Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau (12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist. She wrote from a sociological, holistic, religious and feminine angle, translated works by Auguste Comte, and, rare for a woman writer at the time, earned enough to support herself.

Martineau advised a focus on all aspects of society, including the role of the home in domestic life as well as key political, religious, and social institutions. The young Princess Victoria enjoyed her work and invited her to her coronation in 1838. The novelist Margaret Oliphant called her "a born lecturer and politician... less distinctively affected by her sex than perhaps any other, male or female, of her generation." When unveiling a statue of Martineau in December 1883 at the Old South Meeting House in Boston, Wendell Phillips referred to her as the "greatest American abolitionist".

Early life

left|thumb|255x255px|The house in Gurney Court, Norwich, where Harriet Martineau was born

Born in Norwich, England, Harriet Martineau was the sixth of the eight children of Thomas, a textile manufacturer. He served as deacon of the Octagon Chapel, Norwich from 1797. Her mother, Elizabeth (née Rankin), was the daughter of a sugar refiner and grocer. Harriet's five older siblings included two sisters and three brothers. In age order their names were, Elizabeth, Thomas, Henry, Robert and Rachel Ann. Harriet's two younger siblings were James and the youngest of the eight, Ellen. Martineau was closest to her brother James, who became a philosopher and clergyman in the tradition of the English Dissenters.

The Martineau family was of French Huguenot ancestry and professed Unitarian views. Harriet's family was financially comfortable and they were close friends with the Gurney family of Earlham Hall, Norfolk. Harriet's father, Thomas, owned the leasehold of the Gurney's home in Gurney Court, off Magdalen Street, Norwich, Harriet's birthplace. The family's wealth remained intact until after the panic of 1825, a stock market and banking crash.

According to the writer Diana Postlethwaite, Harriet's relationship with her mother was strained and lacking affection, which contributed to views expressed in her later writing. Mrs Martineau strictly enforced proper feminine behaviour, pushing her daughter to "hold a sewing needle" as well as the (hidden) pen. and businessman and benefactor Peter Finch Martineau.

Education

In the Martineau family, Harriet's mother Elizabeth made sure all her children received a proper education. With the Martineaus being Unitarian, both the boys and girls in the family were expected to receive a conventional education. Harriet was taught at home by several of her elder siblings in the beginning of her education. Harriet was taught French by her mother, which was the predominant language spoken by her father. He taught her Latin and her brother Thomas taught Harriet maths and writing. Being taught at home especially by all her siblings often led to mockery. In 1821, she began to write anonymously for the Monthly Repository, a Unitarian periodical. Her first contribution was "Female Writers of Practical Divinity", and in 1823 she published Devotional Exercises and Addresses, Prayers and Hymns.

In 1823 Harriet's brother James introduced her to a friend from school, John Hugh Worthington. The two were engaged but did not marry as Worthington fell ill and died. Martineau reveals in her autobiography that she was in a strange sense relieved in the long run that marriage was not an option, as their relationship was filled with stress and disagreements. Martineau remained unmarried.

Her earliest novels were also published during these years, beginning with Principle and Practice in 1827 and Five Years of Youth: or, Sense and Sentiment in 1829.

Her father died in 1826 and in 1829, the family's textile business failed. Martineau, then 27 years old, stepped out of the traditional roles of feminine propriety to earn a living for her family. Along with her needlework, she began selling her articles to the Monthly Repository, earning accolades, including three essay prizes from the Unitarian Association. Her regular work with the Repository helped establish her as a reliable and popular freelance writer.

In Martineau's Autobiography, she reflects on her success as a writer and her father's business failure, which she describes as "one of the best things that ever happened to us". She described how she could then "truly live instead of vegetate". Her reflection emphasises her experience with financial responsibility in her life while she writes "[her] fusion of literary and economic narratives". was a fictional tutorial intended to help the general public understand the ideas of Adam Smith. Illustrations was published in February 1832 in an edition of just 1500 copies, since the publisher assumed it would not sell well. Yet it quickly became highly successful and would steadily out-sell the work of Charles Dickens. Illustrations was her first work to receive widespread acclaim, and its success served to spread the free-market ideas of Adam Smith and others throughout the British Empire. Martineau then agreed to compose a series of similar monthly stories over a period of two years, the work being hastened by having her brother James also work on the series with her. Martineau recorded some favourable comments, but on the whole thought that the ceremony was "highly barbaric", "worthy only of the old Pharaonic times in Egypt", and "offensive ... to the God of the nineteenth century in the Western world".

