December 17 - Celebrating Maria W. Stewart

Posted on December 17, 2018

I love celebrating people's accomplishments on their birthdays - even if they've been dead for a century or more. It's a nice time to remember their life, on the anniversary of their birth.

But for some people, especially people who lived long ago, we don't know their birthday. So then I sometimes celebrate their life on the anniversary of their death.

Apparently this is NOT a photo
of Maria W. Stewart - because
there is not known photo of her!

The reason this is here is because

this photo was incorrectly labeled
as a photo of Ms. Stewart; thank
you to the reader who pointed out
the mistake. I am leaving the 
photo up so that we can ALL learn
that the internet has its foibles!

This photo depicts Sarah Harris 

Fayerweather, an African American
activist, abolitionist, and school
integration pioneer!
Such is the case today. Maria Stewart was born SOMEtime in 1803, and her parents were African American. You might think, oh-no, enslaved people - but this was in Connecticut, and Miller's parents were both free, so she was too.

However, that didn't necessarily mean her life was easy. When she was just five years old Maria Stewart lost both her parents. So she was sent to live with a minister and his family, and she lived with them as a servant (I'm not sure how early they pressed a duster into her hand, but hopefully not at age 5!). She was not given any formal education until age 15, when she was allowed to attend Sabbath School one day a week. As you can imagine, growing up within a minister's household and learning mostly at religious classes, Stewart became very devout - which means she had strong religious beliefs.


As a 20-something year old woman, Stewart married - but her husband died just three years later! And some people cheated her out of inheriting anything from him.

However, Stewart didn't lie around and feel sorry for herself. Instead, she became a teacher, journalist, lecturer, head matron of a hospital, abolitionist, and women's rights activist!

Check out some of her accomplishments:

Maria W. Stewart was the first American woman known to have spoken to a mixed audience of men and women, black and white.

She was the first African American woman known to have given public lectures.

She was the first African American woman known to have given a lecture about women's rights.

She was the first African American woman known to have made a public speech against slavery.


Hooray for Stewart's courage to speak out! 





1 comment:

  1. Contrary to info online, that is a picture of Sarah Harris Fayerweather. To date, there is no known image of Stewart. Thank you for making a correction, and I hope you'll enjoy reading about Fayerweather who deserves attention in her own right.

    ReplyDelete