Everything about Frances Wright totally explained
Frances Wright (
September 6 1795 –
December 131852) also widely known as
Fanny Wright, was a
Scottish-born
lecturer,
writer,
freethinker,
feminist,
abolitionist, and
social reformer, who became a
U. S. citizen in 1825.
She was born the daughter of James Wright, a wealthy merchant, in
Dundee,
Scotland. Her father was the designer of Dundee trade tokens. When James Wright and his wife died, they left three children. Fanny was orphaned at the age of three, but was left with a substantial inheritance. Fanny was taken to England and raised in the guardianship of her maternal aunt. Upon her coming of age, she returned to Scotland and spent her winters in study and writing, and her summers visiting the Scottish Highlands. By the age of 18, she'd written her first book. She emigrated to the
United States in
1818, and with her sister toured from 1818 to 1820. She became enamored with the young nation and became a
naturalized citizen in 1825. Wright advocated
abolition, universal equality in
education, and
feminism. She also attacked
organized religion, greed, and
capitalism. Along with
Robert Owen, Wright demanded that the government offer free
boarding schools.
Wright was the co-founder of the
Free Inquirer newspaper, and authored
Views of Society and Manners in America (1821),
A Few Days in Athens (1822), and
Course of Popular Lectures (1836). The publication of
Views of Society and Manners in America was the turning point in Fanny Wright's life. The book brought her new acquaintances, led to her returning to the United States, and established her as a social reformer. The book is of great significance to the American people, their social institutions, ideals, and for the liberal revelations of the humanitarian mind of the eighteen-century Enlightenment becoming acquainted with the new democratic world. The book was translated into several languages and widely read. Wright became the first woman to lecture publicly before a mixed audience when she delivered an Independence Day speech at
New Harmony in 1828.
In 1825, Wright founded the
Nashoba Commune intending to educate
slaves to prepare them for freedom. Wright hoped to build a self-sustaining multi-racial community comprised of slaves, free blacks, and whites. Nashoba was partially based on Owen's
New Harmony settlement, where Wright spent a significant amount of time. Nashoba lasted until Wright became ill with
malaria and moved back to Europe to recover. The interim management of Nashoba was appalled by Wright's benevolent approach to the slaves living in Nashoba; rumors spread of inter-racial marriage and the Commune fell into financial difficulty, which eventually led to its demise. In 1830, Wright freed the Commune's 30 slaves and accompanied them to the newly-liberated nation of
Haiti, where they could live their lives as free men and women.
The modern-day city of
Germantown,
Tennessee, a suburb of
Memphis, is located on the land on which Wright situated her community.
Wright's opposition to slavery contrasted to most other
Democrats of the era, and her activism for workingmen distanced her from the leading
abolitionists of the time. (Lott, 129)
Wright married a French physician,
Guillayme D'Arusmont, with whom she'd one child. They later
divorced.
As an activist in the American
Popular Health Movement between
1830 and
1840, Wright advocated for women being involved in health and medicine. After the midterm political campaign of
1838, Wright suffered from a variety of health problems. She died in 1852 in
Cincinnati, Ohio, from complications resulting from a fall on an icy staircase.
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