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[ 22 ] I n the fall of 1831 a young writer sought out William Lloyd Garrison at his Boston office of the Liberator. Maria W. Stewart sat patiently as Garrison read her essays. The first concerned religious faith and “devotional thoughts and aspirations.”1 Garrison’s interest grew as he read other essays by Stewart that called for an end to slavery and revealed the “intelligence and excellence of character” of an exceptional writer.2 Garrison told Stewart he would print some of her essays in the Liberator—and publish the entire collection of her work as a short book. Maria Stewart’s book likely was the first political manifesto written by a black woman in America.3 “Ye daughters of Africa, awake!” Stewart wrote. “No longer sleep nor slumber, but distinguish yourselves. Show forth to the world that ye are endowed with noble and exalted faculties .”4 Garrison published Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality: The Sure Foundation onWhichWe Must Build in 1831, and promoted Stewart’s book in the Liberator. “The production is most praiseworthy,” Garrison wrote, “and confers great credit on the talents and piety of its author.”5 StewartfoundauniquecollaboratorinGarrison,awhite man willing to publish the opinions of a black woman at a time when the views of women of any color, on any serious subject, were not considered worthy of space in a newspaper .6 Even the progressive Garrison, however, had difficulty in 1831 considering women as journalistic equals. He printed Stewart’s essays in a separate “Ladies Department” section of the Liberator.7 Stewart wrote a brief biography of her life in the introduction to her book. Born in 1803 in Hartford, Connecticut , Maria Miller became an orphan at the age of five and lived with a minister’s family. She helped with household chores and learned scripture, but longed for a more formal 2 : Liberators Liberators [ 23 ] education.8 At fifteen, she left the minister’s family and supported herself through various domestic servant jobs. “How long shall the fair daughters of Africa be compelled to bury their minds and talents beneath a load of iron pots and kettles,” Maria wrote.9 During those years she attended church schools and developed an advanced ability to read and write. She traveled to Boston and met James W. Stewart.10 James was fortyfour when he married twenty-three-year-old Maria Miller on August 10, 1826. James served in the War of 1812 and ran a lucrative business of “fitting out,” or finishing, the interior quarters of newly constructed whaling and fishing vessels.11 As a measure of the couple’s standing in the community, Reverend Thomas Paul performed James and Maria’s wedding .12 Paul helped create the first independent black Baptist churches in the United States. His congregation met at the African Meeting House in the Beacon Hill section of Boston—the center of activity for the black community and the abolitionist movement. James and Maria Stewart’s wedding likely took place at the African Meeting House. At the beginning of December 1829, three years after they married, James Stewart became seriously ill and drafted his will. He died on December 17, 1829.13 Maria and James had no children, and James left a considerable inheritance to Maria. When Maria brought an action in probate court to settle her husband’s affairs, however, four white businessmen filed a separate action featuring a fraudulent Mrs. James Stewart. They succeeded in stealing James Stewart’s estate and left nothing of value for Maria Stewart.14 A friend described Stewart’s experience: “I found her husband had been a gentleman of wealth, and left her amply provided for; but the executors literally robbed and cheated her out of every cent.”15 This was not an unusual fate for the widows of black men. Black businessman and activist David Walker wrote about such cases in Boston: “When a man of colour dies, if he owned any real estate it most generally falls into the hands of some white person. . . . The wife and children of the deceased may weep and lament if they please, but the estate will be kept snug enough by its white possessor.”16 The meager opportunities available to black women frustrated Stewart: “How long shall a mean set of men flatter us with their smiles, and enrich themselves with our hard earnings?”17 For Stewart, the discussion of ending prejudice and discrimination too often focused on the rights of men. “Look at many of the...

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