Sarah Wister
Sarah Wister was an early American Quaker writer, born in 1761 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Raised in a financially comfortable family, she received education at the first American girls' school established by the educational theorist Anthony Benezet, where she learned both traditional domestic skills and classical literature. Wister is best known for her engaging journal, which she began in September 1777 during the Revolutionary War, capturing her reflections and experiences amid the conflict. Her writing reveals her complex feelings towards the war, as she navigated her Quaker beliefs and her sympathies for the patriots while living in a farmhouse that served as a military headquarters.
In addition to her journal, Wister produced poetry, letters, and prose, marked by a serious and reflective tone influenced by her Quaker convictions and tragic personal events, such as the death of her brother. Although she never married, her later writings demonstrated a strong dedication to spiritual matters. Wister's journal remained unpublished until 1902, but her literary contributions have drawn comparisons to notable writers of her time, indicating her significant role in American literature. She passed away in 1804, shortly after the death of her mother, reflecting the deep familial bonds that characterized her life.
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Sarah Wister
- Born: July 20, 1761
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Died: April 21, 1804
Biography
Early American Quaker writer Sarah Wister, known for the lively and engaging journal she kept during the Revolutionary War, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1761. She was the oldest grandchild of a German immigrant who came to Pennsylvania and established a wine business in the early eighteenth century. Her financially well off family lived in the house across the street from Benjamin Franklin. Wister attended first a local dame school to learned “the three R’s” and domestic arts; then she attended the Philadelphia Quaker Girls’ School—the first American girls’ school—run by French-born educational theorist and schoolteacher Anthony Benezet (1713-1784).
Wister refers in her journal to her educational experience at Benezet’s school, which included not only the traditional skills of women’s education such as needlework and penmanship but also classical and modern languages. Wister had read Cicero and Homer along with Alexander Pope and Henry Fielding, and her enjoyment of reading shows in the vitality of her own prose.
Wister’s journal began in September, 1777, on the day the British army arrived in Germantown, Pennsylvania, where the Wister family had a summer home. Since 1775, the family had been in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, fifteen miles outside of Philadelphia, at the home of a relative, due to political pressures on Quakers because of their refusal to take sides in the conflict—although Sarah’s journal reveals both her own symapthy for the patriots and her deep ambivalence about the soldiers themselves and military matters. The farmhouse where the Wisters lived during this period served as headquarters for several American military officers, including General William Smallwood, Colonel James Wood, and Major Aaron Ogden. The journal’s style is a staged imaginary conversation with Debby Norris in Philadelphia, a close friend with whom Wister was used to conversing regularly, but it is unclear whether the actual Miss Norris was ever able to read the journal.
After the war ended, Wister wrote poems, letters, and prose on a variety of subjects. Her adult tone was serious and reflective, in keeping with the style of her journal later on in the war and resonant with tragic events in her life, such as the death of her young brother in 1781. Her poetry has been compared to Philip Freneau and Phillis Wheatley, and she was strongly influenced by both the Augustan neoclassical writers and her own Quaker convictions, which strengthened during her life. Wister never married, and her writings from later in life, particularly her letters dated between 1794 and 1803, reflect her dedication to spiritual matters and her dedicated pursuit of religious inspiration.
Sarah Wister’s mother died in early 1804, and perhaps due to her significant attachment, Wister herself died only two months later. Her journal was first published almost one hundred years later, in 1902.