Sarah T. Bolton

Sarah T. Bolton 1814–1893

Born Newport, Kentucky

Among the wave of women writers who emerged during America’s antebellum publishing boom, poet and reformer Sarah T. Bolton first published her verses in an Indiana newspaper at the age of thirteen. She went on to pen more than 150 works. Though sentimental by modern standards, Bolton’s poetry struck a chord with Victorian readers. Her best-known poem, “Paddle Your Own Canoe” (1851), championed individual initiative in overcoming adversity and included a call to, “Battle for the right. / And break the chains that bind / the mighty to the few.” An advocate for women’s prop- erty rights, Bolton lobbied unsuccessfully for their protection in Indiana’s state constitution.