Interview with Mercy Otis Warren

Mercy Otis Warren: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Step Three

1. What events in your early life made you get interested in the arts?

A: Well, I was raise by a very patriotic family. So I was always around the profession, I guess you can say it's in my blood. I was the fifth out of thirteen children. My brother, James Otis, was an American Patriot and Pamphleteer. My family was quite close to the Adams' family; my best friend was Abigail Adams. We both had a compassionate love for Women Rights, she even” wrote to her husband, John, while he was making plans for the new nation. She asked him to “Remember the ladies” (Gillis,2006) I would attend conventions with my brother and John Adams. Even though I couldn't attend school my brothers always let me study with them. We were “taught by Reverend John Russell, he prepared all of us for college” (Foldalek, 2010 ). I had a deep passion for reading, writing and discussing politics, which later contributed to who I am today.

I met my husband at the Harvard Commencement. He was a very patriotic man, obsessed with politics just like myself. He was a merchant and farmer in Plymouth, MA. Our favorite thing to do was read the morning paper together, which wasn’t common in my era. “James attended college and was very knowledgeable and later elected into the House of Representatives” (Fodalek, 2010). And even though I could not vote or be that much involved in politics, I found my way around the women restrictions. My husband and I would host protest and meetings, and though I never believed it was enough and wanted to be more involved. My husband encouraged me to write about it, and I did. Once I started I did not want to stop, I wrote play after play, poem after poem and continued from there.

2. What role did mentors play in helping you develop the interests and talents you have as an artist?

A: I didn't really look up to any adults in my family, besides my eldest brother James. My brother was always patriotic and kept up with his schoolwork. He thought education was the key to success and later so did I. My brother always encouraged me to go for my dreams, no matter what the limitation. I started writing poetry when I was eight years old. He always told me; my words could change the world. I published my first play when I was eighteen years old, but unfortunately I had to publish them anonymously.  

As I grew older I admired more famously known political men, such as George Washington, John Hancock, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams and Alexander Hamilton. I even “dedicated one of (my) poetic play book to George Washington” (Think Quest, 2011a), because of the great impacts he had on my life. I became well known through the United States for my Revolutionary writing. My husband’s political status surely got my writing observed by the many famous people it did but I do believe my writing changed them. I am so blessed that I had the opportunity to change and touch the hearts of so many people, and that I was able to help our great nation.   

3. What was the world of art like in your particular art field when you entered it?

A: My art field mainly consisted of men who could use their own names and women who could not. The writing was frail, empty and unmoving. Every piece that I read had little or no purpose; there was no drive, no passion. It was like they were scared to speak the truth, which is one thing I was never afraid of. "Then let us rise my friends, and strive to fill. This little interval, this pause of life, (While yet our liberty and fates are doubtful). With resolution, friendship, Roman bravery, and all the virtues we can crowd into it; That Heaven may say it ought to be prolonged" (Warren , 1773).

                After I entered the arts they did improve. They had more feeling and resembled more important topics. And part of me believes that if the American Revolution never began there would be no great literature, maybe even including my own. I think it is quite amazing what many different people feel in those kinds of situations and political differences. “Our situation is truly delicate and critical. On the other hand we are in need of a strong federal government founded on principles that will support the prosperity and union of the colonies. On the other we have struggled for liberty and made costly sacrifices at her shrine and there are many among us who revere her name to much to relinquish (beyond a certain medium) the rights of man for dignity of government”( Think Quest, 2011b).    

4. How did the major cultural, economic and political situations of the time impact your work?

A: In my time there were two political parties, Loyalist and Patriots. There were many revolts and arguments between these groups. Being a Patriot, as you may know, most of my pieces of writing upset the Loyalist. I didn’t really mind their compressed feelings for my work; I know I didn’t really care that much for theirs. It did upset me a little that we just couldn’t see eye to eye. I always wondered why they continued to believe that we should have no say in ‘our’ own country. Like the British had the best interest for us, No, they were only looking out for their best interests.

I was a part of The Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence which was formed at my husband and my house in 1772. One of my quotes was "no single step contributed so much to cement the union of the colonies" (Paragon House,2009). Most people in my time were Christians, but some did vary. I didn’t have much of an issue with other religions, but god knows the Loyalist did. They felt that everyone should be on the same religious basis, diverse I know. For economic standards, the main situation was The Boston Tea Party which was the refusal to buy any British goods. Patriots finally had the last straw with the British Taxation and finally revolted. My brother was also the one that came up with “Taxation without Representation is Tyranny” and had been nicknamed “The Patriot”. I later wrote about him “He was the first American freedom…He had in a clear, concise and daring manner state…the rights of the American Colonies” (Gillis page 37).    

