Susanna Rowson, née Haswell (1762–1824) was a British-American novelist, poet, playwright, religious writer, stage actress and educator.

Rowson was the author of the novel Charlotte Temple

Charlotte Temple

Charlotte Temple is a novel by Susanna Rowson. It was first published in England in 1791 under the title Charlotte, A Tale of Truth. The first American edition was published in 1794 and the novel became a bestseller. It has gone through over 200 American editions.Charlotte Temple is the name of...

, the most popular best-seller in American literature until Harriet Beecher Stowe's

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...

 Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....

was published in 1852.

Childhood

Susanna Haswell was born in 1762 in Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

, England to Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 Lieutenant William Haswell and his first wife, Susanna Musgrave, who died within days of her birth. Her father was stationed in Boston as a customs officer, and there married Rachel Woodward, returning to England to bring his daughter to Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. On arrival in 1767, their ship grounded on Lovells Island

Lovells Island

Lovells Island, or Lovell's Island, is a island in the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, in Massachusetts. The island is across The Narrows from Georges Island and some offshore of downtown Boston. It is named after Captain William Lovell, who was an early settler of nearby Dorchester...

 in Boston Harbor

Port of Boston

The Port of Boston, , is a major seaport located in Boston Harbor and adjacent to the City of Boston...

, the crew and passengers being rescued from the wreck days later. They lived at Hull

Hull, Massachusetts

Hull is a peninsula town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,293 at the 2010 census. Hull is the smallest town by land area in Plymouth County and the fourth smallest in the state...

, where family friend James Otis

James Otis, Jr.

James Otis, Jr. was a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts, a member of the Massachusetts provincial assembly, and an early advocate of the political views that led to the American Revolution. The phrase "Taxation without Representation is Tyranny" is usually attributed to him...

 took a special interest in her education. At the outbreak of the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

, the father was placed under house arrest

House arrest

In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...

, and subsequently the family was moved inland, to Hingham

Hingham, Massachusetts

Hingham is a town in northern Plymouth County on the South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and suburb in Greater Boston. The United States Census Bureau 2008 estimated population was 22,561...

 and Abington, Massachusetts

Abington, Massachusetts

As of the census of 2000, there were 14,605 people, 5,263 households, and 3,747 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,469.1 people per square mile . There were 5,348 housing units at an average density of 538.0 per square mile...

. In 1778, the failing health of Lieutenant Haswell led to a prisoner exchange, and the family was sent via Halifax

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

, Nova Scotia to England, settling near Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull

Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

. Their American property having been confiscated, they lived in relative poverty, Susanna helping to support the family by serving as a governess.

Pen and stage

It was as governess that she wrote her first work, Victoria, dedicated to the Duchess of Devonshire

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire , formerly Lady Georgiana Spencer, was the first wife of the 5th Duke of Devonshire, and mother of the 6th Duke of Devonshire. Her father, the 1st Earl Spencer, was a great-grandson of the 1st Duke of Marlborough. Her niece was Lady Caroline Lamb...

, published in 1786, and in the same year she married William Rowson, a hardware merchant and horse guards trumpeter. In 1791, she published the novel now referred to as Charlotte Temple; it became the first American best-selling novel. After William's hardware business failed, he and Susanna turned to acting. In 1793, as a member of the theater company of Thomas Wignell

Thomas Wignell

Thomas Wignell was an English-born actor and theatre manager in colonial United States.-Early life:He was born in England and came to North America in 1774 with his cousin Lewis Hallam, then left for Jamaica until 1785.-Career:...

, she returned to America, performing in Philadelphia.

Over the next three years there she wrote a novel, an opera, a musical farce about the Whiskey Rebellion

Whiskey Rebellion

The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, was a tax protest in the United States in the 1790s, during the presidency of George Washington. Farmers who sold their corn in the form of whiskey had to pay a new tax which they strongly resented...

 (The Volunteers), a poetical address to the American troops, and several songs for the company in addition to performing 57 roles on the stage in two seasons. In response to her seemingly new-found republicanism and the liberal gender roles in her work, Slaves in Algiers, she was attacked by William Cobbett

William Cobbett

William Cobbett was an English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist, who was born in Farnham, Surrey. He believed that reforming Parliament and abolishing the rotten boroughs would help to end the poverty of farm labourers, and he attacked the borough-mongers, sinecurists and "tax-eaters" relentlessly...

 who referred to her as "our American Sappho

Sappho

Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet, born on the island of Lesbos. Later Greeks included her in the list of nine lyric poets. Her birth was sometime between 630 and 612 BC, and it is said that she died around 570 BC, but little is known for certain about her life...

" (she returned fire, calling him a "loathsome reptile" in her introduction to Trials of the Human Heart). In 1796, she and Rowson removed to Boston, performing at the Federal Street Theatre

Federal Street Theatre

The Federal Street Theatre , also known as the Boston Theatre, was located at the corner of Federal and Franklin streets in Boston, Massachusetts. It was "the first building erected purposely for theatrical entertainments in the town of Boston."-History:The original building was designed by Charles...

.

Later years

The next year, she gave up the stage, and founded a boarding school for girls, which she would later move to Medford

Medford, Massachusetts

Medford is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States, on the Mystic River, five miles northwest of downtown Boston. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Medford's population was 56,173...

 and Newton

Newton, Massachusetts

Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...

