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.
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- Family Relations (Sedgwick Family)
- Health and Illness
- Death
- Religion
- Urban Life
- Childcare
- Gender Roles
- Marriage
- Motherhood
- Travel and Touring, US
- Manners
- Self-reflection
- Childbirth
- Legal Issues
- Work
I recd a letter from Jane yesterday which has increased my anxiety about Elizabeth -- It appears to me to be little short of insanity for her to continue in town and nursing her baby in her present circumstances -- if her complaint is the effect of debility, and all the strength of her system is devoted to the support of her child what chance has she for recovery! -- Every day's continuance of the complaint renders the removal of it more difficult, & increases the danger that even if her life is spared, she will remain a confirmed invalid -- I have been told of similar cases, where persons have been incapable of walking for years -- I do not say this inconsiderately my dear Brother, or without being aware of the pain it must inflict, but it seems to me to be a case where your judgment should be exerted, and should govern -- 2
If Elizth willnot consent to get a nurse for her baby, and if you do not think it necessary to interpose your authority -- you ought certainly to insist on her removal
It certainly might be effected on a hospital bed without pain or inconvenience and I cannot think that the fine bracing air of Newport might set her up at once -- --
I am very glad that dear little Lizy bears her confinement so well -- but should she droop my dear Brother, and should you and Elizth continue in Town, if you will bring or send her to me at Lenox, I will with the greatest pleasure take the best and most devoted care th will think even such an offer unkind -- but should it become necessary to send her away, I trust she will prefer committing her to me to sending her among strangers -- --
I suppose you are tired of 3 hearing my croaking, but one word more my dear Robert. I do feel an extreme anxiety about your health -- what touches that seems to me to touch my own life -- I do not think you have been well all winter -- I am sure you have not -- You never have encountered a NewYork Summer without suffering, and I think you are less able than ever this Summer to contend with it -- This
Dear Egbert! what a dark cloud has his sad destiny spread over us all -- -- At the moment when we must part with
I hope Jane & Harry have left the City -- I wonder at Jane's delaying one day -- My love best love to them all if they are there -- and to George -- I received his letter --
I should have had a most gratifying visit here but for the sad & constant thought of Egbert Every species of hospitality has been lavished on me -- -- -- I should have left this last week but I could not hear of an oppty I shall go with Mrs Appleton -- tomorrow or Wednesday -- & shall not probably reach S before Friday or Saturday --
I wish particularly that you would say nothing to E_ of my having written you about her -- The interference of a third person is often felt to be impertinent -- My love to Harriet
I cannot tell you how I longed to have you with me on the rocks of Nahant -- Kiss Lizy for me -- & do not let forget my name
Letter
Massachusetts Historical Society
Sedgwick Family Papers VI
Wax blot and tears. Both PSs are cross-written on page 1; the first is in the left margin, and the second is upside down in the top margin.
Robert Sedgwick Esqre/Cedar Street/NewYork
Catharine M S/July 4 1825
Sedgwick may be expressing a special concern for her brother's health, given that New York City had experienced two epidemics in recent years -- of yellow fever in 1822 and of smallpox in 1824.