Martineau, Harriet

Category: Writer

Harriet Martineau (12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was an English social theorist, often cited as the first female sociologist; in a sense she was one of the first English feminists.  She was, in many respects, a sort of hero for women, not just an inspired and wise writer.  She supported the Married Women’s Property Bill and pushed for licensed prostitution and laws that applied to the customers rather than the women. She supported women’s suffrage.  It was difficult to know how to classify her on the site, as ‘writer’ hardly does her justice.  But writer it has had to be, as no other classification seems to fit as well.

I have used the description from Wikipedia for the following as the quotes they found about the way women were treated in those days are priceless, and give you some idea of what an uphill battle she and others like her faced.

Martineau wrote 35 books and a multitude of essays from a sociological, holistic, spiritual and  feminine perspective.  She earned enough to be supported entirely by her writing, a considerable achievement for a woman in the Victorian era.

Harriet basically wanted to be treated like a person and not a sex.  She was intellectually gifted and persistent in her wish to be able to study and be treated as an equal to men.  She was condescendingly described by men as having “ a masculine intellect”, presumably because at the time, women who were wise were not allowed to be so.

Harriet Martineau by Moses Bowness

albumen print, 1860s NPG

Martineau began losing her sense of taste and smell, becoming increasingly deaf at a young age and having to use an ear trumpet. It was the beginning of many health problems in her life.  There is no hint in the literature of what caused this, it may have been patent medicines or viruses, but the overall effect appeared to be a strange kind of brain damage, which turned out to be extremely advantageous.

The sixth of eight children, Harriet was born in Norwich, where her father was a manufacturer. Her mother was the daughter of a sugar refiner and a grocer. The family was of French Huguenot ancestry.  According to the writer Diana Postlethwaite, Harriet's relationship with her mother was strained and lacking affection.  This is often the way when a domesticated submissive mother produces a strong intellectually brilliant daughter.  The put-downs can be subtle but constant.  We have confirmation of this in the following:

Harriet Martineau by Camille Silvy

albumen print, 1 March 1861 NPG

Her father's business failed in 1829. At 27 years old, Martineau stepped out of feminine propriety in order to earn a living for her family. She began selling articles to the Monthly Repository. Her first commissioned volume, Illustrations of Political Economy, was published in February 1832 and quickly became successful. Her work with the Repository established her as a successful writer.

Writing was horrendously sexist in the Victorian era. Non-fiction and prose about social, economic and political issues was dominated by men, while lighter writing about romance and domesticity were considered to be ‘appropriate for women authors’. Despite these expectations, Martineau expressed her opinions on a variety of topics.  In May 1834, Charles Darwin, on his expedition to the Galapagos Islands, received a letter from his sisters saying that Martineau was:

 by Anne Whitney

In 1834, after completing the economic series, Harriet Martineau paid a long visit to the United States. During this time, she met numerous abolitionists in Boston and studied the emerging girls' schools established for their education. Her support of abolitionism, unpopular in the South, caused controversy. Her publication, soon after her return, of Society in America (1837) and How to Observe Morals and Manners (1838), added to the controversy.

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". Charles wrote to his sister;

In early December 1836 Charles Darwin called on Martineau and wrote this wonderful piece of male chauvinist piggery about her

In 1839, during a visit to Continental Europe, Martineau was diagnosed with a uterine tumour. Immobile and confined to a couch, she was cared for by her mother until purchasing a house and hiring a nurse to aid her.  Martineau wrote at least three books during her illness, including Life in the Sickroom: Essays by an Invalid.   Life in the Sickroom is considered to be one of Martineau's most underrated works. It “upset evangelical readers as they thought it dangerous in its supposition of self-reliance”.  Martineau dedicated it to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, as it was:

At the same time, Martineau turned the traditional patient/doctor relationship on its head by asserting control over her sickness. The British and Foreign Medical Review dismissed Martineau's book on the basis that ‘an ill person cannot write a healthy work’. They thought it was unheard of for a woman to suggest being in a position of control, especially in sickness. Instead, the Review recommended patients' follow "unconditional submission" to the advice of doctors.  Plus ca change.

 

In 1844, Martineau underwent a course of mesmerism.  She dropped all the patent medicines and suggested that her doctors and various other people, including the maid, her brother, and Spencer T. Hall (a notable mesmerist), performed mesmerism on her. And she gradually got better.  As the physical improvements were the first signs of healing she had had in five years, and happened at the same time as her first mesmeric treatment, Martineau confidentially credited mesmerism with her cure.  It could of course have also been that she dropped the doctors and their 'cures'.  She eventually published an account of her case in sixteen Letters on Mesmerism, ‘which caused much discussion’.  

In 1846 she toured Egypt, Palestine and Syria with some friends, and on her return wrote Eastern Life, Present and Past (1848). This travelogue expressed her concept that, as humanity passed through one after another of the world's historic religions, the conception of the spiritual world became at each step more and more abstract and remote from the reality of the spiritual.  The book's "infidel tendency" was too much for the publisher John Murray, who rejected it. 

In March 1851, Martineau edited a volume of Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development, based on correspondence between her and Henry G. Atkinson.

Harriet Martineau died at "The Knoll" on 27 June 1876. The following is supposed to have been published by the Daily News, after her death.

Observations

For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.

• Diagnosing illness when in trance using auras
• J goes as rigid as a plank of wood
• Martineau, Harriet - Arise, My Soul And Urge thy Flight 1
• Martineau, Harriet - Arise, My Soul And Urge thy Flight 2
• Martineau, Harriet - Letters on Mesmerism - Feels herself transparent
• Martineau, Harriet - Letters on Mesmerism - Gets better from the effects of drugs using hypnotherapy
• Martineau, Harriet - Letters on Mesmerism - The glorification of the scene
• Martineau, Harriet - Letters on Mesmerism - The healing
• Martineau, Harriet - Letters on Mesmerism - The power of one mind over another's
• Martineau, Harriet - Letters on Mesmerism - Transfiguration
• Receiving wisdom when in a trance