Douglas A. Jones' collection of Maria W. Stewart's speeches and writings provides a broader context for the world in which she moved as a free Black woman. The selections spotlight her daily experiences, as well as her meditations on antebellum race and gender politics. Like other free-born Blacks at the time, Stewart risked enslavement regardless of where she resided, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. To shed greater light on the debates over race and gender that ignited the early national period, Jones includes excerpts from Black and white writers, further illuminating Stewart's words.
Jones organizes the book into three parts: Gender Theory, Racial Ethics, and Literary Productions. Each section includes selections from Stewart's archives, preceded by several essays by prominent individuals commenting on race and gender politics during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He leads the volume with excerpts from Thomas Jefferson's thoughts on Black intellectual ability in his Notes on the State of Virginia (1785). The voices of notable Black and white abolitionists, including Angelina Grimké and Hiram Mattison, illustrate the rise of radical rhetoric that contested dominant notions of Black inferiority. Well-known Black activists and educators represented here include the Reverend Alexander Crummell, Anna Julia Cooper, David Walker, Sarah Mapps Douglass, Hosea Easton, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Jarena Lee, William J. Wilson, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Charlotte Forten. Each writer provides insight into the lived experiences of enslaved and free Black women and men in the United States. A common thread is their reliance on a deep Christian faith and belief in the superiority of western civilization. As was typical of many abolitionist writers, they cited the heroism of notable women in the Bible as exemplifying the potential for the advancement of women in the United States.
Maria Stewart's speeches, however, remind us of the tension between rhetoric and action. Female activists during this period, regardless of race or class, frequently faced strong resistance to their efforts to speak and write publicly on political topics, especially if they directly criticized male leadership or dared to point out deficiencies in the Black community. While some Black female activists like Sarah Mapps Douglass of Philadelphia preferred to write within acceptable norms of womanhood, others such as Stewart and Cary did not shy away from confrontation. Douglass and Cary were firmly rooted in the Philadelphia free Black community and had grown up in relative economic stability. Stewart did not enjoy the same status in Boston's free Black community. Stewart left Boston in 1833, at the age of thirty, after facing relentless hostility to her public addresses. Like most free Black women, Stewart lived on the edge of poverty and the threat of enslavement, especially once she headed south.
Stewart was an outspoken free Black abolitionist woman, and Jones' book offers a refreshing approach that restores her to her rightful historical prominence. Stewart's public speeches illustrate her willingness to defy contemporary expectations of proper womanhood. Jones' most significant contribution to the fields of Black studies, history, and women's history is to supply readers with the opportunity to access Stewart's speeches in a single volume.
At the same time, Jones' collection feels incomplete. The limits of space require authors and editors to consider carefully the selection of appropriate contributors. So we are left to wonder why Jones chose these writers to accompany and provide context to Stewart's work. Why not include, for example, relevant essays by Frederick Douglass or William Lloyd Garrison, who also supported women's rights? Why not include a selection by Sarah Grimké? Jones' volume would have benefited greatly from a more extensive rationale behind the choice of writings that accompany Stewart's work. In addition, a conclusion tying together the major themes of the book would remind readers of the collection's purpose. Readers who are familiar with Stewart and the abolitionist movement will recognize the significance of Jones' selection of authors, but others may need guidance. Readers should attend closely to Jones' footnotes; they are thorough and meticulous, rich with a range of sources and explanatory material, demonstrating the depth and breadth of Jones’ research. It is in the footnotes where one can find hints to Jones' thinking, if not in the design of the text itself.