London and the United States

In the early 19th century, most social institutions and norms were shaped by gender, or the perception of what was appropriate for men versus for women. Writing was no exception; non-fiction works about social, economic and political issues were dominated by men, while limited areas, such as romance fiction, and topics dealing with domesticity were considered to be appropriate for women authors. Despite these gendered expectations in the literary world, Martineau strongly expressed her opinions on a variety of topics.

Martineau's frequent publication in the Monthly Repository acquainted her with editor Rev. William Johnson Fox. First coming to London around 1830, Martineau joined Fox's social circle of prominent thinkers, which also introduced her to Erasmus Alvey Darwin, older brother to Charles Darwin.

In November 1832, Martineau moved to London. Among her acquaintances were: Henry Hallam, Harriet Taylor, Alexander Maconochie, Henry Hart Milman, Thomas Malthus, Monckton Milnes, Sydney Smith, John Stuart Mill, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sarah Austin, and Charles Lyell, as well as Jane Welsh Carlyle and Thomas Carlyle. She met Florence Nightingale, Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot and Charles Dickens later on in her literary career.

Until 1834, Martineau was occupied with her brother James on the political economy series, as well as a supplemental series of Poor Laws and Paupers Illustrated and Illustrations of Taxation which was intended to influence government policy. About the same time, she published four stories expressing support of the Whig Poor Law reforms. These tales (direct, lucid, written without any appearance of effort, and yet practically effective) display the characteristics of their author's style. Tory paternalists reacted by calling her a Malthusian "who deprecates charity and provision for the poor", while Radicals opposed her to the same degree. Whig high society fêted her.

In May 1834 Charles Darwin, on his expedition to the Galapagos Islands, received a letter from his sisters saying that Martineau was "now a great Lion in London, much patronized by Ld. Brougham who has set her to write stories on the poor Laws" and recommending Poor Laws and Paupers Illustrated in pamphlet-sized parts. They added that their brother Erasmus "knows her & is a very great admirer & every body reads her little books & if you have a dull hour you can, and then throw them overboard, that they may not take up your precious room".

thumb|left|Harriet Martineau

Abolitionist

In 1834–36, after completing the economic series, Martineau paid a long visit to the United States; she and her travelling companions spanning the nation from New York to Boston, and from Chicago through to Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia. During this time, she visited a great many people, some little known, others as famous as James Madison, the former US president, at his home at Montpelier. She also met numerous abolitionists in Boston and studied the emerging schools for the education of girls. Her support of abolitionism, then widely unpopular across the U.S., caused controversy, which her publication, soon after her return, of Society in America (1837)

Between 1837 and 1839, Martineau wrote several articles for the London & Westminster Review that reflect two of her most enduring interests: women's issues and abolitionism. Her article "The Martyr Age of the United States" (1839), in the Westminster Review, introduced English readers to the struggles of the abolitionists in America several years after Britain had abolished slavery.

In October 1836, soon after returning from the voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin went to London to stay with his brother Erasmus. He found him spending his days "driving out Miss Martineau", who had returned from her trip to the United States. Charles wrote to his sister:

The Darwins shared Martineau's Unitarian background and Whig politics, but their father Robert was concerned that, as a potential daughter-in-law, she was too extreme in her politics. Charles noted that his father was upset by a piece in the Westminster Review calling for the radicals to break with the Whigs and give working men the vote "before he knew it was not [Martineau's], and wasted a good deal of indignation, and even now can hardly believe it is not hers". In early December 1836 Charles Darwin called on Martineau and may have discussed the social and natural worlds she was writing about in her book Society in America, including the "grandeur and beauty" of the "process of world making" she had seen at Niagara Falls. Martineau's earlier popularisation of Thomas Robert Malthus' theories of population control may have helped convince Charles to read Malthus, which provided the breakthrough ideas for his nascent theory of evolution.

In April 1838, Charles wrote to his older sister Susan that

Martineau wrote Deerbrook (1838), a three-volume novel published after her American books. She portrayed a failed love affair between a physician and his sister-in-law. It was considered her most successful novel. She stayed at Mrs Halliday's boarding house, 57 Front Street, for nearly five years from 16 March 1840. The property was later named the "Martineau Guest House".

