Madame Restell (May 6, 1812 – April 1, 1878) was an early-19th-century
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
ist who practiced in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
.
Restell was born
Ann Trow in
PainswickPainswick is a small town in Gloucestershire, England. Originally, the town grew on the wool trade, but it is now best known for its church's yew trees and the local Rococo Garden. The town is mainly constructed of locally quarried Cotswold stone...
,
GloucestershireGloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Her father was a labourer. At the age of fifteen she started work as a
maidA maidservant or in current usage maid is a female employed in domestic service. Once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, today a single maid may be the only domestic worker that upper and even middle-income households can afford, as was always the case for many households...
in a butcher's family, and at sixteen she married a
WiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in the south west of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers 3,485 km²...
man called Henry Summer. After three years living in England, they emigrated to New York in 1831 where Summer died of
yellow feverYellow fever is an acute viral disease. The virus, a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus of the family of Flaviviridae is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes...
.
Madame Restell (May 6, 1812 – April 1, 1878) was an early-19th-century
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
ist who practiced in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
.
Restell was born
Ann Trow in
PainswickPainswick is a small town in Gloucestershire, England. Originally, the town grew on the wool trade, but it is now best known for its church's yew trees and the local Rococo Garden. The town is mainly constructed of locally quarried Cotswold stone...
,
GloucestershireGloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Her father was a labourer. At the age of fifteen she started work as a
maidA maidservant or in current usage maid is a female employed in domestic service. Once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, today a single maid may be the only domestic worker that upper and even middle-income households can afford, as was always the case for many households...
in a butcher's family, and at sixteen she married a
WiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in the south west of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers 3,485 km²...
man called Henry Summer. After three years living in England, they emigrated to New York in 1831 where Summer died of
yellow feverYellow fever is an acute viral disease. The virus, a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus of the family of Flaviviridae is transmitted by the bite of mosquitoes...
. Restell was forced to make a poor living as a seamstress.
Restell remarried in 1836, to a German–Russian immigrant, Charles Lohman, who worked in the printing trade. Lohman was a
radicalThe term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
and freethinker, a friend and colleague of George Matsell, the publisher of the radical journal the
Free Inquirer. With Matsell, Lohman was involved in the publication of
Robert Dale OwenRobert Dale Owen was a longtime exponent in his adopted United States of the socialist doctrines of his father, Robert Owen, as well as a politician in the Democratic Party....
's book
Moral Physiology; or, a Brief and Plain Treatise on the Population Question (1831) and
Charles KnowltonCharles Knowlton was an American physician, atheist and writer.- Education :Knowlton was born May 10, 1800 in Templeton, Massachusetts. His parents were Stephen and Comfort Knowlton; his grandfather Ezekiel Knowlton, who was a Captain in the revolution and a longtime state legislator...
's
Fruits of Philosophy; or, The Private Companion of Young Married People (1831).
Restell's brother, Joseph Trow, had also emigrated to New York, and was working as a sales assistant in a
pharmacyPharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences, and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of medication....
. Restell began to develop an interest in women's health, selling
patent medicinePatent medicine refers to medical compounds of questionable effectiveness sold under a variety of names and labels. The phrase is somewhat misleading because for the most part these products were trademarked, not patented...
, and (probably in partnership with her husband and brother) creating
birth controlBirth control is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, sexual practices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of pregnancy or childbirth...
products, advertised under the name "Madame Restell". The term "Restellism" became a euphemism for abortion.
Her business was one of a number at the time, and like them was under constant attack by both the respectable and the
penny pressPenny press newspapers were cheap, tabloid-style papers produced in the middle of the 19th century.- History :Most newspapers in the early nineteenth century cost 6 cents and were distributed through subscriptions. On July 24, 1830, the first penny press newspaper came to the market: Lynde M....
. Newspaper editor
Horace GreeleyHorace Greeley was an American editor of a leading newspaper, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, and a politician...
criticized other newspapers for accepting advertisements by Restell, and
George Washington DixonGeorge Washington Dixon was an American singer, stage actor, and newspaper editor. He rose to prominence as a blackface performer after performing "Coal Black Rose", "Zip Coon", and similar songs...
of the
Polyanthos as well as the
National Police Gazette also refused her advertisements.
Following her arrest in early 1878, a maid discovered Restell in the bathtub at her Fifth Avenue home; she had slit her own throat on the morning of April 1, 1878. Upon her death, she was claimed to have been worth between $500,000-$600,000 ($-$ in present-day terms).
Sources and external links