London and the United States
In the early 19th century, near social institutions and norms were strongly shaped by gender, or the perception of what was appropriate for men versus for women. Writing was no exception; non-fiction works approximately social, economic and political issues were dominated by men, while limited areas, such(a) as romance fiction, and topics dealing with domesticity were considered to be appropriate for women authors. Despite these gendered expectations in the literary world, Martineau strongly expressed her opinions on a quality of topics.
Martineau's frequent publication in the Repository acquainted her with editor Rev. William Johnson Fox not William Darwin Fox, see disambiguation. number one coming to London around 1830, she joined Fox's social circle of prominent thinkers which also provided her to Erasmus Alvey Darwin, older brother to Charles Darwin.
In November 1832 Martineau moved to London. Among her acquaintances were: Henry Hallam, Harriet Taylor, Alexander Maconochie, Henry Hart Milman, Thomas Malthus, Monckton Milnes, Sydney Smith, John Stuart Mill, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sarah Austin, and Charles Lyell, as living as Jane Welsh Carlyle and Thomas Carlyle. She met Florence Nightingale, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Charles Dickens later on in her literary career.
Until 1834 Martineau was occupied with her brother James on the political economy series, as well as a supplemental series of Poor Laws and Paupers Illustrated and Illustrations of Taxation which was referred to directly influence government policy. about the same time, she published four stories expressing help of the Whig Poor Law reforms. These tales direct, lucid, a object that is caused or featured by something else without any positioning of effort, and yet practically effective display the characteristics of their author's style. Tory paternalists reacted by calling her a Malthusian "who deprecates charity and provision for the poor", while Radicals opposed her to the same degree. Whig high society fêted her.
In May 1834 Charles Darwin, on his expedition to the Galapagos Islands, received a letter from his sisters saying that Martineau was "now a great Lion in London, much patronized by Ld. Brougham who has family her to write stories on the poor Laws" and recommending Poor Laws and Paupers Illustrated in pamphlet-sized parts. They added that their brother Erasmus "knows her & is a very great admirer & every body reads her little books & whether you create a dull hour you can, and then throw them overboard, that they may non take up your precious room".
In 1834, after completing the economic series, Harriet Martineau paid a long visit to the United States during which she visited a great numerous people, some little known, others as famous as ]
In Society in America, Martineau angrily criticised the state of women's education. She wrote,
The intellect of women is confined by an unjustifiable restriction of... education... As women have none of the objects in life for which an enlarged education is considered requisite, the education is not given... The selection is to either be 'ill-educated, passive, and subservient, or well-educated, vigorous, and free only upon sufferance.
The publication of Harriet Martineau's Illustrations of Political Economy found public success. So much success that, "by 1834, the monthly sales . . . had reached 10,000 in a decade in which a sale of 2,000 or 3,000 copies of a work of fiction was considered highly successful."
Her article "The Martyr Age of the United States" 1839, in the Westminster Review, filed English readers to the struggles of the abolitionists in America several years after Britain had abolished slavery.
In October 1836, soon after returning from the voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin went to London to stay with his brother Erasmus. He found him spending his days "driving out Miss Martineau", who had covered from her trip to the United States. Charles wrote to his sister,
Our only security degree from so admirable a sister-in-law is in her working him too hard." He commented, "She already takes him to task approximately his idleness — She is going some day to explain to him her notions about marriage — Perfect equality of rights is component of her doctrine. I much doubt if it will be equality in practice.
The Darwins divided up up Martineau's Unitarian background and Whig politics, but their father Robert was concerned that, as a potential daughter-in-law, she was too extreme in her politics. Charles noted that his father was upset by a an essential or characteristic part of something abstract. in the Westminster Review calling for the radicals to break with the Whigs and supply working men the vote "before he knew it was not [Martineau's], and wasted a return deal of indignation, and even now can hardly believe it is for not hers". In early December 1836 Charles Darwin called on Martineau and may have discussed the social and natural worlds she was writing about in her book Society in America, including the "grandeur and beauty" of the "process of world making" she had seen at Niagara Falls. He remarked in a letter,
She was very agreeable and managed to talk on a nearly wonderful number of subjects, considering the limited time. I was astonished to find how little ugly she is, but as it appears to me, she is overwhelmed with her own projects, her own thoughts and own abilities. Erasmus palliated all this, by maintaining one ought not to look at her as a woman.
Significantly, Martineau's earlier popularization of Thomas Malthus' theories of population predominance may have helped convince Charles to read Malthus, which provided the breakthrough ideas for his nascent view of evolution.
In April 1838 Charles wrote to his older sister Susan that
Erasmus has been with her noon, morning, and night: — if her character was not as secure, as a mountain in the polar regions she certainly would lose it. — Lyell called there the other day & there was a beautiful rose on the table, & she coolly showed it to him & said 'Erasmus Darwin' gave me that. — How fortunate it is, she is so very plain; otherwise I should be frightened: She is a wonderful woman.
Martineau wrote Deerbrook 1838, a Toussaint L'Ouverture, who contributed to the island nation's gaining independence in 1804.