Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s early letters document the intellectual development of a prolific woman writer from her childhood in the early national period through the 1813 death of her father Theodore Sedgwick, a Federalist member of Congress and Massachusetts supreme court judge. The youngest daughter in a family of seven siblings, Sedgwick practiced epistolary conventions in her early letters while introducing her lifelong theme of balancing personal and family expectations with the obligation to write. As Sedgwick reported in her later autobiography, she felt that she lacked a satisfactory formal education, but “these great deficiencies” were offset by the quality of her homelife. Her adolescent years were marked by her mother’s chronic ill health and death in 1807, her father’s remarriage in 1808, and her engagement with her siblings’ growing families throughout the period. By 1812, as a 22-year old republican woman reflecting on her social position, CMS felt the call of a “life dignified by usefulness” and compared her father’s contributions to her own potential: “You may benefit a Nation my dear Papa, & I may improve the condition of a fellow being” (1 Mar. 1812).
Letters from Sedgwick’s pre-publication adulthood demonstrate her intellectual and religious development as she grappled with events both personal and national. Her siblings became the central focus of her domestic life, and the Sedgwicks’ experiences with “the market of matrimony” (15 Aug. 1813) provide intriguing fodder for epistolary debate. Sedgwick rejected at least two marriage proposals in her twenties, one in 1812 and another in 1819. In the summer of 1821, she traveled to Niagara Falls and Montreal and began keeping a journal. As Sedgwick developed her authorial persona and worked on her first novel, her full-throated dedication to family, female relationships, and personal usefulness emerged as primary concerns. Sedgwick’s letters also become more philosophical, and her lifelong dedication to republican service and intellectual Unitarianism come into focus. Sedgwick explains her sense of vocation to her lifelong friend Eliza Cabot Follen: “my ministry must be one of watchfulness and steady devotion, and all those cares that love teaches, and can pay without being asked” (15 Nov 1822).
With her first novel A New-England Tale (1822), Sedgwick established herself as a professional writer, and she published four additional literary novels and more than 30 stories during this period. As a dedicated family woman, who also chose to be single and an author, she constructed domestic arrangements that complemented her writing career. She lived in the homes of her brothers and sisters-in-law in Stockbridge, Lenox, and New York City, deepening her relationships with her siblings as well as caring for the children and contributing to their education. Redwood, her second novel, received “much more praise and celebrity than [she] expected” (18 Oct. 1824). As her fame grew, she continued to find her spiritual home in Unitarianism, while her range of acquaintances expanded to include artists, politicians, reformers, educators, and intellectuals. Sedgwick began to travel more widely, visiting friends in Boston, Newport, and Philadelphia, and making extended trips to Washington DC and the South. As a measure of her celebrity, she was selected for inclusion in the National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans (1834), the only woman included other than Martha Washington. The period was also punctuated by “the real and bitter sorrows that cloud our life” (13 Mar. 1830), including the deaths of her sister Eliza, her childhood nurse Elizabeth Freeman, and her brother Harry.
As a member of the American literati, Sedgwick navigated transatlantic fame while experiencing personal loss at home. She pursued new avenues of benevolent activism in her life and writings. Letters from this period will be available soon.
Sedgwick’s engagement with mid-nineteenth-century reform movements informed her writings during this period. Her primary residences continued to be New York City and the Berkshires. She deepened her relationships with her niece Kate Minot and other members of the next generation of Sedgwicks. Letters from this era will be available at a future date.
During the Civil War period, Sedgwick grappled with issues of national importance alongside personal losses at home. She published her last book and final story and, after a medical crisis, resigned as Director of the New York Women’s Prison Association. In her final years, she resided with Kate Minot and her family near Boston. Letters from this era will be available at a future date.
Online version 1.
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- Family Relations (Sedgwick Family)
- Health and Illness
- Work
- Marriage
- Gender Roles
- Religion
- Motherhood
- Family Residences (Sedgwick Family)
- Social Life and Networks
- Travel and Touring, International
- Manners
- Childcare
- Self-reflection
- Education
- Friendship
I received your letter on Thursday -- -- Poor Catharine had suffered all sorts of apprehensions from the delay attending the answer to our letters -- You should, I think, my dear Frances be careful not to try her by neglects of this sort -- The great fault of her which useful which left to itself might prove destructive -- Constant & useful occupation is a safety valve to excessive sensibility -- but there is peculiar difficulty in Catharines occupation, It is, in its nature, irritating & harrassing -- -- and her excellent principles and dispositions will not always be sufficient to counteract this natural tendency Therefore, my dear Sister it is important that as far as possible the influence of her friends should be tranquilizing -- that little irritations, so far from being magnified to her, should as far as possible be diminished, and should not be a matter of feeling -- -- --
It seems to me it might assist a persons of excessive sensibility very much to resolve in their moments of reflection strength and serenity, to throw subjects of a certain degree of importance out of the province of feeling -- -- This would diminish the
It is a subject of great regret here that Catharine is to leave the school -- of regret and disappointment -- -- but I think she is right -- -- She has not strength to fulfil her duties in it while her anxiety about you is preying on her -- -- -- her resignation of it on the condition you propose is impossible -- The future must be left with that kind Providence who has hitherto provided -- -- --
As to our making a decision for you my dear Sister, that cannot be -- You know we shall approve your resolution whenever you have power to exercise it For my own part I have been for years hopeless of any favorable change in Mr Watson -- I do not beleive it is in his power to change his habits of mind which of course govern his conduct as certainly as the rudder does the Ship -- -- You have proposed a period of trial -- -- -- I have so much fear that you would not have the firmness requisite for an independent and energetic course, that I should fear to advise you to it --
Our late painful family experience has made me dread more than ever the sufferings from infirmity of mind -- -- I wish you to understand my dear Frances that this is the single cause of any hesitation on my part -- -- On all other accounts I should rejoice to contribute every species 3 of aid in my power to break those bonds the obligation of which have been long ago dissolved -- -- --
It is a solace to us all to think how delightfully your solitude is releived, but oh my dear Sister how much happier should we be if you made one of the cheerful faces here -- -- Harry is decidedly improving -- -- -- Robert is very anxious he should go to England -- this I have no doubt would effect his restoration, but I hope it may be obtained at a less sacrifice -- Jane has determined to take
Poor Mrs Perry is declining fast and probably will not survive many days -- Do you know that we have had a visit from my friend Mrs Griffith -- -- Her fine, social qualities operated very favorably on the prejudices that were arrayed against her -- -- and went a good way towards dissipating them -- -- -- It is fortunate when experience dissolves unfavorable opinions, as the light of day dispels ghosts -- -- Cynthia is quite ill with a fever -- -- not in immediate danger but I am afraid very seriously diseased Clarissa rs applied would be worth the whole amount of her fortune --
Mrs Minot and her two boys are to be here this week for a few days -- -- -- --
My love to Lucinda and Robert and beleive me my dear Sister
Letter
Massachusetts Historical Society
Catharine Maria Sedgwick Papers I
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Mrs Watson/Care of
C M S -- August/1827
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