Yours for Liberty

"When women's true history shall have been written, her part in the upbuilding of this nation will astound the world."

—Abigail Scott Duniway

Between 1871 and 1887, Duniway, a leader in the woman suffrage movement, chronicled this "true history" in the pages of The New Northwest, one of the few newspapers in the nation devoted to woman's advancement. With its motto of "Free Speech, Free Press, Free People," Duniway's weekly reform journal aimed to expose and combat social injustice of all kinds.

Yours for Liberty, the first published volume of Duniway's writings from The New Northwest, provides a vivid portrait of this pioneering suffragist and her work. The collected essays, news reports, and editorial and travel correspondence reveal her strong, often controversial convictions. Together, the nearly three hundred selections chronicle a fascinating and turbulent era when traditional social attitudes and institutions were being challenged, both in the Pacific Northwest and across the nation.

Based in Portland, Oregon, far removed from the center of reform movements in the East, The New Northwest served as a forum for discussions of issues as varied as treatment of the Chinese, policies relating to American Indians, the rights and legal status of women, Temperance and Prohibition, and the vagaries of religion. As a suffragist editor, Duniway wrote to persuade and inform her readers. Still, The New Northwest never failed to entertain. Duniway's wit and love of adventure are evident in lively tales of attending seances, falling off stagecoaches, being egged and hung in effigy, and barnstorming the Pacific Northwest in the company of Susan B. Anthony.

In their introductory essay, Jean Ward and Elaine Maveety provide a context for Duniway's tireless fight for reform and examine her remarkable career as an editor, writer, and suffragist.

Introduction

Notes for Introduction

Selections from Duniway's The New Northwest

1871
About Ourself (May 5)
Our First Attendance at a Political Meeting (May 26)
Answer to a Timid Woman (May 26)
Hardships of Farmers' Wives: Washing (June 2)
Hardships of Farmers' Wives: Isolation (June 16)
Answer to a Farmer's Wife (June 16)
Our Editorials Are Our Own (June 23)
A Tribute to Horace Greeley (June 30)
Answers to Correspondents (June 30, July 7, July 29)
Visit to the Oregon Insane Asylum (Sept. 8)
Snails in Portland's Water Supply (Sept. 29)
To the Walla Walla Fair with Miss Anthony (Oct. 6)
Miss Anthony's Work in the Great Northwest (Oct. 20)
The Oregon State Fair (Oct. 20)
Travels with Miss Anthony (first published NNW March 29, 1872)
In Washington Territory with Miss Anthony (Nov. 17)
A Lesson of Subjugation at Port Gamble, W.T. (Nov. 17)
Our Banner Yet Waveth (Nov. 17)
Reply to a Letter from Oregon City (Nov. 24)
Persecuted Celestials in Portland (Dec. 1)
Language Above Sex (Dec. 15)
Notes for Selections for 1871

1872
At the Oregon State Temperance Alliance Meeting (March 1)
At Brenner's One-Horse Hotel (March 8)
Celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment (April 5)
Trained Dresses (April 12)
Ho, Bound for the People's Convention in New York! (May 3)
First Stop: San Francisco (May 10)
San Francisco Fashions for Ladies (May 10)
In New York: The Woodhull Departure (May 31)
An Interview with Victoria Woodhull (May 31)
A Visit to Horace Greeley: Syncophant and Political Pigmy (June7)
Illinois: Memories of Auld Lang Syne (July 12)
Wyoming's Noble Position (July 12)
A Ferocious Spanish Brigand (July 19)
Fourth of July in Salt Lake City (July 19)
Salt Lake: The City of Broken Hearts (July 19)
Back in the Golden City (July 26)
Cogitations and Conclusions (Aug. 30)
Advice to Correspondents (Oct. 11)
At the Republican Rally with Grant's Invincibles (Nov. 8)
Black Sunday in Portland (Dec. 27)
Incidents of the Portland Fire (Dec. 27)
Modoc Uprising (Dec. 27)
Notes for Selections for 1872

