Margaret Fuller was born in Massachusetts in 1810. Unlike many women at the time, she was encouraged by her father to obtain an education. She was thought to be the best read person in all of the New England states. Her father’s death at a young age left her without any financial support. As a result, she was required to earn a living through teaching and writing.
When Ralph Waldo Emerson needed an editor for his journal. She was hired after many men turned down the job. She edited the journal for two years, but Emerson never paid her for what he had promised. In her position as editor, she mentored a young Henry David Thoreau. While editing Emerson’s journal she was able to do her own writing. One of her publications, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, became an inspiration for women worldwide. It was thought to be the beginning of women standing up for themselves.
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret had a complex relationship. He was frightened by her radical ideas of women’s rights, and Margaret became the inspiration for Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter.
Since Emerson failed to compensate Margaret, she needed another source of income. Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune hired her as a literary critic. She also wrote columns for the Tribune, but was never allowed to use her name. Later, Greeley asked Margaret to travel to Europe to become the first female foreign correspondent. She did this for several years. When she returned home, the ship she travelled on ran into a sand bar 50 yards from the New York coast. Margaret died trying to make it to shore. Her body was never recovered.
Margaret Fuller was a quiet inspiration to many in many different ways. She was an inspiration for many Literary Figures at the time. Both Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony attributed Margaret for their advocacy for women’s rights. They lauded her for proclaiming a woman’s right to think.
In addition to her advocacy for women’s rights, she was also involved in many other areas of society including the abolition of slavery, the plight of homelessness, Native American’s treatment, and prison conditions.
Today few people know the name Margaret Fuller. That’s often the case with those who inspire others. They are comfortable in letting others get the credit for ideas that they may have inspired. Those who inspire quietly are a contrast to the self-promotion that has become more of society’s norm. But those who inspired quietly are often the people who truly make a difference.
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“It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
– Harry S. Truman