Catharine Maria Sedgwick
Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867) was a prominent American author and reform advocate, recognized as one of the best-known female writers in the U.S. before Harriet Beecher Stowe. Born into a well-connected New England family shortly after the Revolutionary War, she received a diverse education through both boarding schools and home schooling. Sedgwick's life was marked by personal challenges, including the deaths of her mother and father, which led her to live with her brothers in Massachusetts and New York. Notably, she converted to Unitarianism against her family's wishes, demonstrating her independent spirit.
Throughout her writing career, Sedgwick explored themes related to women's roles, often advocating for a separate sphere for women while also emphasizing their potential for happiness and fulfillment outside of marriage. Her first novel, *A New-England Tale*, exemplifies her ability to blend regional settings with broader themes of domestic virtue and personal liberty. Sedgwick’s most famous work, *Hope Leslie*, is a historical romance that delves into colonial Massachusetts and touches on issues such as slavery and Native Americans. Although her popularity waned after her death, her contributions have recently gained renewed interest, particularly within literary feminism. Sedgwick's legacy continues to shape discussions around women's literature and their societal roles in the 19th century.
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Catharine Maria Sedgwick
Writer
- Born: December 28, 1789
- Birthplace: Stockbridge, Massachusetts
- Died: July 31, 1867
- Place of death: West Roxbury, Massachusetts
Biography
Catharine Maria Sedgwick was born just after the Revolutionary War into a well-connected, longstanding New England family, the sixth of seven children. Her father, Theodore Sedgwick, was speaker of the House of Representatives during George Washington’s presidency and then a judge in the Massachusetts Supreme Court. The family surrounded itself with cultivated people who were able to discuss literature, politics, and theology.
Sedgwick was born and lived most of her life on the family estate at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in the Berkshire hills, and she would associate herself with this area in her later writings. In an unusual move for the time, her parents sent her to boarding schools in Boston and New York, and she also received home schooling. Her mother was often ill and died in 1807. Her father remarried but died in 1813. Thereafter, Sedgwick’s habit was to live with her brother Charles in Lennox, Massachusetts, during the summer, and with her brother Robert in New York City in the winter. Her family was Presbyterian but in 1821, Sedgwick, against her family’s wishes, converted to Unitarianism, especially influenced by the Reverend William Ellery Channing. She refused several offers of marriage and remained single throughout her life. She became especially close to her niece Kate, who nursed her for the last few years of her life.
Some consider Sedgwick to have been the best-known American woman writer before Harriet Beecher Stowe. However, her popularity quickly declined after her death in 1867 as tastes changed, and it is only recently that she has been rediscovered by literary feminism. She herself wrote of the position of women, but advocated that women remain in a separate sphere from men. In her story “Old Maids” (1834), she sees a happy marriage as the best possible choice for women; failing that, a single life with a profitable and useful career is far better than an unhappy marriage, as demonstrated by the lives of the two sisters in the story.
Sedgwick did not consider writing as her main career, and in later life she became involved in various reform movements. Her heroines typically are orphaned or abandoned, needing to find their own way in life. This was to be a common plot in subsequent nineteenth century American domestic fiction.
Sedgwick’s first novel, A New-England Tale (1822), is in many ways typical of her later writing. In the book, she recreates a New England setting without being provincial, advocates domestic virtues, and celebrates the joys and liberty of Unitarianism against the restrictions of Puritanism. Other novels touch on slavery and Native Americans. She holds a midway position between earlier Romantic literature and later realism. Her most famous novel is probably Hope Leslie (1827), a historical romance set in colonial Massachusetts.
Sedgwick’s many other writings include short stories; didactic tales for children and young adults; travel writing about her tour of Europe; letters, journals, and essays on contemporary religious issues; and a memoir which was posthumously published together with her letters. She also contributed to the first of the new genre of gift books, The Atlantic Souvenir: A Christmas and New Year’s Offering, published in 1826.