Editing Frances Wright

{{Short description|Scottish-American philosopher, feminist writer, and socialist activist and reformer}}
{{other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| othername     = Fanny Wright
| image         = Frances Wright.jpg
| image_size    = 
| caption       = Portrait by [[Henry Inman (painter)|Henry Inman]], 1824
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1795|9|6}}
| birth_place   = [[Dundee]], Scotland
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1852|12|13|1795|9|6}}
| death_place   = [[Cincinnati]], Ohio, US
| death_cause   = 
| citizenship   = {{ubl|United Kingdom|United States (from 1825)}}
| education     = 
| alma_mater    = 
| occupation    = {{cslist|Writer|lecturer|abolitionist|social reformer}}
| organization  = 
| known_for     = {{cslist|[[Feminism]]|[[free thinking]]|[[utopian community]] founder}}
| notable_works = 
| party         = 
| movement      = 
| spouse        = {{marriage|Guillaume Phiquepal D'Arusmont|July 22, 1831}}
| partner       = 
| children      = 1
}}

'''Frances Wright''' (September 6, 1795&nbsp;– December 13, 1852), widely known as '''Fanny Wright''', was a Scottish-born lecturer, writer, [[Freethought|freethinker]], [[feminist]], [[Utopian socialism|utopian socialist]], abolitionist, [[social reform]]er, and [[Epicureanism|Epicurean philosopher]], who became a [[US citizen]] in 1825. The same year, she founded the [[Nashoba Commune]] in [[Tennessee]] as a [[utopian community]] to demonstrate how to prepare [[slaves]] for eventual [[abolitionism in the United States|emancipation]], but the project lasted only five years.

In the late 1820s, Wright was among the first women in America to speak publicly about politics and social reform before gatherings of both men and women.<ref name="C-P236" /> She advocated universal education, the [[emancipation]] of slaves, [[birth control]], equal rights, [[sexual freedom]], legal rights for married women, and liberal divorce laws. Wright was also vocal in her opposition to [[organized religion]] and capital punishment. The clergy and the press harshly criticized Wright's radical views. Her public lectures in the United States led to the establishment of Fanny Wright societies. Her association with the [[Working Men's Party (New York)|Working Men's Party]], organized in New York City in 1829, became so intense that its opponents called the party's slate of candidates the Fanny Wright ticket.

Wright was also a writer. Her ''Views of Society and Manners in America'' (1821), a travel memoir that included observations on the political and social institutions of the United States, was very successful. She also authored ''A Plan for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in the United States Without Danger of Loss to the Citizens of the South'' (1825). In addition, Wright co-edited ''The New Harmony and Nashoba Gazette'' with [[Robert Dale Owen]] in [[New Harmony, Indiana]], as well as other periodicals.

==Early life and education==
[[File:136 Nethergate Dundee.jpg|thumb|136 Nethergate Dundee]]
Frances "Fanny" Wright was born at 136 Nethergate in [[Dundee]], [[Scotland]], on September 6, 1795, to Camilla Campbell and her husband James Wright.<ref name=C-P236>{{Cite book|author=Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn|title=Encyclopedia of Women's History in America|year=1996|publisher=Facts on File|location=New York, New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo00cull/page/236 236]|isbn=0816026254|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo00cull/page/236}}</ref><ref name=Elliott141-42>{{cite journal| author=Elliott, Helen | title =Frances Wright's Experiment with Negro Emancipation | journal =Indiana Magazine of History | volume =35 | issue =2 | pages=141–42| publisher =Indiana University | location =Bloomington | date =June 1, 1939| url = https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/7133/7980 | access-date =May 1, 2019}}</ref>  Their house was then a newly built house by the town architect, [[Samuel Bell (architect)|Samuel Bell]] on the recently widened Nethergate, close to Dundee harbour.<ref>{{cite web |title=Samuel Bell |url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=405651 |website=Dictionary of Scottish Architects |access-date=June 24, 2021}}</ref>

