{{Short description|American abolitionist, author (1826–1898)}} {{use mdy dates|date=July 2023}} {{use American English|date=July 2023}} {{Infobox writer | name = Matilda Joslyn Gage | image = MatildaJoslynGage.jpeg | alt = Portrait photograph of a middle-aged woman with her white hair in an up-do, and wearing a high-collared blouse. | caption = "[[A Woman of the Century]]" | pseudonym = | birth_name = Matilda Electa Joslyn | birth_date = March 24, 1826 | birth_place = [[Cicero, New York]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1898|3|18|1826|3|24}} | death_place = [[Chicago]], Illinois, U.S. | occupation = [[First-wave feminism|Feminist]], [[Abolitionism in the United States|Abolitionist]], [[Freethought|free thinker]], author | notableworks = Author, with [[Susan B. Anthony|Anthony]] and [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton|Stanton]], of first three volumes of History of Woman Suffrage | parents = [[Hezekiah Joslyn]] (father) | relatives = [[L. Frank Baum]] (son-in-law) | spouse = {{marriage|Henry Hill Gage|January 6, 1845|September 16, 1884|end=d}} | children = 5, including [[Maud Gage Baum|Maud]] | signature = Matilda Joslyn Gage signature.jpg }}
'''Matilda Joslyn Gage''' ({{nee}} '''Joslyn'''; March 24, 1826 – March 18, 1898) was an American writer and activist. She is mainly known for her contributions to [[women's suffrage in the United States]], but also campaigned for [[Native American rights]], [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]], and [[freethought]]. She is the [[eponym]] for the [[Matilda effect]], which describes the tendency to deny women credit for scientific invention. She influenced her son-in-law [[L. Frank Baum]], the author of ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]''.
She was the youngest speaker{{sfn|Lamphier|Welch|2017|p=68}} at the 1852 [[National Women's Rights Convention]] held in [[Syracuse, New York]]. Along with [[Susan B. Anthony]] and [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]], Gage helped found the National Woman's Suffrage Association in 1869.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Corey |first=Mary E. |title=Matilda Joslyn Gage: Woman suffrage historian, 1852–1898 |year=1995 |pages=9 |publisher=[[University of Rochester]]}}</ref> During 1878–1881, she published and edited the ''National Citizen'', a paper devoted to the cause of women. With Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, she was for years in the forefront of the suffrage movement, and collaborated with them in writing the first three volumes of ''History of Woman Suffrage'' (1881–1887). She was the author of the ''Woman's Rights Catechism'' (1868); ''Woman as Inventor'' (1870); ''Who Planned the Tennessee Campaign'' (1880); and ''Woman, Church and State'' (1893).{{sfn|White|1921|p=244}}
For many years, she was associated with the [[National Woman Suffrage Association]], but when her views on suffrage and feminism became too radical for many of its members, she founded the Woman's National Liberal Union,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women's National Liberal Union Report of the, Convention for Organization |last=Gage|first=Matilda Joslyn|year=1890}}</ref> whose objects were: To assert woman's natural right to self-government; to show the cause of delay in the recognition of her demand; to preserve the principles of civil and religious liberty; to arouse public opinion to the danger of a union of church and state through an amendment to the constitution, and to denounce the doctrine of woman's inferiority. She served as president of this union from its inception in 1890 until her death in Chicago in 1898.{{sfn|White|1921|p=244}}
==Family background and education== Matilda Electa Joslyn was born in [[Cicero, New York]], March 24, 1826.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 21, 2024 |title=Matilda Joslyn Gage |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matilda-Joslyn-Gage |access-date=2021-12-11 |website=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]]}}</ref> Her parents were Dr. [[Hezekiah Joslyn|Hezekiah]] and Helen (Leslie) Joslyn. Her father, of New England and revolutionary ancestry, was a liberal thinker and an early abolitionist.<ref name="Gage Foundation">{{cite web|title=Who Was Matilda Joslyn Gage?|url=http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/gage-home/bringing-gage-to-life/who-was-matilda-joslyn-gage/|website=The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219230415/http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/gage-home/bringing-gage-to-life/who-was-matilda-joslyn-gage/|archive-date=2012-02-19}}</ref> From her mother, who was a member of the Leslie family of Scotland, Gage inherited her fondness for historic research.{{sfn|White|1921|p=244}} Their home was a station of the [[Underground Railroad]], a place of safety for escaped slaves.
Her early education was received from her parents, and the intellectual atmosphere of her home had an influence on her career. She attended [[Clinton Liberal Institute]], in [[Clinton, Oneida County, New York]].{{sfn|White|1921|p=244}}
==Marriage and early activism== On January 6, 1845, at the age of 18, she married Henry H. Gage, a merchant of Cicero, making their permanent home at [[Fayetteville, New York]].{{sfn|White|1921|p=244}} She faced prison for her actions associated with the Underground Railroad under the [[Fugitive Slave Law of 1850]], which criminalized assistance to escaped slaves. Gage became involved in the women's rights movement in 1852 when she decided to speak at the [[National Women's Rights Convention]] in [[Syracuse, New York]].
