Who is Margaret Fuller?

Learning Activities for use by Schools, Libraries, and Community Groups

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

ACTIVITIES

1. Setting the Stage for Understanding Margaret Fuller - Role and Status of Women in Early 19th Century America
2. Margaret Fuller – in her own handwriting!
3. Who was Margaret Fuller?  Part 1-Her Childhood
4. Who was Margaret Fuller?  Part 2-Her Work and Reputation
5. Margaret Fuller and New England Transcendentalism
6. Margaret Fuller and Edgar Allan Poe
7. Margaret Fuller in Her Own Words
8. Conversations on the Writings of Margaret Fuller
9. Margaret Fuller Remembered
10. In Your Own Words

APPENDICES

1. Margaret Fuller Letter from the Boston Public Library Archives
2. Stairs Story
3. Images of Margaret Fuller
4. Jenny Rankin, “A Writer, Thinker, and Trailblazer,” Boston Globe 5/24/2010
5. Bell Gale Chevigny, “Ahead of Her Time,” Boston Globe 7/17/2000
6. Program from Margaret Fuller Memorial Service at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, July 18, 2010

 

Introduction

Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow.

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1852)

The ten learning activities in this program have been developed as part of the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial, designed for use in high school history and literature classrooms and adult education settings.

Margaret Fuller, born on May 23, 1810, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was an author, critic, teacher, public intellectual, feminist, Transcendentalist, and revolutionary. She was the first women to blaze certain paths in a variety of endeavors. Her book, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, was the first book-length appeal by an American woman for woman’s rights. She became the first woman editor of an intellectual publication when she served as the first editor of the Transcendentalist journal, The Dial. She contributed her own ideas of self-reliance that were representative of, and yet distinctive from, the ideas of the movement that is most commonly associated with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau. She was the first woman to write about westward expansion, the first woman allowed to use the Harvard College Library for research, and became the first female literary critic and later, foreign correspondent when she joined the staff of Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune. She reported on the Italian revolution of 1848 from Rome, where she was also engaged in the revolution as director of a hospital.

During Margaret Fuller’s Bicentennial year (see www.margaretfuller.org), many events have occurred in greater Boston and Concord, Massachusetts, throughout the country, and in Italy to mark her contributions to the struggle for women’s rights and to the evolution of American literary and intellectual thought. The story of her life and contributions had been forgotten in the early 20^th century, but beginning in the 1970s scholars have been rediscovering her and giving voice to her life and passion for ideas. As part of the Bicentennial celebration, this collection of educational activities has been assembled to encourage people to learn more about her life and thought.

The learning activities described in this program are not so much lesson plans as guides, adaptable to a variety of audiences. Most of the ten activities are designed for a one hour time slot, but could easily be extended to two hours depending on the time devoted to exploration and the background and experience of the group. Each activity comes with suggestions from the accompanying list of resources for teachers and facilitators to use in preparation to lead the activities and for participants to use for further study.

These materials were created for the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial by Elizabeth Kovacs and Linda Stern, and edited by Dorothy Emerson. Funding had been provided by Mass Humanities and the Fund for Unitarian Universalism.

Linda Stern has worked as a teacher and librarian in several different educational settings, from pre-school to community college. She has done extensive curriculum development with archives, primary sources, and historical documents. She is currently working as a research librarian in a curriculum project focusing on Jewish women in Boston history, in collaboration with the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.

Elizabeth Kovacs is an educator and researcher with a long-standing interest in Margaret Fuller. After writing a thesis on Fuller in college, she worked at the Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House directing a project to bring Fuller and her ideas to a wider audience. She has taught history and English as a Second Language and worked in non-profit fundraising.

Dorothy Emerson, Unitarian Universalist minister and educator, has served as Coordinator of the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial. Her books include Standing Before Us: Unitarian Universalist Women and Social Reform 1776-1936; Glorious Women: Award-Winning Sermons about Women; and a new curriculum “Becoming Women of Wisdom: Marking the Passage into the Crone Years.”

We hope you enjoy using these activities and learning more about the amazing Margaret Fuller.

 

I. Setting the Stage for Understanding Margaret Fuller: Role and Status of Women in Early 19^th Century America

To understand Margaret Fuller it is helpful to understand the position of women in the early 19th century.  The article "The Culture of Domesticity and True Womanhood" is an excellent place to start.  Other listed resources can be used to deepen understanding.

Preparation Suggestions, details on Resource List:

• Introduction and chapters on Work and Education from Bonds of Womanhood: Women’s Sphere in New England, 1780-1835, by Nancy Cott.

• Chapter on “The Changing Population: Ethnic, Racial, and Sexual Minorities,” from Jacksonian America, by Edward Pessen.

Biographical Resources about Margaret Fuller:

• Entry on Margaret Fuller in Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary
• Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography entry on Margaret Fuller: http://uudb.org/articles/margaretfuller.html
• Biographical sketch of Margaret Fuller on Virginia Commonwealth University website: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/fuller

• Chronology of Margaret Fuller’s Life: http://margaretfuller.org
• Text and images from the traveling display “Why Margaret Fuller Matters”: http://www.margaretfuller.org/index.php/resources/traveling-display-text

Materials needed:

• Copies of the article: “The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood.” Link: http://www.library.csi,cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/truewoman.html

Activities

Introduce the activity by giving an overview of what life was like for many women in early 19th century America. Read sections of the article, “The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood,” as highlights.

A woman in early 19^th century America grew up subservient to her father, and then, if and when she married, to her husband.  She had few rights and little power.  She had no legal existence to own property, write a will, make a contract, or vote.  Her name, estate, children, and any wages belonged to her husband. Her existence was restricted to the home and the domestic arena: raising children and educating them, making clothing and food from scratch, as well as candles, soap, etc.  She was invisible in politics, played no official role in the church, and was educated to the extent that she could teach her own children, not for her own intellectual development.

A single woman was expected to stay home and take care of any sick family members.  However, she was somewhat more advantaged in that she could own property and run a small business. A few occupations were opened to her: housework in another’s home, handicrafts, factory work, or school teaching; however her wages were ¼ to ½ what a man’s would be.  She did have greater mobility, independence, and a variety of people in her life.

Give a brief overview of Margaret Fuller’s life.

Now discuss Margaret Fuller’s life within the context of the times in which she lived.

1. What role did her father play in her intellectual development?
2. What kinds of work were open to her?
3. How might she have benefited from being a single woman?
4. Would she have met the societal expectations of a single woman?
5. What kind of barriers did Margaret Fuller surmount?

II. Margaret Fuller – in her own handwriting!

This activity asks participants to examine a primary source, in this case, a copy of a letter written by Margaret Fuller.  This handwritten letter is from the archives at Boston Public Library.  We show what questions may be asked of a historical document.  It gives an upfront and personal view into Margaret Fuller and her life.  This exercise also asks participants to imagine what might have been written in the section of the letter that was literally cut out of the original.

Preparation Suggestions, details on Resource List:

• Joseph Jay Deiss,  Roman Years of Margaret Fuller: A Biography
• Meg McGavran Murray, Margaret Fuller: Wandering Pilgrim

Materials needed:

• Copies of Margaret Fuller Letter from the Boston Public Library Archives (Appendix A - PDF, 2MB)

ACTIVITIES

Distribute copies of the letter and introduce the activity:

This is a copy of an undated document written by Margaret Fuller: it is in her own handwriting.  It is an example of a primary source, written by her during her lifetime.

It is a copy; the original is in the Boston Public Library Rare Books and Manuscript Department where it is stored in a temperature controlled environment. This image is used Courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library/Rare Books.

A primary source is evidence from the past.

These are some of the questions you might ask of any original document:

1. What is it?
2. Who wrote it?
3. When and where was it written?
4. Why was it written?
5. Who was its intended audience?
6. What is the meaning of this document?
7. What other information do we have about the person?
8. What other sources can help us understand the document?
9. How does it fit with other material known about the person?

After gathering primary sources, the historian creates a secondary source by writing about the findings, analyzing them or putting them together into an account about the past, such as a biography of Margaret Fuller or an American history book.

Now for the activity:

Individually, or with a partner, try to decipher Fuller’s handwriting and meaning.  Some words may not immediately be clear; leave them blank and come back to them later.  In deciphering it, do you have any clues about the date, place, events, and people?

Try to find out:

1. From where is Margaret Fuller writing?
2. Is there any evidence that this is a journal or letter?
3. Who is Giovanni Angelo Ossoli?
4. State in your own words what Margaret is expressing about her relationship with Angelo (as she called him).
5. What is the meaning of this document in the context of what you know about Margaret Fuller‘s life?
6. At what point in her life was this written? How old was she?
7. Did you notice the black band on page 2?

What you are seeing is the black base of the copy stand that was used in digitizing the image. It is an area where a section of the page was physically cut out.  It is an actual representation of the letter that remains.

This poses new questions for those studying history.

1. How was this letter preserved?
2. Who edited the first volume of her memoirs that was published in 1852?
3. Who might have cut up her work and edited it, and why?

Margaret Fuller’s contemporaries who compiled her memoirs after her death were Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Henry Channing and James Freeman Clarke.  They created a collection of material and a version of Margaret Fuller with which they were most comfortable. In doing so, they manipulated her writings, cut and pasted material, eliminated passages, etc. Perhaps they were less comfortable with her fierce independence, quarrelsomeness, growing radicalism. They knew little of the time she spent in Europe.

Continue the discussion by inviting participants to use their imagination:

What words can you imagine would have been written in the blank space, consistent with what you have learned about Margaret Fuller?  Use your knowledge and imagination!

III. Who was Margaret Fuller? Part One: Her childhood

This exercise asks participants to look at Margaret Fuller's life by starting with an excerpt from a memory she had of her childhood in the Stairs Story. Then review her life story, focusing on her childhood, using one of the biographical passages listed below and found on the internet.

Biographical Resources about Margaret Fuller:

• Entry on Margaret Fuller in Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary
• Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography entry on Margaret Fuller: http://uudb.org/articles/margaretfuller.html
• Biographical sketch of Margaret Fuller on Virginia Commonwealth University website: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/fuller

• Chronology of Margaret Fuller’s Life: http://margaretfuller.org
• Text and images from the traveling display “Why Margaret Fuller Matters”: http://www.margaretfuller.org/index.php/resources/traveling-display-text

Materials needed:

• Copy of the Stairs Story (Appendix B) to read aloud.

ACTIVITIES

Give a brief overview of Margaret Fuller’s life, focusing on her childhood.

Read the Stairs Story aloud. (Appendix B) Explain that Margaret Fuller wrote these memories in a letter to a friend when Margaret was in her early 30s.

In her letter, Margaret writes about an experience she had at age 21, when she remembers asking herself some important questions when she was “a little child.”  Invite participants to write about Margaret’s experiences and share any similar experiences they may have had. Read the following questions aloud to help them think about what they might write.

1. What does Margaret remember feeling on the stairs when she was a little child?
2. What was she feeling at age 21 when she took her long walk in the country?
3. Why do you think she writes about these past experiences in her letter to her friend years later?
4. Do we have similar feelings at times in the 21^st century?
5. How have you come to know who you are and what you were meant to do?

After sufficient time for writing, invite volunteers to share what they have written.

IV. Who was Margaret Fuller?  Part Two: Her work and reputation

This is a three-part activity. The first part helps participants visualize a person from history. The second part involves the construction of a timeline highlighting Margaret Fuller’s work. The third part is an invitation to imagine what her life might have been like if she had lived longer.

Materials needed:

• Copies of the images in Appendix C and online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maulleigh/5439265553/ to display and pass around.
• Copies of the chronology of Margaret Fuller’s life, found online at http://margaretfuller.org
• Copies of the Boston Globe article by Jenny Rankin, “A Writer, Thinker, and Trailblazer” (Appendix D)
• “Margaret Fuller” video of Laurie James and a group of people in New York at www.youtube.com (search for “laurie james” and “margaret fuller.”)

ACTIVITIES

1. Images of Margaret Fuller

What images remain of Margaret Fuller for those looking at the past?  How was she seen by her contemporaries?  Although photography was introduced in the United States in 1840, its use was rare. The only image made of Margaret Fuller in person is a daguerreotype. This is the image she liked best. Does it surprise you to know that it is the image where she sits before a book with her hand on her forehead?  Other images are drawings and paintings done during her lifetime. As she was a controversial woman ahead of her time, these images show aspects of those various opinions.

Look at the images and compare them. Explain what each image is and who created it.

The first four images can be found in Appendix C. The last image is in color and can be found online.

1. Pencil sketch of Margaret Fuller, by James Freeman Clarke (around 1830-32)
2. Daguerreotype of Margaret Fuller, 1846
3. “Portrait of a Distinguished Authoress.” Caricature by Boston artist Samuel E. Brown accompanying a lampoon of Fuller by Edgar Poe, published in the Broadway Journal (8 March 1845)
4. Engraving of Margaret Fuller, made from Thomas Hicks’s painting
5. “Margaret Fuller in Italy, 1948.” Photo of Thomas Hicks’s full color painting, available online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maulleigh/5439265553/

Questions to Consider:

1. Which picture do you like best?
2. Which ones are sketches?
3. What is a daguerreotype?
4. One sketch was done by a close friend, the other sketch is a caricature; what did they think of her?
5. There is also a commissioned portrait.  What can you tell about her by looking at the images?

2. Margaret Fuller’s Work

Read the Boston Globe article “A Writer, Thinker, Trailblazer,” published at the time of the Bicentennial of Margaret Fuller’s birth.

Review the chronology of her life from the Bicentennial website, www.margaretfuller.org.

Watch “Margaret Fuller” video with Laurie James on www.youtube.com.

Construct a timeline or make a list of Margaret Fuller’s lifetime achievements. Be sure to include the books she published, her teaching positions at Temple School and Green Street School, her editorship of the Dial, her work for the New York Tribune, and her travels to the Great Lakes and to Europe.

Discuss which events are most significant in the development of her ideas.

1. Why should we know about Margaret Fuller?
2. Was she forgotten?  If so, why?
3. What is the importance of celebrating anniversaries of famous people?

3. What if scenarios

• What part, if any, do you think would Margaret Fuller have played in the Women’s Suffrage Movement, if she had lived longer?

• Imagine a different course of history: the shipwreck does not occur and Ralph Waldo Emerson invites the family of three, Margaret Fuller, Giovanni Ossoli, and Angelo, their two year old son, to tea.  How would it have played out?  Try writing a script.

• What if Margaret Fuller had lived a longer life (at least “three score years” as she states in the handwritten letter)?  Who might she have become?  What might she have accomplished?  How might she have evolved in the context of 19^th century historical events: Abolitionist Movement, Native Americans being pushed off their land, the Civil War, industrialization, labor unions, urbanization?

V. Margaret Fuller and New England Transcendentalism

Three of the Transcendentalist movement’s major contributors were Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. The DVD, The New England Transcendentalists, introduces their approaches to the ideas of Transcendentalism, which were new to people at the time. The following study questions introduce viewers to the specific contributions of Emerson, Fuller, and Thoreau and allows for discussion of the relevancy of transcendentalist thought in today’s world.

Preparation Suggestions, details on Resource List:

• Margaret Fuller: From Transcendentalism to Revolution, by Paula Blanchard
• Minerva and the Muse: A Life of Margaret Fuller, by Joan von Mehren

Materials needed:

• DVD The New England Transcendentalists, Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 2004 (27minutes). This video is available from many local libraries and through interlibrary loan.

ACTIVITIES

Present the brief introduction below on New England Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism was part of a movement of liberal thought in the nineteenth century described as “a New England Renaissance.” The Renaissance brought a change in philosophical outlook that was to defend the new emphasis on individual freedom. Conditions in New England were ripe for a reappraisal of man and woman’s status in the world. The era was one of immense conformity and the prevailing beliefs were that one looked without for knowledge rather than within for inspiration.

The Renaissance spirit became manifested in New England in the Transcendentalist movement. There was no strictly reasoned doctrine and, as such, this “New England Renaissance” could be opened to many interpretations by its initiators. In general, Transcendentalism supported the perfectibility of women and men through the virtue of self-reliance.  All progress relied on an individual’s seeking his/her own human potential. The philosophy maintained that individuals should seek their own truths and that no institutions stood between an individual and God. Each individual then determined by his/her beliefs and life’s work to what degree this new spirit was to have a significant effect on society.

View the DVD The New England Transcendentalists  (27 minutes).

The following questions can serve as a discussion guide.

1. What definition of transcendentalism united Margaret Fuller, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson?
2. According to the transcendentalists, how did one find truth?
3. What did the Transcendentalists look to for authority?
4. What questions did the transcendentalists ask themselves?
5. What did they do to aid reform?

Ralph Waldo Emerson-

1. What was his definition of self-reliance?
2. How did he feel about consistency?
3. Why did Emerson leave the church?
4. What ideas did Emerson first express in Nature?
5. How do these ideas change with experience?
6. What do scholars see as the meaning of his life?

Margaret Fuller-

1. What is Margaret Fuller most famous for writing?
2. What debate did she begin?
3. What did Margaret Fuller ask of women?
4. What did she begin in “The Great Lawsuit”?
5. What is her argument in Woman in the Nineteenth Century?
6. What questions did Margaret Fuller address in her conversation series?
7. How does she feel about divinity and nature?

Henry David Thoreau-

1. What experience did Thoreau undertake?
2. What did he hope to learn at Walden Pond?
3. What change did he hope would occur in society?
4. What difference is there between the politics of Emerson and those of Thoreau?
5. What are Thoreau’s thoughts on government?
6. What actions does he suggest for a peaceful revolution?
7. What does he think is the contribution of nature to civilization?

Summary-

1. What is the appeal of transcendentalism for Thoreau, Emerson, and Fuller?
2. Why are the transcendentalists relevant today?
3. Whose views attract you the most and why?
4. Who do you most agree/disagree with and why?

VI. Margaret Fuller and Edgar Allan Poe

While others were captive of their times, Margaret Fuller wrote about gender equality.  In this way, she played an important role in the community of intellectuals of which she was part.  Use a library biographical database or an encyclopedia to research information on her contemporaries. Some of the related material shows Margaret Fuller sparring with Edgar Poe.

Preparation Suggestions, details on Resource List:

• Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century
• Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, entries on women who were contemporaries of Margaret Fuller, plus bibliographical references for further research

• Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography, entries on both women and men who were Unitarians, http://uudb.org

Materials needed

• YouTube video: “A Conversation: Fuller and Poe,” especially parts 3, 4, and 5
• Article by Bell Gale Chevigny, “Ahead of Her Time,” published in The Boston Globe on July 17, 2000, the 150th anniversary of Fuller's death (Appendix E)

ACTIVITIES

Edgar Poe is said to have remarked: “Humanity comes in three forms…Men, Women, and Margaret Fuller.”  What do you think he meant by this remark?

Provide background on Edgar Allan Poe

Watch “A Conversation: Fuller and Poe,” especially parts 3, 4, and 5, on You Tube, and read the Boston Globe article by Bell Chevigny (Appendix E).

Discussion Questions

1. What else could Margaret Fuller have said in response to Poe?
2. What does she say about gender roles in her writing?
3. What does she say about the abilities of women?
4. Why would Poe say: “Humanity comes in three forms…Men, Women, and Margaret Fuller”?
5. What do you think his view of women might have been?
6. Would Fuller have considered this remark to be a compliment or insult?  Explain your answer.

Research other people Margaret Fuller knew: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott, Caroline Healey Dall, Elizabeth Peabody, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, Julia Ward Howe, Lydia Maria Child, Caroline Sturgis Tappan.

VII. Margaret Fuller in Her Own Words

This exercise introduces participants to Margaret Fuller’s writings by sharing excerpts from her plea for women’s rights, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (originally published in 1845), her western trip, Summer on the Lakes in 1843 (originally published in 1844), and her reporting for the New York Tribune on social conditions in New York City institutions.

Preparation Suggestions, details on Resource List:

• Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1997 edition)
• Margaret Fuller, Summer On the Lakes in 1843 (1991 edition)
• Eve Kornfield, Margaret Fuller: A Brief Biography with Documents
• Edward Pessen, Jacksonian America
• Jeffrey Steele, editor, The Essential Margaret Fuller

Materials needed:

• Selection on women’s rights from Woman in the 19^th Century (from Eve Kornfield, Margaret Fuller: A Brief Biography with Documents, pages 160-65)
• Selection on the Mackinaw Indians from Summer on the Lakes in 1843 (from Eve Kornfield, Margaret Fuller: A Brief Biography with Documents, pages 146-152)
• Margaret Fuller’s article “Visit to Belleview Alms House, To the Farm School, The Asylum for the Insane, and Penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island,” New York Daily Tribune, 19 March 1845. (from Jeffrey Steele, editor, The Essential Margaret Fuller, pages 385-391)

ACTIVITIES

Margaret Fuller was a prolific writer who addressed many pressing problems in mid-nineteenth century American society in her books and articles. The following three examples are excerpts from her writings where she discusses the status of women, Native Americans, prisoners, orphans, and the mentally ill.

Woman’s Rights

Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century was published in 1845, making it the first book published in America on women’s rights. Responding to the reality of woman’s inferior status in nineteenth society, she argued for full equality with men. She based her extensive rationale for gender equality on history, literature, and religion. The book sold out almost immediately and was reprinted numerous times. It was hugely influential in the movement for women’s suffrage.

Now read the excerpt on woman’s rights from Woman in the Nineteenth Century (in Kornfield, pages 160-65).

Discussion:

1. How are woman’s rights related to the abolitionist cause?
2. What effect do men believe woman’s rights will have on the family?
3. What possible problems does woman as “the heart of the house” face?
4. If a husband dies, what are the legal rights of his wife?
5. Without legal protection, what are possible situations that women and children may endure?
6. What does Margaret see as similarities between slaves and women?
7. What examples does Margaret give to counter the belief that women are too delicate?
8. What does Margaret believe is a necessary ingredient for domestic life?
9. Why does Margaret believe it is difficult for men to fairly represent women in public life?
10. What rights is she demanding for women?
11. What is your reaction to the status of women in the mid nineteenth century?
12. Do you agree with her argument on the rights of women?

Native Americans

In 1843, Margaret Fuller traveled by train, steamboat, and on foot to the western most frontier in mid nineteenth century America to make a tour of the Great Lakes. In her book, Summer on the Lakes (1844), she reflects on the trip. The chapter titled “Mackinaw” makes observations about Native Americans.

Andrew Jackson, President of the United States from 1829-1837, established the government’s policy toward Native Americans. The following describes the prevailing views of the time towards Native Americans.

The Indian Policy of the Jackson Administration (adapted from Edward Pessen, Jacksonian America)

It was the policy of the Jackson administration to drive the southern tribes (Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws) west of the Mississippi to open up the lands for white occupancy. President Jackson argued that the settlers were part of a march of progress and civilization and referred to the Native Americans as savages who must give up their lands. As long as they viewed the tribes as savages, they could justify their actions to take their land. Beginning in 1833, the first public auctions of Choctaw lands were held. Jackson believed that Indians were subjects of the United States and were merely hunters that were occupying lands. The administration forced the Choctaws to sign a treaty forcing them from their ancient homeland in Mississippi. They succeeded because of hypocrisy, bribes, lies, and intimidation. Jackson refused to enforce a decision by the Supreme Court that ruled that the state of Georgia had no right to extend its laws over the Cherokee nation and that Indian tribes were “domestic dependent nations.”

The federal government gave allotments or reservations to individual Indians who worked their lands and wanted to become citizens while urging the others to migrate beyond the Mississippi. Brute force and cruelty were used to execute the policy. The Choctaws were forced out of Mississippi in winter and were forced to cross the river with light clothes and no moccasins. Terror and fraud also drove the Seminoles from rich lands in Florida. The Cherokees suffered the worse fate. In 1838, their systematic removal was begun with more than 4,000 out of 15,000 dying during “the Trail of Tears.” In his last message to Congress, Andrew Jackson praised the states for removing “the evil” that had slowed their development.

Read Margaret Fuller’s commentary on Native Americans from Summer on the Lakes (in Kornfield, pages 146-152).

Discussion:

1. How does Margaret describe the lives of Indian women?
2. What observations did Margaret make about how whites viewed Indians?
3. How does Margaret compare the morality of the white man with that of the Indian?
4. How does Margaret describe the injustice of the European toward the Indian?
5. What defense does she offer on behalf of the Indians?
6. What actions does Margaret suggest for future behavior toward the Indians?
7. How does her viewpoint compare with United States Indian policy at the time?

Poverty and Charities

In 1844, Horace Greeley hired Margaret Fuller as the paper’s first female staff member to be literary critic of the New York Tribune. She also became an investigative reporter, visiting such institutions as the alms (poor) house, farm school, prison, and insane asylum. In addition, she explored contemporary problems such as prostitution. The statement below gives background on some of the problems New York City faced at the time Margaret Fuller worked there.

Urban Conditions in Margaret Fuller’s New York (adapted from Edward Pessen, Jacksonian America)

New York City’s population increased from 200,000 to 300,000 in the decade between 1830 and 1840, making it the most populous city in the nation. Although the presidency of Andrew Jackson saw the rise of egalitarianism in America, there was grinding poverty in many of the nation’s cities. A growing gulf existed between those of the upper classes that came from established wealth and workers. They lived in two very separate worlds.

There were many destitute homeless under the sheds of the markets in New York. There were rising rates of pauperism and imprisonment for debt was the reason most men were in jail, mostly for owing debts of $20 or less. The numbers of poor were increasing so rapidly that charity couldn’t keep up with the problem. A depression followed the Panic of 1837 and one third of the working classes were unemployed for long periods in the early 1840s. Wages remained flat and most workers earned what they had at the beginning of the century.

Poverty and overcrowding turned many workers’ neighborhoods into slums, that in addition to filth, disease, and crime, lacked windows and toilet facilities. Many new immigrants were condemned for being the carriers of disease, especially cholera, typhoid, and typhus. Many of the city’s administrative facilities were not able to deal effectively with these rising problems due to a lack of finances and knowledge of how to respond.

Read Margaret Fuller’s article “Visit to Belleview Alms House, To the Farm School, The Asylum for the Insane, and Penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island,” New York Daily Tribune, 19 March 1845. (in Steele, pages 385-391).

Discussion Questions

1. What suggestions does Margaret have for improving conditions for men and women at the Alms House?
2. Describe conditions at the farm school. What does Margaret think is lacking?
3. What does Margaret think are the advantages the children have at the Farm School?
4. What is the main problem that Margaret shares with readers about the Asylum?
5. What conditions need to be improved at the Penitentiary?
6. What is her philosophy about how to approach reform at these institutions?
7. According to Margaret, how does politics affect reform?
8. How do you think her suggestions were received by the readers of the Tribune?
9. Do you agree with her proposed solutions?

VIII. Conversations on the Writings of Margaret Fuller

By using Margaret Fuller’s teaching technique employed in her famous Conversations, this exercise encourages participants to think about and express their own ideas about issues of self and identity, much as Fuller did in the nineteenth century.

Preparation Suggestions, details on Resource List:

• Barry Andrews, editor, The Spirit Leads: Margaret Fuller in Her Own Words
• Margaret Fuller, Woman In the Nineteenth Century
• Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, published 1852, edited by Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, and William Henry Channing
• Joan von Mehren, Minerva and the Muse: A Life of Margaret Fuller

ACTIVITIES

In 1839, Margaret Fuller inaugurated a series of Conversations for women in Boston. The general subject the conversations explored was ethics with specific discussion in the areas of the family, school, the church, and society, with a special reference to the influence on women. In her own words, Margaret “wanted to give women the opportunity to build up the life of thought upon the life of action.”

The following three excerpts from her writings are taken from Barry Andrews, The Spirit Leads: Margaret Fuller in Her Own Words (2010). Take turns serving as the discussion leader. The discussion questions below can serve as a guide and you can also contribute your own.

1. The Self

It is true that I had less outward aid, in after years, than most women, but that is of little consequence. Religion was early awakened in my soul, a sense that what the soul is capable to ask it must attain, and that, though I might be aided and instructed by others, I must depend on myself as the only constant friend. This self-dependence, which was honored in me, is deprecated as a fault in most women. They are taught to learn their rule from without, not to unfold it from within.

Woman in the Nineteenth Century

Discussion Questions

1. Do you believe that you can only depend on yourself in life?
2. What are the advantages/disadvantages of just being ruled from within?
3. Where do you think most people in contemporary society fall?

2. Education

I was now in the hands of teachers, who had not, since they came on earth, put to themselves one intelligent question as to their business here. Good dispositions and employment for the heart gave a tone to all they said, which was pleasing and not perverting. They, no doubt, injured those who accepted the husks they proffered for bread, and believed that exercise of memory was study, and to know what others knew, was the object of study. But to me this was all penetrable. I had known great living minds, ~ I had seen how they took their food and did their exercise, and what their objects were. Very early I knew that the only object in life was to grow. I was often false to this knowledge, in idolatries of particular objects, or impatient longings for happiness, but I have not lost sight of it, have always been controlled by it, and this first gift of thought has never been superseded by a later love.

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, published 1852

Discussion Questions

1. What is Margaret Fuller’s criticism of teachers?
2. What is she suggesting as an alternative approach?
3. Do you agree with her statement, “Very early I knew that the only object in life was to grow?”
4. What characteristics define a good teacher?
5. What do you believe is the main object of life?

3. Men and Women

The growth of man is two-fold, masculine and feminine.

As far as these two methods can be distinguished they are so as

Energy and Harmony.

Power and Beauty.

Intellect and Love.

Or by some such rude classification, for we have not language primitive and pure enough to express such ideas with precision.

These two sides are supposed to be expressed in man and woman, that is, as the more and less, for the faculties have not been given pure to either, but only in preponderance. There are also exceptions in great number, such as men of far more beauty than power, and the reverse. But as a general rule, it seems to have been the intention to give a preponderance on the one side, that is masculine, and on the other, one that is called feminine.

There cannot be a doubt that, if these two developments were in perfect harmony, they would correspond to and fulfill one another, like hemispheres, or the tenor and bass in music.

But there is no perfect harmony in human nature; and the two parts answer one another only now and then, or, if there be a persistent consonance, it can only be traced, at long intervals, instead of discoursing an obvious melody.

Woman in the Nineteenth Century

Discussion Questions

1. Do you agree with the adjectives that Margaret Fuller uses to describe masculinity and femininity?
2. Does one sex have more of these qualities than the other?
3. Can they coexist within one person?
4. Do you know any individuals that are close to the harmony of these two spheres? Describe him or her.

IX. Margaret Fuller Remembered

This activity is an opportunity for participants to enter the world of the 19th century as Margaret’s friends offer their personal reminiscences. It also allows them to think about Margaret’s contributions and what they may like to further explore about her life and work.

Preparation Suggestions, details on Resource List:

• DVD-The New England Transcendentalists
• Perry Miller, American Transcendentalists, Their Prose and Poetry

• The song, “New Worlds Manifest,” with lyrics adapted from the writings of Margaret Fuller, http://www.uua.org/documents/mfb/fuller_hymn_new_world_melody.pdf and http://www.uua.org/documents/mfb/fuller_hymn_new_world_piano_vocal.pdf

Materials needed

• Program for the Memorial Service held for Margaret Fuller on July 18, 2010, with brief biographies of her friends (Appendix F)[*]
• You Tube videos of the Memorial Service: Part 4-James Freeman Clarke, Elizabeth Peabody; Part 5- Henry David Thoreau, Julia Ward Howe; and Part 6- Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Freeman Clarke (Go to "http://www.youtube.com" and search for “margaret fuller bicentennial.” Choose Memorial Service for Margaret.)

ACTIVITIES

There is a memorial marker for Margaret Fuller at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the Fuller family lot. Only her son’s remains were found, so he is buried there, along with other members of the extended family, including Buckminster Fuller, a descendant of her brother.

On Margaret’s memorial stone at Mt. Auburn Cemetery are the following words:

Born a child of New England,

By adoption a citizen of Rome,

By genius belonging to the World.

As far as we could determine, no memorial service was held at the time of her death, so the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee decided to create one and held it for Margaret at Bigelow Chapel at the cemetery on July 18, 2010, with actors taking the role of her friends and paying tribute to her.

Read through the Memorial Service program with its brief biographies of her friends and then watch their presentations on YouTube. After listening to their eulogies, think about the following questions.

Discussion Questions

1. Which of Margaret’s friends do you think described her best?
2. Who do you think was the better friend?
3. What is your reaction to the language and presentation of the actors portraying the friends?
4. What would you say about Margaret if you were memorializing her today?

Role Play Activity

Imagine you knew Margaret Fuller. Create a character for yourself and tell who you are. Then present your remembrance of Margaret Fuller.

Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Song

As part of the Bicentennial Celebration of Margaret Fuller in 2010, there was a contest to write a song, specifically a hymn that could be sung in worship services. Laura Halfvarson Jump of Hendersonville, North Carolina, composed the music of the hymn that won the competition. Ed Johnson wrote the hymn text, “New Worlds Manifest,” based on the writings and ideas of Margaret Fuller.

Read the words of the song aloud, or better yet, sing it:

Discussion Questions

1. Why are nature and art important in life?
2. What is the nature and responsibility of every woman and man?
3. How can we achieve justice?
4. Which of the four verses can you relate to the most?
5. How do the sentiments expressed in the hymn relate to Margaret Fuller’s writings and transcendental thought?
6. How does this song compare to others that you may have heard or sung in honor of a person or an idea?

For further exploration

Do either a reading or a performance of the play Margaret Fuller’s Universe, by Sayre Sheldon and Agnes Butcher; dress up in period costumes (shawls, long skirt, props, bow tie).

X. In Your Own Words

This exercise gives participants an opportunity to explore through the experiences in their families and communities the ideas and observations expressed by Margaret Fuller in her writings.

Suggestions: Sources can be members of participants’ families, local newspaper and media outlets, and members of their community.

ACTIVITIES

The issues that Margaret Fuller observed and analyzed are still relevant today. Women’s status in society can be investigated by using your own family tree and oral history to women’s journey through several generations.

Possible activities:

• Design a family tree of your family. After you have your tree together, pick women of different generations to interview about the status of women and any changes that they have seen in their lifetime. You can also ask about stories they may have heard from other women in the family from older generations who are no longer living. Talk to the men too and compare opinions.

• Investigate a social concern by doing research in a library or online or by visiting a state or local agency that offers support programs in your community (homeless shelter, community center, Headstart classroom, food pantry, an agency that serves new immigrants, etc.) and interview staff about their mission. Write an article based on the information gathered to share with your class and possibly local publications.

• Interview women leaders in your community. Ask about their life histories and what inspires their work.

Resources for use by Schools, Libraries, and Community Groups

by Linda Stern and Elizabeth Kovacs

Related fields: social studies, history, biography, philosophy, Transcendentalism, Concord, New England/Boston area history, interdisciplinary

Teacher/Facilitator resources

Included here are biographies of Margaret Fuller, books about her that include selections from her writings, and books about 19^th century American life. Additional materials listed under Student resources.

Capper, Charles. Margaret Fuller: An American Life, Vol. 1: The Private Years. NY: Oxford U. Pr., 1992.

Capper, Charles. Margaret Fuller: An American Life, Vol. 2: The Public Years. NY: Oxford U. Pr., 2007.

Cott, Nancy. Bonds of Womanhood: Women’s Sphere in New England, 1780-1835. New Haven: Yale Univ. Pr., 2007.

Deiss, Joseph Jay. Roman Years of Margaret Fuller: A Biography. NY: Crowell, 1969.

Hudspeth, Robert, ed. My Heart is a Large Kingdom: Selected Letters of Margaret Fuller. Cornell Univ. Press, 2001.

James, Laurie. Why Margaret Fuller Ossoli is Forgotten. NY: Golden Heritage Pr. Inc., 1988.

Lavender, Catherine J. “The Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood.” The College of Staten Island/CUNY.

http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/truewoman.html

Marshall, Megan. Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2005.

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. Edited by Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Freeman Clarke, and William Henry Channing. Original publication: Boston:  Philippis,  Sampson, 1852. Recent publication: Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Library, 2005.

Miller, Perry. American Transcendentalists, Their Prose and Poetry. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981.

Murray, Meg McGavran. Margaret Fuller: Wandering Pilgrim. Athens: Univ. of Georgia Pr., 2008.

Pessen, Edward. Jacksonian America. Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Pr., 1985.

Fuller, Margaret. Edited by Larry J. Reynolds and Susan Belasco Smith. These Sad but Glorious Days: Dispatches from Europe 1846-1850. New Haven: Yale Univ. Pr., 1991.

Student resources (Appropriate for high school students and adults)

Biographies of Margaret Fuller

Blanchard, Paula. Margaret Fuller: From Transcendentalism to Revolution. Addison-Wesley, 1987.

von Mehren, Joan. Minerva and the Muse: A Life of Margaret Fuller. Amherst: Univ. of Mass Pr., 1994.

Books and Articles about Margaret Fuller, some with selections from her writings

Andrews, Barry, ed. The Spirit Leads: Margaret Fuller in Her Own Words. Boston: Skinner House Books, 2010.

Chevigny, Bell Gale. “Ahead of Her Time.” Boston Globe, 7/17/2000. Retrieved 5/18/2011.

Deiss, Joseph Jay. "Rediscovery of Margaret Fuller." Christian Science Monitor, p. 15, 1/21/1974. Retrieved 5/18/2011.

Kornfield, Eve. Margaret Fuller: A Brief Biography with Documents. Boston: Bedford Books, 1997.

Rankin, Jenny. “A Writer, Thinker, and Trailblazer.” Boston Globe, 5/242010.

Steele, Jeffrey, ed. The Essential Margaret Fuller. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Pr., 1992.

Books by Margaret Fuller

These are the four books published during Fuller’s lifetime. Note original publication information and selected recent editions. For some of these books there are many additional editions and some are contained in anthologies. See links to online versions of Fuller texts at www.margaretfuller.org.

Conversations with Goethe in the Last Years of His Life. Translated from the German of Eckermann. Original publication: Boston: Hilliard, Gray, 1839.

Papers on Literature and Art. Original publication: New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1846. Reprinted by AMS Press.

Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Original publication: Boston: Charles C. Little & James Brown; New York: Charles S. Francis, 1844. Recent edition: With an Introduction by Susan Belasco Smith. Urbana: U. of Ill. Pr., 1991.

Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Original publication: New York: Greeley & McElrath, 1945. Recent publication: Norton Critical Editions, 1997.

Biographical Dictionaries

James, Edward T., James, Janet Wilson; & Boyer, Paul, eds. Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1971.

Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography

http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/margaretfuller.html

A major entry on Margaret Fuller is included with many links to people she interacted with.

Biographical Resources online about Margaret Fuller

Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography entry on Margaret Fuller: http://www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/margaretfuller.html

Biographical sketch of Margaret Fuller on Virginia Commonwealth University website: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/fuller

Chronology of Margaret Fuller’s Life: http://margaretfuller.org

Text and images from the traveling display “Why Margaret Fuller Matters”: http://www.margaretfuller.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89&Itemid=144

Websites

American Transcendentalism Web

http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/fuller

Comprehensive site that includes biographical information, readings, full text of Fuller’s works (including Women in the Nineteenth Century), criticism and links to other Fuller sites.

Boston Women’s Heritage Trail

http://bwht.org

Some local Boston sites are included that are connected to Margaret Fuller’s life.

Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography

http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/margaretfuller.html

A major entry on Margaret Fuller is included with many links to people she interacted with.

“I Hear America Singing”

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/fuller.html

Brief written profile of Margaret Fuller, the poet and writer.

Library of Congress / American Memory

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

The holdings of the Library of Congress on Margaret Fuller are vast.  Included are many full text periodical articles from the 19^th century.

Margaret Fuller Bicentennial website

http://www.margaretfuller.org

There are links to biographies and to online versions of her writings, as well as other resources, including  traveling display.

Margaret Fuller Society

http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~jasteele

This is a very fine academic website on Margaret Fuller, her life, dissertations on her work, research links, and bibliographies, compiled by Jeffery Steele

Mass Moments

http://www.massmoments.org/index.cfm

Margaret Fuller is included in 5 articles

Transcendentalist Spirituality

http://www.transcendentalistspirituality.com

Included is the introduction to author Barry Andrews’ book, The Spirit Leads.  Also included are his sermons and photographs.

YouTube Videos

Look up “Margaret Fuller Bicentennial.”  There are more than 30 videos.  We recommend starting with the following:

Memorial Service: parts 2, 4, 5, 6

Why Margaret Fuller Matters: parts 1, 2, 5

Margaret Fuller in Groton: part 1

A Conversation: Fuller and Poe: parts 3, 4, 5

Look up “Margaret Fuller” and “Laurie James” together: “Who said that?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnu1yb50Gwo

Multi-media resources

DVDs

“New England Transcendentalists.”  Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2004; 27 min.   While it can be ordered from Films from the Humanities, it may be available through your public library.

“Emerson, Thoreau, and the Transcendentalist Movement.” Ashton Nichols, 30 min. The Teaching Co. The Great Courses [college level]. It may be available through your public library.

Play

Sheldon, Sayre and Agnes Butcher. Margaret Fuller’s Universe. This play is available online at www.margaretfuller.org.

Sheet Music

“New Worlds Manifest,” by Ed Thompson and Laura Lucille Halfvarson; the lyrics were adapted from the writings of Margaret Fuller.

“New World Manifest” melody. (PDF)

http://www.uua.org/documents/mfb/fuller_hymn_new_world_melody.pdf

“New Worlds Manifest” piano and vocal (PDF)

http://www.uua.org/documents/mfb/fuller_hymn_new_world_piano_vocal.pdf

Timeline

Chronology of Margaret Fuller’s life on the Bicentennial website www.margaretfuller.org

Trail Guide

Margaret Fuller’s New England: Where She Lived, Worked, and Visited. Boston: Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee, 2010. Available for purchase at http://uuwr.org/new-store/books/221-margaret-fullers-new-england

Traveling Display

“Why Margaret Fuller Matters” is a series of text-and-image panels designed to answer the fundamental question of why this great nineteenth-century figure remains important two centuries after her birth. Ten colorful 24-inch x 18-inch foam core panels include: an introductory panel; brief sketches of her key colleagues; a chronological telling of her life and her views on women’s rights, education (especially female), class, slavery, American Indian rights, religion, Transcendentalism, her world view as a trans-nationalist, and her vision of a just world. Available from the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee for a small fee for shipping and handling fee. Information at www.margaretfuller.org.

Other resources in New England:

See detailed information and additional sites in Margaret Fuller’s New England: Where She Lived, Worked, and Visited. [Trail guide, listed above]

Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House

Ralph Waldo Emerson House

Orchard House

Old Manse

Walden Pond and Thoreau’s Cabin

Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Old Sturbridge Village

Boston Public Library Rare Books and Manuscript Department

Selection from a Letter by Margaret Fuller to Jane Tuckerman, as excerpted in The Spirit Leads: Margaret Fuller in Her Own Words, Barry Andrews, editor.[1

...

It was Thanksgiving day, (Nov., 1831,) and I was obliged to go to church, or exceedingly displease my father. I almost always suffered much in church from a feeling of disunion with the hearers and dis­sent from the preacher; but to-day, more than ever before, the services jarred upon me from their grateful and joyful tone. I was wearied out with mental conflicts, and in a mood of most childish, child-like sad­ness. I felt within myself great power, and generosity, and tenderness; but it seemed to me as if they were all unrecognized, and as if it was impossible that they should be used in life. I was only one-and-twenty; the past was worthless, the future hopeless; yet I could not remem­ber ever voluntarily to have done a wrong thing, and my aspiration seemed very high. I looked round the church, and envied all the little children; for I supposed they had parents who protected them, so that they could never know this strange anguish, this dread uncertainty. I knew not, then, that none could have any father but God. I knew not, that I was not the only lonely one, that I was not the selected Oedipus, the special victim of an iron law. I was in haste for all to be over, that I might get into the free air.

I walked away over the fields as fast as I could walk. This was my custom at that time, when I could no longer bear the weight of my feel­ings, and fix my attention on any pursuit; for I do believe I never vol­untarily gave way to these thoughts one moment. The force I exerted I think, even now, greater than I ever knew in any other character. But when I could bear myself no longer, I walked many hours, till the anguish was wearied out, and I returned in a state of prayer. To-day all seemed to have reached its height. It seemed as if I could never return to a world in which I had no place, -- to the mockery of humanities. I could not act a part, nor seem to live any longer. It was a sad and sallow day of the late autumn. Slow processions of sad clouds were passing over a cold blue sky; the hues of earth were dull, and gray, and brown, with sickly struggles of late green here and there; sometimes a moan­ing gust of wind drove late, reluctant leaves across the path; -- there was no life else. In the sweetness of my present peace, such days seem to me made to tell man the worst of his lot; but still that November wind can bring a chill of memory.

I paused beside a little stream, which I had envied in the merry ful­lness of its spring life. It was shrunken, voiceless, choked with withered leaves. I marveled that it did not quite lose itself in the earth. There was no stay for me, and I went on and on, till I came to where the trees were thick about a little pool, dark and silent. I sat down there. I did not think; all was dark, and cold, and still. Suddenly the sun shone out with that transparent sweetness, like the last smile of a dying lover, which it will use when it has been unkind all a cold autumn day. And, even then, passed into my thought a beam from its true sun, from its native sphere, which has never since departed from me. I remembered how, a little child, I had stopped myself one day on the stairs, and asked, how came I here? How is it that I seem to be this Margaret Fuller? What does it mean? What shall I do about it? I remembered all the times and ways in which the same thought had returned. I saw how long it must be before the soul can learn to act under these limitations of time and space, and human nature; but I saw, also, that it MUST do it, -- that it must make all this false true, -- and sow new and immortal plants in the garden of God, before it could return again. I saw there was no self; that selfishness was all folly, and the result of circumstance; that it was only because I thought self real that I suffered; that I had only to live in the idea of the ALL, and all was mine. This truth came to me, and I received it unhesitatingly; so that I was for that hour taken up into God. In that true ray most of the relations of earth seemed mere films, phenomena.

My earthly pain at not being recognized never went deep after this hour. I had passed the extreme of passionate sorrow; and all check, all failure, all ignorance, have seemed temporary ever since. When I consider that this will be nine years ago next November, I am aston­ished that I have not gone on faster since; that I am not yet sufficiently purified to be taken back to God. Still, I did but touch then on the only haven of Insight. You know what I would say. I was dwelling in the ineffable, the unutterable. But the sun of earth set, and it grew dark around; the moment came for me to go. I had never been accustomed to walk alone at night, for my father was very strict on that subject, but now I had not one fear. When I came back, the moon was riding clear above the houses. I went into the churchyard, and there offered a prayer as holy, if not as deeply true, as any I know now; a prayer, which perhaps took form as the guardian angel of my life. If that word in the Bible, Selah, means what gray-headed old men think it does, when they read aloud, it should be written here, -- Selah!

Since that day, I have never more been completely engaged in self; but the statue has been emerging, though slowly, from the block. Oth­ers may not see the promise even of its pure symmetry, but I do, and am learning to be patient. I shall be all human yet; and then the hour will come to leave humanity, and live always in the pure ray . . . .

Since then I have suffered, as I must suffer again, till all the com­plex be made simple, but I have never been in discord with the grand harmony.

Reproduced with permission from the editor.

A WRITER, THINKER, AND TRAILBLAZER

By Jenny Rankin

Boston Globe - Boston, Massachusetts, May 24, 2010

IN ROME this week, on a speck of an island in the Tiber River, Italians pause to celebrate an American they see as a heroine. In 1849, Margaret Fuller ran a hospital on that island where she ministered to Garibaldi's forces fighting the French.

There is even more reason over here to remember Fuller, who was born in Cambridge 200 years ago yesterday. Fuller is now seen as America's first female public intellectual. Fuller said women were constrained and diminished by a society that failed to see their true powers. She urged women to be all they could be. "Let them be sea captains" was her public cry - and a private credo. "Very early," she said, "I knew that the only object in life was to grow."

As a thinker and writer, Fuller is on a par with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott. Some called her arrogant and self-involved, while others said in Fuller's company they felt more truly "themselves" than ever before. Fuller drew out their deepest confidences.

She put her imprint on that distinctively American school of thought, transcendentalism. But, like so many women in history, she is overlooked and misunderstood to this day.

The oldest of nine children, Fuller was educated at home. She studied Latin at 6. By 12, she was winning prizes at Dr. Park's elite school for girls on Mt. Vernon Street, a tendency to compete that did not always make her popular with her peers. She inhaled books with a voracity rivaling that of her peer, Unitarian minister and abolitionist Theodore Parker. Unlike Parker, however, Fuller could not attend Harvard College. Nor could she become a Unitarian minister. As a bright and sometimes awkward teenager (a friend called her "bumptious"), she took her education into her own hands and drove herself hard. Determined to translate Goethe for an American audience, Fuller stayed up nights to learn German. Emerson praised her work, calling it "a beneficent action for which America will long thank you."

Fuller's father died when she was 25. She stepped in as head of the household and needed to earn money. She went to Concord to visit Emerson - the first of 14 visits over nine years. Alcott invited her to teach at his progressive school. Quickly, Fuller moved to the center of that circle of women and men, the transcendentalists, whose spiritual and intellectual energy was lighting the New England sky.

Years later, Emerson remembered vividly his first meeting with her. She had an unfortunate trick, he said, of rapidly opening and closing her eyes, but still, he told his brother, to be with someone so intelligent was "a great refreshment." "It is like being set in a large place. You stretch your limbs and dilate to your utmost size."

Fuller left New England, first for New York, working for Horace Greeley's New York Herald Tribune and publishing "Woman in the Nineteenth Century." While there, she had a brief but tortured relationship with New York businessman James Nathan. Fortunately, it didn't last. London and Paris were next.

Fuller, the first female foreign correspondent, sent home dispatches from prisons and factories, told of new trends in art and literature. In Rome, she found "the home of my soul" and also met Giovanni Ossoli when she got lost outside St. Peter's at twilight. They fell in love, and Fuller became pregnant and retreated to a hill town, Rieti, to give birth. Scholars surmise that she and Ossoli married at some point, but Fuller kept the baby a secret from all for more than a year.

As the Italian rebellion gained force in 1849, foreigners fled Rome. Not Fuller. She stayed to care for wounded patriots in her island hospital. During the siege, Fuller had left her infant son, Angelino, back in Rieti with a nurse.

This spring, I saw the holes made by French cannonballs in the old stone walls of Rome. I saw Fuller's hospital, and I stood on the ramparts that Garibaldi's men, including Ossoli, defended.

No trans-Atlantic ticket is required, however, to see evidence of Fuller's life in Massachusetts. Go to her Cherry Street birthplace in Cambridgeport, or to the Emerson house, in Concord, where, as they sipped tea, Fuller and friends talked out ideas that would change America.

Fuller's life was cut short when, sailing home from Italy, her ship - loaded with Carrera marble - hit a sandbar off Fire Island and went down. She, Ossoli and their 2-year-old son drowned. Emerson sent Thoreau the next day to look for her manuscript on the Italian Revolution. It was never found. All Thoreau brought back to Concord was a button from Ossoli's greatcoat.

Fuller was as human as any of us. She faced obstacles and had struggles. She knew how the limitations society put on women could be soul-killing. Yet she was a person of spiritual courage and an inspiration to American women who refused to be made smaller than they really were.

---

 

Jenny Rankin is minister at First Parish in Concord, Unitarian Universalist.

Reproduced with permission of the author.

AHEAD OF HER TIME

By Bell Gale Chevigny

Boston Globe - Boston, Massachusetts, July 17, 2000

One hundred fifty years ago, in the early hours of July 19, a storm drove the freighter Elizabeth onto a sandbar near Fire Island, the cargo of Carrara marble broke through the hold, and the ship stuck fast, pitched sideways. When the light came up, the voyagers could make out the pirates lining the shore, waiting for loot, but no rescuer braved the waves.

Clinging to planks, some passengers survived, but one, refusing to abandon her small child, went down with the ship.

This was the brilliant and bold Margaret Fuller, dead at 40. A Massachusetts original, she was our first woman to be a major public intellectual. She had dedicated her considerable talents to exploring the potential of the American Revolution and fostering a more inclusive democracy.

Precocious and high-spirited in the heady days of Transcendentalism, Fuller taught in experimental schools and, editing the Dial, promoted "immoral" writers like Byron, Goethe, and George Sand. She gave talks at the utopian community Brook Farm and made Emerson laugh more than he liked. Her celebrated conversations for wives and daughters of Boston ministers and reformers - a cross between seminar and salon - taught participants to "think aloud." Edgar Allen Poe is said to have remarked: "There are three species: men, women, and Margaret Fuller."

An outsider to power, Fuller understood the plight of the excluded and the contributions their inclusion might bring. All of her work challenged our fledgling democracy to bring new human potential into the world. Fuller's ground-breaking "Women in the Nineteenth Century," published in 1845, applied the Declaration of Independence to women, calling Americans to "rise above the belief that woman was made for man."

Dependence on men, she wrote, "has led to an excessive devotion, which has cooled love, degraded marriage, and prevented either sex from being what it should be to itself or the other."

Racial supremacy troubled her on a visit to the Great Lakes. In "Summer on the Lakes" in 1843 she assailed the materialism of the Western pioneers and lauded the Native Americans, with their respect for the land, as exemplary settlers. In the prejudice of whites she discerned the dynamics of racism: the "aversion of the injurer for him he has degraded."

When this book inspired Horace Greeley to offer her a star position on The New York Tribune, Fuller took on slavery, the war in Mexico, capital punishment, and our national arrogance, arguing that they betrayed American principles. She wrote sympathetically about the disenfranchised - the poor, the mentally ill, women imprisoned at Sing-Sing, African-Americans, and immigrants. Once we accept ourselves as a "mixed race, continually enriched with new blood from other stocks," she argued, America will develop a unique culture.

Going abroad in 1846 as foreign correspondent, Fuller introduced Tribune readers to progressive ideas and experiments - workers' schools, day-care centers, public laundries - she encountered in Great Britain, France, and Italy.

In 1848, while the United States struck her as "spoiled with prosperity, stupid with the lust of gain, and soiled by crime in its willing perpetuation of slavery," its revolutionary spirit seemed to have leaped the Atlantic to inflame the republican insurgents of France, Austria, and Italy. Of the heroic defense of the Roman Republic, she wrote, "This is what makes my America."

To reinvigorate US idealism, this cosmopolitan urged informed attention to other peoples for her nation's own integrity and growth.

Her passionate defense of the Roman Republic, her condemnation of the French invasion to overthrow it, her direction of a hospital for the wounded - all this excited controversy among Tribune readers.

After Rome fell in 1849, many in her circle were scandalized by belated news of her union with Giovanni Angelo Ossoli, a captain of the radical Civic Guard, and of the birth in secret of their son. Fuller, Ossoli, and their child took refuge in Florence before setting out on their ill-fated voyage.

For more than a century she was caricatured and her work distorted. Recently her foresight has sparked a return to her work, and for the first time all of her provocative writing is available. Her struggle against supremacy - whether of gender, race, class, or nation - and her commitment to engaging all people in fruitful dialogue speak powerfully to our enduring national troubles.

Abstract (Document Summary)

Precocious and high-spirited in the heady days of Transcendentalism, [Margaret Fuller] taught in experimental schools and, editing the Dial, promoted "immoral" writers like Byron, Goethe, and George Sand. She gave talks at the utopian community Brook Farm and made Emerson laugh more than he liked. Her celebrated conversations for wives and daughters of Boston ministers and reformers - a cross between seminar and salon - taught participants to "think aloud." Edgar Allen Poe is said to have remarked: "There are three species: men, women, and Margaret Fuller."

An outsider to power, Fuller understood the plight of the excluded and the contributions their inclusion might bring. All of her work challenged our fledgling democracy to bring new human potential into the world. Fuller's ground-breaking "Women in the Nineteenth Century," published in 1845, applied the Declaration of Independence to women, calling Americans to "rise above the belief that woman was made for man."

When this book inspired Horace Greeley to offer her a star position on The New York Tribune, Fuller took on slavery, the war in Mexico, capital punishment, and our national arrogance, arguing that they betrayed American principles. She wrote sympathetically about the disenfranchised - the poor, the mentally ill, women imprisoned at Sing-Sing, African-Americans, and immigrants. Once we accept ourselves as a "mixed race, continually enriched with new blood from other stocks," she argued, America will develop a unique culture.

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Bell Gale Chevigny is a professor emeritus of literature at Purchase College, State University of New York and is author of "The Woman and the Myth: Margaret Fuller's life and Writings."

Reproduced with permission of the author.

THE REDISCOVERY OF MARGARET FULLER

By Joseph Jay Deiss, Christian Science Monitor, January 21, 1974 

These are days when Margaret Fuller, America's first liberated woman, may well come into her own at last — that full flowering she found so impossible even in transcendental New England. The current rediscovery of Margaret coincides with the demands of our times. She was a woman who defied a man's world to express herself as a woman. In her short life (1810-1850) she did her "own thing" in Cambridge, in Boston, in New York, in Europe — to the horror of many and the delight of some.

Always candid about her feelings, she wrote to her friend William Henry Channing - "I love best to be a woman, but womanhood at present is too straitly bound to give me scope. At hours I live truly as a woman, at others I stifle. . . Men disappoint me so. I weary in this playground of boys! . . . I wish I were a man and then there would be one."

Margaret stretched the bounds of 19th-century womanhood to its limits. Her life was full of firsts for an American woman. She was the first woman to be admitted to the Harvard College library. She was the first woman in a public position to deplore the evil treatment of red men. As editor of the transcendentalist Dial, she was the first woman magazine editor. As crusading columnist and critic for Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, she was not only the first woman journalist but the first paid literary critic of either sex. Traveling abroad for Greeley, she was the first woman foreign correspondent.

Her dispatches covering the French siege of Rome in 1849 made her the first woman war correspondent. She became an underground agent of the exiled Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini, and thus the first American woman partisan in a foreign revolution. Her book, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845), was the first vigorous plea for women's rights in America; it was a sensation.

It could not have failed to vex and stir her contemporaries when she flatly demanded “We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to Woman as freely as to Man.” One of her extraordinary insights especially enraged the male chauvinists of her time. “There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.”

Margaret and Ralph Waldo Emerson were intimate friends, as newly published letters have shown. Yet he considered her “strange, cold-warm, attractive-repelling.” He ignored her grace and elegance and could not understand why European men found her fascinating.

For this reason he was shocked by the belated news of Margaret's marriage to an Italian nobleman. Giovanni Angelo Ossoli was a decade younger, a marquis, and a follower of Mazzini, defying his aristocratic Papal family. Angelo fought on the walls of Rome — while Margaret, as directress of a military hospital, dreaded the arrival of every cartload of wounded.

When eventually the French invaders breached the walls and proclaimed the temporal restoration of Pope Pius IX, Angelo and Margaret escaped with their lives. Amazingly Margaret was able to provide an American passport not only for her Angelo but for the much-hunted Giuseppe Mazzini himself.

Angelo had been disinherited and Margaret had been dropped from the Tribune, so they were almost totally without funds. Nevertheless Margaret completed her book, A History of the Roman Liberation and then, against the advice of Emerson, took passage for America to sell the manuscript. The night before landing in New York, the ship was driven ashore on Fire Island by a gale. Margaret refused rescue without her husband and child. The baby's body was washed on the beach still warm, but the bodies of Angelo and Margaret were never found.

While Emerson wrote plaintively in his journal, “I have lost in her my audience,” another of Margaret's friends, Henry David Thoreau, rushed to Fire Island to search the sands for her manuscript. Only her unconstrained love letters, in Italian, turned up. The undoubtedly great historical work had disappeared forever.

Shortly after Margaret's death, Emerson, with William Henry Channing and James Freeman Clarke, undertook to edit a so-called Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. However well-intentioned, the result was a disaster for Margaret. Her letters and journals were so scissored and blue-penciled that the warm and human Margaret became hardly recognizable. A false image, an egocentric intellectual, had taken her place. That image has persisted until recent years when a fresh appraisal, with new facts, has begun.

Once Margaret wrote "I remembered how, a little child, I had stopped myself on the stairs and asked, ‘how came I here? How is it that I seem to be this Margaret Fuller? What does it mean? What shall I do about it?”

In retrospect, she was writing not about herself alone, but about all those who seek meaning in life —then and now. For herself, by her actions, she answered the questions. For us, it is our good fortune that she can help us to answer the same questions for ourselves.

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Joseph Jay Deiss, former vice-director of the American Academy in Rome, has written “The Roman Years of Margaret Fuller,” “Herculaneum, Italy's Buried Treasure,” “The Great Infidel Frederick II.”

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction, other than for use with the Learning activities, is prohibited without permission.