Her father was a wealthy [[linen]] manufacturer,<ref name=NAW675>{{cite book | author = James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds. | title =Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary| publisher =Belknap Press | volume =3 | year =1971 | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | pages=675| isbn =0-67462-731-8}}</ref> a designer of Dundee trade tokens, and a political radical. He corresponded with [[Adam Smith]] and was sympathetic to the American patriots and French republicans,<ref>{{cite journal| author=Lee, Elizabeth| title =Frances Wright: The First Woman Lecturer | journal =The Gentleman's Magazine | volume =276 | page=518 | publisher =Chatto and Windus | location =London, England | date =January 1894| url = https://archive.org/stream/gentlemansmagaz186unkngoog#page/n522/mode/2up
| access-date =May 2, 2019}}</ref> including [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette]], and [[Thomas Paine]]. Frances, or "Fanny" as she was called since childhood, was the second eldest of the family's three children. Her siblings included an older brother, who died when Frances was still young, and a sister named Camilla.<ref name=Bowman>{{cite encyclopedia| author=Bowman, Rebecca| title =Frances Wright | encyclopedia =Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia | publisher =Monticello.org | date =October 1996 | url =http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/frances-wright  | access-date =May 1, 2019}}</ref><ref name=Keating129-30>{{cite book | author=Keating, John M.| title=History of the City of Memphis Tennessee | publisher = D. Mason and Company | year =1888 | location =Syracuse, New York | pages=129–30 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=nGVAAAAAYAAJ&q=memphis+lafayette+1824&pg=PA124 }}</ref><ref name=Gilbert35-36>{{cite book | author=Gilbert, Amos | title =Memoir of Frances Wright, The Pioneer Woman in the Cause of Human Rights | publisher =Longley Brothers | year =1855 | location =Cincinnati, Ohio | pages =35–36 | url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106001055349;view=1up;seq=9  }}</ref> Wright's mother also died young, and her father died in 1798, when Frances was about the age of two. With support from a substantial inheritance, the orphaned Wright sisters were raised in England by members of the Campbell family, who were their mother's relatives.<ref name=Elliott141-42/><ref name=Sanders3>{{cite book | editor=Sanders, Mike | title =Women and Radicalism in the Nineteenth Century: Frances Wright | publisher =Routledge | volume =II | year =2001 | location =New York, New York | page =3 | isbn =0415205271}}</ref>

A maternal aunt became Wright's guardian and taught her ideas founded on the philosophy of the [[French materialism|French materialists]].<ref name=ac/> In 1813, when Wright was sixteen, she returned to Scotland to live with her great-uncle, [[James Mylne (philosopher)|James Mylne]], a philosophy professor at Glasgow College.<ref name=Bowman/> Wright was interested in the works of Greek philosophers, especially [[Epicurus]], who was the subject of her first book, ''A Few Days in Athens''  (1822), which she had written by the age of eighteen. Wright also studied history and became interested in the United States' democratic form of government.<ref name=Elliott141-42/>

==First visits to the United States and France==
[[File:Frances Wright 1835.jpg|thumb|1835 portrait of Wright]] 
Twenty-three-year-old Wright and her younger sister Camilla made their first trip to the United States in 1818. The sisters toured the country for two years before returning to England. While Wright was visiting [[New York City]], ''Altorf'',  her play about the struggle for Swiss independence from [[Austria]], was anonymously produced and performed beginning on February 19, 1819. However, it closed after three performances.<ref>Lee, p. 519.</ref><ref name=James676>James, James, Boyer, eds., p. 676.</ref> For its Philadelphia premiere on January 5, 1820, an advertisement noted that it was "performed in New York last season with distinguished success."<ref>"Theatre," ''Franklin Gazette'', January 4, 1820, p. 3</ref>

Soon after her return to England in 1820, Wright published ''Views of Society and Manners in America'' (1821).<ref name=C-P236/><ref name=James676/> The book's publication was a major turning point in her life. It brought her an invitation from [[Jeremy Bentham]] to join his circle of acquaintances, which included economist [[James Mill]], politician [[Francis Plore]], and author [[George Grote]], among others. The group's opposition to religious clergy influenced Wright's own emerging philosophy.<ref name=Sanders3/><ref name=Okker>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndYFBRgpRecC&q=Frances+Wright+co-founder+of+the+Free+Inquirer+newspaper&pg=PA219 |title=Our Sister Editors: Sarah J. Hale and the Tradition of Nineteenth-century American Women Editors|last=Okker |first=Patricia |date=June 6, 2008|publisher=University of Georgia Press |pages=219–20|isbn=9780820332499|language=en}}</ref><ref name=Elliott143-44>Elliott, pp. 143–44.</ref>

