Editing Lucy Stone (section)

=== The "woman question" ===
In 1836, Stone began reading newspaper reports of a controversy raging throughout Massachusetts that some referred to as the "woman question" – what was woman's proper role in society; should she assume an active and public role in the reform movements of the day? Developments within that controversy, over the next several years, shaped her evolving philosophy on women's rights.<ref>Million, 2003, p. 41.</ref>

A debate over whether women were entitled to a political voice had begun, when many women responded to [[William Lloyd Garrison]]'s appeal to circulate antislavery petitions and sent thousands of signatures to Congress, only to have them rejected, in part, because women had sent them. Women abolitionists responded by holding a convention in New York City to expand their petitioning efforts and declaring that "as certain rights and duties are common to all moral beings,” they would no longer remain within limits prescribed by "corrupt custom and a perverted application of Scripture." After sisters Angelina and Sarah Grimké began speaking to audiences of men and women, instead of women-only groups, as was acceptable, a state convention of Congregational ministers issued a pastoral letter condemning women's assuming "the place of man as a public reformer" and "itinerat[ing] in the character of public lecturers and teachers." Stone attended the convention as a spectator and was so angered by the letter that she determined, "if ever [I] had anything to say in public, [I] would say it, and all the more, because of that pastoral letter."<ref>Million, 2003, pp. 27-30; Kerr, 1992, p. 24.</ref>

Stone read [[Sarah Moore Grimké|Sarah Grimké]]'s "Letters on the Province of Woman" (later republished as "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes"), and told a brother they only reinforced her resolve "to call no man master." She drew from these "Letters," when writing college essays and later, her women's rights lectures.<ref>Million, 2003, pp. 36, 68, 160.</ref>

Having determined to obtain the highest education she could, Stone enrolled at [[Mount Holyoke College|Mount Holyoke]] Female Seminary in 1839, at the age of 21. But she was so disappointed in [[Mary Lyon]]'s intolerance of antislavery and women's rights that she withdrew, after only one term. The very next month, she enrolled at Wesleyan Academy (later [[Wilbraham & Monson Academy]]),<ref>Million, 2003, p. 42.</ref> which she found more to her liking: "It was decided by a large majority in our literary society the other day," she reported to a brother "that ladies ought to mingle in politics, go to Congress, etc. etc." Stone read a newspaper account of how a Connecticut antislavery meeting had denied the right to speak or vote to [[Abby Kelley]], recently hired as an antislavery agent to work in that state. Refusing to relinquish her right, Kelley had defiantly raised her hand every time a vote was taken. "I admire the calm and noble bearing of Abby K," Stone wrote to a brother, "and cannot but wish there were more kindred spirits."<ref>Blackwell, 1930, pp. 39-40; Million, 2003, 46-47.</ref>

Three years later, Stone followed Kelley's example. In 1843, a deacon was expelled from Stone's church for his antislavery activities, which included supporting Kelley by hosting her at his home and driving her to lectures that she gave in the vicinity. When the first vote for expulsion was taken, Stone raised her hand, in his defense. The minister discounted her vote, saying that, though she was a member of the church, she was not a voting member. Like Kelley, she stubbornly raised her hand for each of the remaining five votes.<ref>Million, 2003, p. 51.</ref>

After completing a year at coeducational Monson Academy in the summer of 1841, Stone learned that Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio had become the first college in the nation to admit women and had bestowed college degrees on three women. Stone enrolled at Quaboag Seminary in neighboring Warren, where she read [[Virgil]] and [[Sophocles]] and studied [[Latin language|Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]] grammar, in preparation for Oberlin's entrance examinations.<ref>Kerr, 1992, p. 28.</ref>