After rebuffing suitor Henry Blackwell for two years, citing an aversion to the institution of marriage, which at the time endowed the husband with full “custody of the wife’s person,” feminist activist Lucy Stone finally agreed to get married in 1855 — but only on the condition that she and Blackwell draft an original contract to dictate the terms of their union. “We deem it a duty to declare that this act on our part implies no sanction of, nor promise of voluntary obedience to such of the present laws of marriage,” Stone (who kept her name) and Blackwell wrote. They go on to outline the specific tenets of marriage that they reject, including the husband’s right to assume control of the wife’s property, and any money she makes in the future: “We believe … that marriage should be a full and equal partnership.”