Maria W. Stewart (1803-1879)
Maria Stewart, the first American female political activist, established the tradition of political activism and freedom struggle that women like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and the Grimke sisters would carry through to the end of the Civil War era. In addition, she called upon Black women to take up what would become one of the greatest traditions of their social and political history: pioneering work as teachers, school founders, and educational innovators. She believed in and dedicated her life to the idea, eloquently stated at her Boston farewell address in 1833: "[that] it is not the color of the skin that makes the man or the woman but the principle formed in the soul."
As she stated at her farewell speech at the African Meeting House in 1833: "God is able to take me to himself as he did the most noble, fearless, and undaunted David Walker." She also forged a life-long friendship with William Lloyd Garrison, White founder of the Liberator magazine and the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison supported Stewart by publishing her speeches and advertising her lecture dates in his magazine at a time when Stewart was not merely controversial because of her political views but because of her race and sex as well.
Stewart published her speeches and essays in two collections: Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, etc. (1831), and Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart (1832). She spoke at various halls and in front of numerous audiences throughout the Boston area, including a speech against African Colonization at Franklin Hall in 1832, and a speech before the all-Black African Masonic Lodge in 1833. The themes she espoused, regardless of venue, were based on two ideas: that Black people had to rely upon themselves for full emancipation and civil rights; and that she was an instrument of God, acting under a divine power in her public advocacy for freedom.
From the beginning of her career she violently opposed colonization, urging Black people to remain in America and demand their rights from White oppressors. To do this, she argued, the Black community had to plan wisely for its future by establishing strong, self-sufficient Black educational and economic institutions. She also believed that Black women had a specific responsibility in the forging of these independent Black community institutions.
This responsibility included participating in the development of a Black intellectual consciousness from which religious, political, economic and, most importantly, Black educational institutions would develop. She believed that "knowledge [will] begin to flow and the chains of slavery and ignorance [will] melt like wax before the flames." As a feminist, she used biblical, classical, and historical images to illustrate the importance of women in the construction and prosperity of Western civilization.
These themes of Black self-determination and racial uplift led to Stewart's involvement with the Afric-American Female Intelligence Agency. Founded in 1831 at the African Meeting House, this agency was a literary and mutual aid society that attempted to provide an intellectual forum that sponsored lectures and educational services for Black moral and social uplift. Through member fees and monthly agency dues, the Afric-American Female Intelligence Agency provided health insurance and other relief to the Black community, pledging to act "for the diffusion of knowledge, the suppression of vice and immorality, and cherishing such virtues as will render us happy and useful to society."
Although a leader in the fight for the rights of Black people and women, Stewart left Boston just two years after becoming a valuable voice in the Black community. In a speech given before the African Masonic Lodge in 1833 - in which she admonished Black men for not doing enough for racial uplift and for neglecting their duty to their families and communities - Maria Stewart became the target of negative reviews and slander. Many in the Black community thought that she over stepped her boundaries in her indictment of Black male leadership, and, consequently, she left for New York City, where she became a public school teacher. Until her death in 1879, she taught school in Baltimore and Washington D.C., self-published a portion of her speeches in 1875, and continued to support William Lloyd Garrison in his fight for racial equality.
Sources:
Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia Vol. II edited by Hine, Brown, and Terborg-Penn. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993
Hinks, Peter. To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997
Jacobs, Donald M., ed. Courage and Conscience: Black and White Abolitionists in Boston. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993.
As she stated at her farewell speech at the African Meeting House in 1833: "God is able to take me to himself as he did the most noble, fearless, and undaunted David Walker." She also forged a life-long friendship with William Lloyd Garrison, White founder of the Liberator magazine and the New England Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison supported Stewart by publishing her speeches and advertising her lecture dates in his magazine at a time when Stewart was not merely controversial because of her political views but because of her race and sex as well.
Stewart published her speeches and essays in two collections: Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, etc. (1831), and Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart (1832). She spoke at various halls and in front of numerous audiences throughout the Boston area, including a speech against African Colonization at Franklin Hall in 1832, and a speech before the all-Black African Masonic Lodge in 1833. The themes she espoused, regardless of venue, were based on two ideas: that Black people had to rely upon themselves for full emancipation and civil rights; and that she was an instrument of God, acting under a divine power in her public advocacy for freedom.
From the beginning of her career she violently opposed colonization, urging Black people to remain in America and demand their rights from White oppressors. To do this, she argued, the Black community had to plan wisely for its future by establishing strong, self-sufficient Black educational and economic institutions. She also believed that Black women had a specific responsibility in the forging of these independent Black community institutions.
This responsibility included participating in the development of a Black intellectual consciousness from which religious, political, economic and, most importantly, Black educational institutions would develop. She believed that "knowledge [will] begin to flow and the chains of slavery and ignorance [will] melt like wax before the flames." As a feminist, she used biblical, classical, and historical images to illustrate the importance of women in the construction and prosperity of Western civilization.
These themes of Black self-determination and racial uplift led to Stewart's involvement with the Afric-American Female Intelligence Agency. Founded in 1831 at the African Meeting House, this agency was a literary and mutual aid society that attempted to provide an intellectual forum that sponsored lectures and educational services for Black moral and social uplift. Through member fees and monthly agency dues, the Afric-American Female Intelligence Agency provided health insurance and other relief to the Black community, pledging to act "for the diffusion of knowledge, the suppression of vice and immorality, and cherishing such virtues as will render us happy and useful to society."
Although a leader in the fight for the rights of Black people and women, Stewart left Boston just two years after becoming a valuable voice in the Black community. In a speech given before the African Masonic Lodge in 1833 - in which she admonished Black men for not doing enough for racial uplift and for neglecting their duty to their families and communities - Maria Stewart became the target of negative reviews and slander. Many in the Black community thought that she over stepped her boundaries in her indictment of Black male leadership, and, consequently, she left for New York City, where she became a public school teacher. Until her death in 1879, she taught school in Baltimore and Washington D.C., self-published a portion of her speeches in 1875, and continued to support William Lloyd Garrison in his fight for racial equality.
Sources:
Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia Vol. II edited by Hine, Brown, and Terborg-Penn. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993
Hinks, Peter. To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren: David Walker and the Problem of Antebellum Slave Resistance. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997
Jacobs, Donald M., ed. Courage and Conscience: Black and White Abolitionists in Boston. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1993.