Mary Grew

Mary Grew

c. 1863
Born September 1, 1813
Hartford
Died 1896
Parent(s) Henry Grew

Mary Grew (September 1, 1813 – 1896) was an Anti-Slavery activist. She was a public speaker when abolitionism was unpopular. She attended and was prevented from speaking at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. After slavery was abolished she turned her attention to preaching and women's suffrage.

Life

Grew was born in Hartford in 1813.[1] Her father was Henry Grew who was an abolitionist religious writer of strong opinions. Her father married four times and Mary's mother was his third wife Kate Morrow who died in 1845.[2]

In 1834 she moved to Boston, and later to Philadelphia. Grew was a radical abolitionist. When the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society was formed, she became a member.[1] In Philadelphia she joined the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and served as its corresponding secretary. She wrote their annual reports until 1870.[1] It was a correspondence between Mary and Maria Weston Chapman concerning a women's anti-slavery committee that created the first Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in New York in 1837.[3]

She was a member of the Woman's Anti-Slavery Convention in 1838, which held its sessions in Pennsylvania Hall, surrounded by a furious mob, which destroyed the building by fire a few hours after the convention adjourned.[1]

Isaac Crewdson (Beaconite) writer Samuel Jackman Prescod - Barbadian Journalist William Morgan from Birmingham William Forster - Quaker leader George Stacey - Quaker leader William Forster - Anti-Slavery ambassador John Burnet -Abolitionist Speaker William Knibb -Missionary to Jamaica Joseph Ketley from Guyana George Thompson - UK & US abolitionist J. Harfield Tredgold - British South African (secretary) Josiah Forster - Quaker leader Samuel Gurney - the Banker's Banker Sir John Eardley-Wilmot Dr Stephen Lushington - MP and Judge Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton James Gillespie Birney - American John Beaumont George Bradburn - Massachusetts politician George William Alexander - Banker and Treasurer Benjamin Godwin - Baptist activist Vice Admiral Moorson William Taylor William Taylor John Morrison GK Prince Josiah Conder Joseph Soul James Dean (abolitionist) John Keep - Ohio fund raiser Joseph Eaton Joseph Sturge - Organiser from Birmingham James Whitehorne George Bennett Richard Allen Stafford Allen William Leatham, banker William Beaumont Sir Edward Baines - Journalist Samuel Lucas Samuel Fox, Nottingham grocer Louis Celeste Lecesne Jonathan Backhouse Samuel Bowly William Dawes - Ohio fund raiser Robert Kaye Greville - Botanist Joseph Pease, railway pioneer M.M. Isambert (sic) Mary Clarkson -Thomas Clarkson's daughter in law William Tatum Saxe Bannister - Pamphleteer Richard Davis Webb - Irish Nathaniel Colver - American not known John Cropper - Most generous Liverpudlian Thomas Scales William James William Wilson Thomas Swan Edward Steane from Camberwell William Brock Edward Baldwin Jonathon Miller Capt. Charles Stuart from Jamaica Sir John Jeremie - Judge Charles Stovel - Baptist Richard Peek, ex-Sheriff of London John Sturge Elon Galusha Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor Rev. Isaac Bass Henry Sterry Peter Clare -; sec. of Literary & Phil. Soc. Manchester J.H. Johnson Thomas Price Joseph Reynolds Samuel Wheeler William Boultbee Daniel O'Connell - "The Liberator" William Fairbank John Woodmark William Smeal from Glasgow James Carlile - Irish Minister and educationalist Rev. Dr. Thomas Binney John Howard Hinton - Baptist minister John Angell James - clergyman Joseph Cooper Dr. Richard Robert Madden - Irish Thomas Bulley Isaac Hodgson Edward Smith Sir John Bowring - diplomat and linguist John Ellis C. Edwards Lester - American writer Tapper Cadbury - Businessman not known Thomas Pinches David Turnbull - Cuban link Edward Adey Richard Barrett John Steer Henry Tuckett James Mott - American on honeymoon Robert Forster (brother of William and Josiah) Richard Rathbone John Birt Wendell Phillips - American M. L'Instant from Haiti Henry Stanton - American Prof William Adam Mrs Elizabeth Tredgold - British South African T.M. McDonnell Mrs John Beaumont Anne Knight - Feminist Elizabeth Pease - Suffragist Jacob Post - Religious writer Anne Isabella, Lady Byron - mathematician and estranged wife Amelia Opie - Novelist and poet Mrs Rawson - Sheffield campaigner Thomas Clarkson's grandson Thomas Clarkson Thomas Morgan Thomas Clarkson - main speaker George Head Head - Banker from Carlisle William Allen John Scoble Henry Beckford - emancipated slave and abolitionist Use your cursor to explore (or Click "i" to enlarge)
1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention.[1] Move your cursor to identify delegates or click the icon to enlarge. Mary would have sat at the very back with the other women (Henry is not in the painting).
  1. ^ The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840, Benjamin Robert Haydon, 1841, National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG599, Given by British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1880

