Elizabeth
Pease,
the daughter of Joseph
Pease and Elizabeth Beaumont, was born in 1807. In her early twenties,
Elizabeth Pease became the leader of the Women's Abolition of Slavery
Society in Darlington.
In March 1838, Elizabeth joined with Jane Smeal
of Glasgow, to publish a pamphlet,
Address
to the Women of Great Britain,
where they urged women to organise female anti-slavery associations.
Elizabeth also believed that anti-slavery movement should allow women
to speak at public meetings.
Elizabeth supported the campaign for the 1832
Reform Act which enabled her father, Joseph
Pease, to become Britain's first Quaker
member of the House of Commons. However,
unlike most middle-class reformers, Elizabeth was not satisfied with
this measure and along with her close friend, Anne
Knight, became a supporter of the Moral
Force Chartist movement.
Elizabeth
Pease was in close contact with the Chartists
in Darlington and helped to distribute their literature. In a letter
to her friend, Anne Warren Weston, Elizabeth pointed out that some
of her friends considered her to be "ungenteel" and "vulgar"
because she was a supporter of universal suffrage.
Elizabeth, the most radical of the Pease family,
believing that most of the problems afflicting British society was
due to "class legislation". She supported workers who went
on strike and defended workers who attacked factories in Lancashire
and Yorkshire in 1842.
Elizabeth a member of the Peace
Society and the Temperance Society
also took part in the anti-vivisection campaign. In 1853 Elizabeth
married John Pringle Nichol, the professor of
astronomy at the University of Glasgow.
As Nichol was a Presbyterian, Elizabeth
was expelled from the Society of Friends.
After marriage, Elizabeth moved to Edinburgh
where she lived until her death in 1897.
(1)
Elizabeth Pease attempted to persuade working-class women in Darlington
to join the campaign against slavery. Her friend, Jane Smeal, from
Glasgow, wrote to her about this matter in 1836.
The females in this city who have much
leisure for philanthropic objects are I believe very numerous - but
unhappily that is not the class who take an active part in the cause
here - neither the noble, the rich, nor the learned are to be found
advocating our cause. Our subscribers and most efficient members are
all in the middling and working classes but they have great zeal and
labour very harmoniously together.
(2)
Elizabeth Pease, letter to John Collins (14th December, 1840)
I believe there are few persons whose natural
feelings are so opposed to women appearing prominently before the
public, as mine - but viewed in the light of principle I see, the
prejudice - custom and other feelings which will not stand the test
of truth, are at the bottom, and must be laid aside.
(3) Elizabeth Pease, letter
to Anne Phillips (29th September, 1842)
The grand principle of the natural equality of
man - a principle alas almost buried, in the land, beneath the rubbish
of an hereditary aristocracy and the force of a state religion. Working
people are driven almost to desperation by those who consider they
are but chattels made to minister to their luxury and add to their
wealth.
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