In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

107 reviews of horace Mann’s two Lectures February–March 1852 New York, New York Horace Mann was known for his innovations in education and for his expansion of public education in Massachusetts. In 1852, he was serving out the term of the deceased John Quincy Adams as a member of Congress. Eager to hear the views of an enlightened reformer, Rose attended Mann’s lectures in New York City, delivered on February 17 and 29, 1852, on “Hints to a Young Woman.” Listening to his lectures , Rose was dismayed by Mann’s argument that men and women were essentially different in nature and merited different rights and responsibilities. She was particularly offended by Mann’s “pandering to public opinion,” by which she meant his reliance on biblical authority to support his views. Unintimidated by Mann’s credentials, Rose answered his statements in writing, point by point and in a mocking sarcastic tone, taking him to task for his timid conventional views. As an internationalist, Rose knows of the Belgian Helen Maria Weber by reputation and begins by confronting Mann’s characterization of the famed agriculturalist and women’s rights advocate. The Boston Investigator published Rose’s reviews of Mann’s two lectures in its issues of April 21 and 28, 1852. In the April 21, 1852 issue her review was accompanied by a letter to the editor and a “Letter to Mr. Mann.” The date on the letter to Mann is February 18, 1852, indicating that Rose wrote it, and probably her first review, on the day following the first lecture. The review of the second lecture is not dated, but was likely written on March 1, 1852, or soon after. Published here are Rose’s letter to the editor and her reviews of the two lectures. The parenthetical insertions are Rose’s own and appeared in the original documents. Gerda Lerner, preeminent scholar of the Grimké sisters, reported that Sarah Grimké also wrote a feminist response to Mann’s lectures which she has reprinted with commentary in a collection of Sarah Grimké’s writing (Lerner 1998, 65–68). In her letter to the New York Tribune, Grimké focused solely on Mann’s point that woman’s role has been chiefly as “mother of the race.” Grimké argued that women could contribute more to society if men would participate more actively as parents. However, as Lerner observed, she wrote in such a mild and flowery manner that her radical point may have been missed by most readers. n Letter tOthe editOr Mr Editor:—It may perhaps appear to some of your readers like treading on forbidden ground, to attempt to criticize one who is to some extent considered a Reformer, a friend to Education, and consequently to 108 ernestIne l.rose Progression. But, as my motto is, that there is no ground too sacred for man to tread, no subject too holy for him to investigate, and no one, not even a Member of Congress, so far above ordinary mortals as to forbid the idea of scrutinizing his public opinion and acts, I will comment on some of the views advanced by the Hon. Horace Mann in his two Lectures delivered in the city of New York on the 17th and 29th of February, on the subject entitled “Hints to a Young Woman,” and endeavor to see how much truth, justice, and common sense we can draw from them for her benefit. And if you think my review of them, together with a letter I addressed to him after his first Lecture, worthy of a place in the Investigator , you will oblige your friend by giving them publicity. Yours, for Human Rights, Ernestine L. Rose Letter tO Mr.Mann Hon. Horace Mann:— Dear Sir,—Pardon the liberty of a woman, from a foreign land, in troubling you with a few lines, which, if they have not the merit of poetry, possess, I trust, sufficient truth to secure for them a candid and serious perusal. I listened attentively to your discourse, entitled “Hints to a Young Woman.” The importance of the subject, the name and reputation of the gentleman who was to enlighten and instruct us, made me hope and expect—not that you would agree with me, or any of those who claim the rights of humanity in the rights of woman—but that whatever your opinions on the subject might be, you would treat it with earnest truthfulness which this all-important question demands, and your age and...

Share