Elmina D. Slenker

19th-century American Freethought leader and early sex reformer Elmina Drake Slenker was a regular contributor to Lucifer the Lightbearer and an early promoter of Dianism. Elmina Drake Slenker (born Elizabeth Drake, December 23, 1827 – February 1, 1908) was a 19th-century American author, leader in the Freethought movement, and early sex reformer. A regular contributor to anarchist journal Lucifer the Lightbearer, Slinker advocated a sexual practice called Dianism. In 1887, Slenker was arrested for violating the Comstock laws which criminalized use of the US postal service to deliver sexually explicit content. She was jailed for several months, subjected to jury trial, and found guilty before finally being freed on a technicality.

Early life On December 23, 1827, Elizabeth Drake was born to Quaker parents in La Grange, New York. She was the oldest of six girls. In 1866, she published a series of articles in the Boston Investigator about parts of the Bible she found improbable or objectionable.

Seeking marriage, at age 26, Elmina placed an advertisement for a husband in the Water-Cure Journal. The ad received over sixty responses, one of whom, Isaac Slenker, she married in 1856. Found guilty, she was freed on a technicality by a judge on November 4, 1887. From 1889 to 1897, Slenker continued her campaign promoting Dianism in the pages of publications like Lucifer the Lightbearer. Slenker authored The Infidel School-Teacher and The Darwins. Slenker is often cited as the author of "The Clergyman's Victims" (1881), although she did not author it but merely advertised it. Slenker sat for a spirit photography session. In 1894, Slenker proposed establishing a 'correspondence bureau' for sex radicals. "Dianism", in Lucifer the Lightbearer of April 14, 1897