Margaret Fuller

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Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), Marchioness Ossoli.

(Sarah) Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 - June 19, 1850) was a teacher, author, editor, journalist, critic, and women's rights activist whose contributions to literature and mid-nineteenth century reform movements were significant and ingenious. Her popular Woman in the Nineteenth Century, published in 1845, had a significant impact on the women's rights movement that began about three years after the book was published. She grew up in the Unitarian Church and had a pronounced effect on the Trancendentalist movement as the editor of its journal The Dial. She was considered the most brilliant woman of her time.

Childhood

Margaret Fuller was the first child born to Margarett Crane and Timothy Fuller, Jr. in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts on May 23, 1810. Margaret's mother was raised in a Unitarian family in the small town of Canton, Massachusetts. Margaret's father was a very gifted and learned man who attended Harvard University. While there he traded his Calvinistic upbringing for the Unitarian religion and views. Timothy was a devout man and followed the Unitarian rationalism faithfully throughout his life. He often questioned and challenged the religious leaders of the time with his reasoned view, but he never deviated from his new-found faith. Timothy and his wife established themselves with the Cambridgeport Parish Unitarian Church where he served on the church council for some time.


When Timothy and Margaret began their family, they also began pursuing a life in politics. Timothy, who was an accomplished lawyer and a member of the Republican party, was elected to the Massachusetts Senate in 1813, just three years after Margaret was born. He served in the Senate for a total of four terms. After his long service with the United States Congress, he had his fill of politics and decided to retire and focus on his first love, that of writing. Margarett often went unnoticed behind her husband's prominent political life. She was a diligent wife, but she also maintained her individualism. She was vibrant and vivacious, and an avid reader who possessed great intelligence. She was an affectionate mother and was definitely the softer of the two parents in terms of discipline and education.

Education

As Margaret was the firstborn, her father, who had desperately wanted a son to teach and educate, decided he would put just as much effort into educating his daughter, a deviation from the norm of his era. Thus, at a very young age Margaret underwent a boot camp type of training and education. She was forced to read for hours at a time. She became fluent in German and Latin and well-versed in other languages. Soon a younger sister was born into the family, but she passed away at 18 months, and again, Margaret remained the focal point of her father's efforts. In all, Timothy and Margarett were blessed with eight children, with six living into adulthood.

Margaret, always a writer, kept journals and in one she recorded thoughts about her education, "I was put at once under discipline of considerable severity, and, at the same time, had a more than ordinarily high standard presented to me." Margaret excelled at all subjects, including English grammar, mathematics, languages, music, history, and science. Margaret's harrowing educational experience left her afflicted with a great deal of stress from her father's semi-fanatical expectations. Often her feelings were expressed in the form of intense nightmares and insomnia. For the rest of her adult life she suffered severely from migraine headaches caused by intense reading in low-light, as well as extremely poor eyesight.


Margaret's mother felt the need to fine-tune her education by sending her to various schools to learn feminine propriety and manners, as well as the art of interacting with other children her age. Margaret was sent to assorted educational establishments from the ages of nine to twenty-five. They included Cambridge Port Private Grammar School, Dr. Park's Boston Lyceum, and Miss Prescott's Young Women's Seminary. Margaret desperately disliked this period of her life. She was so advanced in her education that the classes often bored her and the other students thought her aloof and audacious. In reality, she was very shy and awkward socially and very superior and advanced mentally. Thus she suffered from a great deal of contempt and mockery. Margaret finally decided to end her education and begin educating others. She was a natural teacher who began by helping her family and serving as a type of governess/tutor to her younger brothers and sisters. Her father's public responsibilities left him unavailable for his younger children's educations, but he felt his training of Margaret made her a qualified teacher.

Social Life

After her formal schooling was concluded Margaret began to form a circle of friends who delighted in her mind, her wit, and her ability to carry on a conversation in many realms. Among these friends were James Freeman Clarke, Frederic Henry Hedge, and William Henry Channing. Her closest acquaintance became Lydia Maria Francis. Margaret and Maria, as she was called, would read endlessly and discuss what they read for days at a time. They read all the great writers of the time, and learned about many places and people. Even with this small circle of educational friends, Margaret still felt she lacked accomplishment and polish in social decorum and civility.


The accomplished and beautiful Eliza Farrar, wife of John Farrar, a Harvard professor, noticed Margaret's shortcomings and took her under her wing. Eliza Farrar taught Margaret how to dress and interact socially in a way that made her feel comfortable in her own skin. It was also through the Farrars that Margaret was introduced to Ralph Waldo Emerson. They became good friends, although Emerson thought her a bit annoying at first. He complained of the nasal quality to her voice and her apparent plainness. But Margaret's conversations with him won Emerson over and he requested her company often. Margaret then began traveling frequently to Concord, Massachusetts to visit with the Emerson family. She even assisted Emerson with learning German, although she claimed that he didn't have much talent for it. It was here that she also became acquainted with Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa May Alcott and the movement known as Transcendentalism.

Margaret's life seemed perfect to her at this point. She was making friends, enjoying lively conversation, and planning on a trip to Europe with Eliza. However, shortly before the party was to depart for Europe, Margaret's father became very ill and unexpectedly died from cholera in 1835. Timothy left behind his widow and six children without any savings or other financial aid. Thus, it befell Margaret, being the eldest, to try and find some means of supporting her family.

Professional Life

Margaret was 26 when she was hired by her new-found friend, Bronson Alcott, to be a teacher. Bronson was delighted with her education, her quick wit, and her desire to teach. He hired her immediately to teach at the Temple School he had just opened in Boston. However, his methods proved to be very controversial and the school closed after a short time. From 1837 to 1839 Margaret traveled to Providence, Rhode Island for a teaching job and sent much of her earnings home to her mother.

Soon she returned to her family farm, packed them up and moved them to a rented home five miles outside of Boston. Margaret traveled into the city each day and held what came to be called "conversations" in Elizabeth Palmer Peabody's West Street bookstore in Boston in 1839 with a female group of intellectuals who enjoyed the opportunity to converse about a wide variety of subjects. This group of women were well-educated, ambitious, and deviceful. These types of gatherings were common among men of this time but women had no access to them. Thus, these "conversations" were born and attended by Lidian Emerson, Sarah Bradford Ripley, Abigail Allyn Francis, Lydia Maria Francis Child (her long-time friend), Elizabeth Hoar, Eliza Farrar, Mary Channing, Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia Peabody, Sophia Dana Ripley and Lydia (Mrs. Theodore) Parker. The group discussed and debated everything from classical mythology and ethics, to education, and, of course, the rights of women. Margaret charged fees for the little group that supported her and her family for the next five years. During this time, she worked on translating Conversations with Goethe. She would later go on to write her most acknowledged work, Women in the Nineteenth Century (1845), which was inspired by her meetings with these women and their arguments for the independence of women everywhere. This book also reflects her ideas on many of the subjects covered by the "conversations". Women in the Nineteenth Century was considered by many to be the most profound and contemplative account on the subject of women's equality to date.

Margaret's writing career also took flight through her association with the transcendentalists of her time. From 1840 to 1842, she was asked to be the editor of the transcendentalist journal, The Dial. This gave her the opportunity to reject and approve appropriate articles, often filling in a deficient edition with many of her own ideas and writings. She also gained confidence as she convinced Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Theodore Parker, Elizabeth Peabody, Caroline Sturgis and Ralph Waldo Emerson to submit various articles to her specifications. Eventually, Emerson took over as editor in 1843, and Margaret went out with a bang, writing her most influential article ever, "The Great Lawsuit: Man vs. Men and Woman vs. Women". It was during her concentrated time with the Transcendentalists that Margaret formed and solidified her own beliefs about religion. She did not give up her Christian faith, like many of the Transcendentalists of her time, but continued to believe in Jesus Christ as her Savior and testified that he "is constantly aiding and answering me." However, unlike many Christians, Margaret embraced the Transcendental idea that she could worship and have religious experiences just as well out in nature as in a church.

Horace Greeley, publisher of the New York Tribune, became a fan of Margaret when he read her last article in The Dial and also her book Summer on the Lakes in 1843. Greeley invited Margaret to be on his writing staff, making her the first female journalist to work for a major newspaper. She worked as critic, essayist, and reviewer, covering a wide variety of subjects and events.

Life Abroad

In 1846 the Tribune sent Margaret to Europe as a foreign correspondent. Margaret reveled in this assignment and began with a tour in the British Isles, including Scotland, and then went to Paris. While in Paris she met and interviewed George Sand, whom she had long admired and also Thomas Carlyle—whom she found disappointing. She also decided to support the philosophies and movements of Giuseppe Mazzini, who she had met while in England. After Paris, she traveled south to Italy and became acquainted with the revolutionary Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, who was only 26. Margaret was in her late thirties at the time, but the connection was undeniable and the two fell in love. It has been hard to document their marriage, and it was unclear whether they ever married, although some believe that they did shortly before the birth of their son, Angelo Eugenio Filippo Ossoli in September of 1848. During this eventful time in Margaret's life, turmoil surrounded Italy, with war breaking out. Many Italians were fighting for a new Roman Republic, Giovanni among them. Margaret did what she could to support the cause, even working in a hospital, but safety conditions worsened and the couple decided it was in their new family's best interest to go to America. It is believed that Margaret never fully supported this decision because she loved Italy and was worried about how her and her new family would be accepted back in New England.

Death

In May of 1850, she and her family set sail for New York City. During the voyage the Captain caught small pox and died. Little Angelo also contracted the disease, but recovered. The rest of the crew was left to navigate the ship and their lack of experience proved costly. The ship sailed straight into a hurricane and wrecked, killing most of the passengers. Margaret and her family were casualties. Many, including Ralph Waldo Emerson were extremely saddened by this tragedy. Emerson sent Henry David Thoreau to New York to search for the bodies and to look through recovered belongings. His efforts were in vain. All of Margaret's writings covering the past two years were lost, including a manuscript on the history of the Roman Republic. Margaret's surviving family erected a monument in her name at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Many of her writings were collected together by her brother Arthur as At Home and Abroad (1856) and Life Without and Life Within (1858).

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