Mary Sarah Bilder (Caitlin Cunningham)
Boston College Law Founders Professor of Law Mary Sarah Bilder鈥檚 new book, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution,听implodes the assumption that America鈥檚 framing was exclusively attributable to white men鈥攁s history would supposedly have us believe.
Instead of the oft-cited Founding Fathers, Bilder presents a heretofore overlooked and underappreciated figure in the birth of America: the enigmatic and pathbreaking educator Eliza Harriot, purportedly the first woman to give public lectures in the United States.听 Female Genius reconstructs Harriot鈥檚 transatlantic life with her Irish Catholic husband, paying particular attention to her pioneering orations, her belief in education as a political right, and to the academies she founded that inspired countless young American women to aspire to a college education, and a role in the political forum.
鈥淭he more we can learn about this generation鈥攁nd not just the men inside that room in Philadelphia, but all the people who really participated in the country鈥檚 framing moment鈥攖he better that we understand the legacy of this period,鈥� said Bilder.听 鈥淲e can see that initial drafts of the Constitution had gendered references, but the final drafting committee removed every one, creating a gender-neutral Constitution, perhaps the result of the example and influence of a virtually unknown woman: Eliza Harriot Barons O鈥機onnor.鈥�
Bilder recalled that while researching her previous book, Madison鈥檚 Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention, she repeatedly read George Washington鈥檚 diary, and was intrigued by the future president鈥檚 mysterious reference to his pre-convention attendance at an extremely rare, female-led lecture by the Lisbon-born and British-bred Harriot, who clearly 鈥渄id not fit into the story of the convention.鈥�
Harriot鈥檚 discourse in the summer of 1787, explains Bilder, was focused on an ambitious vision to alter the existing intellectual tradition that constrained female capacity, a radical idea promoted in England by a near-contemporary, Mary Wollstonecraft, a writer, philosopher, and women鈥檚 rights activist.听 Wollstonecraft argued that women are not naturally inferior to men but had always been subjugated, and she advocated for women to be taught to think and speak in public as a path towards female participation in government. Likewise, Harriot claimed that all women possessed equal capacity鈥攁lso known as 鈥渇emale genius鈥濃�攁nd deserved an equivalent education and political representation.
Bilder found the perfect exemplar of female genius in Harriot, whose focus was on establishing and demonstrating that female capacity鈥攚omen鈥檚 inherent aptitude and competence鈥攚as at minimum equal to men.听 More than that, she insisted that the efforts of one individual female should serve as an example to be imitated and improved upon to encourage others to push beyond existing limits.
[Harriot called herself 鈥淓liza Harriot,鈥� Bilder explained, since 鈥渋t鈥檚 the only part of her name that she could control herself,鈥� so that reference is used throughout the book.]
Harriot鈥檚 narrative, Bilder added, reminds us of the struggles faced by women and people of color as subsequent revisions to the Constitution simultaneously provided the political and legal tools for exclusion based on gender and race, and how gender and race are intertwined. When Harriot moved to South Carolina, for example, the realities of white privilege interceded, as her tuition-based academies achieved their most resounding success鈥攍ikely due to her ability to flourish in an economy dependent on enslaved labor.
The book concludes with a Black woman, Charlotte Rollin, who heeds the call to advance women鈥檚 status by improving on Harriot鈥檚 example. Born in South Carolina nearly a century after Harriot, Rollin accepted the state legislature鈥檚 invitation for a 鈥渓ady鈥� to argue for female suffrage. Her 1869 speech demanded that women, and in particular Black women, exercise the same right to vote and hold political office as men. She claimed it for 鈥渉uman beings鈥� who were 鈥渆ntitled to human rights.鈥�
鈥淭he book is a biography, and it鈥檚 also a history of how women and gender related to the Constitution,鈥� said Bilder. 鈥淓liza Harriot was born in 1749, and dies in 1811; her lifespan almost perfectly maps onto this space of expanding ideas about political representation, and then the abrupt constriction and exclusion that happens in the 19th century.听 I argue that she鈥檚 a significant player鈥攄espite the dearth of knowledge about her鈥攊n creating this story in the United States.鈥�
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Phil Gloudemans | University Communications | May 2022