Mattie Griffith Browne

Martha "Mattie" Griffith Browne (October 2, 1828 – 25 May 1906)[2] was an anti-slavery novelist and American suffragist.[3]

Mattie Griffith Browne
BornMartha Grifith
(1828-10-02)October 2, 1828
Owensboro, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedMay 25, 1906(1906-05-25) (aged 77)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesMartha Griffith Browne
OccupationAbolitionist
Suffragist
Known forAutobiography of a Female Slave
[1] Mattie Griffith Browne, c.1880

Early life

Griffith Browne was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, to father Thomas Griffith and mother Martha "Mattie" Young.[4] However, Griffith would soon be orphaned. Her mother, Martha Griffith, died during childbirth and by 1830 her father, Thomas Griffith, had died as well. After 1830, the young Mattie Griffith and her sister Catherine were cared for by their extended Griffith family; but specifically, by their Grandfather Caleb Griffith on their Daviess County, Kentucky homestead.[5]

Griffith spent her childhood between Owensboro, Kentucky and Louisville, Kentucky where she would later remove after the death of her Grandfather Caleb Griffith in 1846.[6]

Literary career

Poetry

By 1850, Griffith spend the majority of her time in Louisville, Kentucky and was a regular poetry contributor to George D. Prentice's Louisville Daily Courier, a forerunner of the better know Louisville Journal. With her growing notoriety as a poet, in 1852, Griffith published her first collection of poetry, titled simply, Poems by Mattie Griffith.[7]

Anti-Slavery Fiction

Griffith is best known for her novel, Autobiography of a Female Slave, published in 1856.[8] Set in a fictional Kentucky location modeled off of the Owensboro and Daviess County, Kentucky of her childhood, Griffith recounted her personal experiences during her childhood through the voice of the enslaved woman Ann.[9]

This novel helped bolster Griffith's image and elevated her role in the American Anti-Slavery Movement during the late 1850s. After publication, Autobiography gained the attention of influential abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Lydia Maria Child.

Another one of Griffith's notable works is a serialized novel, Madge Vertner, which was serialized in the National Anti-Slavery Standard from July 1859 to May 1860.[10]

During the Civil War, Griffith composed Ratie: A True Story of a Little Hunchback which was also serialized in the National Anti-Slavery Standard in 1862.

Activism

Abolition

Griffith was born into a wealthy, slaveholding family. After she was orphaned in 1830, she inherited half a dozen enslaved persons from her father's estate. Much of her anti-slavery ideology developed from and was based on the experiences from her childhood. However, in spite of her former slave-holding status, she became an abolitionist and advocated for emancipation in her writing.[11]

Griffith was heavily involved in the American Anti-Slavery Society as a speaker and a propagandist. Griffith worked with other abolitionist women, such as Maria Weston Chapman, in anti-slavery fundraising efforts; specifically, the National Anti-Slavery Bazaars. These bazaars were the main fundraiser for the American Anti-Slavery Society.[12]

Griffith's main role in the American anti-slavery movement was as an author of anti-slavery fiction. Her works such as Autobiography of a Female Slave, Madge Vertner, and Ratie: A True Story of a Little Hunchback, the former published and the two latter were serialized in the National Anti-Slavery Standard. Her writing highlighted moral arguments against slavery and promoted equality among races.[10]

Women's Suffrage

Griffith took an active role in women's activism. Exposure to women's rights activists in the abolition movement helped develop Griffith's views on women's rights. In 1863, Griffith joined the Women's National Loyal League which advocated for women's rights but also for emancipation and universal suffrage during the Civil War.[5]

Education Reform

In 1894 she was able to provide lodgings for Anna B. Eckstein who was then working as a teacher in Boston,[13] but would go on be a notable pacifist.

Travel Abroad

Griffith traveled to Europe in 1860 and returned to the United States in 1861.[5]

Personal life

On June 27, 1867, Griffith Browne married the journalist, abolitionist, and banker Albert Gallatin Browne Jr., in New York City.[14] Her husband was the son of Albert G. Browne and mother Sarah J. Cox.[4]

She died on May 25, 1906, from breast cancer,[2] and is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts.

Works and publications
  • Browne, Martha Griffith (1853). Poems by Mattie Griffith. New York: D. Appleton & Company. hdl:2027/hvd.hx5a56. OCLC 256758586.
  • Browne, Martha Griffith (1857). Autobiography of a Female Slave. New York: Redfield. OCLC 50822597.
  • Browne, Martha Griffith (20 December 1862). "Ratie: A True Story of a Little Hunchback". National Anti-Slavery Standard. No. Vol. XXIII, No.32. OCLC 53102768.
  • Browne, Martha Griffith (15 August 1863). "Letter: Not Slavery and a Truce, but Emancipation and Peace". National Anti-Slavery Standard. No. Vol. XXIV, No. 14. OCLC 53102638.

References
  1. "Mattie Griffith Browne, c.1880".
  2. "Mattie Browne - Massachusetts Deaths". FamilySearch. 25 May 1906. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  3. Lockard, Joe (2007). "Griffith Browne, Mattie". American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
  4. "Mattie Griffith mentioned in the record of Albert Browne Jr. and Mattie Griffith". FamilySearch. 27 June 1867. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  5. Settle, Isaac. '"An Invaluable Acquisition to Our Cause:' Mattie Griffith and the Late Anti-Slavery Movement, 1855—1860." Unpublished manuscript, December 9th, 2019, typescript; Settle, Isaac. "An Invaluable Acquisition to Our Cause:' Mattie Griffith and the Late Anti-Slavery Movement, 1855—1860." Paper presented at Senior History Thesis Defense, Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, December 12th, 2019.
  6. “Settlement of Green Griffith—Guardian of Thos. Griffith Heirs,” Settlement Book B, 1828-1847, [Loose Documents & Pages], Daviess County Courthouse, Owensboro, Kentucky
  7. "Poems by Mattie Griffith." Louisville Daily Courier (Louisville, Kentucky), November 8th, 1852.
  8. Andrews, William L. "Martha Griffith Browne, d. 1906". Documenting the American South. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  9. Griffith, Mattie (1856). Autobiography of a Female Slave. ISBN 9781404780460.
  10. Lockard, Joe (Summer 2002). "'A Light Broke Out Over My Mind': Mattie Griffith, Madge Vertner, and Kentucky Abolitionism". The Filson History Quarterly. 76: 245–285. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  11. Child, Lydia Maria Francis (27 March 1862). "How a Kentucky Girl Emancipated Her Slaves". The Independent. pp. 6–7. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2016. Originally published in The New York Tribune
  12. Chambers-Schiller, Lee. "'A Good Work among the People:’ The Political Culture of the Anti-Slavery Fair," 249-275. In The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women’s Political Culture in Antebellum America. Edited by Jean Fagan Yellin and John C. Van Horne. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994, 250; Foner, Eric. Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of America’s Fugitive Slaves. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2015, 183.
  13. "Full text of "Hätte ANNA B ECKSTEIN Den Weltkrieg Verhindern Können"". archive.org. Retrieved 2019-07-28.
  14. MacKinnon, William P. (1 November 2008). "Albert Gallatin Browne Jr.: Brief life of an early war correspondent: 1832-1891". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
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