Sara A. Underwood

“ AS pure-hearted and true a philanthropist as any whose name has ever adorned the pages of history, or glorified humanity, was Frances Wright, a woman who independently stepped forth from the quiet of a peaceful, happy life to dare the sneers, reproaches, and calumnies of those for whose advancement and enlightenment she sacrificed wealth, friends, and reputation. ”

“ She was, perhaps, fifteen when this question was suggested, to her mind, upon witnessing the painful labor of the aged among the English peasantry, and, again, when she saw that peasantry ejected, under various pretexts, from the estates of the wealthy proprietors of the soil among whom she moved: ‘Has man, then, no home upon the earth, and are age and infirmity entitled to no care or consideration?’ Upon one occasion, peculiarly distressing to her feelings, her soliloquy was to the effect that some strange secret, some extraordinary vice, lay at the foundation of the whole of human practice. ”

“ She was the rough pioneer of the Woman's Rights reform, that is so respected and so well supported at present. Never woman had to brazen herself as she did to initiate that movement. If there is any good in that movement, the world owes something to the courage of Frances Wright.” That she had her faults no one who understands human nature can doubt. Great public virtues have sometimes been allied to great private vices. Of Frances Wright’s private life I know nothing. ”

“ Writing about public men, I am not willing to exclude myself from the opportunity of saying something about the celebrated women who have figured in American history. Prominent among my own recollections, was the versatile and original Frances Wright. She excited much comment by her leveling doctrines and extravagant language. I shall always remember the effect produced by the lectures of this indefatigable and really gifted woman as she traveled through Pennsylvania many years ago. ”

“ She wears no cap; her hair still curls, but it is short, and does not cover the frowning wisdom of her large forehead. The lower part of her face is broad and firm, and all the expression is that of a woman of stern experience. ”

“ Being checked on one occasion by a deep and shrewd mathematician and physician, who observed that her questions were dangerous, she replied, ‘Can truth be dangerous?’ ‘It is thought so,’ was the answer. ”

“ A bas-relief portrait of Frances Wright ornaments it, and it bears the following inscription:
“FRANCES WRIGHT, Born in Dundee, Scotland, Sept. 1795. Passed to Spirit life from Cincinnati, Dec. 1852.
“I have wedded the cause of human improvement; staked on it my fortune, my reputation, and my life.
“Human kind is but one family; the education of its youth should be equal and
universal.” Fitting words these to be placed on the monument of their author—words which she enforced by a life in unison with them. ”

“ Trollope attended one of her first lectures in Cincinnati, and speaks thus of the sensation her appearance on the platform created: “That a lady of fortune, family, and education, whose youth had been passed in the most refined circles of private life, should present herself as a public lecturer, would naturally create surprise anywhere. But in America, where women are guarded by a sevenfold shield of habitual insignificance, it caused an effect that can hardly be described. ”

“ It is most likely that the young lady inherited neither the talents nor aspirations of her nobly-endowed mother, and was deficient, perhaps, in the more tender emotions, as we do not hear of her making any effort to see, or minister to the comfort of, the being to whom she owed life, property, and fame. ”

“ Owen’s colony at New Harmony, Indiana, with a view to gain hints and ideas by which to guide her own little colony. She had thus become acquainted with the spirit and design of the New Harmony colonists, and so, when reluctantly compelled to give up her pet project, she gladly hastened, at the suggestion of the elder Owen, to take editorial charge of the New Harmony Gazette, changed afterward to the Free Enquirer. ”

“ Surrounded at all times by rare and extensive libraries, and commanding whatever masters she desired, she applied herself by turns to various branches of science, and to the study of ancient and modern letters and the arts. ”

“ R. D. Owen, who was one of ten trustees of her property at Nashoba, says she rashly exposed herself to the hot, broiling sun in July and August weather, riding long distances on horseback, and sometimes sleeping all night in the forest, when it was more convenient to do so. These imprudences, and her own eagerness to accomplish her end, injured her health so that she was obliged to return to England to recruit.
She revisited America in 1827, at which time she was accompanied by a friend in every way her opposite, save in her love for literature; that friend was Mrs. ”

“ This was made the basis of the hue and cry against her, though the truce meaning of it was, that simple-minded men were seared out of their wits lest their wives should learn from her example something that would induce them to question masculine supremacy. ”