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Contribution #244 of 365
Maria W. Stewart
Lecturer, Writer and Black Women's Public-Education Pioneer
1831–1879
The contribution
How this work helped shape America
Born free in Connecticut in 1803 and orphaned young, Maria W. Stewart became a writer, lecturer and educator in Boston. Through published essays and public speeches beginning in the early 1830s, she argued for education, economic independence and political action among Black Americans and became the first known American woman to address mixed-gender audiences on political subjects. Stewart later taught and supported educational institutions in New York, Baltimore and Washington.