Tall, bold and vivacious, Fanny Wright was a fierce crusader for humanitarian ideals.
She championed women's equality in the 1820s, nearly a generation before Seneca Falls.
She condemned slavery in the South
and unfair wages in the North.
Fanny was the first woman in America
to lecture in public to large secular audiences of men and women. Thousands flocked to hear her in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
So
why didn't you learn about Fanny Wright in history class?
Because she also spoke and wrote about sex.
Writing powerfully about sexual experience, Fanny called it the ''noblest of human passions'' and the basis of “the best joys of our existence.” Equally
for women and men! She envisioned a culture where ''affection shall form the only marriage tie.'' These were dangerous words in the 19th Century.
Also, Fanny attacked religion, calling
it the ''the perverter of human virtue.'' You can imagine that didn't go over well.
Though she had enthusiastic fans forming "Fanny Wright" societies and famous supporters like Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman and the Marquis de Lafayette, Fanny had plenty of haters, too.
Preachers and conservative newspaper editors accused her of promoting anarchy, atheism and free love. They branded her the "Red Harlot of Infidelity.''
Even other women of radical views criticized Fanny. Catherine Beecher thought her lectures unseemly, saying "There she stands, with brazen front and brawny arms, attacking the safeguards of all that is venerable and
sacred in religion, all that is safe and wise in law, all that is pure and lovely in domestic virtue."
Fanny did more than talk. Below is a drawing of Nashoba, the colony she established hoping to end slavery.