==Writer and editor==
=== Newspapers === Gage was well-educated and a prolific writer—the most gifted and educated woman of her age, claimed her devoted son-in-law, [[L. Frank Baum]]. She corresponded with numerous newspapers, reporting on developments in the [[women's suffrage|woman suffrage]] movement. In 1878, she bought the ''Ballot Box'', the monthly journal of a [[Toledo, Ohio]], suffrage association, when its editor, Sarah R. L. Williams, decided to retire. Gage turned it into ''The National Citizen and Ballot Box'', explaining her intentions for the paper thus:
{{blockquote|text=Its especial object will be to secure national protection to women citizens in the exercise of their rights to vote ... it will oppose Class Legislation of whatever form ... Women of every class, condition, rank and name will find this paper their friend.|sign=Matilda Joslyn Gage|source="Prospectus"<ref>{{Cite news |date=1878 |editor-last=Gage |editor-first=Matilda E. J. |title=Prospectus |url=http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20pdf/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20-%200003.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430100139/http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20pdf/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20-%200003.pdf |archive-date=April 30, 2012 |journal=The National Citizen and Ballot Box |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=1 |access-date=September 30, 2011 }}</ref>}}
Gage became its primary editor for the next three years (until 1881), writing and publishing essays on a wide range of issues. Each edition bore the words '[[The pen is mightier than the sword|The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword]]', and included regular columns about prominent women in history and female inventors. Gage wrote clearly, logically, and often with a dry wit and a well-honed sense of irony. Writing about laws which allowed a man to will his children to a guardian unrelated to their mother, Gage observed:
{{blockquote|text=It is sometimes better to be a dead man than a live woman.|sign=Matilda Joslyn Gage|source="All The Rights I Want"<ref>{{Cite news |date=1879 |editor-last=Gage |editor-first=Matilda E. J. |title=All the Rights I Want |url=http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20pdf/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20-%200041.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430100205/http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20pdf/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20-%200041.pdf |archive-date=April 30, 2012 |work=The National Citizen and Ballot Box |page=2 |volume=3 |issue=10 |access-date=September 30, 2011 }}</ref>}}
=== Women inventors === In 1870, Gage published a pamphlet called ''Woman as an Inventor''.{{sfn|Gage|1870}} The pamphlet was described as 'Woman Suffrage Tracts{{snd}}No. 1' and was published by the New York State Woman Suffrage Association, which Gage helped to found.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New York State Woman Suffrage Association |url=https://freethought-trail.org/profiles/profile:new-york-state-woman-suffrage-association-nyswsa/ |access-date=December 1, 2022 |website=Freethought Trail}}</ref> In 1883, Gage published a similar essay called ''Woman as an Inventor'' in the ''[[North American Review]]''.{{Sfn|Gage|1883}} In both pamphlets, Gage argued that women were already competent inventors and supported her argument by citing examples of women inventors.
Gage mentioned [[Sarah Mather]], the inventor of the deep-sea telescope; [[Margaret E. Knight|Maggie Knight]], who invented a machine that created satchel-bottom bags; [[Barbara Uthmann]], who invented pillow lace; and [[Angélique du Coudray|Angelique du Coudray]], who invented a stuffed mannequin to practice midwifery. Gage also cited goddesses like [[Minerva]], [[Isis]], [[Mama Ocllo]], and [[Leizu]] as example of female inventiveness. Relying on the ideas of [[Diodorus Siculus]], an ancient Greek historian, Gage believed that goddesses began as real women who were deified because of the benefit from their inventions.{{Sfn|Gage|1870|pp=26, 29, 32}} Gage argued that ancient Egypt was a matriarchal society,{{Sfn|Gage|1870|p=31}} an idea which historians today [[Women in ancient Egypt|disagree with]].
Gage's most controversial claim was that [[Catharine Littlefield Greene|Catherine Greene]] invented the cotton gin instead of [[Eli Whitney]].{{Sfn|Gage|1870|p=1}} Gage also argued that a woman was responsible for the [[Henry Burden|Burden horse-shoe machine.]]{{Sfn|Gage|1883|p=484}}
Gage also articulated the barriers to women becoming inventors and receiving [[patents]]. Gage argued that society disapproved of women who invent, prompting them to suppress their talents, not seek out mechanical education, and patent their inventions under the names of husbands or other men to avoid ridicule. Gage also criticized laws that limit women's control over the patents they received. In 1883, she wrote:<blockquote>In not a single State of the Union is a married woman held to possess a right to her earnings within the family; and in not one-half of them has she a right to their control in business entered upon outside of the household. Should such a woman be successful in obtaining a patent, what then! Would she be free to do as she pleased with it? Not at all. She would hold no right, title, or power over this work of her own brain.{{sfn|Gage|1883|p=488}}</blockquote>In response to the 1883 article, ''[[The New York Times]]'' published an article, saying Gage "squarely answered" the "common reproach with which ambitious women are met, that they possess no inventive or mechanical genius."<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 22, 1883 |title=Women as Inventors |pages=11–12 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1883/04/22/archives/woman-as-an-inventor.html |access-date=December 1, 2022}}</ref> [[Kara Swanson]] argues that Gage's efforts helped to change public opinion around women inventors, though they did not convince men that women should vote.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Swanson |first=Kara |date=October 2020 |title=Inventing the Woman Voter: Suffrage, Ability, and Patents |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-gilded-age-and-progressive-era/article/inventing-the-woman-voter-suffrage-ability-and-patents/B698232F40C9E4AF0E817097CA4F1987 |journal=[[Journal of the Gilded Age & Progressive Era]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=560, 568 |doi=10.1017/S1537781420000316 |s2cid=225153303|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
=== ''Woman, Church, and State'' === In 1893, Gage published ''Woman, Church, and State'', a book that argued the church was responsible for women's oppression throughout history.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gage |first=Matilda Joslyn |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45580 |title=Woman, Church, and State |publisher=Charles H. Kerr and Company |year=1893 |location=Chicago}}</ref> Gage believed that the church's resistance to women's equality was foundational to other church beliefs and that the church gained power through influencing marriage and education laws.<ref>Corey, 228.</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=August 2024}} Like her pamphlets about inventions, in ''Woman, Church, and State'' Gage argues for the presence of an ancient matriarchy that disappeared because of Christianity.
