Post by Auset on Mar 4, 2004 21:23:51 GMT -5
Maria Miller was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1803. At the age of five she was orphaned. She was sent to work as a servant for a clergyman's family until she was fifteen. Thereafter, she supported herself by working as a domestic servant. While working as a servant, she attended a Sabbath school where she took literacy classes along with religious instruction.
On August 10, 1826, she married James W. Stewart in Boston. The ceremony was officiated by Reverend Thomas Paul, the founding minister of Boston's African Baptist Church. James Stewart, who had served on three different ships in the War of 1812, was much older than the twenty-three year old Stewart. He was an independent businessman who worked as a shipping agent outfitting whaling and fishing vessels. After their marriage, Maria Stewart adopted her husbands middle initial W as part of her name. The couple settled in Boston among the black middle class.
After only a short marriage, James Stewart died on December 17, 1829. Despite her husband's success as a businessman, after a legal battle over his estate, Stewart was fraudulently stripped of her inheritance by a group of white businessmen. A year after the death of her husband, Stewart suffered further loss when David Walker died under suspicious circumstances. Stewart had been strongly influenced by Walker's ideas, and this influence would be evident in her subsequent writings.
After this trying time, Stewart took time to re-evaluate her religious commitment. At this time she underwent a conversion, and became dedicated to becoming a religious and political witness. She began speaking out against tyranny, victimization, and injustice. She gave speeches and wrote essays against slavery and political and economic exploitation.
In Stewart's essays she acknowledged that her life could be in danger, but asserted that she was ready to be a martyr for the cause. Like David Walker had done, she also directed her essays to blacks instead of white abolitionists. She urged blacks to exercise virtue and character equal to the white standard, and she believed that once whites were shown the worthiness of blacks, they would finally recognize the equality of the races.
Stewart's first essay, Religion And The Pure Principles Of Morality, The Sure Foundation On Which We Must Build was published in 1831 in the abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. This essay was not only noteworthy for its content, but also because it was the first political manifesto written by an African American woman. In it she urged blacks to develop their talents. She also argued that the Bible and the Constitution of the United States provide all people with the universal birth right of justice and freedom.
Stewart often used the Bible to draw on in her essays and lectures. In her essays, she included the Books of Lamentations, Judges, Ester, Matthew, Revelation, and many others. For instance, in her use of the Book of Revelation, she declared that rebellion and destruction would be used by God to punish slaveholders.
Stewart also spoke out against the colonization movement, which proposed to send free blacks to Africa and to emancipate those who would agree to go. In response to this idea, Stewart wrote: "...and now that we have enriched their soil and filled their coffers...they would drive us to a strange land. But before I go, the bayonet shall pierce me through."
As a woman, Stewart's choice to become a public political activist was not supported by American society or even by some of her Boston friends. However, as she had done with her arguments against slavery, she used the Bible to support her position in the public. She refuted Paul's warning for women to follow their husbands lead by arguing that had Paul known of the injustice that blacks faced, he would not object to a woman's public activism. Stewart further argued that women should become educated and seek other opportunities outside of the domestic sphere.
In 1833, Stewart decided to leave Boston. In her September 21, 1833 Farewell Address, she bid goodbye to her life as a public activist in Boston. She moved to New York where she participated in anti-slavery activities and in women's and literacy organizations. In 1835, the Productions Of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart was published.
Stewart worked as a teacher, and in the early 1870s she was appointed Matron of the Freedmen's Hospital. In 1878, she became eligible to receive a pension as a widow of a veteran of the War of 1812. She used the money to publish a new edition of her collected work, which was accompanied by letters from friends and colleagues. She died in December of 1879.
In spite of American society’s relegation of women to the domestic sphere, Stewart was able to immerse herself into the position of a public political activist. While her career in the public sphere was short, the effect of her presence could be seen as other women activists soon followed in the footsteps of the woman who became America's first black woman political writer.
