A Late Night Vindication: Annis Boudinot Stockton's Reading of Mary Wollstonecraft's <i>A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</i>

Abstract

Annis Boudinot Stockton, an elite early American poet and patriot, ends a letter to her daughter with a declaration: I am frightened at length of my letter--and more when I look at watch and see hour of night--it is past one oclock, and not a creature upon in house but my self--but you will say, it is my custon [sic] to keep vigils of night. Adieu my love, may heaven bless you and yours and protect you this night, prays your ever affectionate mother A Stockton--(307) According to Carla Mulford, editor of Only for Eye of a Friend: The Poems of Annis Boudinot Stockton, Stockton most likely wrote letter on 22 March 1793 (304). In writing this letter, Stockton mus[es] over her solitary fire at her elegant home in Princeton, New Jersey (304, 305). She must have had ink and pen at her side as well as sheets of paper, prepared for her script. But what was so urgent that Stockton needed to continue her day's labor into early hours of morning? Was it news of sickness or a neighborhood festivity? No, Stockton was writing to her daughter, Julia Stockton Rush, about her opinions of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of Rights of Woman. What follows is a study of this American reading of an English text. I begin with background about Stockton and her subject, Wollstonecraft's Rights of Woman. Next, I provide an overview of literary and feminist scholarship that underpins my reading. Finally, I analyze letter and argue that it demonstrates limitations of private and public sphere terminology in describing reception of early American women's letters. In contemplating women's rights, letter operates in an expanded sphere of intimacy that Stockton characterizes as the neighbourhood (304). Building upon her term, I propose that a woman author writing within an epistolary neighborhood can directly engage with political and domestic concerns. Blurring line between public and private, and private, an epistolary neighborhood allows a woman author to gain an audience beyond her home and family while also avoiding cultural ridiclue often directed at vocal women. Although other women, especially elite whites such as Mercy Otis Warren and Abigail Adams, also wrote in neighborhoods, Stockton's status as a widow gives us an opportunity to examine her text without specter of a politician husband hovering over our interpretations. Her writing, in short, offers a new lens through which to reconsider her contemporaries. According to Mulford's introduction to Stockton's letters, author was born in 1736 to Catherine Williams and Elias Boudinot, a well-to-do couple who provided her with an education alongside her brother Elais. She was born in Darby, Pennsylvania, but spent most of her youth in Philadelphia where her family's home and father's silversmith shop were next door to Benjamin Franklin's Post Office. After two moves, first within Philadelphia and second to New Brunswick, New Jersey, family finally settled in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1752 or 1753 (12). There, Annis Boudinot met and married successful Richard Stockton and they established their home across from College of New Jersey (15, 17). She romantically named their property Morven, after Fingal's Kingdom in James Macpherson's Ossianic poems. At Morven, couple cultivated an elite status by not only entertaining numerous guests, but also modeling their gardens to mirror those to Alexander Pope at Twickenham (17). As an elite man, Richard was drawn into New Jersey politics and worked on behalf of government until 1774 (19). Though initially taking a moderate stance toward American Revolution, Richard converted to patriotic cause in 1776, signed Declaration of Independence, and became a member of First Continental Congress (20). During occupation of New Jersey, Richard was seized by Tory leaders and taken captive by British who incarcerated him until 1777 (21). …