{"id":575,"date":"2017-12-19T11:24:47","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T16:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/?p=575"},"modified":"2017-12-19T15:05:45","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T20:05:45","slug":"margaretta-bleecker-faugeres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/2017\/12\/19\/margaretta-bleecker-faugeres\/","title":{"rendered":"Margaretta (Bleecker) Faug\u00e8res"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker to which is added, A Collection of Essays, Prose, and Poetical, by Margaretta V. Faug\u00e8res<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Margaretta Faug\u00e8res, daughter of John and Ann Eliza Bleecker, was born in New York City in 1771. After her birth, the family move their country estate in Tomhannock, presently known as Troy, New York. After the death of Ann Eliza Bleecker in 1783, twelve-year-old Faug\u00e8res and her father moved back to New York City. There, Faug\u00e8res continued her education, and with privilege from her wealth and class, she was able to establish herself as a female writer. Faug\u00e8res actively participated in the publishing world, starting in the 1790s where she began to write \u201cpoems and essays against the death penalty, and in support of abolition and of the French Revolution,\u201d and was named the premier poet of The New York Magazine<\/em> for several years (Vietto 565). She was genuinely convinced of the restoration of human liberty embodied by the American and French Revolutions. Faug\u00e8res greatly supported the anti-slavery movement, and in June 1791, she published her political essay, Fine Feelings Exemplified in the Conduct of a Negro Slave, <\/em>in which she challenged Thomas Jefferson’s claim that slaves lacked \u201cfiner feelings;\u201d<\/p>\n

I cannot help thinking that their sensations, mental and external, are as acute as those of the people whose skin may be of a different colour; such an assertion may be bold, but facts are stubborn things<\/small><\/cite><\/big> and had I not them <\/em>to support me, it is probable I should not attempt to oppose the opinions of such an eminent reasoned. (Faug\u00e8res 268)<\/small><\/cite><\/big><\/p>\n

In 1793, Faug\u00e8res published a collection of her and her mother\u2019s work, titled The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker to which is added, A Collection of Essays, Prose, and Poetical by Margaretta Faug\u00e8res<\/em> in The New York Magazine<\/em>. In this collection, she included her poem \u201cThe Hudson,\u201d which she depicts the democratic ideal, as well as the events before and during the American Revolution. She constructed her own identity \u201cas an activist writer of more of an enlightened generation\u201d (Vietto 564). French physician, Peter Faug\u00e8res influenced her support of the French Revolution. Margaretta and Peter shared similar political beliefs, and although her father was in opposition to their relationship, they got married on Bastille Day, July 14, 1792. They had two daughters, Eveanna Electa Faug\u00e8res (1795\u20131841) and Margaret Mason Faug\u00e8res (1797\u20131820). Unfortunately, the Faug\u00e8res\u2019 marriage was broken as her husband abused her and managed to spend her large fortune. When Peter Faug\u00e8res died of Yellow fever in 1798, Faug\u00e8res decided to teach school in New Brunswick, New Jersey and Brooklyn, New York (Harris 129).<\/p>\n

In 1793, Margaretta Faug\u00e8res published The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker in Prose and Verse<\/em>, to which is added a Collection of Essays, Prose and Poetical<\/em>, a collection of her mother’s work and her own. Faug\u00e8res expressed grief over the death of her mother and sister in some of her work but proposed democratic ideals in a number of her political essays and poems regarding equality and justice. In 1795, she wrote Belisarius: A Tragedy<\/em> to the John Street Theatre, a tragedy in four acts, which echoed her views on human rights. At first, it was rejected but was then published in New York that same year and became one of Faug\u00e8res\u2019s most significant literary achievements. The message of pacifism, anti-materialism, and the vanity of power was extraordinary for this time especially coming from a female author. In similarity to French politics, Belisarius is caught between corrupt courtiers on the one hand and cruel revolutionists on the other. The play exploits the vanity of fame while preserving the purity of ordinary human life.<\/p>\n

In 1797, she wrote \u201cThe Ghost of John Young,\u201d a six-page poetic narrative in which she gave John Young’s perspective from the grave. The pamphlet presents opposition to capital punishment as she felt it was \u201ca view of rescuing his memory from obloquy and shewing how inconsistent sanguinary laws are, in a country which boasts of her freedom and happiness\u201d (Harris 127). Faug\u00e8res published her last work, \u201cOde,\u201d on July 4, 1798, which was composed to support a speech given by New York Governor George Clinton to remind America of the price paid during the Revolution to become a free nation. Margaretta Faug\u00e8res died on January 9, 1801, and is buried next to her father in the Bowery Methodist Church Cemetery of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nWorks Cited<\/b><\/p>\n

\n

Faug\u00e8res, Margaretta V. (Ed.). The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker\u00a0<\/em>to which is added, <\/em>A Collection of Essays, Prose,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Poetical, by Margaretta V. Faug\u00e8res<\/em>. New York: T and J. Swords, 1793. Evans Early American Imprint Collection, https:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/e\/evans\/N19358.0001.001\/1:14.2?rgn=div2;view=fulltext. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017.<\/p>\n

Harris, Sharon M. Executing Race: Early American Women\u2019s Narratives of Race, Society, and <\/em>the Law<\/em>, Ohio State University Press, 2005, pp. 80-130. Print.<\/p>\n

Vietto, Angela. \u201cDaughters of the Tenth Muse: New Histories of Women and Writing in Early America.\u201d Early American\u00a0<\/em>Literature<\/em>, vol. 41, no. 3, 2006, pp. 555\u2013567. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org\/stable\/25057469<\/a>. Accessed 28 Nov. 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiography of Margaretta Bleecker Faug\u00e8res.\u201d Poem Hunter<\/em>,\u00a0https:\/\/www.poemhunter.com\/margaretta-bleecker-faug-res\/biography\/<\/a>. Accessed 18 Nov. 2017.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Margaretta Faug\u00e8res, daughter of John and Ann Eliza Bleecker, was born in New York City in 1771. After her birth, the family move their country estate in Tomhannock, presently known as Troy, New York. After the death of Ann Eliza Bleecker in 1783, twelve-year-old Faug\u00e8res and her father moved back to New York City. There, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3986,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[98,73,41],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","tag-american-female-authors","tag-american-revolution","tag-new-york-city"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3986"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":600,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions\/600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/litandthecity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}