Angela Heywood facts for kids

Angela Fiducia Heywood (1840–1935) was an American writer and activist. She was known for fighting for many important causes. These included women's suffrage (the right for women to vote), socialism (fairer sharing of resources), and improving conditions for workers. She also believed in spiritual ideas and worked to end slavery.

Early Life

Angela Heywood was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, around 1840. Her parents were Daniel and Lucy Tilton. Her father was a farmer. Her mother was a deep thinker who was related to the famous philosopher John Locke.

When her family became poor, Angela worked to earn money. She was a housemaid and later a caregiver for a child. This work showed her what it was like to earn wages. These experiences shaped her ideas about improving conditions for workers.

When she was eighteen, Angela had a strong religious experience. She became very active in her church. However, she later wrote strong criticisms about the church.

Even though she didn't have much formal schooling, Angela cared a lot about politics. She joined the movement to end slavery. Through this work, she met her future husband, Ezra Heywood. He was also against slavery and wanted to help workers.

Angela and Ezra got married in Boston on June 5, 1865. They moved to Princeton, Massachusetts. There, they bought a big house to run their publishing business. They had four children: Psyche, Angelo, Vesta, and Hermes.

Career and Activism

From May 1872 to April 1893, Angela and Ezra worked together. They published a journal called The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform. Their business was called the Cooperative Publishing Company. They became well-known for openly discussing topics that people usually avoided.

The Word supported many different movements. These included women's suffrage, socialism, and improving conditions for workers. It published essays, opinions, and book reviews. Ezra Heywood also wrote and shared pamphlets called Cupid's Yokes. These pamphlets criticized marriage, saying it was like a form of control for women.

Angela Heywood wrote often for The Word. She called herself a "word-painter." She saw her beliefs as a kind of "ethics" or "religion" to live by. She wrote about many different subjects.

She believed that men and women should follow specific moral rules. She especially felt that men should take responsibility for their actions. This meant they should acknowledge their children, even if they weren't married to the mother. This would help the children and mothers avoid being looked down upon by society.

Angela was also an anarchist and a spiritualist. This means she didn't believe the government or the church should have so much power. It's not clear exactly when she changed her mind about the church. But it was likely between her marriage in 1865 and when she started writing for The Word in 1872. Her husband's view that the church had too much control over marriage might have influenced her.

Angela's anarchist ideas were strongly shaped by the fact that women couldn't vote. She supported women's suffrage. But she felt that simply changing laws wouldn't be enough to change how the government worked. She said women shouldn't have to accept the government's right to rule, since the government didn't accept women's rights. She even thought the United States was "not a republican government." This is because a republic is supposed to be for all people, but the government only served half the population.

Angela was also very influenced by the Oneida Community in New York. She especially admired its leader, John Humphrey Noyes.

Unfortunately, the Heywoods didn't have much money. Angela spent a lot of her time doing housework. This left her with little time to write. She couldn't go to many conferences because she had to care for her children. At one point, Ezra asked for money in The Word. He wrote that Angela needed money to have more time for writing. He asked if people could help her "articulate" (express her ideas) by sending cash.

The Word actually stopped being published between 1890 and 1892. This was when Ezra was in prison, and Angela didn't have time to run it herself.

Over the years, Angela wrote a lot for The Word. She often got upset with Ezra for editing her essays and cutting out parts she thought were important. However, he never censored her strong language. Even though Angela contributed so much, only Ezra was ever listed as editor. The only exception was for six months in 1878 when he was in jail. Still, Angela was always seen as the unofficial co-editor.

Challenges and Criticism

Ezra's pamphlets were often criticized by Anthony Comstock. Comstock was the person behind the 1873 Comstock Act. This law stopped "inappropriate" materials from being sent through the US mail. Ezra was sent to prison twice. Once from June to December 1878, and again from June 1890 to June 1892.

While her husband was in jail, Angela earned most of the family's money. She ran a summer resort called Mountain Home from their house. She also made some money by teaching and speaking at events. The Cooperative Publishing Company was well-known, but it didn't make them much money. So, the Heywoods remained quite poor.

Angela spoke at a convention in Boston in November 1877. Anthony Comstock criticized her for her "obscenity" (inappropriate language). Many people thought she was not mentally well. Others, including some women, believed she should go to prison for her words.

Angela's own brother-in-law, Samuel Heywood, strongly disliked what Ezra and Angela were doing. He took over their house in September 1878 while Ezra was in prison. Angela and her children were briefly homeless. But friends loaned the Heywoods enough money to get their house back.

Later Life

The Word stopped being published after Ezra's death in May 1893. Not much is known about the rest of Angela's life. A neighbor remembered that she was "doing day work in office buildings."

According to her daughter Psyche, Angela Heywood died at the age of 95.

Works

• Has love a scientific basis? In: "Woodhull & Claflin Weekly", March 1, 1873, p. 13
• Body Housekeeping, in: Freedom, Feminism, and The State. An Overview of Individualist Feminism. Ed. Wendy McElroy. Holmes & Meier, New York 1991 ISBN: 0945999674 pp. 131–134