Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
Abby Kelly in the Town-House of —-
The scene was not unheroic,—to see that woman, true to humanity and her
own nature, a centre of rude eyes and tongues, even gentlemen feeling licensed
to make part of a species of mob around a female out of her sphere. As she took
her seat in the desk amid the great noise, and in the throng full, like a wave,
of something to ensue, I saw her humanity in a gentleness and unpretension,
tenderly open to the sphere around her, and, had she not been supported by
the power of the will of genuineness and principle, she would have failed. It
led her to prayer, which, in woman especially, is childlike; sensibility and will
going to the side of God and looking up to him; and humanity was poured out
in aspiration.
She acted like a gentle hero, with her mild decision and womanly calmness.
All heroism is mild and quiet and gentle, for it is life and possession, and
combativeness and rmness show a want of actualness. She is as earnest,
fresh, and simple as when she rst entered the crusade. I think she did much
good, more than the men in her place could do, for woman feels more as being
and reproducing; this brings the subject more into home relations. Men speak
through and mostly from intellect, and this addresses itself in others, which
creates and is combative.
Not easily shall we nd elsewhere, or before this time, any written observations on
the same subject, so delicate and profound.
The late Dr. Channing, whose enlarged and tender and religious nature shared
every onward impulse of his time, though his thoughts followed his wishes with a
deliberative caution, which belonged to his habits and temperament, was greatly
interested in these expectations for women. His own treatment of them was
absolutely and thoroughly religious. He regarded them as souls, each of which had
a destiny of its own, incalculable to other minds, and whose leading it must follow,
guided by the light of a private conscience. He had sentiment, delicacy, kindness,
taste, but they were all pervaded and ruled by this one thought, that all beings had
souls, and must vindicate their own inheritance. Thus all beings were treated by
him with an equal, and sweet, though solemn courtesy. The young and unknown,
the woman and the child, all felt themselves regarded with an innite expectation,
from which there was no reaction to vulgar prejudice. He demanded of all he met,
to use his favorite phrase, “great truths.”
His memory, every way dear and reverend, is by many especially cherished for
this intercourse of unbroken respect.
At one time when the progress of Harriet Martineau through this country,
Angelina Grimke’s appearance in public, and the visit of Mrs. Jameson had turned
his thoughts to this subject, he expressed high hopes as to what the coming era
would bring to woman. He had been much pleased with the dignied courage of Mrs.
Jameson in taking up the defence of her sex, in a way from which women usually
Page | 1076