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Observations On The Importance of Female Education, and Maternal Instruction, with their Beneficial Influence on Society. By a Mother.
New York: Mahlon Day, 1825. 12mo (172 x 111mm). 77 pp.
Inscribed, “Bernice Allinson 1884” on flyleaf. The rare first edition of this work promoting female education, by a member of a notable family of Quaker activists. Abigail Mott Moore (1775–1846) was an educator and abolitionist, and the sister of noted abolitionist James Mott, Lucretia Mott’s husband. Born in Cow Bay, Long Island, New York, Abigail met her future husband, Lindley M. Moore, while teaching at the Nine Partners Boarding School in Millbrook, New York. Marrying in 1813, the couple moved to Rahway, New Jersey to found their own Quaker school. Two years later they removed to New York, where Lindley took charge of the Monthly Meeting School of Friends, and in 1820 opened a school for boys in Flushing. Seeking relief from the arduousness of teaching, the couple moved to a farm in Rochester in 1830. In 1836, Abigail participated in the abolitionist Farmington (NY) Quarterly Meeting alongside Lucretia Mott, serving as clerk of the women’s meeting. Abigail, Lindley, and a group of fellow abolitionists founded the Rochester Anti-Slavery Society in 1838. In 1846, Abigail died from tuberculosis at the age of 51. Lindley Moore would subsequently serve as the head of Haverford College, where he was also a much-beloved instructor in English Literature. In addition to the present work, which stresses the importance of education to the fulfillment of maternal responsibilities, Abigail Mott Moore wrote several notable abolitionist works, including Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecdotes of Persons of Colour (1826) and Narratives of Colored Americans (published posthumously in 1875). She also edited an abridged edition of the Life and Adventures of Olaudah Equiano (1829) for use in New York’s Mulberry Street African Free School, of which she was a board member. A second edition of the present work was published in 1827, with an appendix “containing brief hints to parents, on the subject of education, and hints to young people on the duties of civil life” by James Mott. OCLC records only microform and electronic versions of the first edition. However, the American Antiquarian Society has a copy. REFERENCES: American Imprints 21528; Cornell, Thomas C. Adam and Anne Mott, Their Ancestor and Their Descendants (Poughkeepsie, 1890), pp. 82-83, 164-175. CONDITION: Rubbed, some loss of leather to upper spine, upper hinge partially cracked, but cover firmly attached; contents generally good with normal foxing and toning.
Item #4508
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