Harriet Low

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Harriet Low (1833)
painting by George Chinnery

Harriett Low Hillard (born May 18, 1809 in Salem , † 1877 in Brooklyn , New York City ) was an American who became known through her letters and diaries. From 1829 to 1833 she lived in the Portuguese colony of Macau on the coast of the South China Sea , becoming one of the first young American women to live in China . Low belonged to a Unitarian community. During her stay there, she wrote a journal in the form of letters that she sent to her older sister Molly (actually Mary Ann, 1808-1851) and became acquainted with many of the influential residents in the colony. After returning to the United States, she married and moved to London with her husband. In 1848 the couple returned to New York City with their five daughters. The Journal is part of the Low Mills Collection in the Library of Congress .

Life

Harriet Low was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1809, the second of twelve children to Seth Low and Mary Porter Low. Her father was a well-to-do businessman and shipowner with offices in Salem, New York City, London and Canton . Seth Low was one of the leading residents of Brooklyn and a co-founder of the Unitarians in that city. As one of four daughters in the large family, Harriet was involved in running the household, for example sewing and mending clothes.

In 1829 her uncle William Henry Low and his wife Abigail Knapp Low prepared for a five-year stay in China. While William Henry Low was to pursue business interests for Russell & Co. in the canton, which was inaccessible to women at the time, his wife would stay in Macau. They asked Harriet if she would like to accompany the couple and keep her aunt company while she should stay behind in Macau. The three boarded the ship Sumatra , which they took to China on a four-month voyage across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, including a three-week stay in Manila . Harriet arrived in Macau on September 29, 1829. She settled in House 2, Pátio da Sé in Calçada de S. João, and soon made the acquaintance of most of the influential and well-known Macao residents, including the painter George Chinnery , who later painted her portrait , and the doctor Thomas Richardson Colledge . Through her uncle's contacts, she met all the employees of the British East India Company and other wealthy British merchants in the city. She was the only unmarried young woman in the colony and was therefore often invited to balls, dances, tea and dinner.

Low felt a strong urge to visit Canton, which was the only legal trading enclave in China at the time. However, the rules of the Thirteen Traders strictly prohibited women from visiting Canton. Low and her aunt disguised themselves as young men and took the ship to Canton, where they went straight to the American trading post. When the Chinese discovered the true identities of the two women, they threatened to cease all trade in Canton, forcing Low and her aunt to leave town. While in Macau, Low became quietly engaged to a Mr. Wood, but when she informed her uncle of the engagement, he forced her to break the bond.

In 1833 Low modeled a portrait for the painter George Chinnery. The painting shows a low-cut dress after the latest in fashion from Calcutta , whose sleeves with pillows of down were padded. In 1833 Harriet left China with aunt and uncle and returned to Salem. The seriously ill uncle died on the way home to the United States.

Three years after returning, in 1836, she married John Hillard (1813-1859), the son of British parents born in Richmond , Virginia . The couple settled in London, where John was a partner in a bank. The couple had three sons and five daughters, but only the girls survived; Mary Hillard Loines became active as a suffragette .

In 1848, Hillard went bankrupt and the family returned to the United States, where they moved in with Harriet's father in Brooklyn. Hillard became unstable and sick and was unable to work. After his death in 1859, Harriet received financial support from her family until her death in 1877. A nephew of Harriet Low was Seth Low , who became known as the president of Columbia University and as the mayor of Brooklyn and New York City.

journal

Sunday, May 24, 1829: Embarked on board the Sumatra bound to Manila, and thence to Macao, where I shall probably take up my residence for the next four years; and for you, my dear sister, shall this journal be kept. I left home at five o'clock (in the morning) with feelings not to be described or imagined but by those who have been placed in a similar situation.

“ Sunday, May 24th 1829: I went on board the Sumatra to Manila and then to Macao, where I will probably take my apartment for the next four years; and for you, my beloved sister, this journal is to be kept. I left home at five o'clock (in the morning) with feelings that only those can describe or imagine who were in a similar situation. "

- Harriet Low

Harriet described the multicultural life experiences in the city under Portuguese administration and the social life of its English and American residents in a journal which she wrote in the form of letters to her sister Mary Ann. She described the many social occasions, dinners, parties and balls, and the entertainment provided by musical events, card games, amateur theater performances and operas. The women spent the rest of their time reading, writing letters, sewing, learning languages ​​- Harriet learned Spanish - walking, horse riding, and gossiping . As a Unitarian, Harriet was uncomfortable with the dominance of Catholicism in Macau.

