From sources including, for “Foment,” a letter from Abigail Adams written in 1776 to her husband, John, the future U.S. president; for “Raise,” sources include a sequence of adjectives from anti-suffragist propaganda, a 1915 political cartoon from Puck magazine (“I didn’t raise my girl to be a voter…”), and, from formerly enslaved woman Isabelle Baumfree (who changed her name to Sojourner Truth), words from two published versions of what became known as her “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech (“Look at me…”). 

Foment
Dear John
I desire you would remember the ladies
And be more generous and more favorable than your ancestors.
Do not put such unlimited power
Into the hands of husbands.
Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.
We will foment a rebellion.
We have no voice. 

Raise
Unloving, Unstable, Unruly, Unnerving
Unrighteous, Unbalanced, Unnatural
Unmarried, Unwed
Unlovely, Untamed, Unfit, Unglued
Unstrung, Unkempt, Uncouth, Unkind
Unchaste, Untoward, Unlawful, Unhealthy
Uncivil, Unholy, Unwise, Untamed
Screaming, Squawking, Screeching
Bolshevik, Communist, Anarchist
Emotional, Hysterical, Socialist
Impossible

Conjuring up unnatural powers that destroy…
Un-American

I didn’t raise my girl to be a voter 

Look at me
Look at my arm
And she bared her right arm, to the shoulder
Look at me 

I have ploughed
and planted
reaped
and gathered
and gathered and gathered and gathered
I am strong