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In April 1790, Judith Sargent Murray wrote these words: “Yes, ye lordly, ye haughty sex, our souls are by nature equal to yours; the same breath of God animates, enlivens, and invigorates us… I dare confidently believe, that from the commencement of time to the present day, there hath been as many females, as males, who, by the mere force of natural powers, have merited the crown of applause; who, thus unassisted, have seized the wreath of fame.” They come from her landmark essay “On the Equality of the Sexes,” published in the Massachusetts Magazine, paving the way for new thoughts and ideas proposed by other feminist writers of the century. It was published two years before Mary Wollstonecraft’s renowned 1792 Vindication of the Rights of Women. Judith Murray Sargent is regarded by many historians as the first American feminist writer.

In the 2025 installment of the annual Grace McNeil Lecture series, at the monthly meeting of the Natchez Historical Society, Tuesday, March 25, Judy Wiggins will present “A Will of Her Own, Judith Sargent Murray, 1751-1820.” Ms. Wiggins is a retired Humanities Coordinator and instructor of English at Copiah-Lincoln Community College. She has been a lecturer for the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Louisiana Humanities Council, Elderhostel International, the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, Co-Lin Natchez Institute for Learning in Retirement, and numerous schools and civic groups.

Born May 1, 1751, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Judith Sargent Murray was the oldest of eight children of the wealthy merchant family of Winthrop Sargent and Judith Saunders Sargent. Murray, an early American poet, playwright, essayist, and letter writer, was an advocate for women’s education and rights, including but not limited to a woman’s right to an education, a woman’s right to work and earn a wage, and a woman’s right to manage her finances. She was one of the first American proponents of the idea of the equality of the sexes so that women, like men, had the capability of intellectual accomplishment and the ability to achieve economic independence.

You’re probably wondering, “what is her connection to Natchez?” Her brother, Winthrop Sargent, (1753–1820), served as secretary and acting governor of the Northwest Territory, Adjutant General of the U.S. Army, and was the first governor of the Mississippi Territory. He resided at the house, Auburn, on Lower Woodville Road. Judith Sargent Murray’s daughter, Julia Maria Murray, became romantically involved with Adam Lewis Bingaman, of Natchez, while he was a student at Harvard. Bingaman and his wife eventually returned to Natchez, where they lived at Fatherland Plantation. In 1816, Murray left Boston and moved to Natchez to live with her daughter and to be near her brother, Winthrop. She died in 1820, at the age of sixty-nine, at Oak Point, a plantation located on the site of the campus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Natchez. She is buried in the Bingaman family cemetery on Fatherland Plantation, now the site of the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians.

The Natchez Historical Society’s meeting will occur at the Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St., in Natchez. The program will begin with a social at 5:30 p.m., with the presentation at 6 p.m. All are invited, members and non-members alike, and there is no charge for attendance. The Natchez Historical Society’s programming is funded by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council through funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities. For more information, call 225-939-8780 or 601-492-3004 or send email to info@natchezhistoricalsociety.org.

DAYE DEARING is a trustee of the Natchez Historical Society and chair of programming.