Victoria Earle Matthews
Victoria Earle Matthews was an influential African American journalist, author, and social reformer born in Georgia during the early Civil War era. After the war, she moved with her mother, a former slave, to various locations before settling in New York City, where she received a basic education. Despite interruptions in her formal studies due to family illness, Matthews pursued self-education and began writing for prominent newspapers, adopting the pen name Victoria Earle. She contributed significantly to various black periodicals, publishing both journalism and short fiction, with themes often reflecting the struggles and resilience of African Americans.
Among her notable works were stories that depicted the lives of former slaves and addressed cultural stereotypes of the time. In addition to her literary contributions, Matthews was deeply involved in the black community, advocating for social reform and the education of African Americans. She played a pivotal role in organizations such as the National Association of Colored Women, where she focused on empowering women and promoting racial equality. Matthews founded the White Rose Mission, a hostel aimed at supporting young African American women. Her activism and literary work established her as a prominent figure in her community until her death from tuberculosis in 1907, leaving a legacy of advocacy and cultural education.
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Subject Terms
Victoria Earle Matthews
Social Worker
- Born: May 27, 1861
- Birthplace: Fort Valley, Georgia
- Died: March 10, 1907
Biography
Victoria Earle Matthews was born in Georgia shortly after the beginning of the Civil War. After the war, her mother (who had previously fled slavery) returned to Georgia to claim her and three of her eight siblings, moving to Virginia and then to New York City. In New York, Victoria was given the rudiments of an education before family illness stopped her studies; despite the interruption, however, she worked hard to continue teaching herself. She married William Matthews when she was eighteen years old. They had one son who died at the age of sixteen.
Matthews soon began writing for a number of New York newspapers, including The New York Times, The New York Herald, the Mail and Express, and the Sunday Mercury. Adopting the pen name of Victoria Earle (and later often publishing under Victoria Earle Matthews) she soon began working for black periodicals such as the Washington Bee, The Richmond Planet, the Cleveland Gazette, the New York Globe, the New York Enterprise, A.M.E. Church Review, and Woman’s Era.
In addition to her journalism, in the early 1890’s Matthews began publishing short fiction, primarily in the A.M.E. Church Review. One of the more important African American periodicals of the time, the Review published her story “Aunty Lindy,” about a courageous former slave who rescues her former master from a fire rather than taking vengeance on him, and “Zelika: A Story,” about a slave who becomes educated and survives the Civil War to one day find buried treasure. Although Matthews’s stories tended to make use of conventional stereotypes, the use of racial stereotypes as a kind of cultural short hand was not uncommon among African American writers of her day, and she was generally well reviewed.
In 1894, Matthews became an associate editor of Women’s Era, and she was active in the black community of New York in calling for social reform. Always interested in the history of African Americans and in their legacies, Matthews worked hard to educate her contemporaries about famous former slaves and leaders of the abolitionist cause such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Due in part to her society work, and in part to her contributions to literature, Matthews became a household name among African Americans, and in 1895 delivered an address to the National Conference of Colored Women on the “Value of Race Literature.
Two years later she became the national organizer of the National Association of Colored Women; two years after that, Matthews presented a speech titled “The Awakening of the Afro-American Woman” to the large audience of the Society of Christian Endeavor, whose numbers included Booker T. Washington. Shortly before her speech, Matthews had founded the White Rose Mission, a hostel dedicated to helping and educating young African American women. Social work and racial equality became more and more Matthews’s focus, and her writing gradually diminished. She continued in her activism until her death from tuberculosis in 1907.