Happy Birthday, Margaret Fuller

By Dr. Bruce T. Marshall
May 30, 2010

Readings:

Quotations by Margaret Fuller

“If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.”

“Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow.”

“In families that I know, some little girls like to saw wood, others to use carpenters’ tools. Where these tastes are indulged, cheerfulness and good-humor are promoted. Where they are forbidden, because ‘such things are not proper for girls’ they grow sullen and mischievous.”

“Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But, in fact, they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.”

“I believe that, at present, women are the best helpers of one another. Let them think; let them act; till they know what they need.”

“We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to women as freely as to men. If you ask me what offices they may fill, I reply -- any. I do not care what case you put; let them be sea captains, if you will.”

“It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is also born for Truth and Love in their universal energy.”

“For human beings are not so constituted, that they can live without expansion; and if they do not get it one way, must another, or perish.”

“I now know all the people worth knowing in America, and I find no intellect comparable to my own.”

Sermon:

At this church’s annual meeting last Sunday, the congregation voted to adopt the following vision statement: “We are a diverse spiritual community advancing the principles and ideals of the Unitarian Universalist tradition.” A vision articulates a congregation’s aspirations: what it seeks to be. In this statement, the principles and ideals of the Unitarian Universalist tradition ground our identity. “We are a diverse spiritual community” based in “the Unitarian Universalist tradition.”

Among my goals during this first year as interim minister here at Davies has been to convey a sense for what it means to be part of and heir to the over 200-year tradition of American Unitarian Universalism. We have always been small in numbers, but we have had a presence in American religion and a role both in religion and in the larger society. What has happened in Unitarianism and Universalism has often anticipated what was later been addressed by our nation as a whole.

A good example is offered by the life and work of Margaret Fuller, whose 200th birthday would have been last Sunday. (I figure that after 200 years, Margaret will cut us some slack in observing her birthday a week late.) Margaret Fuller grew up in a time and a place when American Unitarianism was coming into its own, that is, early 19th century Boston.

Unitarianism had begun as a rebellion against orthodox religion. But, you know those rebellious Bostonians: within a generation, Unitarianism had spawned another rebellion, this time from within. A new generation raised within Unitarianism protested what they found to be inadequacies in the faith of their fathers. In its early years, Unitarianism was a highly rational religion, still Christian based, setting rigid ethical standards that were often based more on current societal standards than in consideration of what was right and true.

So the new generation demanded changes. They sought an approach to life that was rational, yes, but that also spoke to the emotions, to our feelings, to the experience of inspiration that could sometimes transport us to a new realm of being. They sought to reach beyond the boundaries of Christianity, seeking spiritual truth from sources other than the Judeo-Christian tradition. And this new generation encouraged adherents to guide their lives not just on external standards, but to seek a source of truth that exists within each person. They called for us to find a light within and follow where it might take us.

There is a name for what developed within and in response to early American Unitarianism. It is called transcendentalism. Transcendentalism has been identified as the first truly American philosophical and literary movement. Everything that came before in this young country was derived from European precedents, but transcendentalism was a unique expression of the American spirit. Its best known adherent was Ralph Waldo Emerson. There was also Bronson Alcott, father of the writer, Louisa May Alcott, as well as Henry David Thoreau, who hung around the edges. Lesser known, but just as important, was Margaret Fuller. She helped shape the transcendentalist philosophy of thought and being. She also brought this philosophy into the realm of action, contending that its ideas had radical implications for social change. Today, 200 years and a week after her birth, we are still trying to catch up with Margaret Fuller.

This morning I would like to tell her story. For one because she is so interesting. The writer, Edgar Allen Poe who was a contemporary of Margaret Fuller, once remarked that humanity can be divided into three categories: men, women, and Margaret Fuller. He was actually on to something: Margaret Fuller was a unique person. In her time, there wasn’t anybody else quite like her.

But also in Margaret Fuller we have a person who helped create what Unitarian Universalism has become. She grew up in a Unitarian home; she found that faith lacking in certain respects—such as, in the realm of spirituality—but she also absorbed many of Unitarianism’s values. And then she took them in new directions, thereby helping define what Unitarian Universalism has become today.

As we learn her story and experience her ideas, we encounter an important part of the Unitarian Universalist tradition that grounds the vision statement of this church.

