"Perhaps no American woman writer until Margaret Fuller equaled Murray in intellectual powers, in the breadth of genres in which she wrote, or in public recognition." Born in 1751, the oldest of 8 children in an elite merchant family, Murray would become a poet, essayist, playwright, and novelist. Eventually, she even had a regular column in a magazine. Her father, Captain Winthrop Sargent, was a shipowner and merchant, her mother was from a prominent family. The family was an early convert to the Universalist teaching of John Murray.

      Her talent showed at early age but because of her sex, she was provided with only a minimum of education. Eventually her parents became aware of her talent and her drive and she was allowed to study with her brother who was preparing to enter Harvard. She had a classical education, learning Latin and Greek. Her brother tutored her in advanced studies during his school breaks. Murray always regretted not receiving both a better formal education and a better early education.

      In 1769, Judith Sargent married John Stevens, a successful sea captain and trader. The marriage , not based on love, lasted 17 years. Stevens wrote her first of many essays in support of advanced education for women in 1784: "Desultory Thoughts upon the Utility of Encouraging a Degree of Self-Complacency, Especially in Female Bosoms" was published in Town and Country and was signed with her oft-used the pseudonym "Constantia."

      By 1786 her husband was impoverished by his father's business failure, the Revolutionary War, and his own mismanagement. In 1786 he left for the West Indies to escape debtor's prison and to renew his fortune. He died shortly thereafter.

      Judith Sargent Stevens resolved to remain single and devote her energy to Universalism, a religion which she had embraced a decade before. Her father-in-law had donated the land on which was built the first Universalist meeting house. The building was dedicated in 1780 by the leading Universalist minister in the colonies, John Murray. Judith Sargent Stevens was very religious, but none the less a staunch defender of individual religious liberty and separation of church and state.

      She had corresponded with John Murray as early as 1774. Judith Sargent Stevens married Murray in 1788 for love, admiration, and "ardour" He supported her literary ambitions, she supported his efforts to establish the new faith in America. Together they traveled the east coast trying to build the new faith. She actively helped to shape the tenets of the new faith. "Universalism was the first American denomination to ordain women, and in the nineteenth century, three Universalist ministers - Olympia Brown (1835 - 1926), Phebe Hanaford (1829-1921), and Augusta Jane Chapin (1836-1905) - would become leaders in the feminist movement."

      In 1789, at age 38, Murray became pregnant with her first child. Her son was born stillborn and she nearly died in childbirth. The following year, Murray published her best-known essay "On the Equality of the Sexes." In footnote to the 1790 edition Murray states that "if it hath been anticipated, the testimony of many respectable persons, who saw it in manuscript as early as the year 1779, can obviate the imputation of plagiarism." The major theme of Murray's work would always be: "knowledge of women's abilities and accomplishments is the greatest tool for empowering young women in the new republic." In 1791 her daughter, Julia Maria born.

      Throughout the 1790s, she wrote plays, short stories, and essays on a variety of topics including feminism, religion, health, history, manners, American politics, and the French Revolution. In 1798 she published her collected works in The Gleaner, a three volume collection under the signature of Constantia. Afterwards, she published only 8 more original pieces. Her husband's eyesight began to fade, and by 1807 they were impoverished. In 1809 John Murray had stroke. Desperate for money, Murray edited her husbands Letters, and Sketches of Sermons (1812-1813). Their financial difficulties were alleviated in 1812 when their daughter married wealth planter Adam Louis Bingaman in spite of opposition by both families (it was a love match and a happy marriage). In 1816 Murray edited and published an autobiography of her now-deceased husband and later that year moved to Natchez, Miss to be with her daughter. She died in 1820 at age 69.

      "On the Equality of the Sexes" uses ideas remarkably similar to the ideas expressed 200 years later by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique. Murray argues that women are fundamentally intelligent creatures and the needle and the kitchen are not enough to keep a woman's intellect occupied. Because women have no creative outlet for their intellect, they use their intellect for less than constructive ends. To her, men and women are by nature created equal, otherwise God would not have given men and women similar souls. Murray examines techniques used by men to generate inequality. In modern language, she observes that men are socialized differently from women: men are encouraged to achieve while women are confined and our growth is limited. She turns the basis for men's superiority over women against them by using arguments, such as, men are strong like lions and tigers, beasts of prey, and men's strength is like the strength of brute animals. Further, impartial nature equalizes men and women by matching men's superior physical strength with women's superior intellect. Finally, Murray contends that men formulated the rules of society for their own benefit and without regard to women's desires or needs.