In 1821, Wright traveled to France at the invitation of the [[Marquis de Lafayette]] and met with him in Paris. Despite the differences in their ages, the two became friends. At one point, Wright encouraged him to adopt her and her sister. Wright's request strained the relationship with General Lafayette's family, and no adoption occurred. Wright's friendship with the general continued after relations with his family were repaired. She also returned to Lafayette's home in France for a six-month visit in 1827 to work on a biography of him.<ref name=Bowman/><ref name=Elliott143-44/>

==Second visit to the United States==
[[Image:Franceswright.jpg|thumb|Frances Wright, {{circa}}&nbsp;1825.]]
In 1824, Wright and her sister returned to the United States<ref name=Sanders3/> to follow the [[Marquis de Lafayette]] and his entourage during much of his farewell [[visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States|tour of the United States]].<ref name=Bowman/> Wright joined Lafayette for a two-week stay at [[Monticello]], [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s plantation in Virginia.<ref name=Gaylor34>{{cite book | editor =Gaylor, Annie Laurie | title =Women Without Superstition: "No Gods –No Masters": The Collected Writings of Women Freethinkers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries | publisher =Freedom From Religion Foundation | year =1997 | location =Madison, Wisconsin | page =[https://archive.org/details/womenwithoutsupe00gayl/page/34 34] | url =https://archive.org/details/womenwithoutsupe00gayl/page/34 | isbn =1-877733-09-1 }}</ref> In addition to Jefferson, Lafayette also introduced Wright to Presidents [[James Madison]] and [[John Quincy Adams]], as well as General [[Andrew Jackson]].<ref name=Sanders3-4>Sanders, pp. 3–4.</ref>

In February 1825, when Lafayette headed south, Wright traveled northwest to visit [[Harmony, Pennsylvania|Harmonie]],  [[George Rapp|George Rapp's]] utopian community in [[Butler County, Pennsylvania]]. She also visited the Rappite colony established in [[Indiana]], which was also named Harmonie. At that time, the Indiana community was in a period of transition. It had recently been sold to Welsh industrialist and social reformer [[Robert Owen]], who renamed his utopian community [[New Harmony, Indiana|New Harmony]].<ref name=Sanders3-4/><ref>Elliott, pp. 145–47.</ref><ref name=Exploring1103>{{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. |pages=1103–05 |date=2008|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=9780761477587|language=en}}</ref> Wright's visits to these utopian communities inspired her to form an experimental community, which she established in [[Tennessee]].<ref name=Sanders3-4/> After leaving Indiana, she traveled along the Mississippi River with her new friend [[Emily Ronalds]] to rejoin Lafayette's group in New Orleans in April 1825. When Lafayette returned to France, Wright decided to remain in the United States, where she continued her work as a social reformer. It was also in 1825 that Wright became a U.S. citizen.<ref name=Bowman/><ref name=Gaylor34/><ref>Keating, p. 124.</ref>

==Views==
Wright believed in many foundational tenets of [[feminism]], including equality in education between the sexes.<ref name=Exploring1103/> She opposed [[organized religion]], marriage, and capitalism.<ref name=Bowman/> Educational opportunities were a particular interest. Along with [[Robert Owen]], Wright demanded that the government offer free public education for all children after the age of twelve or eighteen months of age{{explain|date=April 2020}} in federal government-supported
[[boarding school]]s.<ref>{{cite book | author=Brownson, Orestes | author-link=Orestes Brownson |title=An Oration on Liberal Studies, Delivered Before the Philomathian society, of Mount Saint Mary's College, Md., June 29th, 1853 |publisher=Hedian and O'Brien|year=1853|url=https://archive.org/stream/orationonliberal00brow#page/n1/mode/2up 
|access-date=May 30, 2019|location=Baltimore, Maryland|page=19 }} "It is not without design that I have mentioned the name of Frances Wright, the favorite pupil of [[Jeremy Bentham]], and famous infidel lecturer through our country, some twenty years ago; for I happen to know, what may not be known to you all, that she and her friends were the great movers in the scheme of godless education, now the fashion in our country. I knew this remarkable woman well, and it was my shame to share, for a time, many of her views, for which I ask pardon of God and of my countrymen. I was for a brief time in her confidence, and one of those selected to carry into execution her plans. The great object was to get rid of Christianity, and to convert our Churches into Halls of science. The plan was not to make open attacks on religion, although we might belabor the clergy and bring them into contempt where we could; but to establish a system of state, we said, ''national'' schools, from which all religion was to be excluded, in which nothing was to be taught but such knowledge as is verifiable by the senses, and to which all parents were to be compelled by law to send their children. Our complete plan was to take the children from their parents at the age of twelve or eighteen months, and to have them nursed, fed, clothed and trained in these schools at the public expense; but at any rate, we were to have godless schools for all the children of the country, to which the parents would be compelled by law to send them."</ref>

Wright was a vocal advocate of [[birth control]], equal rights, [[sexual freedom]], legal rights for married women, liberal divorce laws, the [[emancipation]] of [[slaves]], and the controversial idea of interracial marriages.<ref name=C-P236/><ref>{{cite journal |author=Schlereth, Eric R. 
|year=2007|title=Fits of Political Religion: Stalking Infidelity and the Politics of Moral Reform in Antebellum America|journal=Early American Studies |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=288–323 |doi=10.1353/eam.2007.0014|s2cid=143855049}} Also: {{cite journal| author=Ginzberg, Lori D. |year=1994|title='The Hearts of Your Readers will Shudder': Fanny Wright, Infidelity, and American Freethought|journal=American Quarterly|volume=46|issue=2|pages=195–226 |doi=10.2307/2713338|jstor=2713338}}</ref> She tried to demonstrate through her experiment project in Tennessee what the [[utopian]] socialist [[Charles Fourier]] had said in France, "that the progress of civilization depended on the progress of women."<ref>{{cite book | author=Zinn, Howard 
|year=1980|title=A Peoples History of the United States|publisher=Harper and Row |page=123 }}</ref> Wright's opposition to slavery contrasted with the views of many other [[United States Democratic Party|Democrats]] of the era, especially those of the South. Her activism on behalf of working men also distanced her from the leading abolitionists of the day.<ref>{{cite book |author=Lott, Eric |year=1993 |title=Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=129 }}</ref>

==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/>

==Personal life==
Wright married French physician Guillaume D'Arusmont in Paris, France, on July 22, 1831. Wright met him at New Harmony, Indiana, where he was once a teacher. D'Arusmont accompanied her to Haiti in 1830, serving as her business manager.<ref>Woloch, p. 165.</ref><ref name=Exploring1103/><ref name=NAW678>James, James, Boyer, eds., p. 678.</ref> Wright's and D'Arusmont's daughter, Francès-Sylva Phiquepal D'Arusmont, was born on April 14, 1832.<ref name=NAW678/><ref name=Gaylor38>Gaylor, p. 38.</ref><ref>Francès-Sylva Phiquepal D'Arusmont, who later inherited the Wright fortune, married William Eugene Guthry, a bigamist whose real name was Eugène Picault. Francès-Sylva (D'Arusmont) Guthry had three children: a daughter, Hena, and two sons, Norman and Kenneth-Sylvan. See: Keating, pp. 129–30. Also: {{cite news| title =Tribunaux | newspaper =Le Temps | date =March 17, 1880 | url =https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2279556/f3.item.r=phiquepal%20d'arusmont.zoom 
|access-date=May 1, 2019}} Via Gallica BnF. (Translated from the French text.)</ref>

==Later years==
Wright, her husband, and their daughter traveled to the United States in 1835 and made several subsequent trips between the United States and Europe. Wright eventually settled in [[Cincinnati]], [[Ohio]], where she bought a home in 1844 and attempted to resume her career as a lecturer. Wright continued to travel the lecture circuit, but her appearances and views on social reform issues were not always welcome.<ref name=Gaylor38/> She also became a supporter of President Andrew Jackson.<ref name=Bowman/> After the mid-term political campaign of 1838, Wright suffered from various health problems.<ref name=acab>{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Wright, Fanny|year=1889}}</ref> She published her final book, ''England, the Civilizer'' in 1848.<ref name=Bowman/>

