What Can a Woman Do?

As a young woman in the nineteenth-century, Elizabeth Margaret Chandler could not help end slavery by becoming a lawyer or legislator. But she could write'”and publish'”her passionate opinions. And, beginning when she was just sixteen, that's what she did. Hers was a voice out of the 'œbackwoods'� wilderness of the Michigan Territory, laying the groundwork for Emancipation. Elizabeth practiced Quaker modesty'”her poems and essays were published under a variety of pseudonyms. But in less than five years, no 'œanonymous'� woman was better known in the cause of abolition. This is her story. It is also the story of life in the 1830's Michigan Territory: the excitement of raising a cabin, the terrifying awesomeness of a prairie fire, and the joys of learning new skills like sausage-making and maple-sugaring. Elizabeth wrote enthusiastically of the 'œsurprising beauty'� of her new home, contradicting the saying, 'œDon't go to Michigan, that land of ills; the word means ague, fever, and chills!'