Draft:Sarah Elizabeth Van De Vort Emery

Sarah Elizabeth Van De Vort Emery
Portrait of Sarah E. V. Emery from an issue of The Arena c1892.
Born	(1838-05-12)May 12, 1838 Phelps, New York, U.S.
Died	October 10, 1895(1895-10-10) (aged 57) Lansing, Michigan, U.S.
Cause of death	cancer
Resting place	Ash-scattering, Ontario County, New York, U.S.
Other names	Sarah Elizabeth Van De Vort
Siglum	S. E. V. E.
Alma mater	Clinton Liberal Institute
Occupation(s)	author, editor, labor unionist, lecturer, political activist, speaker, suffragist
Years active	1870–1895
Organizations	National Woman Suffrage Association Woman's Christian Temperance Union
Notable work	Seven Financial Conspiracies, Imperialism in America
Political party	People's Party
Other political affiliations	Greenback Party Farmers' Alliance
Movement	American Farmer's movement Early labor reform Temperance Women's suffrage
Spouse	Wesley Emery ​ (m. 1870)​
Children	2 (including stepson)
Writing career
Cover of Seven Financial Conspiracies by Sarah E. V. Emery c1894
Pen name	S. E .V. E. S. E. V. Emery Sarah E. Van De Vort Emery Sarah E. Vandervort Emery
Genre	non-fiction
Subject	American populism Anti-imperialism Free silver monetary policy

Sarah Elizabeth Van De Vort Emery (née, Van De Vort; May 12, 1838 – October 19, 1895) was a reputable activist rooted within the movements surrounding the American farm discontent of the later 19th century. She was an author, educator, lecturer, political delegate, suffragette, and temperance advocate based in Michigan. She is best known for her pamphlet Seven Financial Conspiracies Which Have Enslaved the American People for which she sold over 400,000 copies. She was a supporter and participant of the Greenback Party and later became a Populist and lectured nationally for the People's Party.

Early Life and Education

Sarah Van De Vort was born in Phelps, Ontario County, New York, May 12th, 1838 in the Finger Lakes region. She was the seventh of nine children; daughter of Thomas Van De Vort, a farmer, businessman, and a devout Universalist, and his wife Emma Van De Vort. She was raised with a strong emphasis on education and religion. In 1866, she moved to Midland, Michigan, choosing to live there because the state recently prohibited capital punishment, the first state to do so. In 1870, she married Wesley Emery; a widower, former teacher, and bookstore owner, and moved to the state capital of Lansing where she lived for the rest of her life.

Career

At 18, she began teaching in New York, meanwhile also studying at the Clinton Liberal Institute. In the early 1870's Emery served as corresponding secretary of the Michigan affiliate of the National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1880, she began her career as a public speaker after returning from the State Greenback Convention of Michigan. By that next year Emery was elected delegate-at-large to the next convention, the first woman thus honored from her state. In 1884 Emery became a Michigan delegate to the National Greenback Labor Party and joined the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In 1887 her pamphlet Seven Financial Conspiracies was published. This pamphlet argued that the currency contraction created by the adoption of the international gold standard via the Coinage Act of 1873 was detrimental to the working class, as this demonetized the more readily available silver coinage. In 1892 Emery was one of the associate editors of the St. Louis based People's Party paper The New Forum. In 1893 her book Imperialism In America Its Rise and Progress was published. Here she presents a controversy concerning the legality and morality surrounding America's acquisition of new territories such as Hawaii, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. She signed her correspondence and published works as S. E. V. E.

Later Life

She came into national prominence after the publishing of Seven Financial Conspiracies, as it became widely circulated and reprinted meany times. In 1892, Emery was one of the six women featured by fellow activist and muckraker journalist Annie L. Diggs's in her article for the progressive periodical, The Arena, called The Women in the Alliance Movement. This lists Emery among her contemporaries with such activists as: Mary Elizabeth Lease, Marion Marsh Todd, and Eva McDonnald Valesh. Later she published a revised book edition of Seven Financial Conspiracies, expanding on its success and resulting discourse and containing correspondence from cohorts and distractors alike, including adversarial columns between her and Ohio Senator John Sherman, younger brother of Union general William Tecumseh Sherman, featured in the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Personal life

She grew up Unitarian, citing the influence of growing up in the 'Burned-over district' of New York state, an area renown for the formation of many new religious movements during the Second Great Awakening. Her family consisted of her husband and stepson Archibald Martell Emery. In 1880 she had a daughter, Effie, but for whom had an early death. Her residential properties in Lansing still exist and are on the National Register of Historic Places. Emery died of cancer on October 10th, 1895, in Lansing, Michigan.

Works

• Emery, Sarah, E. V. (1887). Seven Financial Conspiracies Which Have Enslaved the American People (Pamphlet) (1st ed.). Lansing, Michigan: L. Thompson. LCCN 06019559. Retrieved August 24, 2024.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Emery, Sarah, E. V. (1893). Imperialism In America Its Rise and Progress. Lansing, Michigan: D.A. Reynolds & Co. LCCN 10003102. Retrieved August 24, 2024 – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Emery, Sarah, E. V., ed. (1893). "The Corner Stone". The Corner Stone of the True Republic. Lansing, Michigan: Emery & Emery. Retrieved August 24, 2024.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)

• Emery, Sarah, E. V. (1894). Seven Financial Conspiracies Which Have Enslaved the American People (Revised ed.). Lansing, Michigan: Robert Smith & Co. Retrieved August 24, 2024 – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Bibliography

• Stanton, Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B.; Gage, Matilda Joslyn, eds. (1886). History of Woman Suffrage, Volume III, 1876-1885. New York, New York: E.O. Jenkins. LCCN 15010485. Retrieved August 24, 2024 – via Project Gutenberg.

• Diggs, Annie L. (1893). Flower, B. O. (ed.). "Women in the Alliance Movement". The Arena. Vol. VI. Boston, Massachusetts: The Arena Publishing Co., The Pinkham Press. pp. 160–197. Retrieved August 24, 2024 – via Internet Archive.

• Anthony, Susan B.; Harper, Ida Husted, eds. (1902). History of Woman Suffrage, Volume IV, 1883-1900. Indianapolis, Indiana: Hollenbeck Press. LCCN 99462401. Retrieved August 24, 2024 – via Project Gutenberg.

• James, Edward T.; James, Janet Wilson; Boyer, Paul S., eds. (1971). Notable American Women, 1607-1950; A Biographical Dictionary Vol. I, A-F. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press - Belknap. pp. 582–583. LCCN 76152274. SBN 674-62731-8. Retrieved August 24, 2024 – via Internet Archive.

• Emery, Sarah, E. V. (1975) [First published by Robert Smith & Co. Lansing, Michigan. 1894]. Seven Financial Conspiracies Which Have Enslaved the American People (Revised, Reprint ed.). Westport, Connecticut: Hyperion Press. ISBN 0-88355-216-7. LCCN 75000312. Retrieved August 24, 2024 – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Adams, Pauline; Thornton, Emma S. (1982). A Populist Assault: Sarah E. Van De Vort Emery on American Democracy, 1862-1895. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. ISBN 0-87972-204-5. LCCN 82060665. Retrieved August 24, 2024 – via Internet Archive.

• Dunbar, Willis F.; May, George S., eds. (1995). Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State (3rd, Revised ed.). Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 386. ISBN 9780802870551. LCCN 95013128. Retrieved August 24, 2024 – via Google Books.

Attribution

• https://reference.jrank.org/populism/Emery_Sarah_18381895.html
• https://www.documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1010596229