Life and writings of Amelia BloomerBloomer, D. C. (Dexter C.)
History
Life and writings of Amelia Bloomer
Bloomer, D. C. (Dexter C.)
Bloomer, Amelia Jenks, 1818-1894; Women's rights -- United States
“The boatmen at first positively refused to take me into the skiff.
The man waiting could go, they said, but the woman must be left
behind. I thought of my danger in embarking and being swallowed
up by waves; and I thought of husband and child awaiting me at
home, and no one to care for them; then I asked why I could not
cross as well as the man. The boatmen said, because women would
get frightened and jump and rock the boat and upset it, and there
was really great danger. Then I said if I will promise to sit very
still and not stir, can I go? The gentleman interceded, and on my
promise I was allowed to get into the boat. I sat in the middle
of my seat and held on to each side of the boat, and I am sure I
never stirred a muscle or winked an eye or hardly breathed while
those brave men guided their skiff over the tossing waves, which
seemed to engulf us at times and anon bore us on their tossing
crests. Soon we were safely over and landed, ready to take stage
for home, feeling that we had been mercifully preserved on our two
very dangerous trips, and on my part resolved never to incur a like
danger again.
“WOMAN’S EQUALITY IN LAW.
“On my previous trip to Omaha, I had gone in an old-fashioned
stagecoach and crossed the river on a ferry-boat. But the
ferry-boat was laid up at this time on account of the ice, so there
was no way of crossing but the skiff and the flatboat while the ice
was running. Thanks to enterprise and skill, we at this day know
nothing of such inconvenience and danger. And thanks to progress
and enlightenment, woman’s cause has so far advanced that there
is little need of her making extra effort to bring her claims and
the knowledge of her rights to equality in law with man before the
people.”
DESCRIBES COUNCIL BLUFFS.
Writing in 1855, soon after her arrival in her new home, Mrs. Bloomer
describes it as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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