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Margaret Fuller was born on May 23, 1810, in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, outside of Boston. She was the oldest child of Timothy and Margaret Crane Fuller. Her father, Timothy, was son of a farmer who was also a Congregationalist minister. Timothy pursued law as a career, then entered politics and was elected to Congress as a representative from Massachusetts. As a young adult, he left the church of his father—Congregationalism—and became a Unitarian.

Timothy Fuller personally supervised his oldest daughter’s education, teaching her to read by the time she was three. When she was four, Margaret was translating sections of the classics from their original Latin. By the time she was 10, she spoke fluent French. Timothy Fuller was an advocate of human rights, women’s rights, and was a staunch opponent of slavery. His father had been a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and declined to vote for it because the proposed United States Constitution sanctioned slavery in the Southern states. Similarly, Timothy took moral stands and refused to budge. Unlike most men of his era, Timothy believed in education for women and called for both men and women to develop independence of mind.

But there were contradictions in his character. He could be both affectionate and stern, rigid in his own thinking while also encouraging free thought. The young Margaret was devoted to him but her father imposed conditions for her to receive his favor. Such as, in a letter to his wife while he was in Washington, Timothy Fuller wrote, “Tell Sarah Margaret I love her, if she learns to read.” The young Margaret drove herself mercilessly to succeed in her lessons and while her accomplishments were nothing less than remarkable, they were never good enough for her father, who constantly criticized what he called her carelessness and many errors. Looking back at her life, Margaret once observed, “I had no natural childhood.”

In her early years, then, a conflict was created that drove Margaret Fuller throughout her life. She learned an intellectual rigor that was the match of anyone in her time, male or female. And yet there was also a side of her that longed for love: love that she received neither from her hard-driving father nor from her mother who was not drawn to this serious child and who—like many women of her time—was more or less constantly pregnant.

One telling incident from Margaret’s childhood involved Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Timothy had forbidden his daughter to read novels, plays, poems—anything that was fiction—for he believed that these fostered softness of intellect. But one cold Sunday afternoon, Margaret discovered a copy of Romeo and Juliet on her father’s bookshelf and began to read, utterly transfixed by the story. Her father came through the room and noticed what Margaret was reading. He ordered her to return the book to the shelves and, instead, read a non-fiction book. Margaret pretended to obey, putting Romeo and Juliet back where she had found it. But after her father left the room, she took it down and continued to read, again lost in the story. This time it was an aunt who noticed, told her father, and Margaret was banished to her room. Alone, in the dark of her room, she replayed scenes of Romeo and Juliet’s great love in her mind, a story that, she reported, “gave just what I wanted, and brought home the life I seemed born to live.”

Margaret received an excellent education, thanks to the efforts of her father. But it seems to have occurred to Timothy Fuller too late that he had created in his daughter a young woman completely unfit for life in their society. For this was a time in which women’s roles were strictly prescribed. What was she going to do with her learning, with her analytical abilities, with her grasp of foreign languages, with her deep knowledge of the classics, of philosophy, of religion? If she had been a boy, she would have gone to Harvard College and continued to sharpen her intellect against others of similar training and ambition. But the only real ticket to a life for a girl in that era was a good marriage. What boy was going to be attracted to a girl who was so obviously superior to him in learning and ability—and who wasn’t the least bit good about hiding it?

Margaret was sent to a school for girls called Miss Prescott’s Ladies Seminary to smooth her rough edges and teach her social graces. But her eccentricity of dress, her habit of expressing herself in a theatrical manner, and her obvious intelligence did nothing to endear her to classmates who were mostly of upper middle class Boston families. Furthermore, she was made to understand that she was not a pretty girl, not pretty enough to succeed in the circles of her classmates and not pretty enough even to please her father. She left the school, returned home, having failed to find a way into the society of her peers. She resolved, instead, to find distinction through her intellect. She described herself as “bright and ugly,” destined to whatever life that brought.

The final act of Margaret Fuller’s childhood and young adult years occurred when she was 24, and her father suddenly died, leaving no will. The family’s assets went to a male relative who controlled access to their money leaving Margaret—again—painfully aware of the disadvantages of her lot as a woman.

