Margaret Hope Bacon (born Margaret Hope Borchardt; April 7, 1921 – February 24, 2011) was an American

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

. She is primarily known for her biographies and works involving Quaker women’s history and the

abolitionist movement Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

. Her most famous book is her

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

Lucretia Mott Lucretia Mott (''née'' Coffin; January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880) was an American Quaker, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and social reformer. She had formed the idea of reforming the position of women in society when she was amongs ...

, ''Valiant Friend'', published in 1980.

Biography

Mrs. Bacon spent her early childhood in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and moved to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

as an adolescent. She went to

Antioch College Antioch College is a private liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Founded in 1850 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1852 as a non-sectarian institution; politician and education reformer Horace Mann was its f ...

, where she met her husband, Allen Bacon. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, she accompanied her husband to work at Springfield Hospital in

Sykesville, Maryland Sykesville is a small town in Carroll County, Maryland, United States. The town lies west of Baltimore and north of Washington D.C. The population was 4,436 at the 2010 census. BudgetTravel.com named Sykesville 'Coolest Small Town in America' ...

as his assignment for

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

status. She also worked at the

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (''Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by Am ...

for many years and was the inspiration for the rehabilitation of the Fair Hill Burial Ground, a historic Quaker cemetery in

North Philadelphia North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is immediately north of Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as everything north of either ...

and the final resting place of abolitionists

and

Robert Purvis Robert Purvis (August 4, 1810 – April 15, 1898) was an American abolitionist in the United States. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, and was likely educated at Amherst Academy, a secondary school in Amherst, Massachusetts. He ...

. Mrs. Bacon authored biographies of both

Mott Mott is both an English surname and given name. Notable people with the name include: Surname B *Basil Mott (1859–1938), British civil engineer *Bitsy Mott (1918–2001), American baseball player C * Charles James Mott (1880–1918), British bar ...

and Purvis. A longtime trustee and Vice President of the

Pennsylvania Abolition Society The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage was the first American abolition society. It was founded April 14, 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and held four meetings. Seventeen of the 24 men who attended initia ...

, she wrote a feature article titled "The Pennsylvania Abolition Society's Mission for Black Education" for the

Historical Society of Pennsylvania The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is a long-established research facility, based in Philadelphia. It is a repository for millions of historic items ranging across rare books, scholarly monographs, family chronicles, maps, press reports and v ...

's November 2005 newsletter. She was a founding board member of

Women's Way Women's Way is a grantmaking, advocacy, and education 501(c)(3) status nonprofit that deals with current issues facing women and girls in the greater Philadelphia region. Several women-focused nonprofits formed the organization in the late-1970 ...

, the country’s oldest and largest

funding Funding is the act of providing resources to finance a need, program, or project. While this is usually in the form of money, it can also take the form of effort or time from an organization or company. Generally, this word is used when a firm uses ...

federation for women’s organizations. Bacon died at her home at Crosslands in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on February 24, 2011.

Awards

* City of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Human Rights award, 1976 * Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters,

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

, 1981 * City of Philadelphia Citation for Contributions to Women’s History, 1987

Works

Non-fiction

* ''The Quiet Rebels: The Story of Quakers in America'' (1969). * ''Lamb’s warrior: The life of Isaac T. Hopper'' (1970) * ''I speak for my Slave Sister; the life of Abby Kelly Foster'' (1974) * ''Rebellion at Christiana'' (1975) * ''Valiant Friend: The life of Lucretia Mott'' (1980) * ''As the way opens: the story of Quaker women in America'' (1980). * ''Mothers of feminism: The story of Quaker Women in America'' (1986). * ''Let this life speak: The legacy of Henry Joel Cadbury'' (1987). * ''One woman’s passion for peace and freedom: The life of Mildred Olmsted'' (1992). * ''Wilt thou go on my errand? The journals of three eighteenth century Quaker women'' (1994). * ''The quiet rebels: The story of Quakers in America'' (1999). * ''Love is the hardest lesson (a memoir)'' (1999) * ''Abby Hopper Gibbons: Prison reformer and social activist'' (2000). * ''In the shadow of

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

: Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting'' (2001). * ''Sarah Mapps Douglass: Faithful attender of Quaker Meeting'' (2003). * ''Back to Africa: Benjamin Coates and the colonization movement in America, 1848-1880.'' (2005), edited by Emma J. Lapsansky-Werner and Margaret Hope Bacon. * ''But one race: the life of Robert Purvis'' (2007).

Fiction

* ''The night they burned Pennsylvania Hall: a chapter in the struggle for liberation of slaves and women.'' (1992) (a play for children) * ''Year of grace'' (2002). * ''The back bench'' (2007.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20110720233804/http://quakerbooks.org/MargaretHopeBacon?xfsid=csrs3boml1b8u1nlc1v1pltdp5 * http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02684-7.html * https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/01/books/friends-indeed.html?pagewanted=1 * https://web.archive.org/web/20091008175303/http://www.pym.org/philadelphia-qm/docs/HopeBacon_ButOne.pdf {{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Margaret Hope 1921 births 2011 deaths American non-fiction writers Writers from New York City Antioch College alumni American Quakers American biographers 20th-century American women writers