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Ernestine RoseAtheist, feminist and abolitionist with American citizenship
Date of Birth: 13.01.1810
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Biography of Ernestine Rose
- Questioning Religious Beliefs
- Marriage and Independence
- Journey to America
- Life in the United States
- Women's Rights Advocate
- Later Life and Legacy
Biography of Ernestine Rose
Ernestine Louise Rose, an atheist, feminist, and abolitionist with American citizenship, possessed remarkable intellectual abilities that became a powerful force in the struggle for women's rights in 19th-century America. She was born on January 13, 1810, in Piotrków Trybunalski, Russia-Poland. Her father was a wealthy rabbi, and her mother was the daughter of a wealthy businessman.
Questioning Religious Beliefs
At the age of five, Ernestine began to question the fairness of God when her father continuously fasted. Over time, she started to challenge her father on religious matters, but he told her that girls could not understand the essence of faith and that she should simply accept and believe. At fourteen, Ernestine completely rejected the idea of female inferiority and abandoned all religious texts that supported this idea.
Marriage and Independence
At sixteen, Ernestine experienced the death of her mother, and her father, without her consent, engaged her to his young Jewish friend. However, she refused to marry someone she did not love and expressed her desire for freedom directly to her fiancé. As she came from a wealthy family, her fiancé was not willing to give up the advantageous match. Ernestine then went to a secular civil court, which not only ruled in her favor but also maintained her right to inherit the estate left by her mother. Eventually, she relinquished her inheritance, which her father controlled anyway. Due to the tensions between her father and stepmother, Ernestine left home at the age of seventeen.
Journey to America
She arrived in Berlin, where she participated in the creation of a successful room deodorant and continued her journey with the funds she earned. Ernestine traveled through Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and finally, England. Her ship wrecked, leaving her penniless and without any belongings upon her arrival in England. To survive, she continued to sell the deodorant and, at some point, met the socialist utopian Robert Owen, who became her close friend. When she married William Ella Rose, a Christian and jeweler, she made it clear that their marriage was a civil contract devoid of any religious beliefs.
Life in the United States
In May 1836, the couple immigrated to the United States, where they eventually obtained citizenship and settled in a cozy home in New York City in 1837. When Ernestine began giving lectures on the abolition of slavery, religious tolerance, and women's equality, she faced mixed reactions. Once, a slave trader stated that he would tar and feather her if she were a man. In 1855, a newspaper in Maine referred to Rose as an "atheist... a hundredfold more insignificant than a prostitute."
Women's Rights Advocate
In the 1840s and 1850s, Ernestine Rose became part of the "pantheon of great American women," a group that included Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and many others. She attended and spoke at numerous conferences and gatherings, tirelessly advocating for women's rights. She was elected president of a series of NWRC meetings, organized to advance the women's rights movement, and received support from Susan B. Anthony, who did not consider Rose's atheistic views a threat.
Later Life and Legacy
In later years, as Ernestine's health declined, she and her husband traveled to England on June 8, 1869. Anthony arranged a farewell party for them, and they received numerous gifts from friends and admirers, including a substantial sum of money. After 1873, Rose began to recover and had enough strength to speak in support of women's suffrage in England. She also participated in a major public meeting advocating for women's suffrage in Edinburgh, Scotland. Ernestine Rose passed away on August 4, 1892. Her legacy includes the statement, "It is an interesting and obvious fact: if children were atheists and not indoctrinated with religion, they would remain as such."
