╡PAR@ ` uTEXT ` gGriffing, Josephine Sophia White1814╨1872reformerBorn in Hebron, Connecticut, on December 18, 1814, Josephine White married Charles S. S. Griffing in September 1835. About 1842 they moved to Ohio and settled in Litchfield. Within a short time Josephine Griffing became active in the antislavery cause and made her home a station on the Underground Railroad. Soon she was also active in the new women╒s rights movement as well. From 1851 to 1855 she was a paid agent of the Western Anti-Slavery Society, and in 1853 she was elected president of the Ohio Woman╒s Rights Association, of which she had been a founding member. She traveled and spoke widely on behalf of both causes and was a frequent contributor to newspapers, particularly the Anti-Slavery Bugle of Salem, Ohio. In 1863╨1865 she was a lecturer for the Women╒s Loyal National League, a group concerned with the full implementation of emancipation. At the end of the Civil War she moved to Washington, D.C., to help deal with the problem of the landless and jobless freedmen. In 1865 Griffing became the general agent of the National Freedman╒s Relief Association of the District of Columbia, which collected and distributed funds, food, and fuel to, and established temporary settlements for, the thousands of former slaves who had converged on Washington. Through her many also found jobs and homes. She lobbied effectively for the creation of the federal Freedmen╒s Bureau, and, although she disapproved its military character and impersonality, she cooperated with it and for two brief periods in 1865 and 1867 was employed by it. During the latter period she was especially effective in maintaining employment offices for freedmen in several Northern cities. She continued her work with the National Freedman╒s Relief Association of the District of Columbia for some years after the dissolution of the Freedmen╒s Bureau in 1869. During that time she continued also her support of the women╒s rights movement. She helped found and was first vice-president of the American Equal Rights Association in 1866, was a founder and president of the Universal Franchise Association of the District of Columbia in 1867, and in 1869 followed Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton into the National Woman Suffrage Association, of which she was chosen corresponding secretary. She died in Washington, D.C., on February 18, 1872. ■styl ` ! ¬ ! 5¬ + 5¬ 5 !I φ !I !I 5¬ !I º !I ▐ ╖ !I ╝ !I ▐ ╥ !I .link ` HYPR º ╖HYPR ╝ ╥
