Mary Elizabeth Lease

Mary Elizabeth Lease, or commonly Mary E. Lease, is a famous rights activist born in 1850 and dying in 1933. She fought hard as a suffragette her whole life but is best known for her work in the rising Populism movement in the late 1800's. As political power was being contained more and more to the middle and upper class living in the cities, farmers had less and less of a voice. They were often charged ridiculous prices that they had no way of disputing which upset Lease, who had gone through terrible personal and economic challenges and who lived on a farm for a while, before losing it in the Panic of 1874. She gave several speeches as a Populist activist in many different parts of the country, even in the big city of New York. One of her most famous quotes was "Raise less corn and more hell," as her audience was other Populists, who were primarily constituted of farmers or other agrarian workers. However, around the election of Populist governor Lorenzo D. Lewelling, she actually broke from the Populist party, and in later life split from her husband, as well.