Frances Dana Barker Gage

Frances Dana Barker Gage
Engraving of Frances Gage
Born	(1808-10-12)October 12, 1808 Washington County, Ohio, U.S.
Died	November 10, 1884(1884-11-10) (aged 76) Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Writer, poet, activist, abolitionist
Spouse(s)	James L. Gage (1800–1863)
Parent(s)	Colonel Joseph Barker (1765–1843) Elizabeth Dana (1771–1835)

Frances Dana Barker Gage (October 12, 1808 – November 10, 1884) was a leading American reformer, feminist and abolitionist. She worked closely with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, along with other leaders of the early women's rights movement in the United States. She was among the first to champion voting rights for all citizens without regard to race or gender and was a particularly outspoken supporter of giving newly freed African American women the franchise during Reconstruction, along with African American men who had formerly been slaves.

Gage was born near Marietta, Ohio on October 12, 1808, the daughter of farmers Elizabeth Dana (1771–1835) and Col. Joseph Barker (1765–1843); her family's house is still in existence and has been designated a historic site. Frances was the tenth of eleven children. In 1788 the Barkers left New Hampshire and crossed the Alleghenies with Rufus Putnam, and were among the first settlers in the United States Northwest Territory. On January 1, 1829 she married James L. Gage (1800–1863), an abolitionist lawyer from McConnelsville, Ohio. He was a Universalist and a friend of the evangelist Stephen R. Smith. Traveling Universalist preachers, like George Rogers and Nathaniel Stacy, often stayed in the Gage household.

Gage wrote that her woman suffrage work began when she was ten years old, in 1818. She helped her father make barrels and her work was so well executed that her father praised her work, but then lamented her "accident of gender." Gage wrote that this was a turning point for her, the incident bringing up hatred to the limitations of sex and laying the foundation for her later activism.