Susanna Rowson

Susanna Rowson was born in Portsmouth, England in 1762. She lived in Boston beginning when she was five years old and eventually returned to England in 1778. She married a merchant named William Rowson in 1786—the same year that she published her first novel, Victoria. Over the next five years, she wrote four novels, including the one she’s best known for: Charlotte: A Tale of Truth, which was published in London in 1791 and later republished as Charlotte Temple in America. The novel became the nation’s best-selling novel. In fact, it remained the best-selling novel in America until the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe some 61 years later. In addition to writing, Rowson took up acting in the early 1790s. After moving back to America with William and their new adopted daughter (William’s half-sister), Rowson appeared on stage in multiple productions, becoming a prominent actor. In 1797, she founded an “Academy for Young Ladies” with the goal of educating young women living in America at the time. She was a prominent voice advocating for female education, and she also published the first educational book in America about geography—a book that touched on the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. She died in Boston in 1824, two years after retiring from her career in education.