Biography

Blackwell was born in England

England

England 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, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, the son of Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 sugar refiner Samuel Blackwell (c.1790–1838) and Hannah Lane, who moved their family of nine children to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1832. They first lived in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and later in New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. Samuel Blackwell senior, an anti-slavery campaigner and Congregationalist

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 who wanted his daughters educated as well as his sons, passed his interest in social reform on to his children. In 1838, the year he died, the family was living in Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

.

He was the husband of Antoinette Brown

Antoinette Brown

Antoinette Louisa Brown, later Antoinette Brown Blackwell , was the first woman to be ordained as a minister in the United States...

, the first woman ordained in a recognized church in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and prominent speaker in the Abolitionism

Abolitionism

Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

 and Women's Rights

Women's rights

Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...

 Movements. Blackwell was also an abolitionist and was, like his wife, a Unitarian

Unitarianism

Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

. He married Brown at her home in Henrietta, New York

Henrietta, New York

Henrietta is a town in Monroe County, New York, United States. It is a suburb of Rochester. The population was 42,581 at the 2010 census. Established in 1818, the town is named after Henrietta Laura Pulteney, Countess of Bath, daughter of Sir William Pulteney, 5th Baronet, a major British...

 in 1856. At that time, Blackwell was in the hardware business and also invested in real estate. The couple next lived in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and then for many years in New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. Blackwell helped care for their children (seven, of whom two died young), each of them given the "double" name Brown Blackwell.

His brother, Henry B. Blackwell

Henry B. Blackwell

Henry Browne Blackwell or sometimes Henry Brown Blackwell was an American advocate for social and economic reform. He was one of the founders of the Republican Party and the American Woman Suffrage Association...

, was the husband of Lucy Stone

Lucy Stone

Lucy Stone was a prominent American abolitionist and suffragist, and a vocal advocate and organizer promoting rights for women. In 1847, Stone was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women's rights and against slavery at a time when women were discouraged...

, a friend of Antoinette Brown at Oberlin College

Oberlin College

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

. Stone was also an important abolitionist and worker for women's suffrage.

He was the brother of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first women to receive a MD in United States and the first to practice medicine, and Emily Blackwell

Emily Blackwell

Emily Blackwell was the second woman to earn a medical degree at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and the third openly identified woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.-Biography:...

, the third female graduate of a U.S. medical school.