Writings of Maria W. Stewart
Religion And the Pure Principles Of Morality (1831)
Cause For Encouragement (1832)
Lecture Delivered At The Franklin Hall (1832)
An Address Delivered Before The Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of America (1832)
An Address Delivered At The African Masonic Hall (1833)
Mrs. Stewart's Farewell Address To Her Friends In The City Of Boston (1833)
The Negro's Complaint
Sufferings During The War
On August 10, 1826, she married James W. Stewart in Boston. The ceremony was officiated by Reverend Thomas Paul, the founding minister of Boston's African Baptist Church. James Stewart, who had served on three different ships in the War of 1812, was much older than the twenty-three year old Stewart. He was an independent businessman who worked as a shipping agent outfitting whaling and fishing vessels. After their marriage, Maria Stewart adopted her husbands middle initial W as part of her name. The couple settled in Boston among the black middle class.
After only a short marriage, James Stewart died on December 17, 1829. Despite her husband's success as a businessman, after a legal battle over his estate, Stewart was fraudulently stripped of her inheritance by a group of white businessmen. A year after the death of her husband, Stewart suffered further loss when David Walker died under suspicious circumstances. Stewart had been strongly influenced by Walker's ideas, and this influence would be evident in her subsequent writings.
After this trying time, Stewart took time to re-evaluate her religious commitment. At this time she underwent a conversion, and became dedicated to becoming a religious and political witness. She began speaking out against tyranny, victimization, and injustice. She gave speeches and wrote essays against slavery and political and economic exploitation.
In Stewart's essays she acknowledged that her life could be in danger, but asserted that she was ready to be a martyr for the cause. Like David Walker had done, she also directed her essays to blacks instead of white abolitionists. She urged blacks to exercise virtue and character equal to the white standard, and she believed that once whites were shown the worthiness of blacks, they would finally recognize the equality of the races.
Stewart's first essay, Religion And The Pure Principles Of Morality, The Sure Foundation On Which We Must Build was published in 1831 in the abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. This essay was not only noteworthy for its content, but also because it was the first political manifesto written by an African American woman. In it she urged blacks to develop their talents. She also argued that the Bible and the Constitution of the United States provide all people with the universal birth right of justice and freedom.
Stewart often used the Bible to draw on in her essays and lectures. In her essays, she included the Books of Lamentations, Judges, Ester, Matthew, Revelation, and many others. For instance, in her use of the Book of Revelation, she declared that rebellion and destruction would be used by God to punish slaveholders.
Stewart also spoke out against the colonization movement, which proposed to send free blacks to Africa and to emancipate those who would agree to go. In response to this idea, Stewart wrote: "...and now that we have enriched their soil and filled their coffers...they would drive us to a strange land. But before I go, the bayonet shall pierce me through."
As a woman, Stewart's choice to become a public political activist was not supported by American society or even by some of her Boston friends. However, as she had done with her arguments against slavery, she used the Bible to support her position in the public. She refuted Paul's warning for women to follow their husbands lead by arguing that had Paul known of the injustice that blacks faced, he would not object to a woman's public activism. Stewart further argued that women should become educated and seek other opportunities outside of the domestic sphere.
In 1833, Stewart decided to leave Boston. In her September 21, 1833 Farewell Address, she bid goodbye to her life as a public activist in Boston. She moved to New York where she participated in anti-slavery activities and in women's and literacy organizations. In 1835, the Productions Of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart was published.
Stewart worked as a teacher, and in the early 1870s she was appointed Matron of the Freedmen's Hospital. In 1878, she became eligible to receive a pension as a widow of a veteran of the War of 1812. She used the money to publish a new edition of her collected work, which was accompanied by letters from friends and colleagues. She died in December of 1879.
In spite of American society’s relegation of women to the domestic sphere, Stewart was able to immerse herself into the position of a public political activist. While her career in the public sphere was short, the effect of her presence could be seen as other women activists soon followed in the footsteps of the woman who became America's first black woman political writer.
Writings of Maria W. Stewart
Religion And the Pure Principles Of Morality (1831)
Cause For Encouragement (1832)
Lecture Delivered At The Franklin Hall (1832)
An Address Delivered Before The Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of America (1832)
An Address Delivered At The African Masonic Hall (1833)
Mrs. Stewart's Farewell Address To Her Friends In The City Of Boston (1833)
The Negro's Complaint
Sufferings During The War
