Frances Wright

Wright, Frances 

(Fanny Wright). Born Sept. 6, 1795, in Dundee, Scotland; died Dec. 13, 1852, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Figure of the working-class movement of the USA.

From 1818, except for brief intervals, Wright lived in the United States. In 1825, near Memphis, Tenn., she established a colony of former Negro slaves whose freedom had been bought with her own money (the colony broke up in 1830). At the end of the 1820’s, Wright took an active part in the Working Man’s Party, which was founded in New York. She popularized the ideas of R. Owen’s Utopian socialism and demanded the democratization of the political system of the United States and the introduction of a system of universal public education. Wright played a prominent role in antislavery agitation. She was also one of the first advocates of equal rights for women in the United States.

REFERENCE

Waterman, W. Frances Wright. New York, 1924.