The right to vote was only one of many demands that women made prior to the Civil War. Zooming in on another priority, the right to bodily autonomy, changes our understanding of who was at the forefront of the struggle for women’s rights.Host Laura Free, a historian of women and politics, travels to Baltimore, Maryland, to spend a day with legal historian Martha S. Jones. They visit the Homewood Museum, a 19th century mansion once owned by a family of enslavers, to grapple with its legacy of slavery and sexual violence through the story of one enslaved resident, Charity Castle. Then Martha tells the stories of Celia (whose last name is unknown) and Harriet Jacobs, two other enslaved women who courageously fought for control of their own bodies within legal systems that denied them that right. Although few today know their names, Martha makes the case that all three women were part of the “vanguard” of women’s rights activism.For a transcript and more about this series, visit amendedpodcast.com 

Our TeamLaura Free, Host & WriterReva Goldberg, Producer, Editor & Co-WriterScarlett Rebman, Project DirectorKordell K. HammondNicholas MacDonaldJoseph MurphySara Ogger Antonio Pontón-NúñezMichael Washburn

Consulting Engineer: Logan Romjue Art by Simonair YohoMusic by Michael-John Hancock. Additional music by Pictures of a Floating World (CC).

A special thanks to Amy Mulvihill and the Homewood Museum at Johns Hopkins University.

Additional thanks to this episode’s advisors for their feedback: Carol Faulkner, Dominique Jean-Louis, Martha S. Jones, Alison Parker, and Kishauna Soljour.

Amended is produced with major funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and with support from Baird Foundation, Susan Strauss, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Phil Lewis & Catherine Porter, and C. Evan Stewart.

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