Frances Seward
Frances Seward
- Born: September 25, 1805 in Cayuga County, NY
- Died: June 21, 1865 in Washington, DC
- Buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, NY
- Frances has yet to be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame
Original influencer. Fierce anti-slavery advocate. Women’s rights activist.
We like to think of Frances Seward as an early (early, early) influencer. As a woman of power and importance – her husband was William Henry Seward, a New York governor, U.S. senator, and the secretary of state under his close friend Abraham Lincoln – she used her influence to lift up others.
Fiercely independent and an activist at heart, Frances carved out a striking legacy all her own. She was integral to the effort to secure property-rights protections for married women, which was a key first step in winning the right to vote. She fought for equality in all of its forms, working tirelessly to advance the twin causes of abolition and women’s rights, even turning her girlhood home at 33 South Street in Auburn into a stop on the Underground Railroad.
She developed a strong bond with Harriet Tubman and played a key role in selling her property nearby. Frances is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, along with Harriet and another Top Trailblazer, Martha Coffin Wright.
“… two fugitives have gone to Canada — one of them our acquaintance John.”
A fierce abolitionist, Frances wrote this note in a letter to her husband, William H. Seward, after the rescue of William “Jerry” Henry in Syracuse, NY on October 1, 1851.
Learn more about Frances Seward
Visit the Seward House Museum in Auburn, NY to walk the footsteps of Frances and the home she shared with William and their children. See the basement area where it is believed that the Seward family helped freedom seekers along the Underground Railroad.
