OXFORD, Miss. – If you’ve never heard of women’s equality advocate Judith Sargent Murray, don’t feel bad most people haven’t.
“Her
name is new to everyone, including most historians,” said Sheila Skemp,
the inaugural Marquette Professor of American History at the University
of Mississippi. “She’s someone who people should have heard of, but
they have not. That’s why I wrote a book about her.”
During
America’s formative years, in the late 1700s, Murray wrote passionately
if fruitlessly about women’s equality. Skemp aims to help give
Murray her due. Her book “First Lady of Letters: Judith Sargent
Murray’s Struggle for Female Rights” (University of Pennsylvania Press)
is slated for January release.
In a free, public lecture scheduled Tuesday (Oct. 21) at UM, Skemp will draw on her research for the book. Her presentation, “Assumptions and Misconceptions: My Long Conversation with Judith Sargent Murray,” begins at 7 p.m. in Johnson Commons Ballroom, with a reception to follow.
“It’s a great opportunity to learn more about an important figure in the long quest for equality among American women,” said Joseph Ward, chair of the Department of History. “It’s also great that we get to honor Dr. Skemp and her outstanding work as a scholar and teacher. She’s been a leading teacher across campus for many years, and she deserves this time in the spotlight.”
Skemp said she’s “humbled” to be chosen as the first Clare Leslie Marquette Professor of American History at UM.
“It’s not anything I expected would happen,” she said. “We’ve got an incredibly good history department, and there will be others who come after me who are surely more worthy. It’s a huge honor.”
For the lecture, Skemp will share details about her research. “Murray was the closest thing we had to a feminist in the late 18th and early 19th centuries,” Skemp said. “She was forgotten almost as soon as she died in 1820. But she wrote about issues that were important to women at the time.”
Murray’s essay, “On the Equality of the Sexes,” was published in the Massachusetts Magazine in 1790. In it, she made a case for women achieving economic parity with their male counterparts. But in a fledgling democracy ruled by male landowners, Murray’s words went nowhere.
“There was no women’s movement to be a part of,” Skemp said. “And without any of her personal letters, there was no real history to be written about her.”
That changed in the 1990s, when a treasure trove of Murray’s letters turned up in Mississippi, where she lived her last days. Skemp, who knew of Murray and admired her, decided to dig into those letters to tell her story. And that’s where Skemp’s “assumptions and misconceptions” come into play.
Skemp discovered that despite Murray’s progressive thought on women’s equality, she was an unapologetic elitist who often looked down on the lower class not a popular stance in her time.
“Some who might have liked her beliefs about women were exactly the ones who wouldn’t have agreed with her on class,” Skemp said. “In many ways, she was behind the times in her attitude toward democracy.”
With her rose-colored glasses shattered, Skemp said her findings freed her to be more critical of Murray and her work. Skemp will talk about debunking her own assumptions about Murray during Tuesday’s lecture.
“She was an admirable woman, but I liked her more before I came to understand who she really was,” Skemp said. “She lived quite a good life, but she complained a lot. In a lot of ways, she was her own worst enemy.”
For more information, including special accommodations related to a disability, call the Department of History at 662-915-7148.