Radical Friend: Amy Kirby Post and Her Activist Worlds

This biography is an impressive culmination of Hewitt's (Emeritus Professor of History and Women's Studies, Rutgers Univ.) extensive studies on the important yet overlooked life of Amy Kirby Post (1802–89) and her critical role in 19th-century reform movements. Post was an intersectional activist before the term existed. She advocated for abolition, universal suffrage, racial civil rights, women's rights, religious freedom, and Quaker progressivism. This masterly portrait of the power of persistence reveals Hewitt's admiration for her subject and feeling of personal connection to her inclusive vision of social justice. From Post's triumph over personal struggles to her unwavering, caring nature as well as her belief in a more egalitarian America, the author covers the activist's family and local and national connections, from birth to death. Each chapter is accompanied by thorough notes that give testament to Hewitt's more than 40 years of research, especially of primary historical sources.