Editing Frances Wright (section)

==Career==
===Early career===
Wright's early writing career included her book, ''Few Days in Athens'' (1822), which was a defense of the philosophy of [[Epicurus]], written before the age of eighteen.<ref name=Elliott141-42/><ref name=Bowman/><ref name=ac>{{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Wright, Frances}}</ref> Wright's ''Views of Society and Manners in America'' (1821), a memoir of her first visit to the United States, enthusiastically supported the country's democratic institutions.<ref name=ac/><ref name=C-P236/><ref name=Sanders3/> This book provides early descriptions of American life that preceded later works such as [[Alexis De Tocqueville]]'s ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (1835 and 1840) and [[Harriet Martineau]]'s ''Society in America'' (1837).<ref name=Sanders3-4/> Wright's book is also an example of an early nineteenth-century humanitarian perspective of the new democratic world.<ref name=Okker/> Historian Helen Elliott also pointed out that Wright's travelogue was "translated into several languages and widely read by liberals and reformers" in Great Britain, the United States, and Europe.<ref name=Elliott143-44/>

===Nashoba experiment===
{{main|Nashoba Commune}}

In early 1825, after spending time at former President Jefferson's home in Virginia and Robert Owen's utopian settlement at [[New Harmony, Indiana|New Harmony]], Wright began developing her plans for an experimental farming community. By the summer of 1825, she sought advice from Lafayette and Jefferson, among others, to implement her ideas.<ref>Elliott, pp. 147–49.</ref> Owen and Lafayette later became members of her project's board of trustees; however, Jefferson declined to participate.<ref name=Bowman/> Wright also published ''A Plan for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in the United States Without Danger of Loss to the Citizens of the South'' (1825),<ref name=C-P236/> a tract that she hoped would persuade the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] to set aside federal land for promoting emancipation. To demonstrate how enslaved people could be emancipated without their owners losing money, Wright established a model farming community in Tennessee where enslaved people could work to earn money to purchase their own freedom and receive an education.<ref>{{cite web|last1=The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica|title=Frances Wright|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frances-Wright|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=July 31, 2017}}</ref>

Taking inspiration from the New Harmony community in Indiana, Wright traveled to Tennessee in the fall of 1825 and bought about {{convert|320|acre|hectare}} of land along Wolf River about thirteen miles from [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]]. Wright founded a community at this wilderness site, which she named [[Nashoba Commune|Nashoba]].<ref>James, James, Boyer, eds., p. 677.</ref><ref>Wright later acquired additional land, expanding the property to about {{convert|2000|acre|hectare}}. See: {{cite book | author =Woloch, Nancy | title =Women and the American Experience | publisher =Knopf | year =1984 | location =New York | pages =[https://archive.org/details/womenamericanexp00wolo/page/151 151 and 154] | url =https://archive.org/details/womenamericanexp00wolo/page/151 | isbn =9780394535159 }}</ref> [[Emily Ronalds]] contributed £300 to the scheme.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ronalds |first=B.F. |date=2023 |title=Emily Ronalds (1795-1889) and her Social Reform Work |journal=Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society |volume=28 |issue=2 |pages=81–95}}</ref> To demonstrate that her idea was a viable way to abolish slavery, Wright purchased about thirty enslaved people, nearly half of them children, to live in the experimental community. Her plan was for the enslaved people to acquire their freedom through labor on the property gradually. Wright also planned to eventually colonize the newly emancipated slaves to areas outside the United States.<ref>Elliott, pp. 151–52.</ref><ref>Woloch, p. 155.</ref><ref>{{cite journal| author=Bederman, Gail|year=2005|title=Revisiting Nashoba: Slavery, Utopia, and Frances Wright in America, 1818–1826|journal=American Literary History|volume=17|issue=3|pages=438–59|doi=10.1093/alh/aji025|s2cid=144559953}} See also: {{cite web|url=http://peace.maripo.com/m_frances_wright.htm|title=Frances Wright [1795-1852]|website=peace.maripo.com}} Also: {{cite journal|author=Parks, E. W. |year=1932|title=Dreamer's Vision: Frances Wright at Nashoba (1825–1830)|journal=Tennessee Historical Magazine|volume=2 |pages=75–86 }} {{cite journal| author=Emerson, O. B.|year=1947|title=Frances Wright and her Nashoba Experiment|journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=6|issue=4|pages=291–314 }} {{cite journal| author=Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia
|year=1975|title=The Nashoba Plan for Removing the Evil of Slavery: Letters of Frances and Camilla Wright, 1820-1829|journal=Harvard Library Bulletin|volume=23|pages=221–51, 429–61 61 }}</ref>