1873
You Need Not Fear the Modocs (Jan. 10)
To Our Patrons (March 28)
Salutatory (June 20)
Hair Dressing (June 27)
Bustles (Aug. 15)
Portland's Great Conflagration (Aug. 8)
An Outrage Against a Chinaman (Aug. 8)
Call for Investigation of the Outrage, by Joseph R. Wiley (Aug. 22)
Reply to Mr. Wiley, by Benjamin C. Duniway (Aug. 29)
A Spiritualist Camp-Meeting at Zumwalt's Grove (Sept. 12)
On Spiritualism (Sept. 19)
Notes for Selections for 1873

1874
The Clored Folk's Festival (Jan. 25)
To Pay an Associate Editor (Feb. 20)
Praying Down Saloons (March 6)
Tell Us All About a Sea Voyage (March 27)
Over the Sierras to the Nevada Gold Mines (April 24)
Trial of the Temperance Crusaders (April 24)
Turning Out the Crusaders from Jail (April 24)
Mr. Walter Moffett of the Webfoot Saloon (May 8)
Crusaders, What Think You? (July 17)
To Lafayette on Horseback (July 31)
Oregon House Rejects the Woman Suffrage Bill (Oct. 9)
Umatilla, Wallula, and Walla Walla (Nov. 20)
Traveling with Master Ralph (Dec. 11)
Notes for Selections for 1874

1875
Life on the Frontier, Letter from Ellen E. Sommerville (Jan. 8)
Mrs. Duniway's Corroborative Experience (Jan 8.)
School for Chinese in Portland (April 23)
Spelling Mania at Lafayette, Oregon (May 28)
Our Rebellious Cranium (June 4)
Our Twenty-Two Married years (Aug. 13)
Knappton's Slaughtering Saw (Sept. 3)
Consequences of a Premature Marriage (Sept. 17)
The Husband's Reply (Sept. 24)
Benjamin C. Duniway's Response (Sept. 24)
The Women of Junction, Oregon (Sept. 24)
The Hungriest Bedbugs Imaginable (Sept. 24)
Spirit Mediums and Flower Manifestations (Nov. 19)
Pendleton Swarms with Indians (Nov. 26)
Close Shave on a Stagecoach (Dec. 10)
Notes for Selections for 1875

1876
No Canada for Fugitive Wives (March 10)
Chinese in Portland (March 24)
Visit to Seattle Coal Mines (May 12)
Port Blakely's Driven Men and Hopeless Concubines (May 19)
A Protest from Port Blakely (June 2)
Mrs. Duniway Heads for the East Coast (June 9)
The Columbia River Is on a Spree (June 16)
Chinese Driven from Seattle Mines (June 16)
Chinese Immigration (June 23)
High Water at Midnight (June 30)
Remembering the Death Angel (July 14)
Caught in a Swamp (July 14)
Independence Day Celebration at Boise (July 21)
Meeting Mormon Women (Aug. 18)
Rights for Mormon Women (Sug. 25)
A Visit to Brigham Young (Aug. 25)
Thank Heaven for Chinamen (Aug. 25)
A Grasshopper Blockade (Sept. 1)
Needed: Seperate Sleeping Compartments for Women (Sept. 1)
Help From Amelia Bloomer (Sept. 1)
The East Coast at Last! (Oct. 27)
In a Fearfully Chaotic State (Nov. 17)
What Cares the World for Our Domestic Sorrows? (Dec. 15)
New Teeth and Bald Heads (Dec. 29)
Notes for Selections for 1876

1877
Nearly Prostrate (March 9)
At Salt Lake Again (March 23)
Home in Portland (April 6)
A Fall in the Oregon Mud (June 1)
An Apology for Sickness (June 22)
Travel with Clyde, Age Ten (Aug. 17)
Back to Portland (Aug. 24)
At the Teachers' Institute in Salem (Aug. 31)
End of Volume VI (Sept 7)
Letter from Miss Anthony (Sept. 7)
Suffrage Work for Everybody (Sept. 7)
At a Jewish Celebration (Sept. 14)
Lecture At Palouse (Nov. 30)
Notes for Selections for 1877