The critic Diana Postlethwaite wrote of this period for Martineau:

During her illness, she for a second time declined a pension on the civil list, fearing to compromise her political independence. After publication of her letter on the subject, some of her friends raised a small annuity for her soon after.

In 1844, Martineau underwent a course of mesmerism, returning to health after a few months. There was national interest in mesmerism at this time. Also known as "animal magnetism", it can be defined as a "loosely grouped set of practices in which one person influenced another through a variety of personal actions, or through the direct influence of one mind on another mind. Mesmerism was designed to make invisible forces augment the mental powers of the mesmeric object." Thomas Michael Greenhow and her sister, Elizabeth Martineau Greenhow).

Ambleside

thumb|"The Knoll", Ambleside, residence of Harriet Martineau

thumb|Harriet Martineau, 1861, by [[Camille Silvy]]

In 1845, Martineau left Tynemouth for Ambleside in the Lake District, where she designed herself and oversaw the construction of the house called "The Knoll" (made a Grade II listed building in 1974), where she spent the greater part of her later life. Although she was single and had no children she believed that: She began house-hunting and the first house she looked at did not have everything she was looking for. Her friend, who went with her to view it, said it would be worth the money to build a house of her own rather than pay for something she did not love. The next place Martineau was brought to look at was the land of a minister at Ambleside called "The Knoll" which she bought. She took on planning the layout of the house, which she found enjoyable. She and her contractor were on good terms and understood each other's expectations, in terms of payment and time commitments. following which she then toured Egypt, Palestine and Syria with some friends. On her return she published Eastern Life, Present and Past (1848), in which she reports a realisation standing on a prominence looking out across the Nile and desert to the tombs of the dead, where "the deceased crossed the living valley and river" to "the caves of the death region" where Osiris the supreme judge "is to give the sign of acceptance or condemnation". Her summary: "the mortuary ideas of the primitive Egyptians, and through them, of the civilized world at large, have been originated by the everlasting conflict of the Nile and the Desert".

This epiphany changed the course of her life. Eastern Life expressed her concept that, as humanity passed through one after another of the world's historic religions, the conception of the deity and of divine government became at each step more and more abstract and indefinite. She believed the ultimate goal to be philosophic atheism, but did not explicitly say so in the book. She described ancient tombs, "the black pall of oblivion" set against the paschal "puppet show" in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and noted that Christian beliefs in reward and punishment were based on and similar to heathen superstitions. Describing an ancient Egyptian tomb, she wrote, "How like ours were his life and death!... Compare him with a retired naval officer made country gentleman in our day, and in how much less do they differ than agree!" The book's "infidel tendency" was too much for the publisher John Murray, who rejected it. Martineau's biographer, Florence Fenwick Miller, wrote that "all her best moral and intellectual faculties were exerted, and their action becomes visible, at one page or another" of this work. Eastern Life, Present and Past marked an important chapter in Martineau's life as it documented her move away from Unitarianism towards atheism, which was never completed. This shifting of religiosity can best be seen in her instruction to travel with the hopes of gaining a historical understanding of holy places and in her critiques on biblical literalism, as influenced by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Eastern Life, Present and Past is also important historically, as Billie Melman notes, it was the "first feminine travelogue proper that is not an account of a pilgrimage." This served as the definitive guidebook for the area for 25 years, effectively replacing the 1810 Guide to the Lakes by William Wordsworth, and continued in common usage until the publication of M. J. B. Baddeley's Thorough Guide to the English Lake District in 1880.

thumb|Martineau in her later years, painted by [[George Richmond (painter)|George Richmond]]

Martineau edited a volume of Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development, published in March 1851. Its epistolary form is based on correspondence between her and the self-styled scientist Henry G. Atkinson. She expounded the doctrine of philosophical atheism, which she thought the tendency of human belief. She did not deny a first cause but declared it unknowable. She and Atkinson thought they affirmed man's moral obligation. Atkinson was a zealous exponent of mesmerism. The prominence given to the topics of mesmerism and clairvoyance heightened the general disapproval of the book. Literary London was outraged by its mesmeric evolutionary atheism, and the book caused a lasting division between Martineau, her beloved brother, James who had become a Unitarian cleric, and some of her friends.

