Rebecca Buffum Spring (June 8, 18111911) was a Quaker abolitionist, educational reformer, feminist, and women's suffrage activist. She was born in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

, fourth daughter of Arnold Buffum (1782-1859), who with

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...

founded the

New England Anti-Slavery Society The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, headquartered in Boston, was organized as an auxiliary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. Its roots were in the New England Anti-Slavery Society, organized by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of ...

, of which he was the first president. Elizabeth ended her education at the age of 16 and became a teacher in an infant school at the request of her father.

Elizabeth Buffum Chace Elizabeth Buffum Chace (December 9, 1806 – December 12, 1899) was an American activist in the anti-slavery, women's rights, and prison reform movements of the mid-to-late 19th century. She was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of ...

was her sister. She was co-founder in 1836 of the

Fall River Female Anti-Slavery Society The Fall River Female Anti-Slavery Society was an abolitionist group in Fall River, Massachusetts, formed in 1835. It was the second female anti-slavery society in the city. One of its founding members was Elizabeth Buffum Chace (1806-1899). Orig ...

. She married

Marcus Spring Marcus Spring (October 21, 1810 – August 22, 1874) was, with his wife Rebecca Buffum Spring, the creator of the Raritan Bay Union, a utopian community in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Early life He was born in Northbridge, Massachusetts, in 1810 ...

(1810-1874), a philanthropic New York businessman, in approximately 1840. She and her husband were long-time friends of

Fredrika Bremer Fredrika Bremer (17 August 1801 – 31 December 1865) was a Finnish-born Swedish writer and feminist reformer. Her ''Sketches of Everyday Life'' were wildly popular in Britain and the United States during the 1840s and 1850s and she is re ...

Lydia Maria Child Lydia Maria Child ( Francis; February 11, 1802October 20, 1880) was an American abolitionist, women's rights activist, Native American rights activist, novelist, journalist, and opponent of American expansionism. Her journals, both fiction and ...

Margaret Fuller Sarah Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movemen ...

, and

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (May 16, 1804January 3, 1894) was an American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic de ...

. She has been criticized, but also defended, for seeing

motherhood ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of gestati ...

as a fundamental role of women, and linking abolitionism with the maternal.

wrote John Brown (abolitionist), John Brown while he was in jail in Virginia in 1859, asking if she could visit and nurse him; he declined. Rebecca did not ask; she traveled to

Charles Town, Virginia Charles Town is a city in Jefferson County, West Virginia, United States, and is also the county seat. The population was 5,259 at the 2010 census. It is named for its founder Charles Washington, youngest brother of President George Washington. ...

, to meet with Brown and offer what consolation she could, and after delay, was allowed to meet with him twice. In her published description of her visits, she implied that there was something holy, even Biblical, in his person, and that he deserved her

veneration Veneration ( la, veneratio; el, τιμάω ), or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Etymo ...

.f During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Spring and her husband supported a Virginia-based school for slave children. They also financed a

soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the Hunger, hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoo ...

to aid the increasing number of fugitives and refugees traveling north in the wake of the

Emancipation Proclamation The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal sta ...

of 1863. She and her husband were instrumental in the founding of two

intentional communities An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

based on the teachings of

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical in ...

: the

North American Phalanx The North American Phalanx was a secular utopian socialist commune located in Colts Neck Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. The community was the longest-lived of about 30 Fourierist Associations in the United States which emerged during a b ...

(1843), in

Red Bank, New Jersey Red Bank is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. Incorporated in 1908, the community is on the Navesink River, the area's original transportation route to the ocean and other ports. Red Bank is in the New York Metropolitan A ...

, and then, unhappy with the direction it was taking, the

Raritan Bay Union The Raritan Bay Union was a utopian community in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, active from 1853 until 1860. History Raritan Bay Union the community was started by Marcus Spring and his wife Rebecca Buffum Spring (1811–1911). Theodore Dwight Weld ...

(1853) in

Perth Amboy, New Jersey Perth Amboy is a city (New Jersey), city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Jersey. Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 55,4 ...

. the latter of which was located on his estate in Eagleswood, New Jersey. The Union sponsored a

coed Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

and "racially" integrated boarding school.

Theodore Weld Theodore Dwight Weld (November 23, 1803 – February 3, 1895) was one of the architects of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years from 1830 to 1844, playing a role as writer, editor, speaker, and organizer. He is best known ...

was its director, and the

Grimké sisters Sarah Moore Grimké (1792–1873) and Angelina Emily GrimkéUnited States. National Park Service. "Grimke Sisters." U.S. Department of the Interior, October 8, 2014. Accessed:October 14, 2014. (1805–1879), known as the Grimké sisters, were th ...

were teachers. In the late 1850s Spring founded the

Eagleswood Military Academy The Eagleswood Military Academy was a private military academy in Perth Amboy, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States, which served antebellum educational needs. The Eagleswood Military Academy was started by Rebecca Spring (1812–1911) ...

. She had two of John Brown's executed raiders, who lacked family to bury them. buried there. In the late 1890s, impoverished, she moved to

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

to live with her daughter Jeanie Peet, where she became involved with many of the local artists and writers.

Writings by Rebecca Buffum Spring

* A different version was published in th
''New York Tribune'', December 2, 1859, p. 6

Writings about Rebecca Buffum Spring (most recent first)

* * * * * * *

Archival material

The Rebecca Spring papers were purchased by the

Stanford University Library The Stanford University Libraries (SUL), formerly known as "Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources" ("SULAIR"), is the library system of Stanford University in California. It encompasses more than 24 libraries in all. Se ...

. There is a published guide. Minser discusses the collection.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spring, Rebecca Buffum 1811 births 1911 deaths American feminists American abolitionists American centenarians Women centenarians 19th-century Quakers American Quakers Quaker feminists People from Providence, Rhode Island People from Perth Amboy, New Jersey Motherhood Founders of utopian communities John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry