Sarah Josepha Hale: the extension of women’s rights and moral authority

occupation . She was an editor, writer, and promoted women’s education.

She is also known as Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, or SJ Hale.

Biography of Sarah Josepha Hale

Her original name was Sarah Josepha Buell; She was born in Newport, New Hampshire, United States, in 1788. Her father, Captain Buell, had fought in the American War of Independence. She and her wife, Martha Whittlesey, had moved to New Hampshire after the war, where they settled on a farm owned by her grandfather. Sarah was born there; she was the third daughter of the Buell family.

Education

Sarah’s mother was her first teacher, transmitting to her daughter the love of books and the commitment to the basic education of women, in order to educate their families. When Sarah’s older brother, Horatio, was at Dartmouth, he spent his summers back home teaching Sarah the same subjects she was taking: Latin, philosophy, geography, and literature. Sarah thus obtained an education equivalent to a university education; at that time women were not accepted in universities.

Between 1806 and 1813, she applied her informal college education as a teacher at a private school for boys and girls near her home, at a time when few women were teaching.

Marriage

In October 1813 Sarah married a young lawyer, David Hale. David continued with Sarah’s training by guiding her in learning subjects such as French and botany. Sarah and David studied and read together at night. David also encouraged her to write for a local publication; Later, Sarah would acknowledge David’s help in bringing clarity to her texts. They had four children, and Sarah was pregnant with her fifth when David Hale died of pneumonia in 1822. She wore black for the rest of her life in honor of her husband.

The young widow, who was 34 years old at the time, had to raise her five children without having sufficient financial resources. Sarah wanted her children to have a solid education, so she looked for a way to definitively solve her financial problems. David’s fellow Masons helped Sarah and her sister-in-law set up a small hat business. But it did not go well for them and they had to close it soon after.

His first publications

Sarah decided then that she would try to earn a living with one of the few activities that women could develop: being a writer. She began submitting her texts to magazines and newspapers, and some of her articles were published under the pen name Cordelia . In 1823, again with the support of local Freemasonry, she published a book of poems, The Genius of Oblivion , which met with some success. In 1826 she received a prize of twenty-five dollars from the  Boston Spectator and Ladies’ Album for a poem, A Hymn to Charity .

Northwood

In 1827 Sarah Josepha Hale published her first novel,  Northwood, a Tale of New England. Both reviews and public reception were positive. The novel described home life in the early days of independence, contrasting the way of life in the North and South of the United States. She addressed the issue of slavery, which she later called Hale ” a stain on our national character ” ( a stain on our national identity), and the growing economic tensions between the two parts of the country. The novel supported the idea of ​​freeing the slaves and sending them back to Africa, settling them in Liberia. In the description of slavery, he highlighted the damage it caused to those people who were enslaved, but also that it dehumanized those who either enslaved others or who were part of a nation that allowed slavery. Northwood  was the first published American novel written by a woman.

The novel caught the attention of a Protestant pastor, the Reverend John Lauris Blake.

Editor of Ladies’ Magazine

Reverend Blake was starting the publication of a new women’s magazine in Boston. Some 20 American magazines and newspapers targeting women had been published, but none had been successful. Blake hired Sarah Josepha Hale as editor of  Ladies’ Magazine. Sarah Hale moved to Boston with her youngest son. The other children went to live with relatives or boarders at the school. The boarding house where he was staying also housed Oliver Wendell Holmes, an American physician, poet, and novelist of the time. He became friends with much of the Boston literary community, including the Peabody sisters.

The magazine was billed as “… the first magazine edited by a woman for women…either in the Old World or the New ” . . The magazine published poetry, essays, fiction and other literary proposals.

The first issue of the new magazine was published in January 1828. Hale conceived of the magazine as a way to encourage what she called ” female enhancement ” (she would later discuss the use of the term ” female” in that context). Hale used her column, The Lady’s Mentor .), to further that cause. He also wanted to promote a new American literature, so instead of publishing reprints of British authors, as many publications at the time did, he required and published original works by American writers. Ella sarah she wrote a large part of each issue of the magazine, about half, including essays and poems. Among her collaborators were Lydia Maria Child, Lydia Sigourney and Sarah Whitman. In the first issues, Hale even wrote some of her letters to the magazine, hiding her identity.

Consistent with her pro-American and anti-British (or generally anti-European) stance, Sarah Josepha Hale favored a simpler style of dress over ostentatious European fashion, and refused to include illustrations of European dress in her magazine. Failing to win over her views on women’s clothing, she removed the illustrations on fashion clothing.

« Separate spheres «

Sarah Josepha Hale adhered to what has been called ” separate spheres “, which viewed the public and political sphere as the natural place of man and the home as the natural place of woman. Within this conception, Hale used almost every issue of  Ladies’ Magazine  to promote the idea of ​​expanding women’s education and knowledge. She, however, opposed women’s political participation, such as the right to vote, arguing that the way in which women could influence the public sphere was through their husbands, even when voting.

Other projects

During her involvement with Ladies’ Magazine , which changed its name to American Ladies’ Magazine  when she discovered there was a British publication of the same name, Sarah Josepha Hale became involved in other activities. She helped organize women’s groups to raise funds to complete construction of the Bunker Hill Battle Memorial in Boston, proudly noting that women were able to raise what men could not. She also helped found the Seaman’s Aid Society, an organization to support the wives and children of men who have disappeared at sea.

He published prose and poems. Furthering the idea of ​​composing music for children, she published a book of poems to be sung, including ” Mary’s Lamb , ” known today as Mary Had a Little Lamb . This poem, along with others from that book, was reprinted in many other publications in the following years, almost always without authorship citation. Mary Had a Little Lambit was published without authorship in McGuffey’s Reader, from where many American children learned and enjoyed it. Many of her later poems were also published without authorship, including the publications edited by McGuffey. The popularity that her first book of poems garnered from her caused her to publish another of hers in 1841.

Lydia Maria Child was the editor of the children’s magazine  Juvenile Miscellany from 1826. Child turned over her editorship in 1834 to a friend , who was Sarah Josepha Hale. Hale edited the magazine unrecognized until 1835, and she continued as editor until the following spring, when the magazine closed.

Editor of  Godey’s Lady’s Book

Perhaps due to the magazine’s financial problems, in 1837 Louis A. Godey bought  American Ladies’ Magazine  and merged it with his own magazine,  Lady’s Book,  naming Sarah Josepha Hale as literary editor. Hale remained based in Boston until 1841, when her youngest son graduated from Harvard. Having successfully fulfilled her goal of raising her children, she moved to Philadelphia, where the magazine was headquartered. Hale identified completely with the magazine, which was renamed  Godey’s Lady’s Book . Godey himself was a very talented promoter and publicist; Hale’s editorial direction brought quality and a modern feminine vision to the publication.

As she had done during her previous editorship, Sarah Josepha Hale continued to write prolifically for the magazine. Her goal was still ” to contribute to the moral and intellectual excellence of women .” She continued to publish original material instead of reprints from other publications, especially from Europe, as other magazines at the time tended to do. By giving authors adequate remuneration, Hale contributed to the development of the writing profession, making it profitable.

There were some changes from his previous editorial management experience. Godey objected to opinion pieces on political issues or religious ideas being published in the magazine, although a certain general religiosity was an important part of the magazine’s image. In fact, Godey fired an editorial assistant for  Godey’s Lady’s Book  for writing in another anti-slavery magazine. On the other hand, although Hale objected, Godey insisted on the inclusion of fashion illustrations, often hand-painted lithographs, which made the magazine stand out. Hale wrote about fashion; in 1852 he introduced the word lingerieas a euphemism for undergarments, when writing about what was appropriate for American women. Images with Christmas trees helped implant that custom in middle-class American homes.

Among the writers who contributed to Godey’s Lady’s Book  were Lydia Sigourney, Elizabeth Ellet and Carline Lee Hentz. In addition to the works of various female writers, Godey’s Lady’s Book under Hale’s direction published texts by such male authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In 1840 Lydia Sigourney traveled to London to report on Queen Victoria’s wedding; the queen’s white wedding dress became a model for the United States in part due to articles in Godey’s Lady’s Book .  

After some time, Hale concentrated her work on two sections of the magazine, the Literary News and the Editorial Board , where she developed the moral role and influence of women, their duties and even their superiority in certain respects, and the importance of The education of women. She also promoted the expansion of job opportunities for women, particularly in the medical field; Hale supported Elizabeth Blackwell and her position on the training and practice of medicine. Hale also staunchly supported married women’s right to property.

The publication reached 61,000 subscribers in 1861, making it the magazine of this type with the largest circulation in the country. In 1865 its circulation reached 150,000 copies.