Grew and her father were invited to the World Anti-Slavery Convention beginning 12 June 1840 in London. They departed on the ship Roscoe on 7 May 1840. Other delegates aboard the ship were James and Lucretia Mott, Emily Winslow and her father Isaac, Abby South and Elizabeth Neall. According to Mrs. Mott, Mary was "quite intimate" with George Bradburn.[4] After they arrived, Bradburn traveled with the Grews to various locations, including Birmingham, as Mary wanted to see her father's birthplace.[4]

Before and during the convention, there was fierce debate about the participation and seating of women delegates and attendees. Her father sided with the British organisers and spoke in favour of the men's right to exclude women, knowing that this would exclude Mary.[5] Eventually women were allowed into the convention, but they were not allowed to speak and they had to sit separately.

In 1854 a similar public debate took place when Mary and her father attended the fifth annual National Women's Rights Convention in Philadelphia. Her father debated with Lucretia Mott, during which he lauded the supremacy and authority of men.[5]

After slavery was abolished she devoted her energies to the enfranchisement of women. She also became a member of a Unitarian where there were sexual discrimination in the organisation. She was able to preach as she found the pulpits of Unitarian churches open to women. She was also able to preach in northern New England and the pulpits of Free-will Baptists, Methodists and Congregational churches. She was one of the founders of the New Century Club, of Philadelphia. She was also one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association and she became its president.[1]

In November 1870 she chaired the first anniversary meeting of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association and the poet John Greenleaf Whittier was amongst those expected. Whittier sent his apologies and a poem in tribute title "How Mary Grew".[2]

  How Mary Grew

      With wisdom far beyond her years
        And graver than her wondering peers ...
      She dared the scornful laugh of men,
        The hounding mob, the slanderer’s pen.
      She did the work she found to do,—
        A Christian heroine, Mary Grew!
 
      The freed slave thanks her; blessing comes
        To her from women’s weary homes;
      The wronged and erring find in her
        Their censor mild and comforter.
      The world were safe if but a few
        Could grow in grace as Mary Grew!
 
      So, New Year’s Eve, I sit and say,
        By this low wood-fire, ashen gray;
      Just wishing, as the night shuts down,
        That I could hear in Boston town,
      In pleasant Chestnut Avenue,
        From her own lips, how Mary Grew!
 
      And hear her graceful hostess tell
        The silver-voicëd oracle
      Who lately through her parlors spoke
        As through Dodona’s sacred oak,
      A wiser truth than any told
        By Sappho’s lips of ruddy gold,—
      The way to make the world anew,
        Is just to grow—as Mary Grew!

In literature

In 1991 Ira Vernon Brown published a biography of Grew.[2] Mary, appears as a character in Ain Gordon's 2013 play If She Stood.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Mary Grew in "Woman of the Century", Willard and Livermore, page 371, 1893
  2. 1 2 3 Ira Vernon Brown (1991). Mary Grew, Abolitionist and Feminist, 1813-1896. Susquehanna University Press. pp. 140–145. ISBN 978-0-945636-20-5.
  3. ↑ Brown, Ira V. ""AM I NOT A WOMAN AND A SISTER?" THE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION OF AMERICAN WOMEN, 1837-1839". Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  4. 1 2 Mary Grew, Abolitionist and Feminist, 1813-1896, accessed 19 July 2008]
  5. 1 2 Dorsey, Bruce. Reforming Men and Women: Gender in the Antebellum City, 2002, ISBN 0-8014-3897-7. p.179, Accessed 21 July 2008
  6. ↑ Salisbury, Stephen. "Painted Bride productions on 19th century women touch familiar issues" Philadelphia Inquirer (April 26, 2013)


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