1878
Ladies Relief Society (Jan. 11)
Ankle Deep in Milwaukie Mud (Jan. 25)
A Case of Wife-Beating (March 29)
Bon Voyage to Yet Another Son (April 5)
At the Oregon Penitentiary (May 10)
Indian Troubles (June 21)
The Indian War (June 29)
A Day of Terror at Walla Walla, W.T. (July 19)
Prineville and the Indian Scare, Letter from E.E. Sommerville (July 19)
Reports of the Indian Scare (July 19)
Quick Trip to San Francisco (July 25)
Death of a Tiny Waif (Aug. 1)
Of Hatchets and Humming birds (Aug. 8)
The Oregon State Woman Suffrage Association Convention (Oct. 3)
Awaiting the Trial of Mary Leonard (Nov. 14)
After the Indian Scare (Nov. 28)
Of Sewers and House-Maids (Dec. 12)
How Long, O Men, How Long? Dec. 19)
Indians: The Doomed Race (Dec.26)
Notes for Selections for 1878

1879
Indian Scare at Umatilla (Jan. 2)
The Anti-Chinese Bill (Feb. 27 and March 6)
The Chinese Question (March 6 and April 17)
Settlement with Chief Moses (April 24)
A Quilting Bee and Barn Raising at Cornelius, Oregon (April 24)
To Our Patrons (May 1)
A Near Calamity at Kalama (May 15)
Staging to Jacksonville, Oregon (July 10)
Peculiarities of Jacksonville Men (July 10)
Trouble Brewing at Jacksonville (July 17)
Egged and Burned in Effigy at Jacksonville (July 17)
An Interlude (July 24)
Through the Howling Rabble (July 24)
Return to the City of the Philistines (July 31)
Oh! the Ochoco Road! (Nov. 20)
Mexican Woman Committed (Nov. 20)
Robbery on the Lewiston Stage (Dec. 4)
Notes for Selections for 1879

1880
Child of a Prostitute (Feb 5)
To Right the Wrong (Feb. 12)
Women's Handiwork at the Oregon State Fair (July 15)
Visit to the Multnomah County Poor Farm (July 29)
Visit to the Indian School at Forest Grove (Sept. 2)
Frontier Marriage and Charivari at Mitchel (Nov. 18)
Notes for Selections for 1880

1881
Reflections on the Indian Question (June 9)
Trial of Nannie Thomas at Colfax, W.T. (June 23)
Reactions to the Attempted Assassination of Pres. Garfield (July 14)
Bridget Gallagher Speaks for Her Child (July 28)
Death of President Garfield (Sept. 22)
Mrs. Duniway's Religious Views (Nov. 17)
Chinamen Arrested (Dec. 1)
Plight of russian Immigrants (Dec. 15)

1882
A Defamer Punished by Mrs. Duniway's Sons (Jan. 26)
The State vs. W.S. and H.R. Duniway (March 9)
A Portland Tragedy: Annie Murray (March 9)
Chapters of Horror: Annie Murray (March 9)
Victory in the Oregon Legislature (Oct. 5)
Woman Suffrage Fails in Nebraska (Dec. 7)
On a Sleeping-Car from Walla Walla to Portland (Dec. 28)
Notes for Selections for 1882

1883
Speaking at the Emancipation Ball (Jan. 4)
Women, Don't Fail to Vote (March 8)
A Return to Port Gamble, W.T. (April 12)
Editorial Note (April 12)
Bustling Seattle (April 19)
Frances E. Willard in Portland (June 14)
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union Convention (June 21)
News of the Northern Pacific Railroad (June 28)
Chinese Workers Strike (July 5)
Visit to the Siletz Indian Reservation (July 19)
Henry Ward Beecher to Lecture (Aug. 2)
A Brief Interview with Henry Ward Beecher (Aug. 30)
"Reign of the Common People," Henry Ward Beecher's Lecture (Sept. 6)
Portland's Jubliee: Completion of the Transcontinental R.R. (Sept. 13)
Objections to Woman Suffrage Refuted (Sept. 20 )
Sad Case of a Violated Daughter (Oct. 4)
Boy Murders Grandmother (Nov. 15)
Victory! Washington Territory's Women Enfranchised (Nov. 15)
The Governor Signs the Bill (Nov. 22)
Vist Verona ("Fanny" Baldwin at the W.T. Insane Asylum (Nov. 29)
Verona Baldwin Released (Dec. 27)
Notes for Selections for 1883

