Mercy otis warren biography timeline info
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The couple had five children: James, Winslow, Charles, Henry, and George. She hosted revolutionary gatherings in her home, and maintained close friendships with a number of individuals essential to the Revolution. She was buried beside him at Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Her works remain a valuable source of insight into the political and intellectual climate of the Revolutionary era, and she is remembered for her contributions to the cause of liberty and independence.
The Coming of the American Revolution: 1764 to 1776
Mercy Otis Warren
25 September 1728 - 19 October 1814
Mercy Otis Warren was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts.
She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002, and the SS Mercy Warren, a World War II Liberty ship, was named in her honor. She was also deeply influenced by her brother James Otis, a leading patriot and lawyer. Through her father, who was a successful lawyer, farmer, county judge, and militia officer, Mercy was exposed to the political discussions and opinions of local leaders.
In this play, she depicted Hutchinson as a sycophantic figure, predicting the outbreak of the Revolution. A World War II Liberty Ship, the SS Mercy Warren later bore her name.
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However, she remained a somewhat controversial figure due to her outspoken political views and her critical writings.Warren’s legacy continued to grow posthumously.
This is a satire imagining what would happen if the British king abrogated the Massachusetts charter of rights, and the response to this action. Mercy, now a teenager, had been raised with revolutionary ideas from childhood and was educated at home, along with her brothers, Joseph and James, by the Reverend Jonathan Russell.
On November 14, 1754, at 26 years of age, Mercy married James Warren.
Mercy Otis Warren’s active involvement in political matters was encouraged by her husband, who referred to her affectionately as “the scribbler” due to her writings.
Revolutionary Writings and Political Activism
Mercy Otis Warren’s literary career flourished in the years leading up to and during the American Revolution.
Though not allowed a formal education, she was permitted to sit in on the lessons of her brothers, and throughout her life maintained that women's inferiority was not natural, but imposed by lack of education. Adams was a Federalist and Mercy an anti-Federalist.
In 1788, Mercy published the directly political anti-Federalist pamphlet "Observations on a New Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions." This was published under the name the "Columbian Patriot," and Mercy's authorship was unknown for a number of years, until a mention of the work was found in one of her letters.
Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous was the first work published under Mercy Otis Warren's own name.
He gradually lost his own power in revolutionary circles, bringing Mercy Otis Warren and her husband James Warren much closer to John and Abigail Adams.
In 1772, Mercy wrote and published a play called the Adulateur. This was a collection of 18 political poems and two plays, The Sack of Rome and The Ladies of Castille.
The result of their efforts was the Bill of Rights. In addition to writing poetry and plays, she authored pamphlets and essays that critiqued the British government’s actions in the colonies.
Her satirical play The Adulateur (1772) targeted Governor Thomas Hutchinson, a Tory who was widely despised in Massachusetts.
The play was widely circulated, and Hutchinson became known as “Rapatio” in the public eye, a character from Warren’s work who symbolized the corrupt British officials in the colonies.
Warren also wrote The Defeat (1773), which continued her criticism of Hutchinson and his administration.