Wright divorced D'Arusmont in 1850. She also fought a lengthy legal battle to retain custody of their daughter and control of her own personal wealth. The legal proceedings remained unsettled at the time of Wright's death.<ref name=Exploring1103/><ref name=NAW679>James, James, Boyer, eds., p. 679.</ref> Wright spent her last years in quiet retirement at Cincinnati, estranged from her daughter, Francès-Sylva D'Arusmont.<ref name=acab/><ref name=Woloch166>Woloch, p. 166.</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Wright died on December 13, 1852, in [[Cincinnati, Ohio]],<ref name=C-P236/> from complications of a broken hip after falling on ice outside her home. She is buried at the [[Spring Grove Cemetery]] in Cincinnati.<ref name=NAW679/> Her daughter, Francès-Sylva D'Arusmont, inherited the majority of Wright's wealth and property.<ref name=Woloch166/>

Wright, an early women's rights advocate and a social reformer, was the first woman to deliver public lectures to men and women on political social reform issues in the United States in the late 1820s. Her views on slavery, theology, and women's rights were considered radical for that time, and attracted harsh criticism from the press and clergy.<ref>{{cite book | author=Buhle, Paul; Mari Jo Buhle; and Elizabeth Cady Stanton | title =The Concise History of Woman Suffrage: Selections from the Classic Work of Stanton, Anthony, Gage, and Harper | publisher =University of Illinois Press | year =1978 | location =Urbana | pages=3 and 61 | isbn =9780252006913}}</ref>

The first volume of ''[[History of Woman Suffrage]]'', published in 1881, states, “THESE VOLUMES ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED TO THE Memory of [[Mary Wollstonecraft]], Frances Wright, [[Lucretia Mott]], [[Harriet Martineau]], [[Lydia Maria Child]], [[Margaret Fuller]], [[Sarah Moore Grimké|Sarah]] and [[Angelina Grimké]], [[Josephine Sophia White Griffing|Josephine S. Griffing]], [[Martha Coffin Wright|Martha C. Wright]], [[Harriot Kezia Hunt|Harriot K. Hunt]], M.D., [[Mariana W. Johnson]], [[Alice Cary|Alice]] and [[Phoebe Cary|Phebe Carey]], [[Ann Preston]], M.D., [[Lydia Mott (activist)|Lydia Mott]], [[Eliza Farnham|Eliza W. Farnham]], [[Lydia Folger Fowler|Lydia F. Fowler]], M.D., [[Paulina Wright Davis]], Whose Earnest Lives and Fearless Words, in Demanding Political Rights for Women, have been, in the Preparation of these Pages, a Constant Inspiration TO The Editors”.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28020/pg28020-images.html|title=History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I|website=[[Project Gutenberg]]}}</ref>

==Honors and memorials==
[[File:Base of the Reformers Memorial, Kensal Green Cemetery, showing Lloyd Jones.JPG|thumb|Base of the Reformers’ Memorial, [[Kensal Green Cemetery]], including Frances Wright's name]]

* Wright's name is included on the Reformers’ Memorial in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]] in [[London]].
* A plaque was installed on a wall of her birthplace at 136 Nethergate in [[Dundee]], Scotland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dundeewomenstrail.org.uk/womens-trail/frances-wright/|title=Frances Wright - Dundee Women's Trail|website=www.dundeewomenstrail.org.uk}}</ref>
* Wright was inducted into the [[National Women's Hall of Fame]] in 1994.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/fanny-wright/ |publisher=National Women's Hall of Fame|title=Fanny Wright| access-date =May 1, 2019
}}</ref>

