Anna Laetitia Aikin Lived Here 1758-1774
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825) grew up surrounded by dudes. Seriously. Her father ran a school for boys, so other than her mother, she hardly spoke to any other women as she was growing up, and she didn't have any close female friends.
She received a basic education from her mother, which was common in those days. But what wasn't so common was that she also persuaded her father to teach her all the stuff he taught to the boys at his school: Latin, Greek, French, world history, you name it. So little Anna managed to get the same kind of well-rounded education that was usually reserved for boys in the 18th century.
And she put that education to good use. She liked writing, and she was encouraged by her family. She wrote not only poetry, but also religious hymns, books for children, and essays on the political issues of her day. She wrote powerfully and persuasively on issues like slavery (the slave trade was still going strong in those days), freedom of religion (she was a Presbyterian, and not a member of the official Church of England, so this was a major issue for her), revolution and reform. She was alive during the American Revolution and then during the French Revolution, and she was outspokenly in favor of the democratic ideals that inspired both of them. What can we say? She lived one heck of a life.
Barbauld was a revolutionary, democratic, freethinker in a lot of ways… but she did not consider herself a feminist. Her 1792 poem, "The Rights of Woman," is an obvious response to Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was published in the same year. Most of the poem sounds like a "rah-rah-rah!" endorsement of women's rights. But don't break out the pom-poms just yet. When you get to the end of the poem, Barbauld says that if you actually love your husband, you won't worry so much about equal rights and conquering the world.
Easy for her to say—she and her husband had a great relationship and were equal partners in many things. Not all women in those days were so lucky (check out Charlotte Smith, for a very different experience). So, what does this mean? Is she really criticizing Mary Wollstonecraft, or is she being ironic, or is it some of both?
If she is criticizing feminism, does that make Barbauld an anti-feminist? Or is she just pointing some flaws in the approach that some feminists were taking at the time? It's hard to say, really. Many critics still argue about this poem (check out the "Best of the Web" for links to a couple of the major books and articles on this question). Read the poem, and let us know what you think.
Anna Laetitia Aikin Lived Here 1758-1774
Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743-1825) grew up surrounded by dudes. Seriously. Her father ran a school for boys, so other than her mother, she hardly spoke to any other women as she was growing up, and she didn't have any close female friends.
She received a basic education from her mother, which was common in those days. But what wasn't so common was that she also persuaded her father to teach her all the stuff he taught to the boys at his school: Latin, Greek, French, world history, you name it. So little Anna managed to get the same kind of well-rounded education that was usually reserved for boys in the 18th century.
And she put that education to good use. She liked writing, and she was encouraged by her family. She wrote not only poetry, but also religious hymns, books for children, and essays on the political issues of her day. She wrote powerfully and persuasively on issues like slavery (the slave trade was still going strong in those days), freedom of religion (she was a Presbyterian, and not a member of the official Church of England, so this was a major issue for her), revolution and reform. She was alive during the American Revolution and then during the French Revolution, and she was outspokenly in favor of the democratic ideals that inspired both of them. What can we say? She lived one heck of a life.
Barbauld was a revolutionary, democratic, freethinker in a lot of ways… but she did not consider herself a feminist. Her 1792 poem, "The Rights of Woman," is an obvious response to Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which was published in the same year. Most of the poem sounds like a "rah-rah-rah!" endorsement of women's rights. But don't break out the pom-poms just yet. When you get to the end of the poem, Barbauld says that if you actually love your husband, you won't worry so much about equal rights and conquering the world.
Easy for her to say—she and her husband had a great relationship and were equal partners in many things. Not all women in those days were so lucky (check out Charlotte Smith, for a very different experience). So, what does this mean? Is she really criticizing Mary Wollstonecraft, or is she being ironic, or is it some of both?
If she is criticizing feminism, does that make Barbauld an anti-feminist? Or is she just pointing some flaws in the approach that some feminists were taking at the time? It's hard to say, really. Many critics still argue about this poem (check out the "Best of the Web" for links to a couple of the major books and articles on this question). Read the poem, and let us know what you think.