Helen LaKelly Hunt - And the Spirit Moved Them: The Lost Radical History of America’s First Feminists

A timely corrective to the separatist, revisionist accounts of the womens movement that have been widely shared and accepted. A powerful, moving revelation of courageous women activists who broke through the racial divide in an effort to forge a better world for all women. Bonnets and petticoats notwithstanding, these trailblazing visionaries were never the weaker sex!

KANYERE EATON, Senior Pastor, Fellowship Covenant Church

An inspiring story of what activism and strategic grassroots philanthropy generated on behalf of freedom and justice 180 years ago, and against great odds. Great women forged the path before us, deploying their money to advance justice.

JOSH MAILMAN and MONICA WINSOR, activist philanthropists, Serious Change

A galvanizing accounting of our collective history as Americansand a blueprint for where we must go next.

DIANE WHITTY, Global Head of Philanthropy, JP Morgan

Helena pioneer in the womens funding movementis the perfect messenger to remind us on whose shoulders we stand as we work to create a world with equality and justice. Reading And the Spirit Moved Them is an opportunity to harness the strength, outrage, and protest from feminists in our past.

ANA L. OLIVEIRA, President and CEO, The New York Womens Foundation

Helen LaKelly Hunts compelling historical narrative on the rise of feminism in America reveals that faith, women and men working in partnership, and healthy relationships were the foundation of the female abolitionists organizing. Their relational style of movement building is a blueprint for healing culture today.

ELIZABETH and KEVIN PHILLIPS, Phillips Foundation, Cocreators, Healthy Relationship Initiative, Greensboro, NC

I care a great deal about and work to help propagate global feminism and environmentalism. The abolitionist feminists broke free of their cultural confinement to the domestic sphere, finding a public voice with which to help others. Hunts book reveals the diversity beating at the heart of our abolitionist and feminist histories, giving these women the audience they so richly deserve. And the Spirit Moved Them is a model for working in partnershipwith passion, power, and protestto unleash a vision for a healthy and sustainable future.

TREA C. YIP, TY Commercial Group, Inc.

Helen LaKelly Hunt brings us a little-known but profoundly moving story from the annals of American history. It is a story that needs to be told, now more than ever before; a story of sisterhood that is as deeply spiritual as it is political, that defied the racial barriers of its day to create a movement with lasting impact. More than a century later, let their brave and fierce voices no longer be lost to history.

SERENE JONES, President, Union Theological Seminary

Fine historical research pushes us to probe even more deeply into the past and surprises us with its contemporary relevance. This absorbing book reminds us that women of resonant religious faith then and now fulfill their faith commitments by propelling our basic human freedoms.

BONNIE WHEELER, historian, Southern Methodist University

Raised in Honduras, I came to the US to get a college education and worked to achieve my professional goals, eventually becoming a VP at Goldman Sachs. I benefitted greatly from the faith-fueled efforts of these early abolitionist women. This is an important piece of history urgently needed. I have great admiration and gratitude for Helen La-Kelly Hunt for this book.

MARIA CHRIN, Cofounder, Circle Financial

Faith, feminism, voice, movement building, money, power. These are words that are not often connectedbut they should be. Used together they will take us further, faster, in the struggle for gender equality. Helens book bridges the past with the present. By sharing the stories of the earliest feminist leaders, Hunt invites us to own our own power in the quest for true equality.

JACKI ZEHNER, Founding Chair and CEO, Women Moving Millions

Relationships anchored by an interwoven vision are the catalytic currency to sustainable change. Too many world changers stay in the shadows of history, making this spotlight on the visionary abolitionist women deeply significant. They collaborated cross-race, cross-class, in solidarity, using relational organizing so desperately needed in todays polarized society. These women travailed until they birthed a movement. We applaud the vision and the passion of And the Spirit Moved Them!

OLANIKKI and TORREY CARROLL, Ambassadors, Safe Conversations, Relationships First

Helen LaKelly Hunt is both a scholar and a practitioner of feminism. As she recreates the determination of the early feminists in this book, and models this energy in her own life, she brings many of us along with her.

CECILIA GUTHRIE BOONE and CYNTHIA YUNG, The Boone Family Foundation

These stories cant be hidden any longer, just as we can no longer deny the bias and prejudice that resides so deeply in our systems, culture, and ourselves. Thank you, Helen LaKelly Hunt, for discovering and bringing forth the contribution of these women, willing to risk all to stand for justice and human dignity.

LAUREN EMBREY, President, Embrey Family Foundation: Dallas Faces Race Initiative

As women continue to break through social barriers today, these nineteenth-century abolitionist women offer insights that can help guide our global society into the future.

VINCE POSCENTE, The Age of Speed

Helen LaKelly Hunt combines new historical scholarship on feminism with key insights from Imago Theory, a relational therapy co-created with her husband. The result is a spellbinding work that retells the history of American feminism in ways that have implications for equality movements everywhere.

KIERSTEN MAREK, Past Senior Editor, Inside Philanthropy; Founder, Philanthropy Women

In her wonderful new book, Helen LaKelly Hunt brings to life a lost chapter in American history of great historical importanceand of direct relevance to our turbulent times. It shows how, working together across race and class, women can challenge entrenched beliefs justifying domination and injustice. I highly recommend this beautifully written book for everyone, young and old.

RIANE EISLER, The Chalice and the Blade

Helen LaKelly Hunt has a rare talent for illuminating lost chapters of history. In And the Spirit Moved Them, she sheds light on the little-known intersectional beginnings of American feminism, reminding us that human relationships lie at the heart of every lasting social movement. This is a story to be shared with all the women in your life.

SHEILA C. JOHNSON, CEO, Salamander Hotels and Resorts; Cofounder, BET

We may never know why Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony chose to start their history of womens suffrage with Seneca Falls, not the earlier convention of abolitionist suffragists who fought against cruelties imposed by race and sex, but thanks to the revelations in And the Spirit Moved Them, this crucial and inspiring history is no longer lost to us. A must read for all who care about the past and present intertwining of sex and racein other words, who care about human rights.

GLORIA STEINEM, activist and author

Published in 2017 by the Feminist Press at the City University of New York

The Graduate Center

365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5406

New York, NY 10016

feministpress.org

First Feminist Press edition 2017