From 1852 to 1866, she contributed regularly to The Daily News, writing sometimes six leaders a week. She wrote more than 1,600 articles for the paper in total. For many years she was a contributor to the Westminster Review; in 1854 she was among financial supporters who prevented its closing down.

Martineau believed she had experienced psychosomatic symptoms and later benefits from mesmerism; this medical belief of the times related the uterus to emotions and hysteria. She had symptoms of hysteria in her loss of taste and smell. Her partial deafness throughout life may have contributed to her problems. Various people, including the maid, her brother, Completing the book in three months, Moreover, Martineau's text sets the stage for women to enter into economics. For example, Lana Dalley explains that "by bringing the topic of domestic economy to bear on political economy, Martineau places women more centrally within economic theory and practice. In this context, women – as readers of the Illustrations and as characters with the tales – are not only rendered a part of larger-scale economics but also (because of their participation) encourage to learn the principles of political economy."

As early as 1831, Martineau wrote on the subject "Political Economy" (as the field of economics was then known). Her goal was to popularise and illustrate the principles of laissez-faire capitalism, though she made no claim to original theorising.

Martineau's reflections on Society in America, published in 1837, are prime examples of her sociological methods. Her ideas in this field were set out in her 1838 book How to Observe Morals and Manners. She believed that some very general social laws influence the life of any society, including the principle of progress, the emergence of science as the most advanced product of human intellectual endeavour, and the significance of population dynamics and the natural physical environment.

Auguste Comte coined the name sociology and published a lengthy exposition under the title of Cours de Philosophie Positive in 1839. Martineau undertook a concise translation that was published in two volumes in 1853 as The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte (freely translated and condensed by Harriet Martineau). It was a remarkable achievement, and a successful one; Comte recommended her volumes to his students instead of his own. Some writers regard Martineau as the first female sociologist. Her introduction of Comte to the English-speaking world and the elements of sociological perspective in her original writings support her credit as a sociologist.

Death

Harriet Martineau died of bronchitis She was buried alongside her mother in Key Hill Cemetery, Hockley, Birmingham. The following April, at Bracondale, her cousin's estate, much of Martineau's extensive art collection was sold at auction.

Martineau said, "...I have not acquired any dread or dislike of death; but I have felt, for the first, time a keen and unvarying relish of life." (Harriet 483).

In 1877 her autobiography was published. It was rare for a woman to publish such a work, let alone one secular in nature. Her book was regarded as dispassionate, "philosophic to the core" in its perceived masculinity, and a work of necessitarianism. She explored childhood experiences and memories, expressing feelings of having been deprived of her mother's affection, as well as strong devotion to her brother James Martineau. Eliza W. Farnham, Lydia F. Fowler, M.D., Paulina Wright Davis, Whose Earnest Lives and Fearless Words, in Demanding Political Rights for Women, have been, in the Preparation of these Pages, a Constant Inspiration TO The Editors.".

Martineau's name is listed on the east face of the Reformers' Memorial in Kensal Green Cemetery in London.

Her lifelong commitment to the abolitionist movement has seen Martineau's celebrity and achievements studied world-wide, particularly at American institutions of higher education such as Northwestern University. When unveiling a statue of Martineau in December 1883 at the Old South Meeting House in Boston, Wendell Phillips referred to her as the "greatest American abolitionist". A statue of Martineau by Anne Whitney was donated to Wellesley College in 1886 but destroyed in a fire in 1914; a plaster copy of the head survives in the Davis Museum at Wellesley College.

The Martineau Society "aims to highlight the principles of freedom of conscience advocated in the nineteenth century by Harriet Martineau and her brother, Dr. James Martineau."

The National Portrait Gallery in London holds nine portraits of Martineau.

Anthony Giddens and Simon Griffiths argued that Martineau is a neglected founder of sociology and that she remains important. She taught that study of the society must include all its aspects, including key political, religious and social institutions, and she insisted on the need to include the lives of women. She was the first sociologist to study such issues as marriage, children, religious life, and race relations. She called on sociologists to do more than just observe, but to work to benefit the society.

