Maria Jane McIntosh
Maria Jane McIntosh was a prominent 19th-century American author and cultural figure, born in Sunbury, Georgia, in 1803. She was deeply connected to her Scottish heritage and the McIntosh family's historical significance in Georgia. Following the early deaths of her parents, she managed her family's plantation until selling it in 1835, after which she relocated to New York. Unfortunately, she lost her wealth during the Panic of 1837, prompting her to turn to writing as a profession.
McIntosh authored moral novels, particularly for children, using the pseudonym Aunt Kitty, with early works emphasizing the virtues of responsible behavior. Her notable novels, including "Two Lives: Or, To Seem and to Be," explored themes of virtue and morality through the lives of contrasting characters. Additionally, she expressed her views on gender roles and the societal status of women in her nonfiction work, "Woman in America: Her Work and Her Reward," where she argued against the notion of equality between men and women.
Her legacy is further complicated by her defense of slavery in various writings, reflecting the complex social attitudes of her time. McIntosh spent her later years teaching and hosting literary salons in New York before passing away in Morristown, New Jersey. Her contributions to literature and her social commentary provide insight into the challenges and perspectives of women in her era.
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Maria Jane McIntosh
Author
- Born: 1803
- Birthplace: Sunbury, Georgia
- Died: February 25, 1878
- Place of death: Morristown, New Jersey
Biography
Maria Jane McIntosh was born in Sunbury, Georgia, in 1803, the daughter of Mary Moore (Maxwell) McIntosh and Lachlan McIntosh. She was proud of her Scottish ancestry and of the prominence of the McIntosh family in the early history of Georgia. Her wealthy father died before she was three, and she received her early education at home from her mother. She attended two schools, a coeducational academy in Sunbury headed by the Presbyterian clergyman Dr. McWhir, and Baisden’s Bluff Academy in McIntosh County. Her mother died in 1823, when she was twenty years old. McIntosh managed her family’s plantation until she sold it in 1835. She invested the proceeds in securities and moved to New York to live with Captain James McKay McIntosh, a half brother and naval captain. She lost her fortune in the Panic of 1837 and turned to writing as a means of making a living.
McIntosh wrote moral novels for children under the pseudonym Aunt Kitty. She began her first book, Blind Alice: Or, Do Right If You Wish to Be Happy in 1838, but it was not published until 1841. She used the formula of contrasting a spoiled, selfish child with an unselfish, responsible child to show that virtuous conduct resulted in happiness. McIntosh continued to use this contrast between virtue and vice when she began to write for adults. In Conquest and Self-Conquest: Or, Which Makes the Hero? (1843), the hero’s good character is rewarded with money and success.
As the author of women’s fiction, McIntosh made a name for herself with Two Lives: Or, To Seem and to Be (1846), her first signed novel. Her paired heroines, Isabel, who does her duty and becomes independent, and Grace, flighty and self- indulgent, receive their just rewards. Because of her independence, Isabel is rewarded with marriage and makes a home for the indigent Grace. In her nonfiction book Woman in America: Her Work and Her Reward (1850), McIntosh states that men and women are not created equal. Women should consolidate the values of Christian civilization, they should not imitate European society, and they should keep men from paying too much attention to business. She defines women’s roles by region: Southern women need to convert the slaves, Westerners to “Americanize” immigrants, and Easterners to keep men from the lure of money-making.
McIntosh was also an apologist for slavery in a pamphlet, Letter on the Address of the Women of England to Their Sisters of America (1853), and in her novel, The Lofty and the Lowly: Or, Good in All and None All-Good (1853). She contrasts the exploitative wage labor system of the Northern factory with the benevolent slave economy of the Southern plantation. In 1859, she went to Geneva, Switzerland, with the family of her nephew, John Elliott Ward. When she returned to New York, she became a teacher at the Henrietta B. Haines’s school. She held a salon in New York and entertained guests with dramatic readings. McIntosh spent her last year with her niece and namesake, Maria McIntosh Cox in Morristown, New Jersey.