While she was an infant, her father, Elijah Stone removed to Paterson, New Jersey, and here she received, besides the careful instructions of an intelligent and judicious mother, such education in the schools as was at the time common to the children of farmers.
Her brother stated that the poem entitled "The Soul's Defiance" was interesting to her immediate friends for the truthfulness with which it portrayed her own experience and her indomitable spirit, which never floundered under any circumstances.
I said to cold Neglect and Scorn, Pass on—I heed you not; Ye may pursue me till my form And being are forgot; Yet still the spirit, which you see Undaunted by your wiles, Draws from its own nobility Its high-born smiles.
I said to Friendship’s menaced blow, Strike deep—my heart shall bear; Thou canst but add one bitter woe To those already there; Yet still the spirit that sustains This last severe distress Shall smile upon its keenest pains, And scorn redress.
Thou wilt not find a fearful heart— A weak, reluctant prey; For still the spirit, firm and free, Unruffled by this last dismay, Wrapt in its own eternity, Shall pass away.