The kind of conflict and challenge that Margaret Fuller experienced while growing up can affect different people in different ways. Some, it utterly destroys: they never really recover from the trauma of the early years. But others it empowers. That early experience of conflict and challenge arms them with a vision that guides them through their adult years. Margaret Fuller was of this latter group. She was a highly-intelligent, extremely well educated, and ambitious woman in a society that did not offer opportunities for women of her capabilities. She also had deep mostly unresolved needs for acceptance and love, given a father and mother who were not affectionate toward her. Guided by this combination of needs and talents, Margaret Fuller did remarkable things.

                                                                       • • •

Let me note a few highlights of Margaret Fuller’s career.

I’ll start with her association with the transcendentalists. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the unofficial leader of what was called the Transcendentalist Club, heard of this brilliant young woman but was initially hesitant to meet her. Perhaps he was cautious about relating to a woman as an intellectual equal—because that just wasn’t done at the time. But they did meet, and Margaret won him over. Emerson remarked, “She made me laugh more than I liked.” (I love that quotation. I can picture Emerson trying to maintain his New England composure—and not succeeding in the presence of this person who he came to call his “vivacious friend.”) There began a collaboration between Emerson and Fuller that led to her being asked to edit the new journal of transcendentalist thought called, The Dial. The Dial was a literary journal that didn’t last very long—Margaret was supposed to be paid for her work but never was. Yet it introduced the world to transcendentalist thought, such as, the writings of Emerson and Thoreau. Through her editorship, Margaret Fuller helped shape this young intellectual movement and helped it find its voice.

Margaret sought to support herself as a writer, a journalist, and a teacher. She became a staff writer for the New York Tribune and the first full-time female book reviewer in the United States—she had the reputation as being the best read person in the country, male or female. She also tutored individuals and taught in several experimental schools, which encouraged learning in women and helped them find their own voice.

And then she hosted what were called “Conversations.” These Conversations were for women only, and participants paid a fee to be included. The format was for Margaret to begin each session with the statement of a theme. Perhaps ancient mythology, perhaps our relationship to nature or maybe a more abstract topic such as beauty. She would introduce the topic, then promote conversation by posing questions to the participants. At the end, she would summarize the conversation and express her own views. The intent was to continue the education of women whose access to learning was limited by the male-only policy of colleges. Margaret Fuller had a gift for bringing out the best in her companions, and people she conversed with often remarked that she opened doors to new ways of thinking.

These conversations served as a model for learning, and they inspired women to work together toward other goals. Soon after, women’s clubs and then women’s colleges were established, both of which aimed to continue the education of women. And also movements for social change organized by women began to appear, such as, the push to allow women the vote. Margaret Fuller’s conversations helped forge in women a new sense of solidity as they worked together to educate themselves and then to reform society. Women learned to define themselves, rather than let themselves be defined by the men in their lives.

Margaret Fuller’s writings were collected into several works, the most important was published under the title, Woman in the Nineteenth Century. In that piece, she advocated not just for equal educational opportunities for women, also for political rights and access to employment. She warned women to be careful about marriage and not be dependent upon their husbands, urging them to live for God first, and not to make a man into God. She argued that men and women shared traits. That there is no wholly masculine man and no purely feminine woman, but that we possess traits of the opposite sex. She also affirmed the validity of homosexual relationships stating, “It is so true that a woman may be in love with a woman and a man with a man.” This was written in 1845 and was outrageous for the times.

She spoke out for human rights at all levels of society. She advocated more humane treatment for prisoners—particularly women who at that time were most often jailed for prostitution, for the homeless, for those in mental facilities. She spoke out against the treatment of Native Americans and African Americans, calling slavery a “cancer” in our nation.

She believed in the Transcendentalist advocacy of personal development but criticized what she saw as a tendency to focus only on individual improvement, while neglecting social reform. She thought that beliefs have implications for the larger society. The themes she articulated—rights for women, human rights, the necessary for activism—were developed by generations of reformers that came after her. Margaret Fuller is not as well known as people such as Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, or Elizabeth Cady Stanton—but she set things in motion that made their work possible.

                                                                       • • •

Let’s return to Margaret Fuller’s life story. From the time she was a child, Margaret had dreamed to going to Europe, particularly Italy. She believed that part of her soul was of that nation. The opportunity presented itself in 1846 when she was hired to travel to Europe with an American couple and serve as governess to their child. At the same time, she wrote articles for the New York Tribune based on her travels and on interviews she had with prominent people, particularly writers. These were published in a column entitled, “Thoughts and Things in Europe.”

