Anna Rice Powell
An older white woman, greying hair parted center and dressed to the crown, wearing a high-collared white lacy blouse iwth a pin at the throat, and a dark overdress with a ruffled neckline
Anna Rice Powell, from an 1895 publication
Born
Judith Anna Rice

February 15, 1834
Worcester, Massachusetts
DiedMarch 27, 1915
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)Temperance, suffrage, abolition activist, educator
SpouseAaron Macy Powell
RelativesElizabeth Powell Bond (sister-in-law)

Judith Anna Powell Rice (February 15, 1934 – March 27, 1915) was an American educator and activist in the causes of temperance, abolition, social purity, and women's suffrage.

Early life and education

Rice was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, the daughter of Sewell Rice and Hannah Drew Washburn Rice. She trained as a teacher at the Oread Collegiate Institute.[1]

Activism

Abolition and suffrage

Rice was a school teacher in Utica, New York in the 1850s. She was elected president of the Ghent Anti-Slavery Society in 1861, and active in the New England Anti-Slavery Convention. She co-founded New Jersey's first women's club in 1872.[1] She was president of the Union County Woman Suffrage Association,[2] and both she and her husband were active in the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association.[1] In 1899, she published her late husband's memoir, Personal Reminiscences of the Anti-slavery and Other Reforms and Reformers.[3][4]

Social purity and temperance

Powell worked with the Society of Friends on publications and committees, including as superintendent of the department of "purity and demoralizing publications".[5][6] She was a member of the General Friends Conferences Union for Philanthropic Labor,[1][7] and was an officer of the American Purity Alliance.[8][9][10] She represented the New York Commission for the Prevention of State Regulation of Vice at a meeting of the International Council of Women in 1888.[11][12] An 1895 report on the alliance described Powell as "a charming lady, whose kind heart has brought her into close contact with frail and erring women," and quoted her as saying "How blessed are those whose parents wisely teach both son and daughter that they have equal responsibilities to God and society for a pure life."[13]

In 1896, Powell and her husband were delegates to the International Federation for the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice; she was elected a delegate to the same body in 1901.[14] She was associate editor of The Philanthropist, a social purity magazine her husband founded.[1][5]

Personal life

Rice married Aaron Macy Powell in 1861, without any civil or religious service. They announced their union in a local newspaper, with a paragraph protesting the gender inequalities imposed by legal marriage.[15] She became a Quaker after they wed. Their daughter Anna died as a small child in 1867.[16] Her husband died at a convention in 1899. She died in 1915, at the age of 81, at a Quaker boarding house in Philadelphia.[17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Cooper, Lauren. "Biographical Sketch of Anna Rice Powell". Alexander Street Documents. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  2. ↑ "Hot for Lady Somerset; Anna Rice Powell Arraigns Her for Her Indian Policy; Purity Alliance Angry". The World. 1898-01-30. p. 11. Retrieved 2024-01-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ Powell, Aaron Macy (1899). Personal Reminiscences of the Anti-slavery and Other Reforms and Reformers. A. R. Powell.
  4. ↑ "The Book World". The Appeal. 1900-01-20. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-01-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 Proceedings of the Swarthmore Conferences: First-Day School General Conference, Friends' Union for Philanthropic Labor, Friends' Religious Conference, Friends' Educational Conference. Published for the General Committee. 1896. pp. 20, 55, 69.
  6. ↑ Proceedings of the Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Held in New York. New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. 1891. p. 90.
  7. ↑ "Practical Piety is their Aim; Friends at Swarthmore Devote Themselves to Philanthropic Matters". The Inter Ocean. 1896-08-26. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-01-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Officers Elected by the American Purity Alliance at New York Yesterday". Nashville Banner. 1897-01-26. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-01-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Notes and Announcements". Friends' Intelligencer. 64: 286. May 4, 1907.
  10. ↑ Powell, Aaron Macy (1896). The National Purity Congress: Its Papers, Addresses, Portraits. An Illustrated Record of the Papers and Addresses of the First National Purity Congress, Held Under the Auspices of the American Purity Alliance ... Baltimore, October 14, 15 and 16, 1895. American Purity Alliance.
  11. ↑ "Created a Sensation; International Council of Women Considers at Length the Subject of Social Purity". Star Tribune. 1888-03-31. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-01-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Odem, Mary E. (2000-11-09). Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885-1920. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-8078-6367-1.
  13. ↑ "To Guard our Girls; A Purity Congress Soon to Assemble; Good People at the Head/Mary N. Healy". Wood County Reporter. 1895-09-19. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-01-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Personal and other Notes". Friends' Weekly Intelligencer. 58: 642. October 5, 1901.
  15. ↑ "Marriage Under Protest". Alexandria Gazette. 1861-05-09. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-01-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Aaron M. (Aaron Macy) Powell Papers". Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  17. ↑ "The Death of Mrs. A. M. Powell; Anti-Slavery Worker, Who Lived Here Many Years, Dies in Philadelphia". The Courier-News. 1915-04-06. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-01-06 – via Newspapers.com.
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