Welcome to the Posey Circuit Court
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Welcome to the Posey Circuit Court
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GAVEL GAMUT
by Judge Jim Redwine
MAD FANNY(1795-1852) Was Frances Wright crazy or just marching to her own drummer? One of Posey County’s brightest had a highly developed intolerance for social injustice and a star crossed, though very interesting, personal life. Brilliant, wealthy and Scottish, Fanny was a perfect fit for her fellow Scot, Robert Owen’s, New Harmony commune built on principles of the Enlightenment. As a teenager she authored a play and when she was twenty-three she and her younger sister, Camilla, traveled from Scotland to New York City to see another of her plays publicly performed. Lafayette, the great hero of the American Revolution, and Fanny had a four year relationship at his home in France just before she joined the New Harmony community. Lafayette was in his 60’s and married, but, apparently, his wife, Adrienne, was rather understanding of the Marquis’s frequent peccadilloes. They were French after all and it was “The Age of Enlightenment.” Fanny’s years with the great Revolutionary helped mold the young woman’s egalitarian ideology and intensify her passion for justice. Fanny had become interested in the United States while still a child in Scotland. She found the new social experiment of democracy fascinating. She studied and wrote about America frequently before permanently settling here in 1825. Fanny and Camilla accompanied Lafayette on his triumphal return to America. Congress had invited him and his son, George, (named for George Washington) to return after 50 years to thank and honor the Marquis for his crucial role in the War. This was a perfect opportunity to cool their relationship and for Fanny to dive headlong into her self-ordained mission to save humanity, particularly women and slaves. Upon arriving in New Harmony she won at least one convert’s heart and mind when she simply overwhelmed the Founder’s son, Robert Dale Owen. The twenty three year old Robert Dale Owen was captivated immediately and completely by the beautiful and worldly twenty-nine year old Fanny. Robert Dale and Fanny proceeded together to implement Fanny’s theories of true democracy. Of course, there were many people who believed in equal rights for women and freedom for slaves. However, most of them approached these gurgling volcanoes with caution; Not Frances Wright! As the contemporary but more traditional Catherine Beecher said of her: “Who can look without disgust and abhorrence upon such a one as Fanny Wright…mingling with men in stormy debate and standing up with bare-faced impudence to lecture to a public assembly.” Frances Wright was, perhaps, the most influential person in bringing women into the world of public lecturing on matters of substance. In fact, she may have been one of the first women in America to publicly address an assemblage of both women and men. This occurred on July 4, 1828, in our own New Harmony, Indiana. |
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