Ernestine Rose

• Born: January 13, 1810
• Birthplace: Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland, Russian Empire (now in Poland)
• Died: August 4, 1892
• Place of death: Brighton, England

Polish-born activist, feminist, and social reformer

Over the course of her lifetime, Rose advocated for socialism, abolition of slavery, temperance, women’s rights, and women’s suffrage. A feminist, reformer, and freethinker, Rose used her talents as an orator to deliver speeches in support of economic and social justice.

Early Life

Ernestine Rose (UR-nih-steen rohz), the only child of the Orthodox Jewish rabbi Isaac Potowski, was born in Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire), in 1810. As a young child, she challenged convention by studying the Hebrew versions of the Torah and Talmud. By the time she was fourteen years old, Rose had refused to support both the Bible and Judaism. When Rose was sixteen, her mother died and left her daughter some property that Rose’s father used as a dowry for an arranged marriage for Rose to an older man. She renounced the marriage proposal, but she wished to retain her property. Her prospective fiancé argued that he had the rights to the property, but Rose rejected this arrangement, pursued her argument, and won her case at the High Tribunal of the Regional Polish Court. Soon after, her father married a young woman who was about his daughter’s age.

Rose moved to an area of Berlin that did not permit long-term residence of foreigners unless the foreigner had a Prussian sponsor. Since she saw this practice as being unjust, Rose pursued the issue and received a personal exemption from King Frederick William III. Rose survived on the income she earned from inventing and marketing a chemical paper that, when burned, served as a household deodorant. In 1829, Rose visited Belgium and Holland and then toured France. She continued on to England in 1832.

Life’s Work

While in England, Rose adopted the name Ernestine Louise, pursued her perfume business, tutored children in German and Hebrew, joined up with utopian socialist Robert Owen, and began lecturing on human equality. Then, she met and married jeweler and silversmith William Ella Rose. The couple immigrated to New York City in hopes of founding an Owenite Colony. In New York, Rose supported and petitioned for Judge Thomas Herttell’s Married Women’s Property Act to become law. It took twelve years of persistent effort to pass the act; when it passed, married women were allowed to retain control of their own property. Rose saw injustice in her new country and began traveling and lecturing in support of women’s rights, abolition of slavery, temperance, religious tolerance, and freethinking. She joined the Society for Moral Philanthropy; members included Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and William Lloyd Garrison.

On May 4, 1845, Rose spoke at the first National Infidel Convention in New York City. At the first National Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1850, Rose was elected to be a member of the executive committee. She also spoke at the 1850 birthday party of Thomas Paine. Over the next two decades, Rose attended local, state, and national conventions on women’s rights and strongly advocated for support of New York State legislation on women’s rights. She supported the North and abolition of slavery during the Civil War, and she joined Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the Women’s Loyal National League.

The post-Civil War era was depressing for the women’s rights movement. Rose and many other advocates found the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, about citizenship and the right to vote, to be contrary to their goals. Rose and her husband left the United States in 1869. They returned for only a short stint to liquidate their assets in 1873. After retiring, the Roses toured France and Switzerland before settling down in England. Rose continued to speak occasionally and write articles for reform movements. Her husband died of a heart attack in 1882; Rose’s health declined, and she resided in the London area for the remainder of her life. She died on August 4, 1892.

Significance

Rose lectured for more than thirty-three years, visiting more than twenty-three U.S. states and many other countries while promoting her stance on women’s rights, abolition of slavery, and women’s suffrage. She was a rebel with many causes and a pioneering reformer. Rose’s eloquence and passion resulted in her being dubbed Queen of the Platform. She learned Polish, English, German, French, Dutch, and Hebrew, enabling her to converse in multiple languages. For more than fifty years, Rose wrote articles for the Boston Investigator, a journal of freethinkers that worked to promote human equality. She was also a member of the Universal Peace Society. Rose was an intellect who argued in support of her causes but who was never quite satisfied with the results.

Bibliography

Berson, Robin Kadison. Ernestine Louise Rose: Marching to a Different Drummer. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. Reviews Rose’s life, her fight for women’s equality, and the major events that shaped her thinking.

Doress-Worters, Paula B. Mistress of Herself: Speeches and Letters of Ernestine L. Rose, Early Women’s Rights Leader. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2008. Scholarly collection of Rose’s papers, including her speeches and letters.

Feldberg, Michael, ed. Blessings of Freedom: Chapters in Jewish History. Hoboken, N.J.: KTAV, 2001. Includes a short overview of the life and times of Rose and describes how she became a feminist.

Gaylor, Annie Laurie, ed. Women Without Superstition: “No Gods—No Masters.” Madison, Wis.: Freedom from Religion Foundation, 1997. This text includes nineteenth and twentieth century writings of women freethinkers. A chapter, “Ernestine L. Rose: Atheist and America’s First Women’s Rights Canvasser,” describes Rose as an atheist and women’s right advocate.

Kolmerten, Carol A. The American Life of Ernestine L. Rose. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1999. This biography of Rose includes the importance of Robert Owen in her development and her progress as a freethinker and women’s rights activist.