---
title: "Episode 1: Heroines of Freethought"
date: "2026-04-29T07:34:09+01:00"
modified: "2026-04-29T07:51:51+01:00"
url: "https://heritage.humanists.uk/podcast/heroines/"
post_id: 13938
---

# Episode 1: Heroines of Freethought

This episode of *[Unholy Histories](https://heritage.humanists.uk/podcast/)* explores the legacies of women who challenged religious orthodoxy and patriarchal structures, laying the groundwork for modern humanist and feminist thought.







### **Guests**







**Nan Sloane** Historian, trainer, and author of *Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries* (2022).







<https://www.nansloane.com/>







**Annie Laurie Gaylor** Co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation and co-host of Freethought Radio. Editor of *Women Without Superstition: No Gods—No Masters* (1997).







<https://ffrf.org/about/getting-acquainted>







### **Themes**







Humanism, Freethought, Secularism, Suffrage, Blasphemy, Abolition, Halls of Science, Reproductive rights, Women’s rights, Marriage, Divorce, Ceremonies, Rational dress, Christian nationalism.







### **Key figures**







**Emma Martin (1812**–**1851)** Freethought lecturer, pamphleteer, and midwife.







[Emma Martin](https://heritage.humanists.uk/emma-martin/)  
[From the archives: God’s Gifts and Man’s Duties](https://heritage.humanists.uk/gods-gifts-mans-duties/) (1843)







**Mary Wollstonecraft (1759**–**1797)** Writer, philosopher, and author of *A Vindication of the Rights of Woman*.







[Mary Wollstonecraft](https://heritage.humanists.uk/mary-wollstonecraft/)







**George Eliot (1819**–**1880)** Pen name of Mary Ann Evans, a celebrated Victorian novelist and convinced humanist.







[George Eliot](https://heritage.humanists.uk/george-eliot/)  
[From the archives: George Eliot in Heroines of Freethought](https://heritage.humanists.uk/george-eliot-heroine-of-freethought/) (1876)  
[Letter from George Eliot to Francois D’Albert Durade](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/letter-from-george-eliot-to-francois-dalbert-durade/)







**Ernestine Rose (1810**–**1892)** Polish-born atheist, feminist, and abolitionist.







[Ernestine Rose](https://heritage.humanists.uk/ernestine-rose/)  
[From the archives: A Defence of Atheism](https://heritage.humanists.uk/a-defence-of-atheism/) (1861)







**Frances Wright (1795**–**1852)** Scottish-born abolitionist, feminist, and freethinker.







[Frances Wright](https://heritage.humanists.uk/frances-wright/)  
See also: [Margaret Chappellsmith](https://heritage.humanists.uk/margaret-chappellsmith/)







**Susannah Wright (1792**–**?)** Nottingham-born lace worker who fought for freedom of the press and the right to discuss religion freely.







[Susannah Wright](https://heritage.humanists.uk/susannah-wright/)  
[Susannah Wright’s diamond](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/susannah-wrights-diamond/)







**Richard Carlile (1790**–**1843)** Radical publisher and campaigner.







[Richard Carlile](https://heritage.humanists.uk/richard-carlile/)







**Jane Carlile (1780/81–1843)** Richard Carlile’s wife. Took over the bookshop when Richard was imprisoned, and was herself arrested and prosecuted for blasphemy.







**Mary Ann Carlile** Richard Carlile’s sister. Also took over the bookshop and was arrested and prosecuted.







[The Defence of Mary Ann Carlile](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnznxj&seq=7) (1821)







**Eliza Sharples (1803**–**1852)** Lecturer on freethought and women’s rights, and the first woman to give freethought lectures and edit a freethought journal.







[Radical Objects: Eliza Sharples’ Letters to Thomas Cooper](https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/feminism/radical-objects-eliza-sharples-letters-to-thomas-cooper/)







**Sara A. Underwood (1838**–**1911)** Cumbria-born activist and author of *Heroines of Freethought* (1876), the collection that gives the episode its title.







[Sara A. Underwood](https://heritage.humanists.uk/sara-a-underwood/)







**Harriet Martineau (1802**–**1876)** Writer, sociologist, and freethinker.







[Harriet Martineau](https://heritage.humanists.uk/harriet-martineau/)  
[Harriet Martineau’s ear trumpet](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/ear-trumpet/)







**Annie Besant (1847**–**1933)** Socialist, activist, and leading figure in the secularist movement, who later became a theosophist.







[Annie Besant](https://heritage.humanists.uk/annie-besant/)  
[Sex and secularism](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/reproductive-rights/)







**Zona Vallance (1860**–**1904)** Writer, lecturer, organiser, and first honorary secretary of the Union of Ethical Societies (now Humanists UK).







