Life in Europe Before Death
In 1846, Margaret Fuller travelled to Europe and proceeded to live there as a foreign correspondent for the New York Tribune. She was one of the first females to ever be given this role. She wrote 36 articles for the newspaper that were titled, “Things and Thoughts in Europe (#)”. While in Europe, mainly Rome, Italy, Fuller fell in love with Italian revolutionary, Giovanni Angelo Ossoli and had a child. Fuller's writings during this time gave Americans insight on the political and war climate in Europe. Her experience and exposure to Italy’s politics changed her perspective on justice and equality. In her articles, she discussed the connections between Europe’s revolutions and the democratic aspirations for America, emphasizing the importance of freedom and justice for all, including women and oppressed minorities.
Margaret Fuller’s time in Italy was critical in shaping her intellectual and political identity as a transcendentalist feminist. Fuller was interested in Italy’s national movement where they wanted to unify the states of Italy to one nation ruled under the same republic. Fuller was a first-hand witness to the war that was happening around her in Italy. Fuller supported the nationalist movement and related it back to America and her advocacy for women’s rights and social change.1 By 1848, she wrote about how she does not want to go back to America. She feels like her home is in Rome because Italy is showing positive social change, while America is not changing. Fuller stayed in Rome with her husband and child in the height of the revolution and the French siege of Rome. She ran a hospital in the city called 'Fate-bene Fratelli' while her husband was fighting.
Passage from "Things and Thoughts in Europe XXIV" on May 7, 1848: “Hoping this era, I remain at present here. Should my hopes be dashed to the ground, it will not change my faith, but the struggle for its manifestation is to me of vital interest. My friends write to urge my return; they talk of our country as the land of the future. It is so, but that spirit which made it all it is of value in my eyes, which gave all of hope with which I can sympathize for that future, is more alive here at present than in America. My country is at present spoiled by prosperity, stupid with the lust of gain, soiled by crime in its willing perpetuation of slavery, shamed by an unjust war, noble sentiment much forgotten even by individuals, the aims of politicians selfish or petty, the literature frivolous and venal. In Europe, amid the teachings of adversity a nobler spirit is struggling,—a spirit which cheers and animates mine. I hear earnest words of pure faith and love. I see deeds of brotherhood. This is what makes my America. I do not deeply distrust my country. She is not dead, but in my time she sleepeth, and the spirit of our fathers flames no more, but lies hid beneath the ashes. It will not be so long; bodies cannot live when the soul gets too overgrown with gluttony and falsehood. But it is not the making a President out of the Mexican war that would make me wish to come back. Here things are before my eyes worth recording, and, if I cannot help this work, I would gladly be its historian."2
Fuller stayed in Europe up until her death in a tragic shipwreck in 1850. She was traveling back to New York after the fall of Rome with her husband and child. All three of the tragically died in the wreck. Her last piece that she wrote for the New York Tribune talked about her hope for the future for both Italy and America and how the true answer to effective social change was socialism. She said in her last article "Thoughts and Things in Europe XXXV" from January 19, 1850, "Here lie my hopes now. I believed before I came to Europe in what is called Socialism, as the inevitable sequence to the tendencies and wants of the era, but I did not think these vast changes in modes of government, education, and daily life would be effected as rapidly as I now think they will, because they must. The world can no longer stand without them."3
Fuller's legacy has been critical for the women's rights movement and her time as a correspondent in Europe evolved her intellect and gave her a platform to speak on her political and philosophical views.
1Chevigny, Bell Gale. “To the Edges of Ideology: Margaret Fuller’s Centrifugal Evolution.” American Quarterly 38, no. 2 (1986): 173–201. https://doi.org/10.2307/2712849.
2Fuller, Margaret. “Thoughts and Things in Europe XXIV” in The New-York Daily Tribune. [Vol. IX. No. 234.] (New-York [N.Y.]), 15 June 1848. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. Accessed November 8, 2024. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030213/1848-06-15/ed-1/seq-1/
3Fuller, Margaret. “Thoughts and Things in Europe XXXV” in The New-York Daily Tribune. [Vol. IX. No. 234.] (New-York [N.Y.]), 09 Jan. 1850. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. Accessed November 8, 2024. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030213/1850-01-09/ed-1/seq-1/
By Hayley Szpynda