==Selected published works ==
* ''Altorf: A Tragedy'' (Philadelphia, 1819)
* ''Views on Society and Manners in America'' (London, 1821)<ref name=C-P236/>
* ''A Few Days in Athens'' (London, 1822)
* ''A Plan for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery in the United States'' (1825)
* ''Lectures on Free Inquiry'' (New York, 1829; 6th ed., 1836)
* ''Address on the State of the Public Mind and the Measures Which it Calls For'' (New York, 1829)<ref name=C-P236/>
* ''[[Course of Popular Lectures]]'' (New York, 1829 and 1836)<ref name=C-P236/><ref name=LectureCourse>{{Cite book|title=Course of popular lectures as delivered by Frances Wright ... with three addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789|author=Wright, Frances|date=1829|publisher=New York : Office of the Free Enquirer|others=University of California Libraries |url=https://archive.org/details/courseofpopularl00wrigrich |access-date=May 1, 2019}}</ref>
* ''Explanatory Notes Respecting the Nature and Objects of the Institution of Nashoba'' (1830)
* ''What is the Matter? A Political Address as Delivered in Masonic Hall'' (1838)<ref>{{cite book | author=Wright D'Arusmont, Frances | title =What is the Matter? A Political Address as Delivered in Masonic Hall | year =1838 | location =New York | url =https://archive.org/stream/whatismatterpoli00darn#page/n3/mode/2up }}</ref> 
* ''Fables'' (London, 1842)
* ''Political Letters, or, Observations on Religion and Civilization'' (1844)
* ''England the Civilizer: Her History Developed in Its Principles'' (1848)
* ''Biography, Notes, and Political Letters of Frances Wright D'Arusmont'' (1849)

==See also==
*[[Robert Owen]]
*[[Robert Dale Owen]]
*[[New Harmony, Indiana]]
*[[Popular Health Movement]]
*[[Working Men's Party]]
*[[Fanny Trollope]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