1884
Mrs. Duniway Does Not Seek W.T. Governorship (Jan. 3)
Lucy Stone's Congratulations (Jan. 10)
Mrs. Duniway to speak at NWSA Convention (Feb. 21)
Travel with the Pullman Monopoly and the Baker Heater (March 6)
On to Washington, D.C., and the National Convention (March 20)
A Call at the White House and a Senate Hearing (March 27)
A Visit with Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell (March 27)
Homeward Bound (April 17)
Twenty-Eight Miles in Ten Hours (May 8)
A Word to Oregon Women (May 29)
The Defeat in Oregon (June 5)
No Lights in Portland (Sept. 11)
Letter from Susan B. Anthony (Sept. 25)
A Further Warning to Women of Washington Territory (Oct. 2)
Last Call to Women of Washington Territory (Oct. 30)
Washington Women Vote (Nov. 13)
Notes for Selections for 1884

1885
Defeat in the Oregon Senate (Feb. 19)
What of the Future for Woman Suffrage in Oregon? (Feb. 26)
Mary Leonard Admitted to Practice in the U. S. Courts (April 2)
Washington Territory: A New Canada for Women? (May 14)
Earthquake at Dayton., W.T. (May 14)
July Fourth in the Land of the Free (July 9)
Illness of Mrs. Duniway's Daughter (July 23)
Court Week in Oysterville, W.T. (Aug. 20)
Anti-Chinese Sentiment (Oct. 1, Oct. 8, Oct. 22)
Off for Minneapolis (Oct. 22)
Tributes to Henry Blackwell and Lucy Stone (Oct. 29)
Home on the Northern Pacific (Nov. 5)
Chinese Troubles in Washington Territory (Nov. 5)
Chinese Agitation at Puget Sound (Nov. 12)
Dirty Linen in Tacoma, W.T. (Nov. 18)
Washington Women Flog Wife-Beater (Nov. 26)
Catching Ranch Fever (Dec. 3)
Floggers of Wife-Beater Rewarded (Dec. 10)
Hazards of Winter Staging (Dec. 24)
Notes for Selections for 1885

1886-87
Letters from the Fireside, Number One: The Mother Heart (Jan. 7)
Dead (Jan 21)
Letters from the Fireside, Number Four: It Is Finished (Jan. 28)
Editorial Note on Equal Suffrage Plans (Feb. 11)
Letters from the Fireside, Number Six: The Chinese Question (Feb. 11)
More on the Chinese Question in Portland and Oregon City (Feb. 18, Feb 25, March 11, March 25)
The Local Option Excitement in Washington Territory (March 25)
Oregon Victory for Mary A. Leonard (April 15)
Willis Duniway Catches Idaho Land Fever (May 27)
The Wood River Valley of Idaho Territory (June 3)
Slandered in Washington Territory (June 17)
The Local Option Campaign Comes to a Close (July 1)
Results of the Local Option Election in Washington Territory (July 1)
One Faithful Worker: Lucy Stone Honors Mrs. A.S. Duniway (Sept 23)
A Vigorous Growl from the Senior Editor (Oct. 7)
By Stage in Oregon: Ashland to Linkville (Oct. 24)
Staging from Lakeview to Ashland (Nov. 11)
Staging from Lakeview to Ashland Continued (Nov. 18)
Record of a Year's Work (Dec. 16)
Change of Proprietors (Jan. 6)
Personal Announcement (Jan. 6)
Notes for Selections for 1886-1887

Chronology
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photographs
Index