The Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge, one of the few published narratives of a free black woman. The profits of this book helped Eldridge retrieve property that had been taken from her unjustly.

In 1842, during the conflict of Rhode Island's Dorr Rebellion, Frances Whipple supported Dorr's efforts to achieve reform of the state's voting laws. After this uprising was harshly suppressed, she fled to Connecticut where she lived "in exile" with her new husband, an artist named Charles Green. Their unhappy marriage ended in 1847 when Frances divorced Charles on grounds of non-support and desertion. She then moved to the area of New York City where she taught botany and wrote for spiritualist publications. In 1861 she moved to San Francisco. There she lectured and wrote against slavery, worked for women's rights and served on the board of the first local women's typographical union. She also continued her spiritualist writing. At the age of 57 she married William McDougall, a miner who had been a California assemblyman and was the brother of the state's second governor, John McDougall. She died in 1878 in Oakland, California, where she was buried in Mountain View Cemetery.

References

O'Dowd, Sarah C. (2004). A Rhode Island Original: Frances Harriet Whipple Green McDougall. University Press of New England.

External links

Memoirs of Elleanor Eldridge. Providence, R. I.: B.T. Albro, 1838.

Rhode Island Women's Hall of Fame

1966–1969

Glenna Collett Vare Eileen Farrell Ruth Hussey E. Doris Brennan Paula Deubel Carole Garnett-Wheeler Clara LaMore Janet Moreau Albina Osipowich Lois Ann Testa JoAnne Carner June Rockwell Levy Mary Tucker Thorp

1970–1979

Jean Madeira Ruth Buzzi Ida Silverman Margaret F. Ackroyd Catherine S. Robinson Gertrude Meth Hochberg Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones Antoinette Downing Frances G. Knight Princess Red Wing

1980–1989

Diane L. Coutu Florence K. Murray Anna Tucker Katherine Urquhart Warren Eleanor Slater Katharine Gibbs Olive F. Wiley Eleanor M. McMahon Sister Mary Bernard Sister Eileen Murphy Marion F. Avarista

1990–1999

Ade Bethune Gladys Williams Brayton Mary P. Brennan Nancy A. J. Potter Mary Crowley Mulvey Lizzie Murphy Barbara-Jeanne Seabury Helen A. Bert Catherine Tilley Hammett Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf Arlene Violet Mary Dyer Sylvia K. Hassenfeld Anne Hutchinson Margaret Langdon-Kelly Maria Spacagna Helen Metcalf Danforth Ann Smith Franklin Sarah Updike Goddard Beatrice Oenslager Chace

2000–2009

2010–2019

Kathleen S. Connell Susan Farmer Caroline Hazard Jane Stuart Karen Adams Eileen Slocum Mary C. Wheeler Wilma Briggs Billie Ann Burrill Martha McSally Lucy Rawlings Tootell Catherine O'Reilly Collette Isabelle Ahearn O'Neill Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Margaret A. McKenna Noreen Stonor Drexel

Authority control	WorldCat Identities VIAF: 50282576 GND: 128544252

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