Maria W. Stewart - Public Speaking

Public Speaking

Stewart was the first American woman to speak to a mixed audience of men, women, whites and blacks, such an audience was termed a "promiscuous" audience during the early 19th century. She was the first African-American woman to lecture about women’s rights — particularly the rights of black women — religion, and social justice among black people. She was also the first African-American woman to make public anti-slavery speeches. She was one of the first African-American women to make public lectures for which there are still surviving copies. Stewart referred to her public lectures as "speeches" and not "sermons", despite the religious tone and frequent quotes of Bible passages. Stewart's speeches were direct protests against social conditions experienced by African Americans, and touched on several political issues. She was undoubtedly also influenced by African-American women preachers of the era, however, such as Jarena Lee, Julia Foote, and Amanda Berry Smith. Stewart's protest speeches were closer in their style to those given later by Sojourner Truth. She delivered her speeches in Boston, to organizations including the African-American Female Intelligence Society.

Stewart was influenced by David Walker, a prosperous clothing shop owner, who was a well known, outspoken member of the General Colored Association. Walker was known as a leader within the African-American enclave of Boston, who wrote a very controversial piece on race relations called David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World. (1829). In 1830, Walker was found dead outside of his shop, just one year after the death of Stewart's husband. These events precipitated a "born again" spiritual experience for Stewart. She then saw her role as an advocate for "Africa, freedom and God's cause". She was noted for her militancy. However, Stewart was far less militant than Walker, and was resistant to advocating violence; Stewart promoted African American exceptionalism, the special bond she saw between God and African Americans, and advocated social and moral advancement.

In 1831, before embarking on her public speaking career, Stewart published a small pamphlet entitled Religion and the pure principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on which We Build. In 1832, Stewart published a collection of religious meditations called The Meditation from the pen of Mrs. Maria Stewart. She wrote and delivered four lectures between 1832 and 1833. While her speeches were daring and not well-received, William Lloyd Garrison, a friend and the central figure of the anti-slavery movement, published all four of them in his newspaper, The Liberator, the first three individually, and later, all four together. Stewart was recruited by Garrison to write for The Liberator in 1831.

Stewart’s public speaking career lasted three years. She delivered her farewell lectures on September 21, 1833, in the school room of the African Meeting House, known then as the Belknap Street Church, and part of Boston's Black Heritage Trail. When she left Boston, she moved to New York, where she published her collected works in 1835. She taught school and participated in the abolitionist movement, as well as literary organization. She moved from New York to Baltimore and then to Washington, D.C., where she also taught school. While in Washington D.C., she became head matron of the Freedmen's Hospital and Asylum in Washington, which was the medical school of Howard University. She continued to reside in Washington, D.C. until her death, which occurred in Freedmen's Hospital on February 6, 1880. She is buried in Graceland Cemetery.