Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Fanny Wright (dana fucich)

Taken from Wikipedia because I'm a lazy shit and don't want to paraphrase:
"Frances Wright (September 6,1795 – December 13, 1852) also widely known as Fanny Wright, was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, freethinker, feminist, abolitionist, and socialreformer, who becamea U. S. citizen in 1825. That year she founded the NashobaCommune in Tennesseeas a utopian community to prepare slaves for emancipation,intending to create an egalitarian place, but it lasted only three years. Her Viewsof Society and Manners in America (1821) brought her the most attention asa critique of the new nation."

Obviously, Whitman and Wright shared similar views on slavery, although Whitman didn't necessarily agree with abolitionism.  They both believed in freedom for slaves, Frances spent a lot of time in the states creating a community to educate slaves in order to prepare them for freedom.  Although an abolitionist, her activism caused an objective separation between herself and leading abolitionists.  But she continued to be an advocate for women and slaves.
Though her methods were more direct, both Whitman and Wright challenged America's social constructs through their writing.
Whitman said of Wright, "we all loved her: fell down before her: her very appearance seemed to enthrall us." and went on to say she was, "sweeter, nobler, grander--multiplied by twenty--than all who traduced her," pronouncing his admiration for Wright later in his life (Fanny Wright: Rebel in America, Morris, 3).

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