Molly Brown And Her Influence On Women Rights
Contents
TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc377211427” Introduction PAGEREF _Toc377211427 h 1
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377211428” Her early life PAGEREF _Toc377211428 h 2
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377211429” Surviving the Titanic tragedy PAGEREF _Toc377211429 h 3
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377211430” Influence as an activist on women suffrage and human and labor rights PAGEREF _Toc377211430 h 5
HYPERLINK l “_Toc377211431” Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc377211431 h 9
IntroductionAs an activist and a big hearted philanthropist, Margret Tobin Brown, Molly to many, can simply be described as an one of the most influential women in America between late 1800s and early 1900s. She is also significantly remembered for having survived the sinking of the pleasure cruise liner RMS Titanic in 1912 and even going further to impose her will on the crew of one of the lifeboats to return to sea and search for survivors. Known simply as Maggie rather than Molly in her days, she was made famous by the 1960s musical performance titled The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Leah Schwartz best sums up her biography by stating that “the story of Margaret Tobin Brown is the story of the Westward Movement, of women’s issues, of family, of social responsibility, of individualism” (Schwartz). It is the story of experiences and issues every thoughtful person faces even today in the pursuit of living a meaningful life by coexisting with people from different cultures, economic statuses, and gender to attend one’s needs as well as those of the community.
She grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, and later moved to Leadville, Colorado where she met and married James Joseph Brown a local silver mines worker. She is significantly remembered as the founder of soup kitchens and a women’s rights activist in the mining regions. Some of her memorable contributions in Leadville include the promotion of women rights and founding of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association, Colorado chapter, besides establishing soup kitchens that were very helpful to the families of the miners (Lewis).
Her work with the American Committee for Devastated France during the First World War in reconstruction of French areas behind the lines of warfare and assisting wounded soldiers, earned her a French Legion of Honor award. Towards the end of her life, she was a well known actress. This strong woman who was known by many respectfully as the “unsinkable” Molly Brown died of a brain tumor in 1932 (Iversen 235).
This paper examines how her early life and status as a survivor of the Titanic tragedy, along with the fame and recognition that came with it, gave her a strong position in the community to promote social welfare issues like the rights of workers, provision of education for underprivileged children, women rights, as well as natural and historic monuments and lands preservation.
Her early lifeMargaret Tobin Brown, popularly referred to as “Unsinkable Molly Brown” was born in the year 1867 in Hannibal, Missouri to Irish immigrants John Tobin and Johanna Collins. Her siblings included Daniel, William, and Helen as well as two step sisters Catherine Bridget by her father’s previous marriage and Mary Ann Collins by her mother’s earlier marriage. Her parents had been widowed at an earlier stage in life. In Hannibal, she attended the local grammar school that was managed by her aunt Mary O’Leary and later worked at Garth’s Tobacco Company stripping tobacco leaves.
She relocated along with her brother Daniel and older sister Mary in 1883 to Leadville, Colorado when Mary’s husband Landrigan and Daniel went to work in the mines. Daniel later became a leading mine promoter. At Leadville, Molly worked in a department store and later for Daniels and Fisher Mercantile at the Carpets and Draperies section (Landau 18). It was while working here that she met her future husband James Joseph Brown. In her biography, Mary says she always aspired to marry a rich man but eventually married Brown, popularly known as J. J, simply for love. On her choice of a spouse she states:
“I wanted a rich man, but I loved Jim Brown. I thought about how I wanted comfort for my father and how I had determined to stay single until a man presented himself who could give to the tired old man the things I longed for him. Jim was as poor as we were, and had no better chance in life. I struggled hard with myself in those days. I loved Jim, but he was poor. Finally, I decided that I’d be better off with a poor man whom I loved than with a wealthy one whose money had attracted me. So I married Jim Brown” (Schwartz).
On 1 September, 1886, Molly and J.J Brown were married at the Annunciation Church at Leadville. They went on to have two children, Lawrence Palmer Brown and Catherine Ellen Brown and lived at Stumpftown, an Irish neighborhood in Leadville.
When J.J Brown had moved up at the mining company and become a superintendent, he invented a method of extracting gold from the bottom of the mine using his engineering skills. The invention was so instrumental to Ibex Mining Company that he was made a member of the board of the company with 12,500 shares. Molly and her husband suddenly became wealthy and relocated to Denver where she became an active socialite and political activist. She was also involved in many philanthropic projects.
