Kelley, Abby (Abigail) (1810–1887)

US abolitionist and women's rights activist. She spent 20 years travelling throughout the northeast USA, not only promoting the message of the abolitionists, but by her very presence and strength advancing the cause of the equality of women. She aligned herself with the more radical of the abolitionists. After the US Civil War she devoted herself to advancing women's rights.

She was born in Pelham, Massachusetts. Inspired by her Quaker faith, by 1835 she was becoming active in the antislavery movement in Lynn, Massachusetts, where she was a teacher. Her first major public address on the subject, at the second women's antislavery convention in Philadelphia in 1838, was so effective that she was persuaded by abolitionist leaders to devote herself to being an antislavery lecturer. Although she could be something of a fanatic, she was also extremely courageous and is credited with inspiring a whole generation of women to become abolitionists and feminists.