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Mattie Griffith Browne

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Mattie Griffith Browne
Born
Martha Grifith

(1828-10-02)October 2, 1828
DiedMay 25, 1906(1906-05-25) (aged 77)
NationalityAmerican
Other namesMartha Griffith Browne
Occupation(s)Abolitionist
Suffragist
Known forAutobiography of a Female Slave

Martha "Mattie" Griffith Browne (October 2, 1828 – 25 May 1906)[1] was an anti-slavery novelist and American suffragist.[2]

Early life

Griffith Browne was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, to father Thomas Griffith and mother Martha "Mattie" Young.[3]

Career

Her family owned slaves. In time, she inherited half a dozen slaves from her father.[4]

In spite of her former slave-holding status, she became an abolitionist and advocated for emancipation in her writing. She is best known for her novel, Autobiography of a Female Slave, published in 1856.[5] Another one of her notable works is a serialized novel, Madge Vertner, and was published in the National Anti-Slavery Standard from July 1859 to May 1860.[6]

Personal life

On June 27, 1867, Griffith Browne married the journalist, abolitionist, and banker Albert Gallatin Browne, Jr., in New York City.[7] Her husband was the son of Albert G. Browne and mother Sarah J. Cox.[3]

She died on May 25, 1906, from breast cancer,[1] and is buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem, Massachusetts.[8]

Works and publications

  • Browne, Martha Griffith (1853). Poems by Mattie Griffith. New York: D. Appleton & Company. OCLC 256758586.
  • Browne, Martha Griffith (1857). Autobiography of a Female Slave. New York: Redfield. OCLC 50822597.
  • Browne, Martha Griffith (20 December 1862). "Ratie: A True Story of a Little Hunchback". National Anti-Slavery Standard. No. Vol. XXIII, No.32. OCLC 53102768. {{cite news}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
  • Browne, Martha Griffith (15 August 1863). "Letter: Not Slavery and a Truce, but Emancipation and Peace". National Anti-Slavery Standard. No. Vol. XXIV, No. 14. OCLC 53102638. {{cite news}}: |issue= has extra text (help)

References

  1. ^ a b "Mattie Browne - Massachusetts Deaths". FamilySearch. 25 May 1906. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  2. ^ Lockard, Joe (2007). "Griffith Browne, Mattie". American National Biography. Oxford University Press.
  3. ^ a b "Mattie Griffith mentioned in the record of Albert Browne Jr. and Mattie Griffith". FamilySearch. 27 June 1867. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  4. ^ Child, Lydia Maria Francis (27 March 1862). "How a Kentucky Girl Emancipated Her Slaves". The Independent. pp. 6–7. Originally published in The New York Tribune
  5. ^ Andrews, William L. "Martha Griffith Browne, d. 1906". Documenting the American South. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
  6. ^ Lockard, Joe (Summer 2002). "'A Light Broke Out Over My Mind': Mattie Griffith, Madge Vertner, and Kentucky Abolitionism". The Filson History Quarterly. 76: 245–285. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  7. ^ MacKinnon, William P. (1 November 2008). "Albert Gallatin Browne Jr.: Brief life of an early war correspondent: 1832-1891". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  8. ^ "Martha "Mattie" Griffith Browne". Find A Grave. Retrieved 13 August 2016.