Emma Martin
Emma Bullock, the fourth child of William Bullock, a cooper, was born in Bristol in about 1811. Her mother, Hannah Jones, whose family owned a tea-dealing business in the city. Emma's father died in her infancy, and a year later her mother married her second husband, John Gwyn, and the family moved into the middle-class area of Clifton. (1)
Emma grew up with a strong Christian faith.. This resulted in her decision, at the age of seventeen, to join the Particular Baptists - a sternly Calvinist wing of the Baptist church who believed in salvation only for the elect. (2) She remained in the church as a "zealous disciple of Jesus" for twelve years, distributing evangelical tracts and collecting for the Bible Society. (3)
In 1830, at the age of eighteen, Emma became the proprietor of a short-lived ladies' seminary and later a ladies' boarding-school. In 1831 she married a businessman, Isaac Martin, also a Baptist, and over the next few years she had three daughters. (4) He was, however, "a husband… whose company it was a humiliation to endure." (5)
Emma Martin: Socialist
In 1839 Emma Martin she heard a lecture by Alexander Campbell, a man who had been deeply influenced by the writings of Robert Owen. Campbell was a socialist who was involved with an increasingly militant trade unionism in Scotland. In 1834 he had been imprisoned for his involvement with the unstamped press. Campbell also campaigned against the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834) and helped organise the Cotton Spinners' Union. In 1838 he was appointed by the Association of All Classes and All Nations (later renamed the Rational Society). as a "social missionary" to preach the Owenite gospel. (6)
Emma Martin became convinced by Campbell's message and later that year Emma Martin attended the Owenite Congress held in Birmingham and was astounded to hear "so close a transcript of many of the thoughts that had passed in my mind". (7) However, she disagreed at first with the socialists about Christianity. She challenged the socialists to public debates on the validity of Christianity. One who took part in a debate with her commented that "She is a lady of considerable talent". (8)
Isaac Martin was opposed to her socialist and feminist political opinions and she was forced to leave the family home. All her property, by law, now belonged to her husband. Now without means of keeping herself or her daughters, she embarked on a career as a lecturer. "Emma Martin... concentrated on physiology, the condition of women and socialism. She developed her feminism and argued the case that woman's subordinate position was due to lack of education; she blamed the marriage system which made a woman an object of a commercial transaction." (9)
Freethinker
New Moral World reported that Emma Martin argued that if women had a good standard of education it would benefit men. "Mrs Martin lectured at our Institution yesterday afternoon, on the errors of our present Social System, particularly as respects the condition of women; after displaying the great and appalling evil of society as at present constituted, and the opposition generally made to all improvements, she dwelt upon the inefficient education of her own sex, especially in those arts and sciences would assist them in the discharge of their duties as wives and mothers, and commented upon the apathy existing among women upon this important subject." (10)
Emma Martin would give a course of three lectures. She visited Macclesfield in January 1841: "On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings, the 17th, 18th, and 19th instant, we had a course of lectures from the talented Mrs Martin, whose powers of oratory and logical skill must convince the most scrupulous, that women is capable of being trained and educated equal with man. The order of her lectures ran thus: 1, 'Religion of the New Moral World'; 2, 'The Doctrine of Responsibility'; 3, 'The Marriage System'. It is unnecessary to say more upon these lectures, here, as the audiences were so well satisfied with the arguments adduced by the lectures, that, at the concluding lecture, they passed the following resolution: 'That it is the opinion of this meeting, that Mrs E. Martin will render the cause of human improvement a great and lasting benefit, if she will kindly condescend to have her three lectures published." (11)
Her biographer, Barbara Taylor, argues that Emma Martin's religious beliefs gradually began to crumble. "Faced with the arguments of the freethinking Owenites - whose ideas on women's rights so strongly echoed her own - and made wretched by her personal circumstances, she felt the ground of Christian conviction begin to give way beneath her... She took the leap of faith and joined the socialists as a declared freethinker. Within a year she was one of the movement's best-known women adherents, lecturing, writing, and debating anti-socialists, particularly clerical ones, all over Britain. From having been a vigorous campaigner in Christ's cause, she became one of the church's most vociferous opponents, notorious for her knockabout style of free-thought polemic and for her hostility to conventional Christian views on women and marriage." (12)
Emma Martin became one of Owenism's most enthusiastic orators and tractarians, covering thousands of miles and issuing tens of thousands of pamphlets. "Singing Social Hymns, attending meetings of the Socialist Ladies' Tract Committee, naming children at the conclusion of a Sunday School sermon... small wonder Emma could move so readily from Baptism to Owenism. From being an evangelical in Christ's cause, she became one of the leading evangelizers of infidel Socialism, within a milieu and style that seemed to alter very little with the transfer of allegiances." (13)
In her lectures Emma Martin compared the various religions but believed that the ideas advocated by Robert Owen "contained all the best parts of each, and was calculated in a superior degree to satisfy, direct, and elevate the human mind. It was true it had no creed - no ceremony - except the charity she recommended could be termed so." At the end of the lecture she concluded "by inviting any lady or gentleman to come forward and object to any thing she had advanced, if they dissented from her views, saying that by these means she might be led to refute any objections which the arguments contained in her lectures had not fairly met. No one, however, came forward for that purpose." (14)