Surviving the Titanic tragedy
Long before the Titanic tragedy, Margaret Tobin Brown had already made an impact in the world especially in her hometown in Denver (Natasha). Before she boarded the Titanic for that fateful trip at Cherbourg in France, Molly along with her daughter Helen had been to Europe and Cairo travelling and sight seeing. Incidentally she had received word that her grandson had fallen ill and had to cancel her trip and leave for New York. The Titanic was the earliest ship and the only choice if she had to reach New York in good time. It was a quick decision and therefore not many of her family knew she was aboard the ship.
The Titanic never made the trip to the United States. It hit an iceberg and sunk (Smith). The Titanic tragedy death toll was over 1,500 people (Hitchner). Margaret was one of the survivors who assisted many others by loading them into lifeboats. So dedicated was she in helping others that she had to be forced to board lifeboat six. She was a great encouragement to other women in lifeboat six and together they rowed to safety. Her most significant role in helping Titanic survivors was in the rescue ship Carpathia wher she helped ailing and frost bitten survivors. She even established the Survivors Committee aboard the Carpathia and was elected the committee chairperson. The Survivors Committee raised $10,000 for the survivors (Barczewski 30).
Her language skills which included proficiency in German, French, as well as Russian were very valuable in communicating with the survivors. She never left the Carpathia until all the Titanic survivors had been reunited with their families. On the praise and fame that followed her role in the tragedy, she later wrote to her daughter stating, “After being brined, salted, and pickled in mid ocean I am now high and dry… I have had flowers, letters, telegrams-people until I am befuddled… they are petitioning Congress to give me a medal… If I must call a specialist to examine my head it is due to the title of Heroine of the Titanic” (Schwartz).
She later presented an award to Carpathia’s Captain Rostron and to each of its crew members on behalf of the Survivors Committee on 29th May, 1912 (Barber). She would later help in erecting the Titanic memorial that still stands today in Washington, D.C. What really upset her most about the tragedy was the fact that she was denied a chance to testify in the hearings about the Titanic tragedy simply because she was a woman which prompted her to write her own version of the events.
Influence as an activist on women suffrage and human and labor rights
Besides her famous role in assisting the survivors of the Titanic tragedy, Margaret Tobin was also well known for a number of feats and achievements that no other woman had achieved by her time. It was, however, the aftermath of the tragedy that put her in the national limelight. She particularly played a major role in fundraising for the construction of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver until its completion in 1911. Together with Judge Lindsey, Margaret also helped in the establishment of the first juvenile court in the United States which later formed the basis for the current juvenile court system in the U.S. Her concern for children and families from every class of citizens and her philanthropic nature were the driving force for establishing the juvenile court system.
Margaret Tobin is also significantly remembered as the first woman to ever run for political office in the history of the United States (Bigham). She first campaigned for a seat in the senate in 1914, eight years before women were allowed to vote. She only stopped her campaign for a senate seat when her sister Helen’s marriage to a German baron ruined her campaign. Teaming up with Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, who was also popularly known as Mrs. O. H. P. Margaret was instrumental in the organization of a global conference on women’s rights that was held at Marble House in Rhode Island city of Newport. The conference was attended by human rights activists from major parts of the world.
As a dedicated and lifelong agitator of human rights, Margaret is also remembered due to her prominent role the April 1914 Ludlow massacre that happened in Trinidad, Colorado which was a monumental landmark in the United States quest for labor rights. Miners in Colorado had been on strike for months against their employer, the Colorado Fuel and Iron, citing cruel and unsafe working conditions and inhumanely long hours. On the basis of her fame, Margaret’s leadership skills were sought for by local women asking for her assistance. However, on April 20th the tension between the miners who were on strike and the CF&I private guards culminated in a violent confrontation that left twenty people dead among them women and children. The Ludlow tragedy became a national crisis and is recorded among the most violent labor related confrontations in the history of the United States.
In response to urgent appeals from each side of the conflict, Margaret Tobin travelled to Ludlow to resolve the conflict. Each side in the conflict saw her as an ally and she did her best to maintain a middle ground. She refused to agree to the calls by the radicals for the governor’s resignation but openly challenged Rockefeller for his unethical business conduct. She spoke about the miners rights making Rockefeller to agree to concessions. The Ludlow conflict was eventually resolved resulting in the end of radical workers’ movements in the U.S and the growth of ethical industrialists like Rockefeller.
