Revolutionary Heart
by Diane Eickhoff
Published by Quindaro Press
Click on book
cover to order
at Amazon.com
Reviewed by Jean M. Holewa
Subtitled: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women's Rights
With great embarrassment I must admit I had no more than a fleeting knowledge of what the women's suffragist movement was all about. Reaching adulthood in the early 1970s, I was more familiar with that era's movement to garner equal pay for equal work. Little did I know the wheels had been set in motion more than a hundred years earlier.
Revolutionary Heart details the life of Clarina Nichols, an educated Vermont native with a flair for journalism and public speaking. Through records of Mrs. Nichol's writings and speeches, Diane Eickhoff has pieced together the early history of women's rights in America.
I marvel at the courage, strength and determination of Clarina Nichols, who has been overshadowed in history books by her better-known contemporary Susan B. Anthony. Both women challenged the issues of their day regarding slavery, temperance and women's rights. All at a time when women had no rights. No right to own property, no right to be awarded custody of children in the rare event of divorce, and no right to vote.
The author has written a beautiful biography of this woman who was no stranger to hardship. She divorced one husband and buried another. Her courage and determination carried her from the comforts of her Vermont home to the rugged terrains of Wisconsin, Kansas and ultimately California. By her intellect and wit, Mrs. Nichols was a welcome speaker and journalist who was clearly instrumental in bringing about change.
In one of my favorite passages, Mrs. Nichols addressed the accusation that women's rights leaders wanted to "wear the pants in the family." It reads: She said that though she bought the dress she wore with her own money, her husband by law owned it, not of his own will, but by a "law adopted by bachelors and other women's husbands." She said she didn't think it was fair for men to tease women about wanting to wear men's pants until men had given up their right to own women's skirts.
It is with gratitude that I reflect on the hardships many endured to assure women equal rights under the law. With heartfelt appreciation, I thank the author for bringing this important woman's story to light.
Armchair Interviews agrees.