In 1841 the Owenite annual congress Emma Martin pointed out that "she had grown up from infancy with high thoughts and strong hopes of an improvement in the condition of her sex, but that all institutions for mental improvement were confined to males, and that even the morals of the female sex were of a different stamp to those of the male. She saw no remedy for this till she saw the remedy of Socialism. When all should labour for each, and each be expected to labour for the whole, then would woman be placed in a position in which she would not sell her liberties." (15)
Emma Martin took a keen interest in the subject of crime and punishment. In a speech in Nottingham she linked the problems in this area with Christianity: "I hardly need say the sermon was the right sort, and went to the very root of the evil, whence has originated the crimes that have rendered capital punishments apparently necessary. Kingcraft and priestcraft, and the Bible as the text book of both, were denounced as the great obstacles to the improvement of the people. Christianity was shown to be the best apology for crime, while it was the most decided opponent of every thing that could elevate, enlighten, and improve mankind. These sentiments were received with the most evident satisfaction - a proof that the people are prepared to hear the whole truth on such subjects." (16)
Newspaper reports of Emma Martin's lectures described audiences of up to 3000, strongly divided in their views and expressing their opinions in raucous and sometimes violent forms. Emma's strident atheism was particularly provocative - so much so that even some of her fellow socialists objected. In 1842, angered by this lack of support from the movement, she and her fellow atheist George Holyoake set up the Anti-Persecution Union to defend freethinkers charged with blasphemy. Sometimes her meetings ended up with an anti-Owenite mob stoning her. (17)
Emma Martin assigned great importance to the role of education in women's advancement. She also argued that only a propertyless, communal society would provide the conditions for genuine sexual equality. "What is woman's most glorious character? Is it not to kiss the hand that strikes her, to honour and obey her lord and master, and be the tame servant of the priest? To have no will of her own. To be the football of society thankful for its kicking. You know it is! Is it not dreadful when one of the sex begins to think for herself? Why others will follow the horrible example! and where will it end? Common sense will usurp the place of spiritualism, and liberty and love will replace priestcraft. I fear I shall live to see that dreadful day!" (18)
Richard Carlile, one of the most important radical leaders in England and had spent many years in prison for championing a free press, died of a bronchial infection on 10th February 1843. (19) Emma Martin was selected to give the funeral oration at the Hall of Science, City Road, London. Her address was reported by George Holyoake in his newspaper, Oracle of Reason. (20)
"The authoress of this discourse is one of those admirable women who prove that the appellation of 'better half' of mankind, is no fictional compliment, but a sober and cheering verity. No woman ever before said the bold and excellent things which continually fall from the lips of this lady. Not less quick in perceiving just principles than energetic in advocating just action - she stands forward in denouncing conventional wrong, when men are found cold, calculating, and prudent. When public meetings have been held to solicit protection for parties imprisoned for opinions' sake - no matter what their opinions were - no matter whether they were atheists or not - no matter that men had certain squeamish fears about taking an unqualified part in their defence - no matter who approved or who disapproved - without caring for certain respectable cant, relative to feelings, propriety, and decency outraged - she stood the eloquent and uncompromising defender of every man and woman's right to speak their own sentiments in their own words." (21)
Midwife
In 1845 Emma Martin began living with Joshua Hopkins, an engineering worker, and she bore him a daughter, Manon in 1847. The second marriage brought her great happiness and some stability. (22) However, she came under attack from other Owenites who accused her of alienating support through her extremism. She responded by leaving the movement and began training as a midwife. In 1847, the year in which her fourth daughter was born, she graduated in midwifery and, having been refused hospital positions because of her atheism, began practising privately from her home at 100 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London, where her daughters also ran a surgical bandage shop. She lectured to women in gynaecology, gave courses in midwifery, and offered contraceptive advice. (23)
Emma Martin died of tuberculosis at Holly Vill, Finchley Common, Whetstone, Middlesex, on 8th October 1851. George Holyoake commented: "What do we not owe to a woman who, like Emma Martin, takes the heroic side and teaches us … the truth of a gentler faith?.. We have lost the most important woman… on our side." (24) Holyoake called for subscriptions for her gravestone for which hundreds gave, including many women who offered remembrance of "that advocacy of women's social elevation which Mrs Martin so ably rendered". (25)
Primary Sources
(1) Ruth Flow and Edmund Flow, Political Women: 1800-1850 (1989)
Emma Martin set out on a highly successful lecturing career in which she concentrated on physiology, the condition of women and socialism. She developed her feminism and argued the case that woman's subordinate position was due to lack of education; she blamed the marriage system which made a woman an object of a commercial transaction. Later, as her interest in and knowledge of Owenism developed, she changed her views and said that women's inferior status was the product of the system of society in which private property and competition were at a premium.
