Clara Barton Tea

“Yours for Humanity – Abby” is an inspiring one-woman play based on letters and speeches of Worcester’s Abby Kelley Foster. We travelled back to 1854 and entered Abby’s world.  Her emotionally –powerful orations against slavery and prejudice changed the hearts and minds of many. "Yours for Humanity – Abby” was written for the Worcester Women's History Project by Carolyn Howe and Karen Board Moran. Performed by Lynne McKenney Lydick. Creative Consultants: Lynne McKenney Lydick & James D. Moran. Douglas Ingalls, Director. Performed by Lynne McKenney Lydick.

Abby Kelley Foster (1811-1887), born into an ordinary Massachusetts Quaker family, became a leading nineteenth-century abolitionist and women's rights activist. Abby dedicated her life to social justice working relentlessly to end both race and gender prejudice. At a time when society demanded that women be silent, submissive and obedient, Abby was none of these.

Despite constant harassment and intense ridicule Abby never compromised her principles and her belief that all people are created equal and deserve to be free. She spent more than twenty years traveling across the nation as a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society becoming its pre-eminent public speaker and most successful fundraiser. This also put her at the forefront of the women's rights movement.

Abby and fellow radical abolitionist Stephen Foster married in 1845 and bought a farm in Worcester, Massachusetts. Now called Liberty Farm, it is a designated Historical Landmark. Abby gave birth to their daughter, Alla, in 1847. Throughout her life Abby struggled to balance her work as an anti-slavery lecturer with her role as a loving wife and a mother. Over fifty years of her life were dedicated to aid the cause of humanity and justice.