, returning to Boston in 1809 and training hundreds of girls. She also continued her writings, producing several novels, an additional work for the stage, a dictionary and two geographies as well as being editor of the Boston Weekly Magazine

Boston Weekly Magazine

The Boston Weekly Magazine of Boston, Massachusetts, was established by Gilbert & Dean in 1802, "devoted to morality, literature, biography, history, the fine arts, agriculture, &c." Joshua Belcher, Samuel T. Armstrong, Oliver C. Greenleaf, and Susanna Rowson were also affiliated with its production...

(1802–1805). She was also called on to support her husband, and (though they had no children of their own) an increasingly growing household including her husband's illegitimate son, two adopted daughters, and the widow and daughters of her half-brother Robert Haswell

Robert Haswell

Robert Haswell was an early American maritime fur trader to the Pacific Northwest of North America. His journals of these voyages are the main records of Captain Robert Gray's circumnavigation of the globe...

 who had been lost at sea in 1801. (One of these nieces, Rebecca Haswell, was great-grandmother of poet E. E. Cummings

E. E. Cummings

Edward Estlin Cummings , popularly known as E. E. Cummings, with the abbreviated form of his name often written by others in lowercase letters as e.e. cummings , was an American poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright...

.) She also headed a charity for widows and the fatherless. She retired from her school in 1822, and died in Boston two years later, March 2, 1824. She was buried in the family vault of friend Gottlieb Graupner at St. Matthew's Church, South Boston. When this church was demolished in 1866, her remains could not be distinguished, and all remains were moved together to the Mount Hope Cemetery, Boston. A monument was later raised for Susanna Rowson and brothers Robert and John Montresor Haswell in Forest Hills Cemetery

Forest Hills Cemetery

Forest Hills Cemetery is a historic cemetery, greenspace, arboretum and sculpture garden located in the Forest Hills section of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery was designed in 1848.-Overview:...

 in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighbourhood, where she is memorialized as the author of Charlotte Temple

Charlotte Temple

Charlotte Temple is a novel by Susanna Rowson. It was first published in England in 1791 under the title Charlotte, A Tale of Truth. The first American edition was published in 1794 and the novel became a bestseller. It has gone through over 200 American editions.Charlotte Temple is the name of...

.

Fiction

• Victoria (1786)
• The Inquisitor (1788)
• Mary, or, The Test of Honour (1789)
• Charlotte: a Tale of Truth (1790; retitled Charlotte Temple
  Charlotte Temple
  Charlotte Temple is a novel by Susanna Rowson. It was first published in England in 1791 under the title Charlotte, A Tale of Truth. The first American edition was published in 1794 and the novel became a bestseller. It has gone through over 200 American editions.Charlotte Temple is the name of...
  
  after the 3rd American edition, 1797)
• Mentoria (1791)
• Rebecca, or, The Fille de Chambre (1792)
• Trials of the Human Heart (1795)
• Reuben and Rachel (1798)
• Sarah (1813)
• Charlotte's Daughter, or, The Three Orphans (a sequel to Charlotte's Temple published posthumously in 1828, with a memoir by Samuel L. Knapp; also known as Lucy Temple
  Lucy Temple
  Lucy Temple is a novel by Susanna Rowson. It was first published posthumously in 1828 under the title Charlotte's Daughter, or, The Three Orphans....
  
  )

Plays

• Slaves of Algiers; or, A Struggle for Freedom (1794)
• The Female Patriot (1795)
• The Volunteers (1795)
• Americans in England (1796; retitled Columbian Daughters for 1800 production)
• The American Tar (1796)
• Hearts of Oak (1811)

Verse

• Poems of Various Subjects (1788)
• A Trip to Parnassus (1788)
• The Standard of Liberty (1795)
• Miscellaneous Poems (1811)

Other

• An Abridgement of Universal Geography (1805)
• A Spelling Dictionary (1807)
• A Present for Young Ladies (1811)
• Youth's first Step in Geography (1811)
• Biblical Dialogues Between a Father and His Family (1822)
• Exercises in History, Chronology, and Biography, in Question and Answer (1822)

Further reading

• Davidson, Cathy N., edited with an introduction by, Charlotte Temple – Susanna Rowson (Oxford, c1987).
• Homestead, Melissa J., and Camryn Hansen. (2010). Susanna Rowson's Transatlantic Career. Early American Literature
  Early American Literature (journal)
  Early American Literature is an academic literary journal focusing on American literature from its inception through the early national period . It is the journal of the Modern Language Association's American Literature Division 1, and is currently published three times a year by the University of...
  
  , 45:3, 619–654.
• Kornfeld, Eve. (1983). Women in Post-Revolutionary American Culture: Susanna Haswell Rowson's American Career, 1793–1824. Journal of American Culture, 6:4, 56–62.
• Nason, Elias. (1870). A Memoir of Mrs. Susanna Rowson. Albany, NY: J. Munsell.
• Parker, Patricia L. (1986). Susanna Rowson. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
• Rust, Marion, Prodigal Daughters – Susanna Rowson's Early American Women (The University of North Carolina Press, c2008).
• Vinson, James, ed. (1979). Great Writers of the English Language: Novelists and Prose Writers. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 1046–1048.

External links

• Laraine Fergenson, 'Susanna Haswell Rowson (1762–1824)', Heath Anthology of American Literature