Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau
Martineau by Richard Evans, prepared by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1834)[1]
Born(1802-06-12)12 June 1802
Norwich, Norfolk, England
Died27 June 1876(1876-06-27) (aged 74)
Ambleside, Westmorland, England
Burial placeKey Hill Cemetery in Birmingham, England
NationalityEnglish
EraEarly and mid-Victorian era
Known forThorough exploration in political, religious and social institutions, as well as the work and roles of women
Political partyWhig
PartnerJohn Hugh Worthington (engaged)
Parents
  • Thomas Martineau (father)
  • Elizabeth Rankin (mother)
Relatives
FamilyMartineau
Writing career
Notable worksIllustrations of Political Economy (1834)
Society in America (1837)
Deerbrook (1839)
The Hour and the Man (1841)

Harriet Martineau (12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist.[3] She wrote from a sociological, holistic, religious and feminine angle, translated works by Auguste Comte, and, rarely for a woman writer at the time, earned enough to support herself.[4] The young Princess Victoria enjoyed her work and invited her to her 1838 coronation.[5][6] Martineau advised "a focus on all [society's] aspects, including key political, religious, and social institutions". She applied thorough analysis to women's status under men. The novelist Margaret Oliphant called her "a born lecturer and politician... less distinctively affected by her sex than perhaps any other, male or female, of her generation."[4]

Her lifelong commitment to the abolitionist movement has seen Martineau's celebrity and achievements studied world-wide, particularly at American institutions of higher education such as Northwestern University.[7][8][9] When unveiling a statue of Martineau in December 1883 at the Old South Meeting House in Boston, Wendell Phillips referred to her as the "greatest American abolitionist".[10] Martineau's statue was gifted to Wellesley College in 1886.[11]

  1. ^ "Harriet Martineau". National Portrait Gallery, London. NPG (London). Retrieved 19 April 2023. This portrait appeared on the art market in 1885 from an unknown source (it had not come from the family). According to family letters, it was painted by Evans during 1833 and 1834, 'as a labour of love', so it may have been kept by the artist. It was first offered, as a work by Lawrence, to Sir Thomas Martineau
  2. ^ Perrin, B. (18 April 2023). "Kate Middleton 'is a Brummie' claims history teacher ahead of Royal visit to city". BirminghamLive. Retrieved 24 April 2023. Mr Reed told BirminghamLive: "Kate's great great great great great aunt Harriet Martineau who died in 1876 – who is famous as the 'greatest American abolitionist' – is buried in the Jewellery Quarter at Key Hill cemetery. ...Kate and William will be visiting the Jewellery Quarter this Thursday, April 20.
  3. ^ Hill, Michael R. (2002) Harriet Martineau: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-94528-3
  4. ^ a b Postlethwaite, Diana (Spring 1989). "Mothering and Mesmerism in the Life of Harriet Martineau". Signs. 14 (3). University of Chicago Press: 583–609. doi:10.1086/494525. JSTOR 3174403. S2CID 143910920.
  5. ^ Martineau, Harriet (1877). Harriet Martineau's Autobiography. Vol. 3. Cambridge University Press. pp. 79–80. ISBN 9781108022583. Retrieved 10 February 2013. How delighted the Princess Victoria was with my 'Series'
  6. ^ Wilson, Christopher (6 March 2011). "The benefits of a feminist in the family". The Telegraph. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
  7. ^ Voelkner, K. (1997). Introduction to Harriet Martineau: A Global Anthology of Women's Resistance from 600 B.C.E. to the Present. Northwestern University. pp. 385–386. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  8. ^ McCrum, R. (15 May 2017). "The 100 best nonfiction books: No 67 – Household Education by Harriet Martineau (1848)". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 February 2020. ...contemporary success, and short-term celebrity...she is a pioneer sociologist both in her own right as the author of books such as Society in America (1837)...
  9. ^ Cosgrove, C. (2020). Fortune and Faith in Old Chicago: A Dual Biography of Mayor. SIU Press. p. 179. ISBN 9780809337941. Retrieved 7 February 2021. Other antislavery activists belonging to the circle of Chicago and Evanston Methodists included Northwestern University founder John Evans. Evans was an organizer of the Republican Party in Illinois, an opponent of the Fugitive Slave ...
  10. ^ Phillips, W. (1891). Speeches, Lectures, and Letters of Wendell Phillips – Volume 2. Lee and Shepherd. p. 476. Retrieved 19 April 2023. [December 26, 1883 – Old South Meeting House in Boston]: Americans, I ask you to welcome to Boston this statue of Harriet Martineau, because she was the greatest American abolitionist.
  11. ^ "Harriet Martineau Statue, Wellesley College". Wellesley College. 1883. Retrieved 19 April 2023.