[In the following excerpt from a study of women in eighteenth-century America, Benson discusses Murray's interest in women's rights.]

. . .Mrs. Judith Sargent Murray under the name "Constantia" produced a number of essays which appeared in the Massachusetts Magazine and other periodicals. The articles in the Massachusetts Magazine were later reprinted in three volumes under the title, The Gleaner, a book dedicated to John Adams.⁵ The collection, which included two plays and a novel of sorts, had a number of familiar essays in avowed imitation of the Spectator, some of them dealing with women's problems. The essays as they first appeared had purported to be the work of a man but the sex of the writer was admitted in the preface of The Gleaner .⁶ In the essays were descriptions of women who conducted themselves with exceptional propriety, pleas for simplicity in dress, and for the development of American fashions in clothes and literature.⁷ The novel contained much similar material; the whole book, though didactic in tone, yet showed liberal ideas. One long paper on women's interests which, though not notably original, was valuable as an exposition of current thought, was offered as a supplement to a paper on the "Equality of the Sexes" which had appeared in the Massachusetts Magazine in 1790. Mrs. Murray began this paper by congratulating her countrywomen on the revolution of thought in recent years which made it possible for them to devote time to studies other than the needle. The "Rights of Women," she thought, were just beginning to be understood in their true sense. The younger generation must now show that the enlarged scope of female education had been justified. Mrs. Murray drew a glowing picture of this new and more enlightened era in female history, which was to manifest itself in the intellectual development of women free from romantic ideas of marriage and ready to act as enlightened and thoughtful mothers. She believed that women might become as independent as Mary Wollstonecraft had wished, if they were taught to earn their own living and to regard matrimony only as a probable contingency. Education for economic independence would enable women to make choices in marriage with much greater freedom. Moreover the united efforts of men and women for support might save many families from destruction—a situation in which the writer had had practical experience. She closed her article with descriptions of several women who had been notably successful in business ventures of their own. ⁸

Mrs. Murray regarded the idea of women's incapacity in any field as inadmissible in the new age. She enumerated women's talents in many different directions illustrating her statements with historical and geographical examples. Where women had failed of accomplishment in the past it was because of masculine restrictions rather than fundamental limitations, for their minds were naturally as capable of improvement as men's. Mrs. Murray developed a number of examples of equality between the sexes. Among these were ingenuity, resourcefulness, the capacity to endure hardships, heroism, patriotism, energy, eloquence, faithfulness, influence in public affairs, ability to support the toils of government with honor, and literary skill. In the list which she presented of successful women of her own time most of the names were those of English authors including both More and Wollstonecraft. American names were Warren, "Antonia," "Euphelia," and "Philenia.". . . ⁹

Notes

⁵ . . . Published Boston, February, 1798.

⁶ [The Gleaner (3 vols., Boston, 1798)], Preface, viii-x. See also i, 13; iii, 313.

⁷Ibid., iii, 110-13; 261-2, etc.

⁸Gleaner, iii, 188-224. For an account of Mrs. Murray's life and work see Vena B. Field, Constantia; a Study of the Life and Works of Judith Sargent Murray (University of Maine Studies, ser. 2, no. 17).

⁹ The pen name of Mrs. Sarah Apthorp Mor-ton. . . .