Mary Corey argues that Gage's book is the only historical [[monograph]] written by a suffragist that proposes a thesis and supports it with evidence.<ref>Corey, 227, 229.</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=August 2024}}
Gage's attack on the church was considered especially radical after the 1890 creation of the more conservative [[National American Woman Suffrage Association]] (NAWSA). The NAWSA officially repudiated ''Woman, Church, and State'' in 1913 and it was banned under the [[Comstock laws]].
==Activism== [[File:HOWS V1 D808 Matilda Joslyn Gage (cropped).jpg|thumb|Engraving of Gage by [[John Chester Buttre]] after photo by [[Napoleon Sarony]]]] Gage described herself as "born with a hatred of oppression."<ref>{{cite book |author1=International Council of Women |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.RSLEUR |title=Report of the International Council of Women: Assembled by the National Woman Suffrage Association, Washington, D.C., March 25 to April 1, 1888 |date=1888 |publisher=R. H. Darby, printer |edition=Public domain |volume=1 |location=New York |page=347 |hdl=2027/hvd.RSLEUR |via=[[Harvard University]]}}</ref>
===Women's suffrage=== Even though she was beset by both financial and physical (cardiac) problems throughout her life, her work for women's rights was extensive, practical, and often brilliantly executed.<ref name="rochester.edu">{{cite web |date=August 2013 |title=Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender & Women's Studies : University of Rochester |url=http://www.rochester.edu/college/GSW/theme_archive/themes/theme_archive_page1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429191249/http://www.rochester.edu/college/GSW/theme_archive/themes/theme_archive_page1.html |archive-date=April 29, 2017 |access-date=June 16, 2017 |website=[[University of Rochester]]}}</ref> Gage was considered to be more radical than either [[Susan B. Anthony]] or [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] (with whom she wrote ''[[History of Woman Suffrage]],{{sfn|Gordon|1990|p=499}} and Declaration of the Rights of Women'').{{sfn|Schenken|1999|p=287}}
She served as president of the [[National Woman Suffrage Association]] (NWSA) from 1875 to 1876 and served as either Chair of the Executive Committee or Vice President for over twenty years.{{sfn|White|1921|p=244}} During the 1876 convention, she successfully argued against a group of police who claimed the association was holding an illegal assembly; they left without pressing charges.{{sfn|Snodgrass|2015|p=}} She was a delegate from the NWSA to the [[1880 Republican National Convention]], the [[1880 Democratic National Convention]] and that of the [[Greenback Party]]. Gage also served as president of the New York State Suffrage Association for five years.{{sfn|White|1921|p=244}}
As a result of the campaigning of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association under Gage, the state allowed women to elect members of the school boards. Gage ensured that every woman in her area ([[Fayetteville, New York]]) had the opportunity to vote, by writing letters making them aware of their rights, and sitting at the polls making sure nobody was turned away. In 1871, Gage was part of a group of 10 women who attempted to vote. Reportedly, she stood by and argued with the polling officials on behalf of each individual woman. She supported [[Victoria Woodhull]] and (later) [[Ulysses S. Grant]] in the [[U.S. presidential election, 1872|1872 presidential election]]. In 1873 she defended Susan B. Anthony when [[Trial of Susan B. Anthony|Anthony was placed on trial]] for having voted in that election, making compelling legal and moral arguments.<ref>{{Cite book |last=United States. Circuit Court (New York: Northern District) |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/97187514/ |title=An account of the proceedings on the trial of Susan B. Anthony, on the charge of illegal voting |date=1874 |publisher=Daily Democrat and Chronicle |location=Canandaigua, NU |pages=179–205 |chapter=Speech of Mrs. M. Joslyn Gage |via=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> In 1884, Gage was an Elector-at-Large for [[Belva Lockwood]] and the [[National Equal Rights Party|Equal Rights Party]].{{sfn|Patrick|2003|p=36}}
Gage unsuccessfully tried to prevent the conservative takeover of the women's suffrage movement. Susan B. Anthony, who had helped to found the NWSA, was primarily concerned with gaining the vote, an outlook which Gage found too narrow. Conservative suffragists were drawn into the movement believing that women's vote would achieve [[Temperance movement|temperance]] (the banning of alcohol) and Christian political goals, but not supporting more general social reform. This conservative wing of the movement was represented by the [[American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA)|American Woman Suffrage Association]] (AWSA). The merger of the two organizations, pushed through by [[Lucy Stone]], [[Alice Stone Blackwell]] and Anthony, produced the [[National American Woman Suffrage Association]] (NAWSA) in 1890.