== References ==
*{{cite journal| author=Bederman, Gail| title =Revisiting Nashoba: Slavery, Utopia, and Frances Wright in America, 1818–1826 | journal =American Literary History | volume =17 | issue =3 | pages =438–459 | year=2005| doi =10.1093/alh/aji025 | s2cid =144559953 }} 
*{{cite encyclopedia| author=Bowman, Rebecca| title =Frances Wright | encyclopedia =Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia | publisher =Monticello.org | date =October 1996 | url =http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/frances-wright  | access-date =May 1, 2019}}
*{{cite book | author=Brownson, O. A. | title =An Oration on Liberal Studies, Delivered Before the Philomathian society, of Mount Saint Mary's College, Md., June 29th, 1853 | publisher =Hedian and O'Brien | year =1853 | location = Baltimore, Maryland | url =https://archive.org/stream/orationonliberal00brow#page/n1/mode/2up }} 
*{{cite book | author=Buhle, Paul; Mari Jo Buhle; and Elizabeth Cady Stanton | title =The Concise History of Woman Suffrage: Selections from the Classic Work of Stanton, Anthony, Gage, and Harper | publisher =University of Illinois Press | year =1978 | location =Urbana | isbn =9780252006913}}
*{{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 | date = September 1907| pages =401–415 | doi =10.2307/2141055 | jstor =2141055 | url = https://archive.org/details/jstor-2141055/page/n1| access-date =May 1, 2019}}
*{{cite book|author=Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn|title=Encyclopedia of Women's History in America|year=1996|publisher=Facts on File|location=New York, New York|isbn=0816026254|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofwo00cull}}
*{{cite journal| author=Elliott, Helen | title =Frances Wright's Experiment with Negro Emancipation | journal =Indiana Magazine of History | volume =35 | issue =2 | publisher =Indiana University | location =Bloomington | date =June 1, 1939| url = https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/imh/article/view/7133/7980 | access-date =May 1, 2019}}
*{{cite journal| author= Emerson, O.B.| title =Frances Wright and her Nashoba Experiment | journal =Tennessee Historical Quarterly | volume =6 | issue =4 | pages =291–314 | year =1947}} 
*{{cite web| title =Fanny Wright | publisher =National Women's Hall of Fame | url =https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/fanny-wright/ | access-date =May 1, 2019}}
*{{cite web|url=http://peace.maripo.com/m_frances_wright.htm |title=Frances Wright [1795-1852]|website=peace.maripo.com}} 
*{{cite web|url=http://www.dundeewomenstrail.org.uk/womens-trail/frances-wright/|title=Frances Wright - Dundee Women's Trail|website=www.dundeewomenstrail.org.uk}}
*{{cite book | editor =Gaylor, Annie Laurie | title =Women Without Superstition: "No Gods –No Masters": The Collected Writings of Women Freethinkers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries | publisher =Freedom From Religion Foundation | year =1997 | location =Madison, Wisconsin | url =https://archive.org/details/womenwithoutsupe00gayl | isbn =1-877733-09-1 }}
*{{cite book|author=Gilbert, Amos |title=Memoir of Frances Wright, The Pioneer Woman in the Cause of Human Rights|location=Cincinnati, Ohio |publisher=Longley Brothers|year=1855 |url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106001055349;view=1up;seq=9 }} 
*{{cite journal| author=Ginzberg, Lori D.| title ='The Hearts of Your Readers will Shudder': Fanny Wright, Infidelity, and American Freethought | journal =American Quarterly | volume =46 | issue =2 | pages =195–226 | date =1994| doi =10.2307/2713338 | jstor =2713338 }}
*{{cite book | author=Harrison, John | title =Robert Owen and the Owenites in Britain and America | publisher =Taylor and Francis | year =2009 }}
*{{cite book | author =James, Edward T., Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds. | title =Notable American Women 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary| publisher =Belknap Press | volume =3 | year =1971 | location = Cambridge, Massachusetts | isbn =0-67462-731-8}}
*{{cite book | author=Keating, John M.| title=History of the City of Memphis Tennessee | publisher = D. Mason and Company | year =1888 | location =Syracuse, New York | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=nGVAAAAAYAAJ&q=memphis+lafayette+1824&pg=PA124 }}
*{{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. |pages=1103–05 |date=2008|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=9780761477587|language=en}}
* {{cite journal |author=Lee, Elizabeth |title=Frances Wright: The First Woman Lecturer | publisher =Chatto and Windus | location =London, England | date =January 1894 |journal=The Gentleman's Magazine|volume=276|pages=518–28|url=https://archive.org/stream/gentlemansmagaz186unkngoog#page/n522/mode/2up | access-date =May 2, 2019}}
*{{cite web|url=http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/livingrev/equality/text6/wright.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219152937/http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/livingrev/equality/text6/wright.pdf |archive-date=2007-12-19 |url-status=live|title=Views of Society and Manners in America. Notes from the National Humanities Center|access-date=November 28, 2014|website=nationalhumanitiescenter.org}}
*{{cite book | author=Lott, Eric| title =Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class| publisher =Oxford University Press | year =1993 }}
*{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndYFBRgpRecC&q=Frances+Wright+co-founder+of+the+Free+Inquirer+newspaper&pg=PA219 |title=Our Sister Editors: Sarah J. Hale and the Tradition of Nineteenth-century American Women Editors|last=Okker |first=Patricia |date=June 6, 2008|publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780820332499|language=en}}
