Maria W. Stewart
1803-1879 19th century
Taking the floor when no one has given it to you.
Who was Maria W. Stewart?
Orphaned at five, placed in a Connecticut minister's household, widowed at twenty-six and stripped by the executors of her husband's estate, in 1832 she stood on a Boston platform, the first American woman to speak publicly to an audience of men and women. There she told black Americans to stay and fight for their freedom rather than emigrate to Liberia, and said it with the Bible in hand. She was silenced within three years; she spent the rest of her life teaching.
In their own words
I have indeed found that the Christian life is a life of warfare; for the spirit wars against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit.
O God, I know that I am not worthy of a place at thy footstool; but to whom shall I go but unto thee? Thou alone hast the words of eternal life. Send me not away without a blessing, I beseech thee; but enable me to wrestle like Jacob, and to prevail like Israel.
I desire to thank thee that I am this day a living witness to testify that thou art a God that will ever vindicate the cause of the poor and needy, and that thou hast always proved thyself to be a friend and father to me.
I have merely written the meditations of my heart as far as my imagination led.