James Mott

James Mott (20 June, 1788 – 26 January, 1868) was a Quaker leader, teacher, and merchant as well as an activist for anti-slavery and women's rights. He was born in Cowneck in North Hempstead on Long Island, to a Quaker family. James taught for two years at the Nine Partners Boarding School in Poughkeepsie, NY where his father was the superintendent.

He married Lucretia Coffin on 10 April, 1811 where she had been a student and later a teacher's aid. They had six children, five of which lived to adulthood, four daughters and a son. James then began work as a partner in Lucretia's father's nail business in Philadelphia. In 1822 he became a textile merchant dealing in cotton. When his family became members of the Hicksite Quakers, who were against slavery, James switched his business endeavors to woolen textiles which were then free of slave labor.

James was an active abolitionist, and assisted his wife with many events and conventions to establishment of free-produce stores which resulted in the Philadelphia Free Produce Society. In 1833, he co-founded the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society with Lucretia.

James chaired the first Women's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848 on July 19th and 20th at which his wife was a speaker.

In 1864 he helped start Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He died of pneumonia in Brooklyn, NY in 1868.

Further reading

* "Mott, James." "Dictionary of American Biography." Vol. 1, Charles Scribner's Sons. 1928.

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