Stanton and Gage maintained their radical positions and opposed this merger, because they believed it was a threat to [[Separation of church and state in the United States|separation of church and state]]. That year, Gage established the Woman's National Liberal Union (WNLU), of which she was president until her death in 1898, and editor of its official journal, ''The Liberal Thinker''; the other initial officers were [[Josephine Cables Aldrich]], vice-president; [[Mary Emily Bates Coues]], secretary; and [[William F. Aldrich]], treasurer.<ref name="TheWT-8mar1890">{{cite news |date=March 8, 1890 |title=National Woman's Liberal Union |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/865529453/?terms=%22Mary%20Emily%20Coues%22&match=1 |access-date=December 6, 2022 |work=[[The Woman's Tribune]] |location=Beatrice, Nebraska |pages=8 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> The WNLU became the platform for radical and liberal ideas of the time.
=== Religion === {{See also|Christian feminism}} Along with Stanton, she was a vocal critic of the [[Christian Church]], which put her at odds with conservative suffragists such as [[Frances Willard (suffragist)|Frances Willard]] and the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]]. Rather than arguing that women deserved the vote because their feminine morality would then properly influence legislation (as the WCTU did), she argued that they deserved suffrage as a 'natural right'. Despite her opposition to the Church, Gage was in her own way deeply religious, and she joined Stanton's Revising Committee to write ''[[The Woman's Bible]]''.
Gage was an avid opponent of the Christian church as controlled by men, having analyzed centuries of Christian practices as degrading and oppressive to women.{{sfn|Clark|1986|p=394}}{{sfn|Harrison|2007|pp=278-9}}{{sfn|Hamlin|2014|p=49}} She saw the Christian church as central to the process of men subjugating women, a process in which church doctrine and authority were used to portray women as morally inferior and inherently sinful (see [[Biblical patriarchy]]). She strongly supported the [[separation of church and state]], believing "that the greatest injury to women arose from theological laws that subjugated woman to man." She wrote in October 1881:
{{blockquote|text=Believing this country to be a political and not a religious organisation ... the editor of the ''National Citizen'' will use all her influence of voice and pen against "Sabbath Laws", the uses of the "Bible in School", and pre-eminently against an amendment which shall introduce "God in the Constitution"|title=God in the Constitution|source=page 2}}
In 1893, she published ''Woman, Church and State'', a book that outlined the variety of ways in which Christianity had oppressed women and reinforced [[patriarchy|patriarchal]] systems. It was wide-ranging and built extensively upon arguments and ideas she had previously put forth in speeches (and in a chapter of ''History of Woman Suffrage'' which bore the same name). Gage became a [[Theosophist]], and the last two years of her life, her thoughts were concentrated upon metaphysical subjects, and the phenomena and philosophy of [[Spiritualism (movement)|Spiritualism]] and Theosophical studies. During her critical illness in 1896, she experienced some illuminations that intensified her interest in psychical research. She had great interest in the occult mysteries of Theosophy and other Eastern speculations as to reincarnation and the illimitable creative power of humanity.{{sfn|Green|1898|p=337}}
=== Witch trials === {{See also|Witch trials in the early modern period}} Gage also strongly criticized the [[Witch-hunt|witch hunts]] that took place throughout the 1600s, interpreting them as a church-supported means of dominating and intentionally killing women.{{Sfn|Zwissler|2016|p=185}} Gage uses her book ''Woman, Church & State: The Original Exposé of Male Collaboration Against the Female Sex'' to highlight the connections between the church's core beliefs, restriction of women by both the church and state, and the extremes of the witch trials.{{Sfn|Corey|2003|p=53}} She highlights this connection by arguing that one is able to understand the oppression of women that stemmed from the church on a deeper level if the term ''women'' is substituted for ''witches''.{{Sfn|Gage|1980|p=127}}{{Sfn|Dail|2020|p=70}} Gage also asserted that educated women who opposed the patriarchy were viewed as a threat to the church and thus more likely to be accused of witchcraft.{{Sfn|Fenton|2010|p=23}} In 1893, she wrote: {{Blockquote|text=The witch was in reality the profoundest thinker, the most advanced scientist of those ages. The persecution which for ages waged against witches was in reality an attack upon science at the hands of the church. As knowledge has ever been power, the church feared its use in woman's hands, and leveled its deadliest blows at her.|title=''Woman, Church and State''|source=p. 105}}
Gage also advocated against [[ageism]], claiming that elderly women deserve the Christian Church to be held accountable for the extreme violence they faced throughout the seventeenth century. Gage used exaggerated numbers to further her arguments that older women were so commonly accused of witchcraft that they did not receive the affection and attentiveness they merit, instead implying that those accused were subject to a life of humiliation and tribulation, making it rare for an elderly woman to die of old age.{{Sfn|Dail|2020|p=73}} Although not historically accurate with numbers in her assertions, Gage used her interpretations of the witch hunts to denounce the Christian Church's treatment of women and advocated for justice.{{Sfn|Fenton|2010|p=23}}
=== Abortion === {{See also|Anti-abortion feminism}}
