Franklin F. Gould

The Woman's Right: a Story of My Maine Grandmother, 1848-1927 Franklin F. Gould

Tom Gould was a prosperous farmer and a Civil War hero when Lizzie Foster married him in 1869. But life with a frugal, verbally-abusive husband proved to be more difficult than Lizzie could have ever imagined. After giving birth to eight children in sixteen years, Lizzie Gould decides she's had enough of Tom, a husband who is obviously more interested in satisfying his needs than in protecting her health. Lizzie's brother arrives and provides her with a much-needed escape route-or what she wryly calls "the underground railway out of her slavery." She quickly and courageously departs with her two youngest children, leaving her oldest daughter, Mary Emma, in charge of her other five siblings. Moving in with her father, Lizzie discovers that it is unheard of for a woman to divorce for freedom. But C. V. Emerson, a friendly attorney, assures Lizzie that separating from her husband will be much easier than she suspects. With excerpts from letters, diaries, and newspapers, author Frank Gould tells the true story of his grandmother's flight from oppression and her new destiny, asserting it is the Woman's Right.