(2) J. Gurney, New Moral World (30 May 1840)
Mrs Martin lectured at our Institution (in Northampton) yesterday afternoon, on the errors of our present Social System, particularly as respects the condition of women; after displaying the great and appalling evil of society as at present constituted, and the opposition generally made to all improvements, she dwelt upon the inefficient education of her own sex, especially in those arts and sciences would assist them in the discharge of their duties as wives and mothers, and commented upon the apathy existing among women upon this important subject...
Mrs Martin instituted a comparison between the various religions of the world, and proved that that advocated by Robert Owen contained all the best parts of each, and was calculated in a superior degree to satisfy, direct, and elevate the human mind. It was true it had no creed - no ceremony - except the charity she recommended could be termed so. She concluded one of the most powerful, pleasing, and instructive addresses I have ever heard, by inviting any lady or gentleman to come forward and object to any thing she had advanced, if they dissented from her views, saying that by these means she might be led to refute any objections which the arguments contained in her lectures had not fairly met. No one, however, came forward for that purpose.
(3) New Moral World (6 February 1841)
On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings, the 17th, 18th, and 19th instant, we had a course of lectures from the talented Mrs Martin, whose powers of oratory and logical skill must convince the most scrupulous, that women is capable of being trained and educated equal with man. The order of her lectures ran thus: 1, "Religion of the New Moral World"; 2, "The Doctrine of Responsibility"; 3, "The Marriage System". It is unnecessary to say more upon these lectures, here, as the audiences were so well satisfied with the arguments adduced by the lectures, that, at the concluding lecture, they passed the following resolution: "That it is the opinion of this meeting, that Mrs E. Martin will render the cause of human improvement a great and lasting benefit, if she will kindly condescend to have her three lectures published." The resolution was passed unanimously.
(4) New Moral World (12 June 1841)
Emma Martin said she had grown up from infancy with high thoughts and strong hopes of an improvement in the condition of her sex, but that all institutions for mental improvement were confined to males, and that even the morals of the female sex were of a different stamp to those of the male. She saw no remedy for this till she saw the remedy of Socialism. When all should labour for each, and each be expected to labour for the whole, then would woman be placed in a position in which she would not sell her liberties.
(5) George Holyoake, Oracle of Reason (22 April 1843)
The authoress of this discourse is one of those admirable women who prove that the appellation of 'better half' of mankind, is no fictional compliment, but a sober and cheering verity. No woman ever before said the bold and excellent things which continually fall from the lips of this lady. Not less quick in perceiving just principles than energetic in advocating just action - she stands forward in denouncing conventional wrong, when men are found cold, calculating, and prudent. When public meetings have been held to solicit protection for parties imprisoned for opinions' sake - no matter what their opinions were - no matter whether they were atheists or not - no matter that men had certain squeamish fears about taking an unqualified part in their defence - no matter who approved or who disapproved - without caring for certain respectable cant, relative to feelings, propriety, and decency outraged - she stood the eloquent and uncompromising defender of every man and woman's right to speak their own sentiments in their own words. In this generous spirit she has, in her discourses, paid a noble compliment to Carlile. The remarks on the injurious direction given by rulers to public opinion is excellent - the estimation of the value of Mr Carlile's recent policy is accurate - and the promise that religion shall yet pay dearly for the shortened days of our champion of the press's liberty, is bravely given, and it is the duty of every infidel to see that it is religiously fulfilled.
(6) H. Roche, The Movement (14 September 1844)
Being at Nottingham when Mrs Martin was there, I was cognizant of the proceedings relative to her sermon on 'Capital Punishments' noticed in a recent number of your journal... At the time of the meeting the people collected in hundreds, and loud murmurs of disappointment were heard in all directions, until some one in the crowd proposed that Mrs Martin be requested to write an address on the subject. The subscription was immediately made. She agreed. The address was written and issued immediately, calling upon the people to attend in the Marketplace, on Sunday, at three o'clock, at which time Mrs Martin made her appearance in an open carriage, and delivered her sermon to an audience of at least five times the number that could have obtained admission to the room that had been taken for the purpose. I hardly need say the sermon was the right sort, and went to the very root of the evil, whence has originated the crimes that have rendered capital punishments apparently necessary. Kingcraft and priestcraft, and the Bible as the text book of both, were denounced as the great obstacles to the improvement of the people. Christianity was shown to be the best apology for crime, while it was the most decided opponent of every thing that could elevate, enlighten, and improve mankind. These sentiments were received with the most evident satisfaction - a proof that the people are prepared to hear the whole truth on such subjects.
(7) Emma Martin, The Missionary Jubilee Panic (1844)
What is woman's most glorious character? Is it not to kiss the hand that strikes her, to honour and obey her lord and master, and be the tame servant of the priest? To have no will of her own. To be the football of society thankful for its kicking. You know it is! Is it not dreadful when one of the sex begins to think for herself? Why others will follow the horrible example! and where will it end? Common sense will usurp the place of spiritualism, and liberty and love will replace priestcraft. I fear I shall live to see that dreadful day!