Like many other suffragists, Gage considered [[abortion]] a regrettable tragedy, although her views on the subject were more complex than simple opposition. In 1868, she wrote a letter to ''The Revolution'' (a women's rights paper edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and [[Parker Pillsbury]]), supporting the view that abortion was an institution supported, dominated and furthered by men. Gage opposed abortion on principle, blaming it on the "selfish desire" of husbands to maintain their wealth by reducing their offspring:
{{blockquote|text=The short article on "Child Murder" in your paper of March 12 that touched a subject which lies deeper down in woman's wrongs than any other. This is the denial of the right to herself ... nowhere has the marital union of the sexes been one in which woman has had control over her own body. Enforced motherhood is a crime against the body of the mother and the soul of the child. ... But the crime of abortion is not one in which the guilt lies solely or even chiefly with the woman. ... I hesitate not to assert that most of this crime of "child murder", "abortion", "infanticide", lies at the door of the male sex. Many a woman has laughed a silent, derisive laugh at the decisions of eminent medical and legal authorities, in cases of crimes committed against her as a woman. Never, until she sits as juror on such trials, will or can just decisions be rendered.|sign=Matilda Joslyn Gage|source=Is Woman Her Own?}}
=== Divorce === {{See also|Divorce in the United States#19th century}} Gage was quite concerned with the rights of a woman over her own life and body. In 1881 she wrote, on the subject of [[divorce]]:
{{blockquote|text=When they preach as does Rev. Crummell, of 'the hidden mystery of generation, the wondrous secret of propagated life, committed to the trust of woman,' they bring up a self-evident fact of nature which needs no other inspiration, to show the world that the mother, and not the father, is the true head of the family, and that she should be able to free herself from the adulterous husband, keeping her own body a holy temple for its divine-human uses, of which as priestess and holder of the altar she alone should have control.|sign=Matilda Joslyn Gage|source=A Sermon Against Woman}}
Other feminists of the period referred to "[[History of birth control#Modern birth control movement|voluntary motherhood]]," achieved through consensual nonprocreative sexual practices, periodic or permanent [[sexual abstinence]], or (most importantly) the right of a woman (especially a wife) to refuse sex.<ref name="whaoitegj">{{cite journal |last1=Gordon |first1=Linda |date=Winter–Spring 1973 |title=Voluntary Motherhood; The Beginnings of Feminist Birth Control Ideas in the United States |journal=[[Feminist Studies]] |volume=1 |issue=3/4 |pages=5–22 |jstor=1566477}}</ref> (This was before the concept of [[marital rape]] had been [[Marital rape in the United States|codified in the United States]].)
=== Native American rights === Gage was influenced by the works of [[Lewis Henry Morgan]] and [[Henry Rowe Schoolcraft]] about [[Native Americans in the United States]], and used her speeches and writings to decry their brutal treatment. She was angered that the [[federal government of the United States|federal government]] attempted to [[Indian Citizenship Act|impose citizenship upon them]], thereby negating their status as a separate nation and their [[Treaty rights|treaty privileges]].
She wrote in 1878:
{{blockquote|text=That the Indians have been oppressed – are now, is true, but the United States has treaties with them, recognising them as distinct political communities, and duty towards them demands ''not an enforced citizenship'' but a faithful living up to its obligations on the part of the government.|sign= Matilda Joslyn Gage|source= "Indian Citizenship"<ref>{{Cite news |date=1878 |editor-last=Gage |editor-first=Matilda E. J. |title=Indian Citizenship |url=http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20pdf/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20-%200005.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120430100358/http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%20Disk3/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20pdf/Fayetteville%20NY%20National%20Citizen%20%26%20Ballot%20Box%201878%20-%201881%20-%200005.pdf |archive-date=April 30, 2012 |work=The National Citizen and Ballot Box |page=2 |volume=3 |issue=2 |access-date=September 30, 2011 }}</ref>}}
In her 1893 work, ''Woman, Church and State'', she cited the [[Iroquois]] society, among others, as a '[[matriarchate]]' in which women had true power, noting that a system of descent through the female line ([[matrilineality]]) and female property rights led to a more equal relationship between men and women. Gage spent time among the Iroquois and received the name Karonienhawi – {{Gloss|she who holds the sky}} – upon her initiation into the Wolf Clan. She was admitted into the [[Iroquois#Women in society|Iroquois Council of Matrons]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Johansen |first1=Bruce Elliott |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zibNDBchPkMC&pg=PA102 |title=Encyclopedia of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) |last2=Mann |first2=Barbara Alice |date=2000 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780313308802}}</ref>
==Family== Gage, who lived at 210 E. Genesee St., Fayetteville, New York, for the majority of her life,<ref>{{cite web|title=Matilda Joslyn Gage Home|year=2019|publisher=[[Historical Marker Database]]|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=142753|access-date=April 24, 2020}}</ref> had five children with her husband: Charles Henry (who died in infancy), Helen Leslie, Thomas Clarkson, Julia Louise, and [[Maud Gage Baum|Maud]].
