This episode of Unholy Histories explores the legacies of women who challenged religious orthodoxy and patriarchal structures, laying the groundwork for modern humanist and feminist thought.
Nan Sloane Historian, trainer, and author of Uncontrollable Women: Radicals, Reformers and Revolutionaries (2022).
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).
Humanism, Freethought, Secularism, Suffrage, Blasphemy, Abolition, Halls of Science, Reproductive rights, Women’s rights, Marriage, Divorce, Ceremonies, Rational dress, Christian nationalism.
Emma Martin (1812–1851) Freethought lecturer, pamphleteer, and midwife.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) Writer, philosopher, and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
George Eliot (1819–1880) Pen name of Mary Ann Evans, a celebrated Victorian novelist and convinced humanist.
Ernestine Rose (1810–1892) Polish-born atheist, feminist, and abolitionist.
Frances Wright (1795–1852) Scottish-born abolitionist, feminist, and freethinker.
Frances Wright
See also: Margaret Chappellsmith
Susannah Wright (1792–?) Nottingham-born lace worker who fought for freedom of the press and the right to discuss religion freely.
Richard Carlile (1790–1843) Radical publisher and campaigner.
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.
Eliza Sharples (1803–1852) Lecturer on freethought and women’s rights, and the first woman to give freethought lectures and edit a freethought journal.
Sara A. Underwood (1838–1911) Cumbria-born activist and author of Heroines of Freethought (1876), the collection that gives the episode its title.
Harriet Martineau (1802–1876) Writer, sociologist, and freethinker.
Annie Besant (1847–1933) Socialist, activist, and leading figure in the secularist movement, who later became a theosophist.
Zona Vallance (1860–1904) Writer, lecturer, organiser, and first honorary secretary of the Union of Ethical Societies (now Humanists UK).
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)
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) Writer, freethinker, and revolutionary.
Harry Snell / Lord Snell (1865–1944) Labour MP and President of the Ethical Union (now Humanists UK).
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) American suffragist, social activist, and abolitionist.
Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American suffragist and social reformer.
Robert Ingersoll (1833–1899) Lawyer and lecturer known as ‘the great agnostic’, who was the most famous freethinker in 19th century North America.
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.
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and freethinker.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) US President who called Thomas Paine ‘a dirty little atheist.’