At the time, there was brewing a political revolution in Italy aimed at establishing a republic which would unite Italy under one government, supplanting a system of regions that were ruled independently. Margaret Fuller, never the detached journalist, became an advocate of this revolution and in so doing met a young nobleman, Giovanni Angelo Ossoli. Ossoli was also a supporter of the Italian revolution and had been disinherited by his family because of his political convictions.

With Ossoli, Margaret Fuller finally fell in love and found that love reciprocated. It was an unlikely union: Margaret Fuller the towering intellectual. Ossoli, a simpler man, who had known a life of privilege. Yet a deep and abiding affection developed between them. They became a couple, had a child—a son, and referred to themselves as husband and wife, though no evidence has surfaced to confirm that they actually married.

At the time, the Italian revolution was not going well with the Austrians and then the French entering on the opposite side. It was becoming dangerous for them to stay in Italy, so Margaret decided to move her family—her husband, her son, and herself—back to the United States. She had written a history of the Roman Republic which she hoped would be accepted by an American publisher. She said that it was her most important work.

The ship back to America made it across the sea but then it foundered in a storm, just off the coast of Long Island at Fire Island, less than 100 yards from land. A fierce storm buffeted the ship, subjecting it to high waves that engulfed it, and the ship began to break apart. It was a cargo ship, laden with marble so as word spread of the ship in distress with a valuable cargo, people came to Fire Island in hopes that some of it might end up on shore for them to claim as their own. Though the people on the coast could see those on the ship, apparently no efforts were made to save them. Only a few made it to shore in lifeboats. The rest perished as the ship broke apart in high waves. The body of Margaret and Giovanni’s son later washed to shore. No trace has ever been found of Margaret Fuller and Giovanni Ossoli. Similarly her book manuscript also disappeared.

She was 40 years old when she died: a short life. But it was a remarkable life whose influence continues to be felt. As America’s first true feminist, she set a course that we still pursue today. It has to do with the liberation of women, yes, but also the liberation of people—women and men. Women and men, she believed, could never reach their true potential until both were regarded as equals. It was to that mission that she pledged her life.

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Margaret Fuller leaves us with a legacy of action aimed at affirming human rights, a legacy that has been institutionalized in the Unitarian Universalist Association. She also leaves a spiritual legacy, a way of approaching the challenges and dilemmas of our lives that may still speak to us.

In closing, let me note some themes of her spirituality, that is, what helped her maintain her strength in the face of many obstacles.

As a starting point, we can look to a central theme of transcendentalism and Emerson’s thought in particular: self-reliance. The transcendentalists urged that we not depend upon rules and standards and customs outside of ourselves to chart our lives. Rather, we are to look within and be guided by our own vision, our own integrity. This spoke to Margaret, surrounded as she was by those who would not admit her into the life she believed was hers to follow. She wrote in her journal, “I must make my own path...We need great energy and self-reliance to endure today.”

In so doing, she rejected goals that most of her contemporaries—and most of our contemporaries 200 years later—sought to pursue. She was not interested in riches, in acceptability, in power, in fame. Her goal in life, she said, was growth: growth in knowledge, growth in wisdom, growth toward becoming the person she felt called to be. “Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow.” And again, “Human beings are not so constituted, that they can live without expansion; and if they do not get it one way, must another, or perish.”

Margaret was a person with a highly developed sense of spirituality, but was not drawn to participation in any church, even though she became a close associate of many Unitarian ministers who were part of the transcendentalist movement. Churches at the time were bastions of patriarchy in which men held all the power: a world she was seeking to leave. So instead she developed a naturalistic mysticism that looked to nature and the vastness of the universe for inspiration. She said, “blue sky above...preaches better” than any clergyman. For her own spiritual growth, she pursued a spiritual practice of reading, contemplation, recording thoughts in her journal, walks in nature and periods of solitude and quiet—as well as social activism and conversation.

In order to endure and survive the many challenges she faced, Margaret Fuller offered the perception that life proceeds on what she called an “undulating” course: “sometimes on the hill, sometimes in the valley.” So she advised, we must not forget the hill during those times we find ourselves in the valley: to know in times of darkness that “sun will rise again.”

So happy birthday, Margaret Fuller. We celebrate and honor you. You still offer much for us to experience and to learn.