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YOU GO, GRRLS!— IN 19TH CENTURY MASSACHUSETTS
A DRAMA on SiriusXM’s “Radio Classics” introduced me to the Peabody sisters of 19th century Salem, Massachusetts. This remarkable trio, Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia, left a legacy that would do any modern woman proud—at a time and place that was both intellectually flourishing and yet so stultifying.
From left to right, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804 – 1894), Mary Peabody Mann (1806 – 1887), Sophia Peabody Hawthorne (1809 – 1871). Images from The History of Women and Education.
The “Radio Classics” program, “I, Mary Peabody,” was a 1950 Cavalcade of America production (starring Elizabeth Taylor) based on the book The Peabody Sisters of Salem by Louise Hall Tharp. Both the program and book depict a brainy, albeit controlling, Elizabeth; a shy Mary; and a frail Sophia. These images were not misleading.
The Peabody Sisters of Salem, by Louise Hall Tharp, Little, Brown, 1950.
The sisters were raised by forward-thinking parents amidst New England’s Transcendentalism, a movement that stressed the inherent goodness of people and nature. The three received home education far beyond the norm for early 19th-century women.
Elizabeth was taught Latin, for instance, and eventually learned 10 other languages. She ran Boston’s West Street Bookstore out of her home, 1840 – 1852. Among its activities were regular Conversations organized by Margaret Fuller, an early advocate of women’s rights.
Such were the times, though, that Elizabeth had a falling out with Bronson Alcott (father of Louisa May, of Little Women fame) when his book Conversations with Children on the Gospels mentioned that “love forms babies.” As noted at The Peabody Sisters website, such statements “today seem impossibly vague, but … at the time [1836] represented the first example of anything like sexual education in the schools.”
Reinventing the Peabody Sisters, edited by Monika N. Elbery, Julie E. Hall and Katharine Rodier, University of Iowa, 2006. Summary abstracts are available.
The West Street Bookstore undertook the first publication, in 1849, of Henry David Thoreau’s Essay on Civil Disobedience, arguing that individuals should not permit governments to overrule their consciences.
Two Peabody marriages took place at the bookstore. In 1842, Sophia married Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables and children’s books (the first of which was published by the bookstore).
And, in 1843, Mary married Horace Mann, education reformer (honored by having schools named after him throughout the world). The pair traveled “west” to help establish Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1850. Mann was its first president.
Both sisters’ relationships reflected mid-19th century proprieties. It was not until their engagement that Mary felt comfortable calling her intended anything but Mr. Mann. Both Sophia (32) and Nathaniel (38) were considered old for marriage, and the day after their nuptials, he wrote to his sister, “We are as happy as people can be, without making themselves ridiculous, and might be even happier; but, as a matter of taste, we choose to stop short at this point.”
Elizabeth never married. However, as noted at The Peabody Sisters website, she was “Ever eager to arrange her sisters’ lives.” Generally, this occurred with some cordiality.
Following Horace’s death in 1859, Elizabeth moved in with Mary and they opened a school together. In 1863, the two published Moral Culture of Infancy and Kindergarten Guide, encouraging the practices of German educator Friedrich Froebel. (Froebel frowned upon fear-based discipline in schools; he gained mention at this website’s “New England 1915.”)
Sophia, who was always frail, died in London at age 61 in 1871.
In their later years, Elizabeth and Mary continued their efforts fostering women’s suffrage, world peace and Native American rights. This last activity caught them up in a controversy concerning Sarah Winnemucca, whom the press described as Princess Winnemucca of the Paiutes. The Peabody sisters donated money toward her goal of building schools for the Paiute people.
Sarah Winnemucca, Paiute activist, educator and author, Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims, 1883.
According to The Peabody Sisters website, “After they supported Winnemucca for six years, the schools were only being started and the Princess was unable to account for expenditure of the funds.”
The Wikipedia entry for Sarah Winnemucca offers a different story: “The Peabody Indian School… operated for a couple of years” in Lovelock, Nevada. It adds that Winnemucca’s second husband, an Indian Department employee, was addicted to gambling and her earnings were eaten up by his needs.
The Peabody sisters were rather more successful in their other reforms. You go, grrls! ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2015
Simanaitis Says 
Hi Dennis, Thanks for writing this blog! I have been fascinated by the three Peabody Sisters since I learned of them many years ago…my mother was a Peabody and while her lineage is traced back through the Peabody brother that went west to Chicago…I can still see the “Peabody” look in our family line. I have loved those strong, fierce female educators and free-thinkers of 19th century Boston and admire them for what they stood for and did for others…it is no surprise that the Peabody family in which I grew up were: school teachers and principals; my grandfather Ben Peabody sat on the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board for about 30 years! Thanks again for your blog…I too applaud the Peabody sisters’ efforts and hope their spirit inspires many of us today!!! All the best!