in public invokes biblical heroines and wise women throughout history.
âReligion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Buildâ appeared first as a pamphlet in 1831. Stewartâs subsequent speeches, the first delivered before the Afric-American Female Intelligence Society in Boston in 1832, were reprinted in the Ladies Department of William Lloyd Garrisonâs abolitionist newspaper, Liberator. Her second speech, delivered at Bostonâs Franklin Hall before the New England Anti-Slavery Society on September 21, 1832, is historic because it was the first public lecture by an American woman of any race before a mixed audience of men and women, blacks and whites, and preceded by five years the Grimké sistersâ more well-known antislavery speeches. Stewart stands at the beginning of an unbroken chain of black women activists whose commitment to the liberation of blacks and women defines their lifeâs work. Stewartâs biographer, Marilyn Richardson, captures her significance in the first published collection of Stewartâs work: âHer original synthesis of religious, abolitionist, and feminist concerns places her squarely in the forefront of a black female activist and literary tradition only now beginning to be acknowledged as of integral significance to the understanding of the history of black thought and culture in Americaâ (Richardson, xiv).
RELIGION AND THE PURE PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY, THE SURE FOUNDATION ON WHICH WE MUST BUILD
Productions from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Steward [sic], Widow of the Late James W. Steward, of Boston
A ll the nations of the earth are crying out for liberty and equality. Away, away with tyranny and oppression! And shall Africâs sons be silent any longer? Far be it from me to recommend to you either to kill, burn, or destroy. But I would strongly recommend to you to improve your talents; let not one lie buried in the earth. Show forth your powers of mind. Prove to the world that
Though black your skins as shades of night, your hearts are pure, your souls are white.
This is the land of freedom. The press is at liberty. Every man has a right to express his opinion. Many think, because your skins are tinged with a sable hue, that you are an inferior race of beings; but God does not consider you as such. He hath formed and fashioned you in his own glorious image, and hath bestowed upon you reason and strong powers of intellect. He hath made you to have dominion over the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea. He hath crowned you with glory and honor; hath made you but a little lower than the angels; and according to the Constitution of these United States, he hath made all men free and equal. Then why should one worm say to another, âKeep you down there, while I sit up yonder; for I am better than thou?â It is not the color of the skin that makes the man, but it is the principles formed within the soul.
Many will suffer for pleading the cause of oppressed Africa, and I shall glory in being one of her martyrs; for I am firmly persuaded, that the God in whom I trust is able to protect me from the rage and malice of mine enemies, and from them that will rise up against me; and if there is no other way for me to escape, he is able to take me to himself, as he did the most noble, fearless, and undaunted David Walker.
Â
Never Will Virtue, Knowledge, And True Politeness Begin To Flow, Till The Pure Principles Of Religion And Morality Are Put Into Force.
My Respected Friends,
Â
I feel almost unable to address you; almost incompetent to perform the task; and at times I have felt ready to exclaim, O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the transgressions of the daughters of my people. Truly, my heartâs desire and prayer is, that Ethiopia might stretch forth her hands unto God. But we have a great work to do.
âReligion and the Pure Principles of Morality, the Sure Foundation on Which We Must Buildâ appeared first as a pamphlet in 1831. Stewartâs subsequent speeches, the first delivered before the Afric-American Female Intelligence Society in Boston in 1832, were reprinted in the Ladies Department of William Lloyd Garrisonâs abolitionist newspaper, Liberator. Her second speech, delivered at Bostonâs Franklin Hall before the New England Anti-Slavery Society on September 21, 1832, is historic because it was the first public lecture by an American woman of any race before a mixed audience of men and women, blacks and whites, and preceded by five years the Grimké sistersâ more well-known antislavery speeches. Stewart stands at the beginning of an unbroken chain of black women activists whose commitment to the liberation of blacks and women defines their lifeâs work. Stewartâs biographer, Marilyn Richardson, captures her significance in the first published collection of Stewartâs work: âHer original synthesis of religious, abolitionist, and feminist concerns places her squarely in the forefront of a black female activist and literary tradition only now beginning to be acknowledged as of integral significance to the understanding of the history of black thought and culture in Americaâ (Richardson, xiv).
RELIGION AND THE PURE PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY, THE SURE FOUNDATION ON WHICH WE MUST BUILD
Productions from the Pen of Mrs. Maria W. Steward [sic], Widow of the Late James W. Steward, of Boston
A ll the nations of the earth are crying out for liberty and equality. Away, away with tyranny and oppression! And shall Africâs sons be silent any longer? Far be it from me to recommend to you either to kill, burn, or destroy. But I would strongly recommend to you to improve your talents; let not one lie buried in the earth. Show forth your powers of mind. Prove to the world that
Though black your skins as shades of night, your hearts are pure, your souls are white.
This is the land of freedom. The press is at liberty. Every man has a right to express his opinion. Many think, because your skins are tinged with a sable hue, that you are an inferior race of beings; but God does not consider you as such. He hath formed and fashioned you in his own glorious image, and hath bestowed upon you reason and strong powers of intellect. He hath made you to have dominion over the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea. He hath crowned you with glory and honor; hath made you but a little lower than the angels; and according to the Constitution of these United States, he hath made all men free and equal. Then why should one worm say to another, âKeep you down there, while I sit up yonder; for I am better than thou?â It is not the color of the skin that makes the man, but it is the principles formed within the soul.
Many will suffer for pleading the cause of oppressed Africa, and I shall glory in being one of her martyrs; for I am firmly persuaded, that the God in whom I trust is able to protect me from the rage and malice of mine enemies, and from them that will rise up against me; and if there is no other way for me to escape, he is able to take me to himself, as he did the most noble, fearless, and undaunted David Walker.
Â
Never Will Virtue, Knowledge, And True Politeness Begin To Flow, Till The Pure Principles Of Religion And Morality Are Put Into Force.
My Respected Friends,
Â
I feel almost unable to address you; almost incompetent to perform the task; and at times I have felt ready to exclaim, O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the transgressions of the daughters of my people. Truly, my heartâs desire and prayer is, that Ethiopia might stretch forth her hands unto God. But we have a great work to do.
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