Elizabeth Blackwell, a spunky and very determined young lady who pursued her desire to become a physician to conclusion. Elizabeth was very impudent as a child and was raised very strictly by her Aunt Bar. Her father felt education of his daughters was extremely important, even though frowned upon for the times. John Wesley, the Methodist, had inspired her father that "one man shouldn't own another" which seemed to agitate the owner of a sugar refinery (a business that used colony slaves). Bessie (Elizabeth) seemed to be the calm in the storm for the family as the town of Bristol, England went through some growing pains of it's own. Samuel (Bessie's father) was a Dissenter of the Church of England and was on the side of the poor as well as the slave. Bessie admired her father for standing in the doorway of the Cathedral to protect something that belonged to someone he hated in order for them to have the same freedoms he was, to believe what they wanted. Riots were plenty and Bessie was cool under pressure. Once the sugar refinery business lost all, a relieved man, led his family to America to start fresh. Samuel seemed relieved that the pressure of the past might be behind. The family had seemed to come from a strong Quaker background and had many missionary and ministry friends even before the failure of the refinery. Cholera broke out on their voyage and the family seemed only to catch seasickness. In New York, they withstood the Cholera outbreak that had arrived ahead of them. Once in America, similar trials beseeched them around the sugar cane refinery business and the slavery use for profit. Elizabeth witnessed her father's passion for the freedom of all men first hand and eventually the family received Dr. Samuel Cox, a minister, and his family into their home for a while. Then, the minister's brother, Dr. Abraham Cox, a physician, joined as well. Dr. Abraham Cox happened to by the Blackwell's family physician. Bessie seemed to have more admiration for Dr. Abraham because of his passion to withstand the mob, more so than his brother's deep sighs of overwhelming fear and despair. She become the doctor she desired through many hardships, and saw many similarities between the riots in New York and those in Bristol. However, her infirmary was still standing and she had finally been asked to Washington. She had been recognized for all her efforts to help with cleanliness and sanitary conditions of hospitals. Fresh air, good food and cleanliness were several of her life's ambitions: "Children are born to live, not die", she was known to say frequently. Much more lies beneath a women with such strong convictions for the day when "good outweighs evil".
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