EVANGELICAL WOMEN IN EARLY 1800: Mary W. Miller Stewart P/49

                                                                                    Read Part One HERE

In this post I focus on a woman named Mary W. Miller Stewart. She lived from 1803- 1879. Mary was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She was orphaned by age five and became an indentured servant, seving a clergyman until she was fifteen. She also attended Connecticut Sabbath schools and taught herself to read and write.

In 1826 Mary married James W. Stewart. Her husband, a shipping agent, had served in the First World War and had spent some time in England as a prisoner of war. With her marriage, she became part of Boston's small free black middle class and soon became involved in some of its Institutions, including the Massachusetts General Coloured Association, which worked for immediate abolition of slavery. 

Soon after Boston abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison established his newspaper, the Liberator, in January 1831, he specifically called for black women to write in its pages. Mary was the first woman to respond, and by the summer of 1831, he published her first essay "Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality," as a pamphlet. Mary launched her public speaking career at a time when women were banned from speaking in public, especially to audiences that included men.

Read Part Fifty HERE