Review: Clarina Nichols: Frontier Crusader for Women's RIghts

Clarina Nichols: Frontier Crusader for Women's RIghts by Diane Eickhoff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a young adult version of Eickhoff's larger biography of Clarina Nichols titled Revolutionary Heart: The Life of Clarina Nichols and the Pioneering Crusade for Women's Rights. Clarina Nichols was an early advocate for women's rights and abolition. Nichols grew up in Vermont in early the 19th century. As a young woman and mother, she began to speak out about the lack of rights women had. Her first husband ended up being a bad businessman and an unfit husband. Nichols came to the decision to divorce her husband but knew she would have to give up rights to her children, as men held all rights to children in divorce at that time. This particular situation would be part of her platform for women's rights and what would propel her into the suffrage movement. After regaining custody of her children, Nichols would remarry and move to Kansas, a territory that was fighting to be a free-state. After settling there, she would tour the nation speaking out for women's right to vote and for the rights of African-Americans. She also was a pit stop on the Underground Railroad. Nichols led an extraordinary life and is often overlooked as an early suffragist and civil rights advocate.

Although this book is considered a Y/A book, it's a good read that covers the life of Clarina Nichols without getting too scholarly. The chapters are short which makes it a quick read and it is full of pictures and drawings that would appeal to all ages.

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