*{{cite journal| author=Parks, E.W.| title =Dreamer's Vision: Frances Wright at Nashoba (1825–1830) | journal =Tennessee Historical Magazine | volume =2 | pages =75–86 | year=1932}} 
*{{cite journal| author=Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia| title =The Nashoba Plan for Removing the Evil of Slavery: Letters of Frances and Camilla Wright, 1820–1829 | journal =Harvard Library Bulletin | volume =23 | year=1975}} 
*{{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Wright, Frances}}
*{{cite journal| author=Sampson, Sheree| title =Reclaiming a Historic Landscape: Frances Wright's Nashoba Plantation in Germantown, Tennessee | journal =Tennessee Historical Quarterly | volume =59 | issue =4 | pages =290–303 | year=2000}}
*{{cite book | editor=Sanders, Mike | title =Women and Radicalism in the Nineteenth Century: Frances Wright | publisher =Routledge | volume =II | year =2001 | location =New York, New York | isbn =0415205271}}
*{{cite journal| author=Schlereth, Eric R.| title =Fits of Political Religion: Stalking Infidelity and the Politics of Moral Reform in Antebellum America | journal =Early American Studies | volume =5 | issue = 2| pages =288–323 | date =2007| doi =10.1353/eam.2007.0014 | s2cid =143855049 }} 
*{{cite news| title =Tribunaux | newspaper =Le Temps | date =March 17, 1880 | url = https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2279556/f3.item.r=phiquepal%20d'arusmont.zoom | access-date =May 1, 2019}} Via Gallica BnF. (Translated from the French text.) 
*{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Wright, Fanny|year=1889}}
*{{cite book | author =Woloch, Nancy | title =Women and the American Experience | publisher =Knopf | year =1984 | location =New York | url =https://archive.org/details/womenamericanexp00wolo | isbn =9780394535159 | url-access =registration }}
*{{Cite book|title=Course of popular lectures as delivered by Frances Wright ... with three addresses on various public occasions, and a reply to the charges against the French reformers of 1789|author=Wright, Frances|date=1829|publisher=New York: Office of the Free Enquirer|others=University of California Libraries |url=https://archive.org/details/courseofpopularl00wrigrich |access-date=May 1, 2019}}
*{{cite news| author=Wright, Frances | title =Nashoba, Explanitory Notes, &c. Continued | newspaper =New-Harmony Gazette | location =New Harmony, Indiana | pages =17| date =1828 }}
*{{cite book | author=Wright D'Arusmont, Frances | title =What is the Matter? A Political Address as Delivered in Masonic Hall | year =1838 | location =New York | url = https://archive.org/stream/whatismatterpoli00darn#page/n3/mode/2up  }} 
*{{cite book | author=Zinn, Howard | title =A Peoples History of the United States | publisher =Harper and Row | year =1980 | page=123}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite web |url=http://antislavery.eserver.org/tracts/lundyplan/lundyplan.pdf |title=Benjamin Lundy plan |website=antislavery.eserver.org |access-date=December 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151010172118/http://antislavery.eserver.org/tracts/lundyplan/lundyplan.pdf |archive-date=October 10, 2015 |url-status=dead }}
* Connors, Robert J. (1999). "Frances Wright: First Female Civic Rhetor in America," ''College English'' '''62''' (1), pp.&nbsp;30–57.
* {{cite book | title= Fanny Wright: Rebel in America | author=Eckhardt, Celia Morris| isbn=0-252-06249-3 | publisher=Harvard University Press | year = 1984}}
* Everett, L.S. (1831). ''[http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044020254843;view=1up;seq=5 An Exposure of the Principles of the "Free Inquirers."]'' Boston: B. B. Mussey
* {{cite book | title= Rereading Sex: Battles over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth-Century America| author=Horowitz, Helen | publisher=Alfred A. Knopf | year = 2002}}
* {{cite book | title= In Common Cause: the "Conservative" Frances Trollope and the "Radical" Frances Wright | author=Kissel, Susan S.| isbn=0-87972-617-2 | publisher=Bowling Green | year = 1983}}
* {{cite book | title=Frances Wright, Free Enquirer: The Study of a Temperament | author=Perkins, Alice J. G. & Theresa Wolfson | isbn=0-87991-008-9 | publisher=Porcupine Press | year=1972 | url=https://archive.org/details/franceswrightfre0000perk }}
* Schlereth, Eric R. (2013). ''An Age of Infidels: The Politics of Religious Controversy in the Early United States''. University of Pennsylvania Press.
* {{cite book | title= Fanny Wright | author=Waterman, William Randall| publisher=Columbia University Press | year = 1924}}
* {{cite book | title=Fanny: A Fiction | author=White, Edmund | author-link=Edmund White | isbn=0-06-000484-3 | publisher=Hamilton | year=2003 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/fannyfiction00whit }}
* Wilentz, Sean (2004). ''Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850''. Oxford University Press.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{commons category-inline}}
* [http://www.electricscotland.com/history/women/wih3.htm Frances Wright, Woman's Advocate]
* [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/REwright.htm Biography with excerpt from Lectures]
* [http://germantownmuseum.org/ap14.php The Germantown Museum. Andy Pouncey: Frances Wright.]
* [http://afewdaysinathens.com A Few Days in Athens]
* {{Cite Americana|wstitle=D'Arusmont, Madame Frances |short=x}}
* [http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/nq21279.pdf ''Different sides of the picture. Four Women's Views of Canada (1816 - 1838)'']. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, by Susan Birkwood, Faculty of Graduate Studies, [[The University of Western Ontario]], [[London, Ontario]], 1997 ([[Ann Cuthbert Rae|Ann Cuthbert Knight]]; [[Anna Brownell Jameson]]; [[Frances Trollope]]; Wright)

{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Frances}}
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