Having her made her think about why married women and mothers had such few rights and seemed to utterly depend on the "goodwill of their husbands" for any kind of freedoms.

When Gertrude died in 1862, she opted for a secular memorial conducted by Frederick Douglass as opposed to holding a traditional funeral.

[4] By the time she was 35 years old, she had renounced Christianity, "more because of [the church's] complicity with slavery than from a full understanding of the foolishness of its creeds."

It was during this time Colman developed a reputation for being a liberal cause campaigner by "silencing Christian hecklers," as she threw their principles back at them.

At the same time, she taught and served as a superintendent in schools in Washington and Arlington, Virginia, for the National Freedman's Relief Association, an institution founded to help former slaves.

This annual series of meetings was established in order to "increase the visibility of the early women's rights movement" in America.

The array of topics discussed included: women's property rights, marriage reform, career opportunities and greater educational access.

Encouraged by her friend Amy Kirby Post, who would later write a foreword to her autobiography, Colman also spoke at this convention on the topic of the anti-slavery movement.

[3] Colman's writings occasionally appeared in the anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, as well as The Truthseeker, for example in 1858 covering a conference speech by Douglass.