Maria Stewart
Maria Stewart (1803-1879) was an influential African American orator, writer, and activist known for her pioneering role in advocating for social reform and the intellectual advancement of African Americans. Orphaned at a young age and lacking formal education, Stewart's life took a transformative turn after marrying James Stewart in 1826 and becoming involved in Boston's vibrant African American community. Following her husband's untimely death and her experiences with racial injustice, she underwent a religious conversion that ignited her passion for public speaking and advocacy.
Stewart is recognized as the first American-born woman to address mixed-race and mixed-sex audiences, delivering groundbreaking lectures that critiqued societal norms, especially regarding the roles of black women. Her speeches, often referred to as political sermons due to their religious foundations, included notable addresses to organizations such as the New England Anti-Slavery Society and the Afric-American Intelligence Society. Beyond her oratory, Stewart also contributed to the literary discourse of the time, publishing works that called for moral and intellectual uplift among African Americans.
Despite facing significant criticism and ultimately retreating from public life in the mid-1830s, Stewart's legacy endures as she laid foundational stones for black women's rhetorical traditions and continued to advocate for education and empowerment up until her later years in Washington, D.C. Her life and work symbolize resilience and the pursuit of justice within the African American community.
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Subject Terms
Maria Stewart
Abolitionist
- Born: 1803
- Birthplace: Hartford, Connecticut
- Died: December 17, 1879
- Place of death: Washington, D.C.
Following her spiritual calling, Stewart overcame race and gender biases to deliver public speeches and write tracts against slavery. Although she spoke to mixed-race audiences, her inspirational messages were aimed at motivating predominantly African American audiences in nineteenth century Boston, particularly women, to work for racial uplift.
Early Life
Frances Maria W. Miller Stewart (muh-RI-uh) was born in 1803 in Hartford, Connecticut, and orphaned when she was five years old. Until the age of fifteen, she worked as a servant in a minister’s home. She received no formal education during her youth, but she learned to read and acquired religious training by attending Sabbath school classes. Later, Stewart supported herself doing domestic work.
Life’s Work
In 1826, Stewart wed James Stewart, a Boston ship’s outfitter, at First African Baptist Church, a vital spiritual and political institution of Boston’s African American community. She became politically active and was mentored by David Walker, author of the antislavery tract Appeal. Stewart’s husband’s death three years after their marriage left her in precarious financial circumstances; racist attorneys swindled her out of her husband’s estate. Soon after, Walker died. During this traumatic period, Stewart underwent a religious conversion that inspired her to publicly advocate for social reform. Her faith in God became a major part of her speeches, essays, and tracts.
Stewart is considered the first American-born woman to speak to mixed-race and mixed-sex audiences in public forums. A pioneering orator, she was a forerunner to major nineteenth century African American orators and abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Frances E. W. Harper. Stewart’s “Lecture Delivered at the Franklin Hall,” given in Boston in 1832 at a meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, was the first public lecture by an American woman. The speech criticized hiring practices that limited black women to domestic jobs and challenged northern African Americans to advance themselves intellectually. Since her lectures were firmly grounded in religious scripture and thought, they have been called political sermons. Another of Stewart’s important speeches was “An Address Delivered Before the Afric-American Intelligence Society of America,” delivered in the spring of 1832, urged the women in the society to develop their intellectual capabilities and unite in Christian love for racial uplift.
In addition to entering the public arena through her speeches, Stewart gained entry through her writings. Like her speeches, her writings underscored her religious zeal and challenged African Americans to improve themselves spiritually and intellectually. Her foray into public politics began in 1831, with the publication of the treatise Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Build, printed by William Lloyd Garrison’s publishing company. The October 8, 1831, edition of The Liberator published excerpts in which Stewart mentions her admiration for Walker. Stewart’s passionate rhetoric and revolutionary thought in the Religion treatise and subsequent writings echoed the language and ideas in Walker’s militant antislavery tract. Religion, along with some of her speeches and essays, was subsequently reprinted as Productions of Mrs. Maria Stewart in Boston in 1835.
Although Stewart anticipated objections to her public speeches by claiming her divine calling, she faced so much criticism of her political activity that she abruptly abandoned the public podium and left Boston by the end of 1833. Stewart went to New York City, where she became a member of a women’s literary society, continued her education, and began teaching. In 1861, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she was employed as head matron at Freedman’s Hospital. After successfully petitioning the U.S. government for her husband’s military pension, she invested the money in publishing a revised edition of Productions. Stewart died in Washington in 1879.
Significance
Through her writings and speeches, Stewart produced a significant body of revolutionary work that helped originate black women’s rhetorical and intellectual traditions. Stewart herself exemplified many of the goals she challenged others to achieve. Despite her humble beginnings, she elevated herself through education and later played a prominent role in the emancipation of African Americans.
Bibliography
Logan, Shirley Wilson. “African Origins/American Appropriations: Maria Stewart and ’Ethiopia Rising.’” In We Are Coming: The Persuasive Discourse of Nineteenth Century Black Women, edited by Shirley Wilson Logan. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999. Analysis of Stewart’s sustained use in her essays and speeches of a biblical phrase about Ethiopia, made popular by nineteenth century male speakers.
Peterson, Carla.“Doers of the Word”: African American Women Speakers and Writers in the North (1830-1880). New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1998. Examines Stewart’s religious and spiritual writing and political sermons, and positions her as part of the lineage of northern nineteenth century women political activists.
Richardson, Marilyn, ed. Maria W. Stewart: America’s First Black Political Writer: Essays and Speeches. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987. First book-length study of Stewart’s speeches and essays, with original reproductions of her major texts. Its publication revived contemporary interest in Stewart’s legacy.
Roberson, Susan. “Maria Stewart and the Rhetoric of Mobility.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 4, no. 3 (May, 2003): 56-62. Analysis of how strategies in Stewart’s Productions marshaled communities to oppose racism using Christian and moral appeals.
Waters, Kristin, and Carol B. Conaway, eds. Black Women’s Intellectual Traditions: Speaking Their Minds. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2007. A collection with several essays on Stewart, whose work is examined within religious, political, and feminist contexts.