Frontier Freedom Fighter:
The Story of Clarina Nichols
by Diane Eickhoff

Clarina Nichols (1810-1885) was one of the country’s first female newspaper editors and stump speakers, criss-crossing the American frontier speaking out for the rights of women, abolition and temperance at a time when these were still unpopular stands not in the political mainstream. Driven by a deep inner need to end the mistreatment of women, Clarina Nichols left the comforts of her Vermont home and moved West: first to the Erie Canal outpost of Brockport, New York; then the wild frontier of “Bleeding Kansas,” where her sons fought alongside John Brown and she helped shaped the state’s new Constitution; and finally California, where she continued to advocate for a variety of causes until her death.

Now, for the first time, the story of Clarina Nichols comes alive thanks to Diane Eickhoff, whose meticulous, six-year quest to collect and analyze Nichols’s scattered writings and papers has yielded a richer understanding of this remarkable pioneer. Frontier Freedom Fighter: The Life of Clarina Nichols is a unique audio book: It’s an original piece of scholarship praised by academic historians as “thorough and illuminating,” a “full-bodied” and “exceptionally detailed portrait.” Yet it is written for Young Adults who will enjoy the moving account of this brave woman.

Eickhoff traveled around Kansas in character as Calrina Nichols in chautauquas, and brings her performance skills to this cd. Frontier Freedom Fighter is more than an engaging biography: it is a window into an unjustly overlooked period in American history and a resource for those wanting to know more about the three great 19th century reform movements—the rights of women, abolition and temperance. Above all, Frontier Freedom Fighter is a reminder of how far we have come in the past one hundred fifty years. . . and how unsung heroes like Clarina Nichols were responsible for many of the freedoms we have today.

“Diane Eickhoff’s biography of Clarina Nichols is a thorough and illuminating treatment of one of the most instrumental—and underappreciated—of the 19th century American feminists.”—Nancy Isenberg, author, Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America

See also

Revolutionary Heart:
The Life of Clarina Nichols and the
Pioneering Crusade for Women’s Rights

An Adult biography. Click HERE for more information.