Antoinette Blackwell says of this trip: "I shall always recollect our journey on the boat with two or three dozen teachers, and your walking the deck with one and another, talking about women and their rights, in school and out of school, in the most matter-of-fact way, although it was plainly evident that most of them would sooner have listened to a discussion on the rights of the Hottentots." The teacher who was her chief support at these conventions was Helen Philleo.[27] There were very few of them in those days who had the courage to help fight this battle for their own interests.

At the last session she announced a woman's rights meeting and many remained to attend it.
After the summer resorts were closed the meetings were continued in the principal towns.

Mrs.Blackwell thus describes an incident in the Fort William Henry hotel: "I remember a rich scene at the breakfast table.
Aaron Powell was with us and the colored waiter pointedly offered him the bill of fare.

Miss Anthony glanced at it and began to give her order, not to Powell in ladylike modesty, but promptly and energetically to the waiter.

He turned a grandiloquent, deaf ear; Powell fidgeted and studied his newspaper; she persisted, determined that no man should come between her and her own order for coffee, cornbread and beefsteak.