Título: Lucy Stone
Seção: Public speaking
Background: Lucy Stone (August 13, 1818 - October 18, 1893) was a prominent U.S. orator, abolitionist, and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged and prevented from public speaking. Stone was known for using her birth name after marriage, the custom at the time being for women to take their husband's surname.

Conteúdo: In February 1846 Stone intimated to Abby Kelley Foster that she was thinking of becoming a public speaker, but not until the following summer did a storm of controversy over Foster's speaking at Oberlin decide the matter for her. Faculty opposition to Foster ignited impassioned discussion of women's rights among the students, especially of woman's right to speak in public, which Stone vigorously defended in a joint meeting of the men's and women's literary societies. She followed that campus demonstration by making her first public speech at Oberlin's August 1 commemoration of Emancipation in the West Indies.  In the fall of 1846 Stone informed her family of her intention to become a woman's rights lecturer. Her brothers were at once supportive, her father encouraged her to do what she considered her duty, but her mother and only remaining sister begged her to reconsider. To her mother's fears that she would be reviled, Stone said she knew she would be disesteemed and even hated, but she must "pursue that course of conduct which, to me, appears best calculated to promote the highest good of the world."  Stone then tried to gain practical speaking experience. Although women students could debate each other in their literary society, it was considered inappropriate for them to participate in oral exercises with men; women members of the collegiate rhetoric class were expected to learn by observing their male classmates. So Stone and first-year student Antoinette Brown, who also

user: Where did she speak?

assistant: Stone accepted a challenge from a former editor of a county newspaper to a public debate on women's rights, and she soundly defeated him.

user: Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?

assistant: In the fall of 1846 Stone informed her family of her intention to become a woman's rights lecturer.

user: How did her family take it>

assistant: Her brothers were at once supportive, her father encouraged her to do what she considered her duty,

user: Did anything influence her?

assistant: Faculty opposition to Foster ignited impassioned discussion of women's rights among the students, especially of woman's right to speak in public, which Stone vigorously defended in a joint meeting

user: was it a success?

assistant: She followed that campus demonstration by making her first public speech at Oberlin's August 1 commemoration of Emancipation in the West Indies.

user: Did she have any other demonstrations?

assistant: Stone accepted a challenge from a former editor of a county newspaper to a public debate on women's rights, and she soundly defeated him.