Paulina Wright Davis Paulina Kellogg

Paulina Wright Davis

Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis was a women's rights advocate, social reformer, educator, and author (Paulina pp). Her work extended over four decades, from the late 1830's until her death in 1876 (Paulina pp).

Paulina Kellog was born August 7, 1816 in Bloomfield, New York, on the very day that Captain Hall "delivered up the fort at Detroit" (Paulina1 pp). Her father was a volunteer in the army and her grandfather, Saxton, was a colonel in the Revolution and belonged to Lafayette's staff (Paulina1 pp). Paulina was orphaned at the age of seven and adopted and raised by her strict and religious aunt and moved to LeRoy, New York (Paulina pp).

Paulina's plan was to become a missionary, however that idea was abandoned when she met and married Francis Wright, a merchant, in 1833 (Davis pp). Both Paulina and Francis were active and enthusiastic supporters of temperance, abolition, women's rights, and other reforms (Davis pp). In October 1835, they helped organize an antislavery convention in Utica, New York where they endured mob violence (Davis pp).

After Francis' death in 1845, Paulina continued her activism in reform work and for a time toured with a lecture n physiology and hygiene (Davis pp). In 1849, she married Thomas Davis of Providence Rhode Island, a jewelry maker and Democratic politician (Davis pp). She lead in the planning and arranging in Worcester, Massachusetts, the first National Woman's Rights Convention, over which she presided in October 1850 (Davis pp). Paulina accompanied her husband to Washington, D.C. when he served a term in Congress from 1853-1855 (Davis pp).

While in Washington, she established "Una," one of the first women's rights periodicals (Davis pp). In 1868, Paulina was became one of the founders of the New England Woman Suffrage Association, and when the national suffrage movement split in 1969, she followed Susan B. Anthony into the National Woman Suffrage Association and played a vital part in organizing the association's convention in New York City in 1870 (Davis pp). Paulina died on August 24, 1876 in Providence, Rhode Island (Davis pp).

At the twentieth anniversary woman's right convention in 1870, Paulina, who had also presided over the first two conventions, said,

Were I to go back of these [first] conventions, to see what had roused women thus to do and dare, should be obliged to go into a long history of the despotism of repression, which German jurists call soul murder'; an unwritten code, universal and cruel as the laws of Draco, and so subtle that, entering everywhere, they weigh most heavily where least seen" (Small pp).

In nominating Paulina to be present of the 1870 convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton declared that the women's movement in England, as in America, is dated from the first National Convention that was held in Worcester, Massachusetts in October 1850 (Small pp). Stanton added that just as Paulina had called the first National Convention two decades ago and had presided over its deliberations, "it was peculiarly fitting that she should preside over this also" (Small pp).

In 1844, Paulina began studying anatomy and physiology, and often gave public lectures on these subjects, even sending to Paris for the first "femme modele" that was ever brought into the United States (Small pp). According to Paulina, when she would unveil the manikin in the presence of a class of ladies, many would leave the room, others fainted in their seats, and still others would merely draw down their veils (Small pp). Paulina said that only a few had the "moral hardihood" and scientific curiosity to appreciate it and actually examine the "fearful and wonderful" manner in which they were made (Small pp). However, over time, women began to overcome their weaknesses, and by 1870, many of those who had attended her classes were now professors and students in medical colleges, hospitals and dissecting rooms (Small pp). This was due also to her tireless efforts in urging the medical education of women and supporting their rights to belong to that profession (Small pp).

Paulina also took an active part in the early movements for Moral Reform, and was a major contributor to "McDowall's Journal" and "Woman's Advocate," which were published for many years (Small pp). Moreover, she established the first woman's rights paper that was ever published in the United States, "The Una," in January 1852 (Small pp). Stanton remarked that it was obvious from this paper that the leaders of the movement understood all the bearing of this question had followed the truth in all directions with boldness and considered all of woman's social and political wrongs (Small pp).

Although relatively unknown today, Paulina Wright Davis was one of the founding mother of the woman's moment and was in many instances more of a major contributor than many of the familiar names associated with the women's movement such as Stanton, Abby Kelley Foster, and Lucy Stone (Small pp). Paulina had insisted that the key to understanding why she and the other founding mothers were "roused" to "do and dare" was their frustration with that "unwritten code, universal and cruel as the laws of Draco and so subtle that, entering everywhere, they weigh most heavily where least seen" (Small pp).

In a letter addressed to Paulina, November 2, 1850, author Caroline Wells Dall thanks her for her convention address and her work, and writes "In every large city, there is a class of women, whose existence is a terror and reproach to the land in which they are born; whose name no modest woman is supposed to know; whose very breath is thought to poison the air of the sanctuary' (Caroline pp)

Although Paulina never gave birth to any children, she did adopt several sons and daughters, several in early infancy (Paulina1 pp). It is said that she had an "unusual sympathy and attraction for young people," and possessed great tenderness for the helpless and innocent, and that "motherless children, disappointed youth, and unfortunate women have ever found a shelter in her hospitable house" (Paulina1 pp).