Highlights in the career of Sarah Josepha Hale

• slavery . Although Sarah Josepha Hale was opposed to slavery, she did not support American anti-slavery activists in the 19th century. In 1852, after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin had become popular, Northwood republished her book  as Life North and South : Showing the True Character of Both Lifes. : showing the true character of both) with a new preface supporting the Union. Hale was skeptical about the possibility of a complete emancipation of the slaves, because she did not believe that white people could treat people who had been enslaved fairly, and in 1853 she published Liberia, which proposed the repatriation of slaves to Africa.
• The female vote . Sarah Josepha Hale did not support women’s suffrage, since she believed that the vote corresponded to the public sphere, exclusively male sphere, according to her opinion. She, on the other hand, subscribed to the ” secret, silent influence of women ” ( secret and silent influence of women ).
• The education of women . Her support of women’s education was influential in the founding of Vassar College, and she is credited with bringing women to the university. Hale was close friends with Emma Willard and supported Willard’s Troy Female Seminary. She advocated for the training of women to work as teachers in schools and in higher level specialized institutes called normal schools. She supported physical education as part of women’s education, opposing those who thought women were too delicate for physical education.
• The working woman . Hale was convinced and championed the ability of women to enter the workforce and be paid.
• Children’s education . Being friends with Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Hale created an infant school or kindergarten, where she registered her youngest son. Hale followed the development of the kindergartens with interest.
• Projects to raise funds . Hale promoted and organized fundraisers for the construction of the Bunker Hill Battle Memorial in Boston, and for the restoration of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home.
• Thanksgiving day . Sarah Josepha Hale promoted the idea of ​​establishing a national holiday on Thanksgiving Day. After convincing President Lincoln to establish the holiday, she continued to promote Thanksgiving as a national identity and unifying cultural event. For this, she published recipes for turkey, cranberries, potatoes, oysters and other foods that became typical of the holiday, even indicating what was the appropriate dress for a family Thanksgiving.
• national unity . Thanksgiving was one of the ways that Sarah Josepha Hale promoted peace and unity in the United States, even before the Civil War, when, despite a ban on publishing political articles in Godey’s Lady  ‘s Book , published poems showing the terrible effects of war on children and women.
• He opposed the use of the term female (female), alluding to women; he cataloged it as 2 a term for the gender of animals » ( an animal term for gender ). He wrote ” Females, don’t tell me! They could have been sheep! » ( Females, indeed! They might have been sheep! ). He convinced Matthew Vassar and the state of New York to change the name from Vassar female College to Vassar College .
• Writing about the  extension of women’s rights and moral authority , she went so far as to affirm that men were bad and women were good by nature, it being the mission of women to bring their goodness to men.

Other publications

Sarah Josepha Hale’s literary production extended beyond her participation in magazines. She published her own poems and edited poetry anthologies. In 1837 and in 1850 she edited and published anthologies of poetry with poems by American and British women. The 1850 collection had 600 pages.

Some of his books, particularly between the 1830s and 1850s, were published as gift books, an increasingly popular festive custom. He also published cookbooks and advice books for the home.

His most popular book was  Flora’s Interpreter ( La interprete de Flora ); First published in 1832, it was a gift-giving book with illustrations of flowers and poetry. It had fourteen editions until its name was changed in 1848 and it had three more editions until 1860.

According to Sarah Josepha Hale, her most important contribution was a 900-page book with more than 1,500 short biographies of historically relevant women, Women’s Record: Sketches of Distiguished Women . The book was first published in 1853 and underwent several revisions.

His last years and his death

Sarah’s daughter, Josepha, ran a girls’ school in Philadelphia from 1857 until her death in 1863.

In his later years, Hale had to fight accusations that he had plagiarized the poem Mary’s Lamb . The last accusation occurred two years after his death, in 1879; a letter from Sarah Josepha Hale to her daughter about her authorship, written a few days before her death, helped to clarify the situation. While not everyone agreed, most experts agree that Hale is the author of the well-known poem.

Sarah Josepha Hale retired in December 1877, aged 89, with a final article in  Godey’s Lady’s Book  to celebrate her 50 years as editor of the magazine. Thomas Edison, also in 1877, recorded the first speech on a phonograph, using Hale’s poem Mary’s Lamb .

Hale continued to live in Philadelphia and passed away less than two years later at his home. She was laid to rest at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

The magazine continued to be published until 1898 under a new owner, but it was not again as successful as it was under Hale and Godey.

Sources

• Dubois, Muriel L. Tono My Countrywomen: The Life of Sarah Josepha Jalo . Bedfored, New Hampshire: Apprentice Shop Books, 2006. ISBN 978-0-9723410-1-1.
• OKKER, Patricia. Our Sister Publishers: Sarah J. Jalo and the Tradition of Nineteenth-century American Women Publishers . Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1995.