Maud, by ten years the youngest of the family, initially horrified her mother when she announced her intention to marry [[L. Frank Baum]], then merely a struggling actor with only a handful of plays to his writing credit. However, a few minutes later, Gage started laughing, apparently realizing that her emphasis on all individuals making up their own minds was not lost on her headstrong daughter, who gave up a chance at a law career when such opportunities for women were rare. Gage spent six months of every year with Maud and Frank, who grew to respect her greatly; his best-known works, the series beginning with ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'', are thought by scholars to show her political influence.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Massachi |first1=Dina Schiff |title=Connecting Baum and Gilman: Matilda Gage and Her Influence on Oz and Herland |journal=The Journal of American Culture |date=2018 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=203–214 |doi=10.1111/jacc.12872 |s2cid=149563492 |access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Kelly|first=Kate|title=Ordinary Equality: The Fearless Women and Queer People Who Shaped the U.S. Constitution and the Equal Rights Amendment|publisher=[[Gibbs Smith]]|date=2022|location=Layton, UT|page=54|isbn=9781423658726}}</ref>
Gage's only son and his wife Sophia had a daughter named Dorothy Louise Gage, who was born in [[Bloomington, Illinois]], on June 11, 1898. The baby's aunt Maud, who had longed for a daughter, doted on her. The infant died in November, only five months old, and the death so upset Maud that she required medical attention. To honor his wife's grief, Baum named the protagonist of his next book [[Dorothy Gale]].<ref name="beyondtherainbow2oz.com">{{Cite web |last=Willingham |first=Elaine |date=1998 |title=The Story of Dorothy Gage, the Namesake for Dorothy in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz |url=http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/dorothygage.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140520233957/http://www.beyondtherainbow2oz.com/dorothygage.html |archive-date=May 20, 2014 |access-date=May 20, 2014 |website=Beyondtherainbow2oz.com}}</ref> In 1996, Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, a biographer of Matilda Joslyn Gage, located young Dorothy's grave in Bloomington. A memorial was erected in the child's memory at her gravesite on May 21, 1997. This child is often mistaken for her cousin of the same name, Dorothy Louise Gage (1883–1889), the daughter of Matilda Gage's eldest surviving child, Helen.<ref name="beyondtherainbow2oz.com"/>
Gage died in the Baum home in Chicago in 1898. Although she was cremated, there is a memorial stone at Fayetteville Cemetery that bears her slogan "There is a word sweeter than Mother, Home or Heaven. That word is Liberty."<ref>{{cite web |title=Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage (1826–1898) – Find A Grave Memorial |url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=13063718&PIpi=61810911 |website=[[Find a Grave]]}}</ref>
Her great-granddaughter was the U.S. Senator from North Dakota, [[Jocelyn Burdick]].
==Legacy== [[File:NYS Historic Markers MatildaJoslynGage.jpg|alt=A plaque that reads "Matilda Joslyn Gage nationally known abolition and women's rights advocate lived here from 1854 until her death in 1898"|thumb|A plaque commemorating Matilda Joslyn Gage outside of the Gage home in Fayetteville]]
In the teleplay ''[[The Dreamer of Oz]]'' (1990), Matilda Gage is played by [[Rue McClanahan]]. Her interactions with son-in-law "Frank" are portrayed as more hostile than in reality.
In 1993, scientific historian [[Margaret W. Rossiter]] coined the term ''[[Matilda effect]]'' after Matilda Gage, to identify the social situation where woman scientists inaccurately receive less credit for their scientific work than an objective examination of their actual effort would reveal. The Matilda effect is the opposite of the [[Matthew effect]], in which scientists already famous are over-credited with new discoveries.<ref name="Rossiter1993">{{cite journal |last1=Rossiter |first1=Margaret W. |date=1993 |title=The Matthew Matilda Effect in Science |journal=[[Social Studies of Science]] |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=325–341 |doi=10.1177/030631293023002004 |issn=0306-3127 |jstor=285482 |s2cid=145225097}}</ref> Gage's legacy was detailed in biographies published by Sally Roesch Wagner<ref name="Wagner1998">{{cite web |last1=Wagner |first1=Sally Roesch |date=1998 |title=Matilda Joslyn Gage: She Who Holds the Sky – Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation |url=http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/product/matilda-joslyn-gage-she-who-holds-the-sky/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402131241/http://www.matildajoslyngage.org/product/matilda-joslyn-gage-she-who-holds-the-sky/ |archive-date=April 2, 2019 |access-date=June 17, 2017 |website=Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation}}</ref>{{sfn|Wagner|2003|p=1}} and Charlotte M. Shapiro.{{sfn|Shapiro|2013|p=1}}
In 1995, Gage was inducted into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gage, Matilda Joslyn |url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/matilda-joslyn-gage/ |website=[[National Women’s Hall of Fame]]}}</ref>
In 2022, a [[National Votes for Women Trail]] marker was unveiled in [[Saratoga Springs, New York|Saratoga Springs]], to commemorate Gage and how she helped start the New York State Women Suffrage Association in Saratoga Springs.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Vaughn-Holdridge |first=Natasha |date=July 14, 2022 |title=Women's suffrage markers unveiled in Saratoga Springs |url=https://dailygazette.com/2022/07/14/womens-suffrage-markers-unveiled-in-saratoga-springs/ |website=[[The Daily Gazette]]}}</ref>
A plaque commemorating Gage is outside of the Gage home in Fayetteville.
