Lucretia Mott Tames the Ruffian
Quaker anti-slavery activist Lucretia Mott kept getting into difficult situations in the 1840's because she insisted that slavery needed to be abolished and possibly even more because she, a woman, insisted on speaking out about it in public. Mary Clemmer tells this story in Our Famous Women (1884):
'One evening they were being driven out of a public hall by a mob. It was a time of utmost peril. "Take this Friend's arm," she said to another woman, "He will protect thee from this mob."
"But who will protect thee, Lucretia," anxiously inquired her friend.
"This gentleman," she answered, gently touching the arm of one of the mob. "He will see me safe through."
A rough, red-shirted ruffian he was to outward sight, as he was no doubt in all his outer fibre, yet somewhere deep down in the core of his being was the kernel of true knighthood, which makes every man by unspoiled nature every woman's defender. At any rate, the "ruffian" gave Lucretia Mott his arm and led her forth from his frenzied comrades to safety and home.'
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Some of us were talking today about how to deal with the seemingly inevitable prospect of continuing wars, economic and racial injustice, and climate suicide. We agreed that we need to keep "speaking truth to power" even though neither Power nor anybody else may seem to pay any attention. We also agreed that we need to keep reaching out to those who are defined as the "terrorist enemy" or the irreconcilable other, assuming they are human beings like us. Maybe mass social phenomena such as wars and fascism come in waves, and maybe those who move steadily in one direction will seem to fail utterly when the wave moves against them and then seem to move forward when the wave inevitably recedes.
'One evening they were being driven out of a public hall by a mob. It was a time of utmost peril. "Take this Friend's arm," she said to another woman, "He will protect thee from this mob."
"But who will protect thee, Lucretia," anxiously inquired her friend.
"This gentleman," she answered, gently touching the arm of one of the mob. "He will see me safe through."
A rough, red-shirted ruffian he was to outward sight, as he was no doubt in all his outer fibre, yet somewhere deep down in the core of his being was the kernel of true knighthood, which makes every man by unspoiled nature every woman's defender. At any rate, the "ruffian" gave Lucretia Mott his arm and led her forth from his frenzied comrades to safety and home.'
_____
Some of us were talking today about how to deal with the seemingly inevitable prospect of continuing wars, economic and racial injustice, and climate suicide. We agreed that we need to keep "speaking truth to power" even though neither Power nor anybody else may seem to pay any attention. We also agreed that we need to keep reaching out to those who are defined as the "terrorist enemy" or the irreconcilable other, assuming they are human beings like us. Maybe mass social phenomena such as wars and fascism come in waves, and maybe those who move steadily in one direction will seem to fail utterly when the wave moves against them and then seem to move forward when the wave inevitably recedes.
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