Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Maria Miller Stewart



Maria Miller Stewart

Maria Miller Stewart was   born in 1803 Hartford Connecticut, to two African-born parents.      Orphaned at age 5 and raised by a clergyman’s family.  She had no formal education, other than the books in that clergyman’s library.  She married at 23 to James W. Stewart, a veteran of the war of 1912.  However, she was a widowed at 27 and was defrauded of her estate.  She took some abolitionist writings to William Lloyd Garrison, her close family friend, who published them in the “Liberator” in 1931. 

She then did an unprecedented and unforgivable deed.   She spoke publically in a public hall to men and women – the first native born American to do so.  She had been preceded by Frances Wright to do so in 1828, but Wright was a new arrival from Scotland.   Both women presented revolutionary ideas.

Stewart attacked the white Americans for not helping blacks.  White Americans were not interested in blacks who had given tears and blood in slavery to build the country.  The government would not recognize Haiti.   Some wanted to send all blacks to Africa.  She said they should build colleges for blacks.  Therefore freed blacks must   aspire and must set examples of purity, prudence, economy, raise money for schools, start stores and other business.

Critics were not kind.  She was too religious, some said.  She was definitely immodest, said others.   After 4 speeches she gave up, left Boston for New York.  Later she set up schools in New York and Baltimore.   After the Civil War she was hired as matron in Freedman’s Hospital.  As a widow of the War of 1812, she used $8 to reprint of Reminiscent, renewed her friendship with Garrison after 47 years.  She died at Freedman’s Hospital, aged 75.

After her came the wonderful speeches of the Grimke’s sisters, Anna Dickinson. Susan Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton – many to audiences including men and women.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Sarah Bagley: The First Labor Union Leader



Sarah Bagley: The First Labor Union Leader

The first labor leader was born in Meredith, New Hampshire.  She secured employment in the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, one of the cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts.  At first she seemed to enjoy her situation.  As late as December 1840, she described the “pleasures of Factory Life” for the “Lowell Offering”, the celebrated magazine written by the mill girls.  About that time she became increasingly critical of policies of the decreasing wages and deteriorating working conditions.  This included speedup of the machines.  The working conditions included a 13 hour working day and locked doors.   Agitation for a 10 hour work began.  The editor of the “Offering” felt it was unfitting to question the policies of the Christian gentlemen who owned the mills.  Sarah Bagley insisted the workers must organize and protest. 

In late 1844 the opportunity arose when the legislature appointed a committee to deal with the problem of working conditions.  This was the first governmental investigation in the country.  That December, Miss Bagley founded and became first president of the Lowell Female Labor Association.  First it grew to 2,000 signatures and called for a 10 hour working day.   Soon she left her job, whether under pressure   or not.  She became an organizer in mills in Manchester, Nashua and Dover, New Hampahire, and Massachusetts.  She was associated with some utopian philosophies of Fortier and George Ripley.

More information can be found in the book entitled, "We Were There: The Story of Working Women In America by Barbara Mayer Wertheimer.