The Gage home in Fayetteville houses the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and is open to the public as a [[historic house museum]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://matildajoslyngage.org|title=The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation|access-date=April 15, 2020}}</ref>
==Selected works== {{Wikisource}} {{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes}} Gage was editor of ''The National Citizen and Ballot Box'' (May 1878 – October 1881; available on microfilm) and as editor of ''The Liberal Thinker'', from 1890 onwards. These publications offered her the opportunity to publish essays and opinion pieces. The following is a partial list. * "Is Woman Her Own?", published in ''The Revolution'', April 9, 1868, ed. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Parker Pillsbury. pp 215–216. * "Prospectus", published in ''The National Citizen and Ballot Box'', ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. May 1878 p. 1. * "Indian Citizenship", published in ''The National Citizen and Ballot Box'', ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. May 1878 p. 2. * "All The Rights I Want", published in ''The National Citizen and Ballot Box'', ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. January 1879 p. 2. * "A Sermon Against Woman", published in ''The National Citizen and Ballot Box'', ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. September 1881 p. 2. * "God in the Constitution", published in ''The National Citizen and Ballot Box'', ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. October 1881 p. 2.{{sfn|Brammer|2000|p=126}} * "What the government exacts", published in ''The National Citizen and Ballot Box'', ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. October 1881 p. 2.{{sfn|Brammer|2000|p=126}} * "Working women", published in ''The National Citizen and Ballot Box'', ed. Matilda E. J. Gage. October 1881 p. 3.{{sfn|Brammer|2000|p=126}} * ''Woman As Inventor'', 1870, Fayetteville, NY: F.A. Darling * ''History of Woman Suffrage'', 1881, Chapters by Cady Stanton, E., Anthony, S.B., Gage, M. E. J., Harper, I.H. (published again in 1985 by Salem NH: Ayer Company) * ''The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer'', 14 and 21 March 1891, editor and editorials. It is possible she wrote some previous unsigned editorials, rather than L. Frank Baum, for whom she completed the paper's run. * ''Woman, Church and State'', 1893 (published again in 1980 by Watertowne MA: Persephone Press)
==References== {{Reflist}}
'''Attribution''' *{{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=Green|first=H.L.|title=The Free Thought Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uuw5AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA337|edition=Public domain|year=1898|publisher=H.L. Green}} }} *{{Source-attribution| {{cite book|last=White|first=J.T.|title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U11DAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA244|edition=Public domain|year=1921|publisher=J.T. White}} }}
===Bibliography=== *{{cite book|last=Brammer|first=Leila R.|title=Excluded from Suffrage History: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Nineteenth-century American Feminist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VR4qAAAAYAAJ|date=1 January 2000|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-30467-5}} *{{cite book|last=Clark |first=Elizabeth B. |chapter=Women and Religion in America, 1870–1920 |title=Church and State in America: The Colonial and early national periods |editor=John Frederick Wilson |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=1986 |isbn=9780313252365 |volume=1 |series=Church and State in America: A Bibliographic Guide|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cb7c2YgpCCwC&pg=PA394 |page=394 }} *{{Cite journal |last=Corey |first=M. E. |date=2003 |title=Matilda Joslyn Gage: A Nineteenth-Century Women's Rights Historian Looks at Witchcraft |journal=[[OAH Magazine of History]] |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=51–59 |doi=10.1093/maghis/17.4.51}} *{{Cite journal |last=Dail |first=Chrystyna |date=2020 |title=When for 'Witches' We Read 'Women': Advocacy and Ageism in Nineteenth-Century Salem Witchcraft Plays |journal=[[Theatre History Studies]] |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=70–88 |doi=10.1353/ths.2020.0004}} *{{Cite journal |last=Fenton |first=Zanita E. |date=2010 |title=No Witch Is a Bad Witch: A Commentary on the Erasure of Matilda Joslyn Gage |url=https://gould.usc.edu/why/students/orgs/ilj/assets/docs/20-1%20Fenton.pdf |journal=Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=21–38}} * {{Cite book |last=Gage |first=Matilda Joslyn |url=https://nrs.lib.harvard.edu/urn-3:fhcl:453551 |title=Woman as Inventor |date=1870 |publisher=Darling |series=Woman Suffrage Tracts No. 1 |location=Fayetteville, NY |via=[[Harvard University]]}} *{{Cite journal |last=Gage |first=Matilda Joslyn |date=May 1883 |title=Woman as an Inventor |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25118273 |journal=[[North American Review]] |volume=136 |issue=318 |page=488 |jstor=25118273 }} *{{Cite book |last=Gage |first=Matilda Joslyn |title=Woman, Church and State: The Original Exposé of Male Collaboration Against the Female Sex |date=1980 |publisher=Persephone}} *{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Linda|title=Woman's body, woman's right: birth control in