Her journal entries range from 1829 to 1834 and fill nine volumes, a total of 947 pages. In 1900, Harriet Low's daughter Katharine published an abridged version of the diary under the title My Mother's Journal: A young lady's diary of five years spent in Manila, Macao, and the Cape of Good Hope from 1829-1834 . A newly edited version, which was accompanied by letters from Harriet to her family, was published in The China Trade Post-Bag in 1953 by her granddaughter Elma Loines . The journal was printed in full in 2002 in Lights and Shadows of a Macao Life: The journal of Harriett Low, traveling spinster, Part I. The first- person journal is considered an important historical document for China trade.

legacy

A bronze drinking fountain dedicated to the memory of Harriet Low Hillard was commissioned by her granddaughter Elma Loines in 1910 and is located in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Rogério Miguel Puga: Interpreting Macau through the Journals of Harriett Low and Rebecca Chase Kinsman Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. (PDF) In: Macau Polytechnic Institute (Ed.): Sino-Western Cultural Research (中西文化 研究) . 1, June 2008, pp. 157-159.
  2. ^ Rosmarie WN Lamas: Everything in Style: Harriett Low's Macau . Hong Kong University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-962-209-789-6 , p. 48.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Lois Styles Edgerly: Give Her This Day: A daybook of women′s words . Tilbury House Publishing, 1990, ISBN 978-0-937966-35-8 , pp. 146-147.
  4. ↑ a b Lamas: Everything in Style , p. 2.
  5. ^ (American Unitarian Association) The Unitarian Register , 76 (July 26, 1900: 827).
  6. ↑ Elma Loines: The China Trade Post-Bag of the Seth Low Family of Salem and New York, 1829-1873 . Falmouth Publishing House, 1953, p. 17.
  7. ↑ Lamas: Everything in Style , p. 18.
  8. ^ A b c d e Peter C. Perdue: Rise & Fall of the Canton Trade System ( English ) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  9. ^ Lamas, Everything in Style , p. 20.
  10. ↑ Don Grant: The Flamboyant Mr. Chinnery ( English ) In: Kensington & Chelsea Today . January 5, 2012. Archived from the original on August 3, 2012. Retrieved on February 14, 2012.
  11. ↑ a b Etsuko Taketani: US Women Writers and the Discourses of Colonialism, 1825-1861 . University of Tennessee Press, 2003, ISBN 1-57233-227-1 , p. 95.
  12. ^ The Canton System ( English ) In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 1995. Retrieved January 8, 2012.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.uv.es
  13. ↑ Katharine (ed.) Hillard: My Mother's Journal: A Young Lady's Diary of Five Years Spent in Manila, Macao, and the Cape of Good Hope From 1829-1834 . GH Ellis, 1900, p. 71.
  14. ^ A b c Valery Garrett: Book review of Everything in Style: Harriet Low's Macau ( English ) Asian Review of Books. September 6, 2006. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved on February 14, 2012.
  15. ^ Chinese Collections in the Library of Congress: Excerpts from the Annual Report (s) of the Librarian of Congress, 1898-1971: Quarterly journal, 1944-1971 . Center for Chinese Research Materials, Association of Research Libraries, 1974, p. 974.
  16. ↑ Loines: The China Trade Post-Bag , p. 18.
  17. ↑ Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony, Ida Husted Harper, Matilda Joslyn: The History of Woman Suffrage: 1883-1900 , Volume 4. Fowler & Wells, 1902, p. 860.
  18. ^ Lamas: Everything in Style , p. 285.
  19. ↑ Lamas: Everything in Style , pp. 113-117.
  20. ^ Taketani: US Women Writers , p. 94.
  21. ↑ Lamas: Everything in Style , pp. Xii.
  22. ↑ NN: NN . In: Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record (Ed.): Plants & Gardens . 4-5, 1949, p. 192.
personal data
SURNAME Low, Harriet
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hillard, Harriett Low (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Salem
DATE OF DEATH 1877
Place of death Brooklyn , New York City