Revolutionary Heart

The life of the hidden feminist icon of Vermont

Story by Noah Fitzgerald

While Clarina Nichols may not be as well known as her 19th century feminist counterparts Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony, the Vermont native achieved enough in her life to deserve the same recognition. In Diane Eickhoff’s biography, "Revolutionary Heart," the journey, hardships, and accomplishments of Clarina is documented in a meticulous, yet surprisingly entertaining way.

Born in West Townshend, to a liberal household in 1810, Clarina, along with her family were aware of the subjugation of woman around the nation. At 8 years old, she and her father Chapin Howard were congregants for the Free Will Baptist Church, which believed in abolition and women’s rights. It was this, along with her upbringing, that led Clarina to become involved in the feminist movement.

Clarina began her career in 1831 after marrying Justin Carpenter and moving to Brockport where she launched a small literary magazine. Here, she joined the temperance movement and started to get more involved in the public arena. By 1837, after moving back and forth between New York and Vermont to give birth to her second and third child, she started a female seminary in Herkimer, New York.

Throughout this period, her marriage fell apart. Eventually, after Justin abandoned her and his children, Clarina moved back to Townshend where she would begin to publish poetry, short stories, and eventually, write for the Windham County Democrat. It was then she began writing what she would become famous for: strong feminist prose for women’s rights.

Over the next 13 years Clarina married her Windham County Democrat editor George Washington Nichols, took over the newspaper herself, influenced the passing of the first married women’s property rights bill in Vermont, became a successful writer and lecturer for the feminist movement, attended and participated in the First National Women’s Rights Convention of 1850, and became friends with Susan B. Anthony. But after becoming tired of Vermont she felt ready spread her influence throughout the frontier. Clarina decided to begin a journey that would eventually end on California’s west coast.

Eickhoff’s biography of Clarina Nichols treats the reader to a surprising look into the life of an elusive feminist icon. Although short on resources and documents, the author successfully transforms a vague historical reference into a dynamic, real-life character. Even the descriptions of events and landscapes that Eickhoff could obviously not experienced herself are drawn out well enough to make the reader feel as though she may as well been.

My only issue with the novel is that it becomes a bit too mundanely "step-by-step" while documenting some point in the protagonist's life. Eickhoff's meticulous nature tends to become a bit repetitive at times and I found myself skimming through some of the book's meat.

While at some points the documentation of protagonist’s lectures becomes a bit dry and redundant, Eickhoff never fails to bring the story back into the detailed and page-turning story that is Clarina’s life. It is a life that has, for the most part, been under appreciated and mostly ignored until now.

Have you ever heard of Clarina Nichols?

Revolutionary Heart
by Diane Eickhoff
Quindaro Press, 2006
277 Pages