America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cq5oAAAAIAAJ|year=1990|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-013127-7}} *{{cite book|last=Hamlin |first=Kimberly A. |title=From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women's Rights in Gilded Age America |publisher=University of Chicago Press |date=2014 |isbn=9780226134758|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bP8pAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA49 |page=49 }} *{{cite book|last=Harrison |first=Victoria S. |title=Religion and Modern Thought |publisher=Hymns Ancient and Modern |year=2007 |isbn=9780334041269|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p153NqnAVNEC&pg=PA279 |pages=278–279 }} * {{Cite magazine |last=Hwang |first=Helen Hye-Sook |date=December 31, 2020 |title=Rediscovering Matilda Joslyn Gage as the Pioneering Anti-Colonialist Feminist Thinker |url=https://www.magoism.net/2020/12/essay-rediscovering-matilda-joslyn-gage-as-the-pioneering-anti-colonialist-feminist-thinker-by-helen-hye-sook-hwang-ph-d/ |magazine=Return to Mago E-Magazine}} * {{cite book|last1=Lamphier|first1=Peg A.|last2=Welch|first2=Rosanne|title=Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 volumes]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DxLUDQAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA68|date=2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-603-6}} *{{cite book |last=Patrick |first=Lucia |title=Religion and revolution in the thought of Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–1898) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVQrAQAAIAAJ |year=2003 |publisher=Florida State University}} *{{cite book|last1=Schenken|first1=Suzanne O'Dea|title=From Suffrage to the Senate: An Encyclopedia of American Women in Politics, Volume 1: A-M|date=1999|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, CA|isbn=0874369606|page=[https://archive.org/details/fromsuffragetose0000odea_h5g7/page/287 287]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/fromsuffragetose0000odea_h5g7/page/287}} *{{cite book|last=Shapiro|first=Charlotte M.|title=Searching for Matilda: Portrait of a Forgotten Feminist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWxfmwEACAAJ|year= 2013|publisher=Charlotte M. Shapiro|isbn=978-0-615-77232-5}} *{{cite book|last=Snodgrass|first=Mary Ellen|title=The Civil War Era and Reconstruction: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural and Economic History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cWysBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA268|date=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-45791-6}} *{{cite book|last=Wagner|first=Sally Roesch|title=The Wonderful Mother of Oz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6RfscQAACAAJ|year=2003|publisher=Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation}} *{{Cite journal |last=Zwissler |first=Laurel |date=2016 |title=Witches' Tears: Spiritual Feminism, Epistemology, and Witch Hunt Horror Stories |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312249269 |journal=[[Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies]] |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=176–204 |doi=10.1558/pome.v18i2.29886 |via=[[ResearchGate]]}}
== Further reading == * {{cite web |title=Matilda Joslyn Gage: The suffragist who defied the US government |website=BBC Rediscovering America |date=4 July 2023 |first=Laura Byrne |last=Paquet |url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230703-matilda-joslyn-gage-the-suffragist-who-defied-the-us-government |ref=none}}
==External links== * {{Wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Matilda Joslyn Gage}} * [http://www.matildajoslyngage.org The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation] * [http://rootsweb.com/~nyononda/COURT/W10P72.HTM Will of Matilda Joslyn Gage] * [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00214 Matilda Joslyn Gage papers, 1840–1974.] [http://radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library Schlesinger Library], Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. * {{Find a Grave|13063718|Matilda Joslyn Gage|work=Social Reformer|date=January 18, 2006|access-date=August 18, 2011}} * {{Gutenberg author | id=33081| name=Matilda Joslyn Gage}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Matilda Joslyn Gage}} * {{Librivox author |id=13743}}
{{Suffrage}} {{National Women's Hall of Fame}} {{Syracuse, New York}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gage, Matilda Joslyn}} [[Category:1826 births]] [[Category:1898 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American women writers]] [[Category:19th-century American writers]] [[Category:Activists from Syracuse, New York]] [[Category:American anti-abortion activists]] [[Category:American critics of Christianity]] [[Category:American feminists]] [[Category:American suffragists]] [[Category:American Theosophists]] [[Category:Anti-Christian sentiment in the United States]] [[Category:Freethought writers]] [[Category:Activists for Native American rights]] [[Category:American Indigenous rights activists]] [[Category:People from Cicero, New York]] [[Category:People from Fayetteville, New York]] [[Category:Underground Railroad people]] [[Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century]] [[Category:Writers from Syracuse, New York]] [[Category:National Woman Suffrage Association activists]] [[Category:American women founders]] [[Category:American founders]] [[Category:American women human rights activists]]