After the Ludlow labor conflict, Margaret spent most of her time in Newport, Rhode Island, which had become a resort for the 20th century American high society. It was the first American town with a golf course, leisurely use of automobiles, and even a tennis club. It had lavish homes whose owners frequently threw spectacular parties and was dominantly populated by women since husbands were always away at work in New York. Margaret Brown was thus heavily influenced by the independent women in Newport despite the fact that her wealth was comparatively smaller than theirs. However, she was easily accepted by some of Newport’s women leaders including the president of the National Women’s Suffrage Association, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont (Blos 57).
Together with Alva, Margaret took a prominent role in the National Women Trade Union League which involved women from both the working and upper classes. The League sought to have the minimum wage implemented as well as an eight-hour workday. Margaret involved herself in the League activities and travelled all over the country telling people about women issues and labor rights. She also wrote many articles in newspapers. She was also very close to Alice Paul and her radical women’s party in advocating for a suffrage amendment nationally. She was very instrumental in the organization of the Conference of Great Women in July 1914. The conference led to the August pronouncements of even more insistent suffrage campaigns. At the July conference, Margaret spoke about the conditions of the Colorado miners and rallied for a movement to agitate for rights of all citizens to counter labor injustices perpetrated by greedy corporations. This was the main objective of the suffrage movement.
Margaret’s active role in the Conference of Great Women and in the national suffrage movement and working with influential leaders like Alva Belmont and Alice Paul prompted her to bid for a political seat as a Senator representing Colorado. She had a campaigning style that appealed to both men and women seeking for a candidate who represented progress. She was hailed by the Colorado press as well as the New York Times as a likely winner.
The emergence of the First World War, however, changed her focus from politics to relief efforts that saw her travel to France on behalf of the American Committee for Devastated France (Schwartz). She was later awarded the French Legion of Honor as a result of her efforts in the reconstruction of France during the war.
After the end of the war, the general interest for most Americans shifted to a perception of a larger world beyond the United States borders. Most urban Americans at this time valued concepts like theatre, art, and music from other parts of the world. With the passing of the war, the enactment of women’s suffrage in 1920, and the death of J.J. Brown in 1922, Margaret dedicated her energies and efforts in cultural renaissance activities like acting on stage. Her heroes included Sarah Bernhardt whom she played in L’Aiglon staged in New York and Paris. Her dramatic work and interpretation of Sarah Bernhardt both in France and in New York during the 1920s earned her the Palm of the Academy of France (Whitacre 56).
The development of New York and Paris as world cultural centers attracted many people especially southern African American immigrants and not only made New York a cultural melting pot but also a place where the identity of a “new woman” was created. Margaret Tobin was one of the prominent women who brought abut this cultural revolution through her acting and influence. She has been described in many ways as “the embodiment of the New Woman of the twenties: free, liberated and self-sufficient” (Whitacre 79).
Her love for art is well portrayed in the donations she gave to the Denver Art Museum and her patronage of theater is well reflected in her drama and music studies and accomplishments. She was an ardent student of music and even sacrificed two years simply to learn how to play the yodel. Her life was dedicated entirely to scholarly work that saw her enroll at New York’s Carnegie Institute in early 1900 becoming the first woman to be accepted at the prestigious learning center. She was a first woman in many things.
She was a leader in the fashion world with an extravagant taste in clothes and jewelry. She was famous for her floral arrangement just like she was for her efforts in education, philanthropy, and human rights advocacy. She mingled with New York socialites and European royalty just as equally as she did with miners and garment factory workers. All along she never stopped lecturing widely on cultural and social issues.
Margaret and J.J. Brown were married for a period of twenty three years after which they privately signed an agreement for separation in which Margaret retained the possession of the house in Denver and a cash settlement. She also got a monthly allowance of seven thousand dollars that she used for her travelling and social work expenses. On 26th October, 1932, she passed away in her hotel room at the Barbizon Hotel, New York City after what her death certificate stated as cerebral hemorrhage (Carberry). An autopsy performed later showed that she died of a brain tumor.
Conclusion
Margaret Tobin Brown was an energetic healthy woman who was everything she wanted to be and never let anyone stand in her way. While the more conservative wished her to be more ladylike, most people found her zest and confidence admirable. Contrary to tall claims by her critics, Margaret Brown claims in her biography that she “certainly never used the street language and grammar of her later media representations, or worked in a bar, or burned money her husband had hidden in the stove, or carried a gun and shot grapefruit thrown from the deck of the Titanic” (Schwartz). She was never referred to by the name Molly in her lifetime and the unsinkable title was coined by the press after her husband observed that not even the ocean could bring her down. However, self-confidence, talent, generosity, and energy made her an original American who was truly “Unsinkable.”
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