[Zona Vallance](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/plaque-for-zona-vallance/)  
[Plaque for Zona Vallance](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/plaque-for-zona-vallance/)







### **Works referenced and further reading**







***Heroines of Freethought* by Sara A. Underwood (1876)** The collection that gives the episode its title. Celebrated 11 women who defied religious and social convention.







***Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries* by Nan Sloane** Nan Sloane’s book on women who fought for change between the French Revolution (1789) and the Great Reform Act (1832).







***Women Without Superstition: No Gods, No Masters* by Annie Laurie Gaylor** Collection of writings by 50 women freethinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries, and Mary Wollstonecraft.







***The Woman’s Bible* by Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1895-1898)** Feminist critique of the Bible that caused Stanton to be repudiated by the women’s movement she had started.







***A Defence of Atheism* by Ernestine Rose (1861)** Famous lecture in which Rose declared ‘every child is born an atheist.’







***God’s Gifts and Man’s Duties* by Emma Martin (1843)** Lecture at the Hall of Science, Manchester.







***The Age of Reason* by Thomas Paine (1794)** Paine’s work on religion, banned in Britain into the 1820s. Selling it led to blasphemy prosecutions.







***The Tenant of Wildfell Hall* by Anne Bronte (1848)** Victorian novel that caused scandal because the wife closed the bedroom door on the husband.







***Frankenstein* by Mary Shelley (1818)**







***A Few Reasons for Renouncing Christianity and Professing Infidel Opinions* by Emma Martin (1844)**







***Eve and the New Jerusalem: Socialism and Feminism in the Nineteenth Century* by Barbara Taylor (1983)**







***Infidel Feminism: Secularism, Religion and Women’s Emancipation, England 1830-1914* by Laura Schwartz (2013)**







### **Others mentioned in the episode**







**Thomas Paine (1737**–**1809)** Writer, freethinker, and revolutionary.







[Thomas Paine](https://heritage.humanists.uk/thomas-paine-1737-1809/)  
[Thomas Paine’s *Age of Reason*](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/the-age-of-reason/)  
[From the archives: Humanity’s Debt to Thomas Paine](https://heritage.humanists.uk/ingersoll-on-paine/) (1892)  
[No great magic? The afterlife of Thomas Paine](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/no-great-magic/)







**Harry Snell / Lord Snell (1865**–**1944)** Labour MP and President of the Ethical Union (now Humanists UK).







[Harry Snell](https://heritage.humanists.uk/harry-snell/)







**Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815**–**1902)** American suffragist, social activist, and abolitionist.







**Susan B. Anthony (1820**–**1906)** American suffragist and social reformer.







[Susan B. Anthony’s inkstand](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/susan-b-anthonys-inkstand/)







**Robert Ingersoll (1833**–**1899)** Lawyer and lecturer known as ‘the great agnostic’, who was the most famous freethinker in 19th century North America.







[The Humanist Tradition: Ingersoll](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/the-humanist-tradition/#ingersoll)







**Olympe de Gouges (1748**–**1793)** French playwright, political activist, and author of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.







**Margaret Bondfield (1873**–**1953)** First female cabinet minister in Britain.







**Margaret Sanger (1879**–**1966)** Birth control pioneer.







**Anthony Comstock (1844**–**1915)** US anti-vice crusader, who hounded birth control advocates.







**William Wilberforce (1759**–**1833)** Abolitionist and evangelical Christian.







**Mary Shelley (1797**–**1851)** Author of *Frankenstein* and daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft.







**Anne Bronte (1820**–**1849)** Author of *The Tenant of Wildfell Hall*.







**Charlotte Bronte (1816**–**1855)** Novelist.







**Jane Austen (1775**–**1817)** Novelist.







**Walter Scott (1771**–**1832)** Novelist.







**Walt Whitman (1819**–**1892)** American poet and admirer of Robert Ingersoll.







[The Humanist Tradition: The humanity of Walt Whitman](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/the-humanist-tradition/#whitman)







**Mark Twain (1835**–**1910)** American author and freethinker.







**Theodore Roosevelt (1858**–**1919)** US President who called Thomas Paine ‘a dirty little atheist.’







 See also 
----------

- [    Heroines of Freethought  ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/heroines-of-freethought/)
- [    From the archives: Marjorie Bowen’s toast to the Rationalist Press Association (1939)  ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/marjorie-bowen-toast/)
- [    Sara A. Underwood (1838-1911)  ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/sara-a-underwood/)
- [    Women’s Freedom League  ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/womens-freedom-league/)