Books

Illustrations of taxation. No. I. The park and the paddock. A Tale; No. II. The tenth haycock; No. III. The jerseymen meeting. A tale; No. IV. The Jerseymen parting. A tale; No V. The scholars of Arneside, a tale; Charles Fox, 1834
Illustrations of Political Economy. Vol. I. Life in the wilds; The hill and the valley; Brooke and Brooke farm; Vol. II. Demerara; Ella of Garveloch; Weal and woe in Garveloch; Vol. III. A Manchester strike; Cousin Marshall; Ireland; Vol. IV. Homes abroad; For each and for all; French wines and politics; Vol. V. The Charmeu sea; Berkeley the banker – part I; Berkeley the banker – part II; Vol. VI. mrssrs. Vanderput and Snoek; The loom and the lugger – part I; The loom and the lugger – part II; Vol. VII. Sowes not reapers; Cinnamon and pearls; A tale of the Tyne; Vol. VIII. Drier creek; The three ages; Vol. IX. The farrers of Budge-row; The moral of many fables; Charles Fox, 1834
Miscellanies. Volume I; Volume II; Hilliard, Gray and Co., 1836
Society in America; 3 volumes; Saunders and Otley, 1837; (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; ); Internet Archive
Retrospect of Western Travel; Saunders and Otley, 1838, (Project Gutenberg Volume 1, Volume 2)
How to Observe Morals and Manners; Charles Knight and Co, 1838; Google Books, Project Gutenberg
Deerbrook; London, 1839; Project Gutenberg
The Hour and the Man: An Historical Romance, 1841, Project Gutenberg
The Playfellow (comprising The Settlers at Home, The Peasant and the Prince, Feats on the Fiord, and The Crofton Boys); Charles Knight, 1841 (ed. 1905)
Life in the Sickroom. Essays. By an invalid ( = Harriet Martineau), 1844
The Billow and the Rock, 1846
Household Education, 1848, Project Gutenberg
Eastern Life. Present and Past; 3 volumes; Edward Moxon, 1848. (Complete in one volume. Philadelphia, Lea and Blanchard)
The History of the Thirty Years' Peace, A.D. 1816–1846. Vol. I (From 1816–1824); Vol. II (From 1824–1833); Vol. III (From 1830–1841); Vol. IV (From 1837–1846) (1849) (Edition London, George Bell and Sons, 1877–1878)
Letters from Ireland; Chapman, 1852
The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte Vol. I; Vol. II. (1853) Edition: London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co, 1893. Freely translated and condensed after Cours de philisophie positive by Auguste Comte (reissued by Cambridge University Press, 2009; )
England and her soldiers; Smith, Elder & Co., 1859
Feats on the Fiord. A Tale of Norway; Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, 1865, Project Gutenberg
Harriet Martineau's Autobiography. With Memorials by Maria Weston Chapman; 2 volumes; Smith, Elder & Co, 1877; Liberty Fund.
Harriet Martineau's letters to Fanny Wedgwood. Stanford, Calif, Stanford University Press, 1983 . Edited by Elisabeth Sanders Arbuckle
Harriet Martineau. Selected letters. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1990 . Edited by Valerie Sanders
Writings on slavery and the American Civil War. DeKalb, Northern Illinois University Press, 2002 . Ed. by Deborah Anna Logan
A Complete Guide to the English Lakes; John Garnett 1855 and later editions

Notes

References

Paul L. Riedesel, "Who Was Harriet Martineau?", Journal of the History of Sociology, vol. 3, 1981. pp. 63–80
Robert K. Webb, Harriet Martineau, a Radical Victorian, Heinemann, London 1960
Gaby Weiner, "Harriet Martineau: A reassessment (1802–1876)", in Dale Spender (ed.), Feminist Theorists: Three Centuries of Key Women Thinkers, Pantheon 1983, pp. 60–74

External links

Martineau Society (.co.uk)
Essays by Harriet Martineau, Quotidiana.org
The positive philosophy of Auguste Comte / freely translated and condensed by Harriet Martineau, Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection.
Guide to the Harriet Martineau Papers, The Bancroft Library
Papers of Harriet Martineau are held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref 7HRM
Retrospect of Western Travel by Harriet Martineau, 1838
Harriet Martineau, spartacus-educational.com
Letters from Harriet Martineau mainly to Sarah Martineau at Cumbria Archive Centre, Kendal