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)
- Leisure Activities
- Housewares and Furnishings
- Social Life and Networks
- Authorship
- Childhood
- Childcare
- Religion
- Unitarianism
- Clothing
- Shopping and Material Exchange
- Literature and History
- Publication
- Press
- Urban Life
- Marriage
- Judaism
- Bible
- Native Americans
- National Identity
- Class
I recd two letters from Lenox on friday -- one from you -- a very pleasant one & a very interesting one from your father & mother -- Poor Sam Charles! -- His fate even at this late day drew tears from my eyes -- --
I waited some time for the particulars your father has given me, but concluding he had forgotten my request I finished the story & sent it -- I have called it ‘Berkely Jail’ 1 -- Your Uncle R_ likes it very much -- I hope the rest of my public will -- I read today your mother’s 'forfeited ring' -- Your Aunt Lizy & I & little Liz’, whose criticism is worth more than ours tho’t it beautiful -- I am such an ‘old stager’ that I conclude a story must be very good that touches me to tears & this did so -- -- --
Sue as usual is making a racket like a dozen canaries in my ears -- I frowned on her the other day & she ‘said “dont do so Kitty’ -- I then smiled & asked ‘what does a smile mean Sue? “It means love Kitty” -- Was there ever a more poetic or prettier definition 1 -- She is always lovely and bright tho' she has no variety but a visit to my 2 room -- and a dinner â table d’hôte when the weather is fine -- --
We have had an excellent sermon today from Mr Ware -- to show that going to meetings at 5 O’clock in the morning -- three times a day & every evening in the week as those who claim to be the most religious in this city now do, was was that intimate communion with our own souls -- that minute knowledge of the workings of our minds by which alone we can diligently keep & train them -- He said there was not a single example of our Lord praying in public -- excepting his ejaculatory prayers -- that which we call the Lord’s prayer was given as a pattern -- and what a model of simplicity & spirituality it is -- The prayer recorded in John was in the presence only of his twelve disciples & may be called a ‘family prayer’ -- But then it must be observed with what fidelity he 'went apart' to pray -- with what fervency he prayed -- --
The truth is my dear Kate, we must judge for ourselves what are the means best to nurture & elevate our souls -- to preserve us from sin, and to keep alive a delightful sense of the 3 presence and approbation of God -- We should make this sense even more necessary to our happiness that the love and approbation of our dearest friends -- than the presence of the most tenderly loved parent --
What does your father mean by talking of his coming to NY -- as if it were possible he should not come -- Tell him he promised to be here in March -- -- We think it may be very important he should be here with your Uncle Harry -- 2
Monday -- I went to the le young men of the City -- in the assembly-room of the City-hotel where you took your first dancing lessons -- The whole n 3 -- will have a fine description of it as the Editors were both there -- It was the gayest and most brilliant & beautiful exhibition I ever saw -- The best character was done by a young French count who personated a noble of the old rëgime -- he was perfect -- & so was Martin Hoffman -- as an Indian Chief -- in a drawing-room dress -- He spoke no English but a jargon resembling Indian -- When I spoke to him he replied in the most animated manner -- lighted his Calumet at a chandelier 4 and presented it to my lips -- Miss C Lawrence was a Brigand’s wife -- & so decked with jewels that she looked as is if her Brigand had robbed all the princes & potentates in Europe -- -- She wore a small glittering pistol in her belt & whenever opportunity occurred to produce a sensation she fired it off --
The most splendid groupe were a party of the Primes 4 & their friends as Crusaders -- led by Peter the hermit muffled in a brown cloak with a white cross on the back -- Miss Prime as Joan of Arc -- was of this party & in a dress of perfect taste & splendor -- She had 19 Ostrich feathers in her helmet -- One of the Crusaders gave $1500 for his dress! Besides them there were Kings -- Sultanas -- turks -- Greeks -- Albanians -- the peasantry of all countries -- The 10’ Hussars -- National guards -- princes -- pages brides & Anne
My paper is exhausted and the topic just begun -- -- 5
My best love to dear Jeanie if she is still with you -- & thanks for her pretty PS _____
Would your prefer to come down here this Spring or to take your luck for a journey with me this sumr -- perhaps to pass a fortnight in Newport with Mrs Wharton & Mary? --
I am ashamed to say that I have forgotten for which room your Mother wished the carpet -- let me know
Insertion 1
She is just now singing "oh mama I must be married' -- married Sue? -- do you want a husband? 'Yes I want my Kitty for my husband so to sleep with her' _____
Letter
Massachusetts Historical Society
Catharine Maria Sedgwick Papers II
Wax blot and tears; the insertion appears in the left margin of page 1; the end of the letter wraps around the right margin of page 4, continues to the upper margins of page 1, the left margin of page 2, and signs off in the upper right margin of page 3.
Via Hudson / Miss CM Sedgwick / Lenox / Masstts
C. M. Sedgwick/March 1831/N.Y.
Sedgwick's story "Berkely Jail" appeared in The Atlantic Souvenir of 1832. We have been unable to locate the Elizabeth Dwight Sedgwick story mentioned here as the "Forfeited Ring."
Two lines of text are heavily marked out here.
Probably the American, a newspaper published in New York City from February 1830 to October 1834. See https://www.readex.com/titlelists/early-american-newspapers-1830-1839
Likely a reference to the family of Nathaniel and Cornelia Sands Prime; the "Miss Prime" referenced may be either Matilda Prime Coster or Laura Prime Jay.