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#OTDIH in 1832, teacher, journalist, abolitionist, lecturer, & women’s rights activist, Maria W. Stewart (1803—December 17, 1879) gave her second public lecture “Why Sit Ye Here & Die” in Franklin Hall in Boston, the meeting site of the New England Anti-Slavery Society. 
📸: The cover of the book “Maria W. Stewart, America’s First Black Woman Political Writer: Essays and Speeches” (1987) edited & introduced by Marilyn Richardson.
“Born free in 1803, Stewart was the first known American woman to speak to a mixed audience of men and women, white and Black, she was also the first Black American woman to make public lectures, as well as to lecture about women's rights & make a public anti-slavery speech.”
In “Why Sit Ye Here & Die”, Stewart condemns the attitude that denied Black women education & prohibited their occupational advancement. In fact she argues that Northern Black women, in term of treatment, were only slightly better off than slaves.”
“The first Black American woman to lecture about women's rights — Stewart focused particularly on the rights of Black women — religion & social justice among Black people. She is considered one of the matriarchs of Black feminist thought.”