In addition to building cabins and farm buildings, Wright planned to establish a school for black students. However, many abolitionists criticized her idea of gradual emancipation and educational training for formerly enslaved people. Wright joined in the early efforts to clear land and build log cabins for its inhabitants, which included blacks and whites. Nashoba was, however, plagued with difficulties from the start. It was built on mosquito-infested land conducive to [[malaria]] and failed to produce good harvests. Wright contracted malaria in the summer of 1826 and had to leave the property to recover her health in New Harmony, Indiana, and visits to France and England. While she was absent from Nashoba, the community declined. Its interim managers began instituting a policy of harsher punishments toward the black workers. A scandal also erupted over the community's tolerance of "free love" amid publicized accounts of an interracial relationship between James Richardson, a white supervisor of the community, and Josephone Lalotte, the mulatto daughter of a freed African American woman slave who had brought her family to live at Nashoba. Wright returned to Nashoba in 1828 with her friend, [[Frances Milton Trollope|Frances Trollope]], who spent ten days in the community and found it in disarray and on the verge of financial collapse.<ref>Elliott, p. 154.</ref><ref name=Keating124-26>Keating, pp. 124–26.</ref> Trollope's published descriptions of the area criticized its poor weather, lack of scenic beauty, and Nashoba's remoteness and desolation.<ref>Lee, p. 522.</ref>

In 1828, when Nashoba was rapidly declining, the ''New-Harmony Gazette'' published Wright's explanation and defense of the commune and her views on the principles of "human liberty and equality."<ref>{{cite journal| author=Wright, Frances|year=1828|title=Nashoba, Explanitory Notes, &c. Continued|journal=New-Harmony Gazette |location=New Harmony, Indiana| page=17 }}</ref> In January 1830, Wright chartered a ship and accompanied the community's thirty slaves to [[Haiti]], which had achieved independence in 1804,<ref>Harrison, John (2009). ''Robert Owen and the Owenites in Britain and America''. Taylor & Francis, p. 140.</ref> so they could live as free men and women.<ref>Elliott, p. 157.</ref> The failed experiment cost Wright about US$16,000.<ref>Sanders, p. 4.</ref> [[Germantown, Shelby County, Tennessee|Germantown]], [[Tennessee]], a present-day suburb of [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]], was established on the land where Nashoba once stood.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Sampson, Sheree
|year=2000|title=Reclaiming a Historic Landscape: Frances Wright's Nashoba Plantation in Germantown, Tennessee|journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly|volume=59|issue=4|pages=290–303 }}</ref>

===Newspaper editor===
After Wright's failure at Nashoba in the late 1820s, she returned to New Harmony, Indiana, where she became the coeditor of ''The New Harmony and Nashoba Gazette'' (later renamed the ''Free Enquirer'') with [[Robert Dale Owen]], the eldest son of Robert Owen, the Owenite community's founder. In 1829, Wright and Robert Dale Owen moved to New York City, where they continued to edit and publish the ''Free Enquirer''.<ref name=Sanders3-4/><ref name=Exploring1103/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02K5EYvo5loC&q=Frances+Wright+co-founder+of+the+Free+Inquirer+newspaper&pg=PA1103|title=Exploring American History: From Colonial Times to 1877|last1=Lansford|first1=Tom|last2=Woods|first2=Thomas E.|date=2008|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=9780761477587|language=en}}</ref> Wright was also editor of ''The Sentinel'' (later titled ''New York Sentinel and Working Man's Advocate'').<ref name=Okker/>

===Political and social activist===
[[File:A downright gabbler, or a goose that deserves to be hissed - Published by J(ames) Akin Philada. LCCN2002708975.jpg|thumb|left|A hostile [[cartoon]] lampooning Wright for daring to deliver a series of lectures in 1829, at a time when many felt that public speaking was not an appropriate activity for women.]]
Beginning in the late 1820s and early 1830s, Wright spoke publicly in favor of abolition and lectured to support women's suffrage. She also campaigned for reforms to marriage and property laws. While residing in New York City, she purchased a former church in the Bowery area and converted it into a "Hall of Science" as a lecture hall.<ref name=Gaylor37>Gaylor, p. 37.</ref> From 1833 to 1836, her lectures on slavery and other social institutions attracted large and enthusiastic audiences of men and women in the eastern United States and the Midwest, leading to the establishment of what were called Fanny Wright societies. Although her lecture tours extended to the principal cities of the United States, the enunciation of her views and publication of a collection of her speeches in her book, ''Course of Popular Lectures'' (1829 and 1836), met with opposition.<ref name=Bowman/><ref name=ac/><ref name=Elliott141-42/>

The clergy and the press were critical of Wright and her opinions on religion and social reform.<ref name=Exploring1103/> The ''New York American'', for example, called Wright "a female monster" because of her controversial views, but she was undeterred.<ref>Sanders, p. 5.</ref> As Wright's philosophy became even more radical, she left the Democratic Party to join the [[Working Men's Party (New York)|Working Men's Party]], organized in New York City in 1829.<ref name=Exploring1103/><ref>{{cite journal| author=Carlton, Frank T.| title =The Workingmen's Party of New York City: 1829–1831 | journal =Political Science Quarterly | volume =22 | issue =3 | page=402 | date = September 1907| doi =10.2307/2141055 | jstor =2141055 | url = https://archive.org/details/jstor-2141055/page/n1| access-date =May 1, 2019}}</ref> Her influence on the Working Men's Party was so strong that its opponents called its slate of candidates the Fanny Wright ticket.<ref name=Bowman/> Wright was also an activist in the American [[Popular Health Movement]] in the 1830s and advocated for [[women in medicine|women being involved in health and medicine]].<ref name=Exploring1103/>