When I created Jane’s grandmother, I wanted her to symbolize the strength and quiet courage woven through women’s history. What I discovered in the world of abolitionists amazed me.

While the anonymous name M.L. Hope that I created was fiction, she stands firmly in the tradition of several wealthy and influential women in late 18th‑century London who took extraordinary risks to oppose slavery. Because they lacked political power — they could not vote, speak in Parliament, or hold office — they turned to the tools available to them: their pens, their salons, their social networks, and their moral authority.

Many wrote literature, sometimes anonymously or under initials, to protect their families’ reputations while still speaking truth. Women like Hannah More, whose poetry circulated across Britain, and Lady Margaret Middleton, who used her influence to organize petitions and boycotts, helped shape public opinion in ways that historians now recognize as essential to the abolition movement.

These women risked their social standing, their safety, and in some cases their marriages to do what they believed was right. Their courage became the foundation for Jane’s grandmother — a woman whose words could move quietly through the world even when she herself could not.

These are the women we should be learning about in school, those who risked everything for what they knew to be right. Their legacy is a reminder and an inspiration, especially in a time when our own rights feel even more fragile.