History, Non Fiction, Social Issues, Women's Issues

APR 14: The Agitators with NYT Bestselling Author Dorothy Wickenden

Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights

The Agitators tells fascinating stories surrounding America’s abolition, the Underground Railroad, and early women’s rights movements from the intimate perspective of three friendsMartha Coffin Wright, Frances A. Seward, and Harriet Tubman.

It took Dorothy Wickenden seven years to research and write The Agitators. Today she shares some of the challenges in the lives of these “agitators”, and how they were united in spirit, despite having very different backgrounds. We also discuss how Quakers led the first large movement to abolish slavery. Some of the research that surprised and delighted the author. And what she would ask these women, if she could.

About Dorothy Wickenden

Dorothy Wickenden is the author of Nothing Daunted and The Agitators, and has been the executive editor of The New Yorker since 1996. She also writes for the magazine and is the moderator of its weekly podcast Politics & More. A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, Wickenden was national affairs editor at Newsweek from 1993-1995.

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