Maria W. Stewart (1803-1879) was born Maria Miller, to free parents in Hartford, Connecticut. Unfortunately, she would become an orphan at the age of five. Being without parents, she was forced to become a servant.
During the 10 years she served in the household of a clergyman, she was not able to receive any sort of formal education. Nevertheless, she taught herself by reading the books from the family library. After leaving the clergyman’s house at the age of 15, she supported herself by working as a domestic servant and continued to educate herself at Sabbath schools.
In 1826, she married James W. Stewart at the African Baptist Church. He asked that she not only adopt his surname, but his middle initial as well. James was a veteran of the War of 1812 and provided Stewart with a middle class lifestyle while residing in Boston.
He died in 1829 leaving Stewart widowed and childless. She was left a generous inheritance by her late husband; however, she was defrauded of it by the executors as a result of an extended court battle. Distraught and grieving, Stewart experienced a miraculous religious conversion and dedicated herself to God’s service.
Stewart was also influenced by a prosperous clothing shop owner named David Walker, who was a well known, outspoken member of the General Colored Association. Walker was identified as a leader within the African-American enclave of Boston. In 1829, he wrote and published, David Walker’s Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World.
Walker had a very profound effect on Stewart’s ideology of freedom, activism, and self-elevation. This epiphany introduced new sentiments surrounding the abolitionist movement and education. Her newly adopted religious fervor coupled with her inspiration to engage in political matters, signified her as audacious.
She was criticized and frowned upon for speaking and writing on such topics then considered taboo. As the abolitionist movement began to gain momentum, William Lloyd Garrison (publisher of the Liberator and acquaintance of Fredrick Douglass) asked African-American women to contribute articles to the newspaper. In 1831, Stewart met with Garrison and he agreed to publish her works.
Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation of Which We Must Build was her first published work. It sold for six cents. A year after her first published work, she began her public lecturing career, delivering her first speech on April 28, 1832 before the African-American Female Intelligence Society of Boston. Although she was considered brazen and was often discouraged to continue lecturing on such inflammatory topics, on September 21, 1832 she lectured to men and women (considered a promiscuous audience) regarding their overwhelming apathy, smothering the fire of freedom within their spirits.
She defied social constraints as she continued to lecture and speak out against the contrary existence of discrimination, sexism, and slavery in a country that upholds itself as the land of the free.
Because of her fearless spirit, Stewart is recorded as being the first woman to speak to a mixed “promiscuous” audience and leave writings on political issues. Promiscuous audiences were audiences comprised of both genders, which many people criticized and rejected because women were discriminated against.
Although she would discontinue her lecturing career to promiscuous audiences, she inspired contemporaries such as suffragist Sojourner Truth and Jarena Lee (the first woman authorized to preach by Richard Allen).In her speeches, labeled as Black feminist rhetoric, she chastised those who were remiss in actively seeking their freedom, striving for equality and uplifting themselves and their community. Disregarding the pervasive discriminatory climate, she encouraged African-Americans to mobilize and become more politically involved.
In Stewart’s third speech, entitled, “African Rights and Liberty” she defends her God given right to speak before any audience. Her final speech was delivered in 1833 as she resigned herself to leaving Boston as a result of the contemptuous feelings harbored by some in regards to her speaking. After relocating to Baltimore in 1852, Stewart began teaching, but soon moved again to Washington, D.C. where she organized a school.
She was eventually able to receive her husband’s pension after a law was passed granting pensions to widows of the War of 1812 veterans. She published her second edition of Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Stewart. Shortly thereafter, she became the head matron of the Freedman’s Hospital and Asylum in Washington.
She died at the age of 76, after her book was published. Indeed, this notable African-American political and human rights activist, essayist, lecturer and educator can be hailed as a woman who spoke unapologetically about the mistreatment of African-Americans and women; yet, she never ceased to encourage those groups not to capitulate by accepting second class citizenship. Stewart profoundly promoted obedience to Biblical scriptures and the attainment of freedom and education.
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