Transcript Harriet Martineau

Classical Sociologists’
Timeline

Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
 Harriet Martineau (1802 –1876)
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
George Herbert Mead (1863-1931)
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
W. E. B. DuBois (1868-1963)
IMPORTANT !!!

Before Durkheim, Engels, Marx, or
Weber…
Martineau examined social class,
religion, suicide, national character,
domestic relations, women’s status,
criminology, and interrelations
between institutions and individuals.
Martineau’s life
Born June 12,1802
Daughter of textile
worker
Middle class
 6th of 8 children
Before age 16, lost
her sense of smell,
taste, and hearing
Ear Trumpet
Harriet Martineau
Single female in a very male world
dominated economic
Father: Died during 1820s
Fiancé: Mental & physical collapse
Remained single & independent
By 1829, committed to writing
profession
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Harriet’s Work

Writer: Fictional and Sociological
works
Pioneer in field of sociology
Harriet’s Work

Work includes over 1,500 columns and about 61
books
An advocate for freedom and emancipation of
women and slaves.
 “… Is it to be understood that the principles of the
Declaration of Independence bear no relation to
half of the human race?”
Society in America (1837)
Harriet Martineau

First “methodological essay” ever
published, How to Observe Morals and
Manners (1838)
Translated and abbreviated Comte’s
Positive Philosophy
 Spread Comte’s word far and wide
Comte had it retranslated into French
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Beliefs

Strong believer in feminism
First to speak on women being
viewed as secondary partner in
a relationship (marriage)
Beliefs

Women could contribute more to
society than just as a house wife
Talks of abuse that women endure
Revolutionary in helping women
learn to fight back
Few followers: Unlike women to
disobey husbands
Activism

In 1869, supported the Ladies’ National
Association for the Repeal of the
Contagious Diseases Acts.
 In 1886, the Acts were repealed
Call for repeal of laws that gave authority to
police to detain and examine women on
suspicion of prostitution as means to
control the spread of syphilis and gonorrhea
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Society

Believed society had to be changed
through social reforms
Belief in social reform:
Component of Necessarianism
Also reflects Unitarian background
Necessarianism

Theory that every event
Including action of human will
Is necessary result of a sequence of
causes
Determinism
Unitarianism

Denies Trinity, God is one
Rejects doctrine of “original sin”
Unlimited nature of the Redemption
by Christ
All souls will be saved
No hell
Kate Middleton


The Individual

Autonomous
Moral
Practical
Agent
The Individual

Unitarian background encouraged her
to see the quest for knowledge and the
betterment of society as being
 For
the growth of the individual
member of society
Concept of society

Social interaction and human
association existed for the happiness
of the individual
Purpose of society: Serve social
needs of individuals
To empower individuals to make
their lives better
Society

Autonomy essential to individual
happiness and
Progress of society
The subjugation of women and the
enslavement of other humans->
Denied society assets that would be much
more valuable if they (women and the
enslaved) were allowed autonomy
Harriet Martineau: Sociology of Slavery
Between 1834 and
1836,
Martineau

traveled through the United States
Indentured servitude of white
immigrants had been abolished
 Introducing any form of
servitude prohibited in Northern
and Western regions of U.S.
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Harriet Martineau:
Sociology of Slavery

Slavery confined to 13
Southern states that grew
tobacco, rice, cotton, and
sugar
Slave population 2.5 million
Selfhood

Through autonomy,
Individuals:
Explore boundaries of their
intellectual capacity
Contribute to social
progress
Selfhood

Autonomy =Selfhood
Without autonomy, women were
only an extension of the “self” of
the men in society
Towards the End of Her
Life…

Took trip to the Middle-East
Wrote Eastern Life Past and Present
After trip, she became an atheist
Left with very few supporters, including
her family
In 1876, she died from an illness
Now remembered as the first
sociologist
woman