The American Quaker Lucretia Coffin Mott (1793-1880) was a pioneer feminist leader and radical abolitionist.

Lucretia Coffin was born on Jan. 3, 1793, on the island of Nantucket, Mass. Her father was the master of a whaling ship and her mother a storekeeper. The family became Quakers and in 1804 moved to the mainland. Island women were self-reliant, and Quakers were distinguished for the high place they gave to women. Lucretia's independent views were therefore honestly come by. She was educated in Boston and New York. After working briefly as a schoolteacher, she married James Mott in 1811. He set up business with Lucretia's father in Philadelphia.

At the age of 28 Mott became a Quaker minister, and when the denomination divided over matters of doctrine she supported the liberal, or Hicksite, faction. The Motts were abolitionists, and their home became a station on the Underground Railroad, by which Southern slaves escaped to...