Maria W. Stewart

Occupation:

writer and political activist

Dates:

1803 - December, 1879

Maria Stewart’s Life as an Orphan

Maria Miller was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1803. At the age of five, she became an orphan. She was sent to work as a servant for a clergyman's family until she was fifteen. From thereafter, she supported herself by working as a domestic servant. While working as a servant, she attended a Sabbath school, where she took literacy classes along with religious instruction.

Stewart’s Short Marriage

On August 10, 1826, she married James W. Stewart in Boston. James Stewart, who had served on three different ships in the War of 1812, was much older than the twenty-three year old Stewart. He was an independent businessman who worked as a shipping agent outfitting whaling and fishing vessels. After their marriage, Maria Stewart adopted her husband’s middle initial as part of her name. The couple settled in Boston among the black middle class.

After only a short marriage, James Stewart died on December 17, 1829. Despite her husband's success as a businessman, after a legal battle over his estate, a group of white businessmen fraudulently stripped Stewart of her inheritance. A year after the death of her husband, Stewart suffered further loss when David Walker died under suspicious circumstances. Stewart had been strongly influenced by Walker's ideas, and this influence is evident in her subsequent writings.

Stewart Becomes a Political Activist

After this trying time, Stewart took time to re-evaluate her religious commitment. She underwent a conversion and became dedicated to becoming a religious and political witness. She began speaking out against tyranny, victimization, and injustice. She gave speeches and wrote essays against slavery and political and economic exploitation.

In Stewart's essays, she acknowledged that her life could be in danger, but asserted that she was ready to serve as a martyr for the cause. Just as David Walker had done, she also directed her essays to blacks instead of white abolitionists. She urged blacks to exercise virtue and character equal to the white standard. She believed that once whites were shown the worthiness of blacks, they would finally recognize the equality of the races.

Stewart's first essay, Religion And The Pure Principles Of Morality, The Sure Foundation On Which We Must Build was published in 1831 in the abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. This essay was not only noteworthy for its content, but also because it was the first political manifesto written by an African American woman. In it she urged blacks to develop their talents. She also argued that the Bible and the Constitution of the United States provide all people with the universal birth right of justice and freedom.

Stewart also spoke out against the colonization movement, which proposed to send free blacks to Africa and to emancipate those who would agree to go. In response to this idea, Stewart wrote: "...and now that we have enriched their soil and filled their coffers...they would drive us to a strange land. But before I go, the bayonet shall pierce me through."

Stewart Uses the Bible to Support Her Activism

Stewart often used the Bible to draw on in her essays and lectures. In her essays, she included the Books of Lamentations, Judges, Ester, Matthew, Revelation, and many others. For instance, in her use of the Book of Revelation, she declared that rebellion and destruction would be used by God to punish slaveholders.

As a woman, Stewart's choice to become a public political activist was not supported by American society or even by some of her Boston friends. However, as she had done with her arguments against slavery, she used the Bible to support her position in the public. She refuted Paul's warning for women to follow their husbands lead by arguing that had Paul known of the injustice that blacks faced, he would not object to a woman's public activism. Stewart further argued that women should become educated and seek other opportunities outside of the domestic sphere.

Stewart Moves to New York

In 1833, Stewart decided to leave Boston. In her September 21, 1833 Farewell Address, she said goodbye to her life as a public activist in Boston. She moved to New York, and began participating in anti-slavery activities and in women's and literacy organizations. In 1835, Productions Of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart, was published.

In addition to her activism, Stewart worked as a teacher and in the early 1870s she was appointed Matron of the Freedmen's Hospital. In 1878, she became eligible to receive a pension as a widow of a veteran of the War of 1812. She used the money to publish a new edition of her collected work, which was accompanied by letters from friends and colleagues. Stewart died in December of 1879.