      Murray's interpretation to the creation story appears in The Gleaner as an addenda to the short essay "On the Equality of Woman." The essay which uses secular arguments to advocate for the education of women, was published at least a year before Wollstonecraft's better known Vindication of the Rights of Woman. As is often the case, Murray's essay was attacked when originally published, ostensibly because the arguments were not based on scripture. To address that concern, Murray added the addenda to her when she collected her essays in The Gleaner. Her interpretation of the creation story is only part of a larger argument using scripture to justify education for women. Both the essay and the addenda are full of wit and satire. Murray rewrites portions of the creation story, adding details that present Eve in a more favorable light. Then she analyzes Eve's and Adam's motives for their actions.

      First, this excerpt from the essay itself:

      "Yes, ye lordly, ye haughty sex, our souls are by nature equal to yours; the same breath of God animates, enlivens, and invigorates us; and that we are not fallen lower than yourselves, let those witness who have greatly towered above the various discouragements by which they have been so heavily oppressed; and through I an unacquainted with the list of celebrated characters on either side, yet from the observations I have made in the contracted circle in which I have moved, I dare confidently believe, that from the commencement of time to the present day, there hath been as many females, as males, who, by the mere force of natural powers, have merited the crown of applause; who thus unassisted, have seized the wreath of fame. I know there are who assert, that as the animal powers of the one sex are superior, of their mental faculties also must be stronger; thus attributing strength of mind to the transient organization of this earth born tenement. But if this reasoning is just, man must be content to yield the palm to many of the brute creation, since by not a few of his brethren of the field, he is far surpassed in bodily strength. page 8

      And this on the Creation story in Genesis from the later addenda:

      "It is true some ignoramuses have absurdly enough informed us, that the beauteous fair of paradise, was seduced from her obedience, by a malignant demon, in the guise of a baleful serpent; but we, who are better informed, know that the fallen spirit presented himself to her view, a shining angel still; for thus, saith the critics in the Hebrew tongue, ought the word to be rendered. Let us examine her motive- Hark! the seraph declares that she shall attain a perfection of knowledge; for is there aught which is not comprehended under one or other of the terms good and evil. It doth not appear that she was governed by any one sensual appetite; but merely by a desire of adorning her mind; a laudable ambition fired her soul, and a thirst for knowledge impelled the predilection so fatal in its consequences. Adam could not plead the same deception; assuredly he was not deceived; nor ought we to admire his superior strength, or wonder at his sagacity, when we so often confess that example is much more influential than precept. His gentle partner stood before him, a melancholy instance of the direful effects of disobedience; he saw her not possessed of that wisdom which she had fondly hoped to obtain, but he beheld the once blooming female, disrobed of that innocence, which had heretofore rendered her so lovely. To him then deception became impossible, as he had proof positive of the fallacy of the argument, which the deceiver had suggested. What then could be his inducement to burst the barriers, and to fly directly in the face of that command, which immediately from the mouth of the deity he had received, since, I say, he could not plead that fascination stimulus, the accumulation of knowledge, as indisputable conviction was so visibly portrayed before him. What mighty cause impelled him to sacrifice myriads of beings yet unborn, and by one impious act, which he saw would be productive of such fatal effects, entail undistinguished ruin upon a race of beings, which he was yet to produce. Blush, ye vaunters of fortitude; ye boasters of resolution; ye haughty lords of creation; blush when ye remember, that he was influenced by no other motive than a bare pusillanimous attachment to a woman! by sentiments so exquisitely soft, that all his sons have, from that period, when they have designed to degrade them, described as highly feminine. Thus it should seem, that all the arts of the grand deceivers (since means adequate to the purpose are, I conceive, invariably pursued) were requisite to mislead our general mother, while the father of mankind forfeited his own, and relinquished the happiness of posterity, merely in compliance with the blandishments of a female. The subsequent subjection the apostle Paul explains as a figure; after enlarging upon the subject, he adds, "This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church." Now we know with what consummate wisdom the unerring father of eternity hath formed his plans; all the types which he hath displayed, he hath permitted materially to fail, in the very virtue for which they were famed. The reason for this is obvious, we might otherwise mistake his economy, and render that honor to the creature, which is due only to the creator. I know that Adam was a figure of him who was to come. The grace contained in this figure, is the reason of my rejoicing, and while I am very far from prostrating before the shadow, I yield joyfully in all things the preeminence to the second federal head. " pages 12 - 13

      Judith Sargent Murray On the Equality of the Sexes from Selected Writings of Judith Sargent Murray edited by Sharon M. Harris, Women Writers in English 1350-1850 Series, Oxford University Press, 1995

Biographical notes from

      Sharon H. Harris (ed.), Selected Writings of Judith Sargent Murray, Women Writers in English 1350-1850, [Oxford, oxford University Press, 1995]

      Alice Rossi, The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir [Boston, Northeastern University Press, 1988]

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