5. What were your major accomplishments and the methods you used in your art?

                A: My major accomplishment has to be gaining the title of "Conscience of the American Revolution." Another major accomplishment would have to being able to finally publish my poems and plays under my own name in 1790 when I “brought out the collection Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous” (Paul Lauter, 2011). I am now known as the woman who changed America and helped/started the American Revolution and that is a title I graciously take with honor. I have been dealt a hand that I am glad to posess but I have so many people to thank for that, and I couldn’t have done it alone. My country is one thing I shall have no doubt in, we are strong and we will fight for what we believe in.

Some more accomplishments that I will note would have to be creating so many revolutionary plays and moving poems. I am glad that so many people have enjoyed my work and I hope that it is proof any and every one that you can do anything. No voice is too small, no gender, race or religion is too different. I surely had my fair share of doubts, that I would never achieve the status that I did. But I never backed down, and never let anyone trample on my dreams and I eventually made it through. Another accomplishment would have to be, a woman from my day and age being offered the opportunity to be educated. I was always so mad about the fact that women were never offered the same opportunities that men were, to better themselves education-wise. And that is one of the main reasons I spoke out, because we have the same amount of qualities to add to our great nation.  

6. What were the key opportunities you had that led to turning points in your life and art?

                A: There were a lot of turning points in my life. The first time I picked up a book, a pencil, or blank parchment. The time Reverend John Russell agreed to teach me, and saw my love to read, write and learn. Or the time I completed my first poem when I was only eight years old. Maybe the time I met my husband and sunk deeper into the political world. Indeed I have had many turning points as a woman of my age should have. I believe my turning point is best reflected in my writing, because I am my writing and it is me. My writing is about what I feel and why I feel it, my country and why I love it and what we need to do to take it back.               

People may know me as the woman who help change American but believe it or not but America changed me. I believed in it. I am America and America is in me. I said a saying once that went a little like “The United States form a young republic, a confederacy which ought ever to be cemented by a union of interests and affection, under the influence of those principles which obtained their independence” (Bookrags,2001). The one key opportunity that led to a great turning point in my life would have to be when I was taught by Reverend John Russell. It is to him that I owe my correct spelling, brilliant words and moving poems. Without his teachings my words would’ve never been scribbled on a page or changed the people’s thoughts about Revolution, and with that I thank him. 

7. What personal choices did you make to become successful?

A: I consider myself successful, but not in the way you would think. I would consider myself successful only with the aspect of my intelligence. Though many people have read my moving writings, they are not my success. I only saw what was right in front of me, a bunch of people that needed to be pushed in the right direction. I owe my success to America and the great opportunities it has provided me with. People who have read my work, better themselves to better the U.S, and that is one of the main reasons I write. I am “famous to this day because of what (I’ve) wrote” (White,2002).

A writer mainly has one purpose and that is to either inspire or persuade their audience. I want my audience to feel what I am feeling, to know what I know, to hear what I have to say. I do owe some of my success to my reader’s because without them I would have never achieved the status I have today. If there is no audience to inspire, why write? My readers are those who carry my words inside them, my words literally are shared through them. My success is based on many things and I am glad I had the chance to share my words on so many levels of knowledge.

8. What hardships or roadblocks did you have to overcome in order to be an artist?

                A: Everything and everyone experiences a roadblock in life somewhere down the road. Mine had to be the limitations for women writers. If women wanted to write and have it be heard, they would have to submit it anonymously. I had to go through that process, and it was not great. Hearing people in the streets and reading headlines in the paper about how some anonymous writer’s piece was inspirational and not being able to take credit for it. It is a writer’s personal hell, spending all that time perfecting every single last line and stanza, and not even being allowed to bask in your own glory?

                This did discourage some of my writings, at least to myself. Then on I realized, I didn’t want to anonymously submit my writing it was degrading not to just me but every woman writer. What gives a man the right to be able to publish their name and not us? So, I talked to my friend Abigail and my husband and told them what I thought. Abigail then talked to her husband about the subject and he brought them up to the House of the Representatives. And a few years later after a lot of plays about Women’s Rights, I was allowed to publish my name. I had won this battle and opened the gate for every women writer from then on.

9. What kind of limitations did you run into as both an artist and a person?

                A: The limitations that I faced were those of Women Rights. It was a disgrace to me then, as it still is now. I believed that women had the same abilities of those of men that were we just never given the chance. In my plays and poems “often lamented women’s second-class status..(I) portrayed female weakness and dependence on upon their men, implicitly urging readers to behave courageously in the face of the ongoing civil strife” (Rubin,2008).  

Another limitation would probably have to be my political standards. Although it ties into Women Rights, this was always something I regretted. I wanted to be in politics, though I affected politics with my writing I never truly fulfilled my place I saw myself. Ever since I was a little girl I loved politics, I had such a deep admiration for the subject. It was such an unusual interest for a girl in my day-in-age but I did not care. I wanted to change the unjust world and make it better for everyone. I was both jealous and ecstatic when my brother officially became a lawyer. I always thought it was I would see myself helping our nation one way, but at first I didn’t see that way being with a pen in my hand.

 10. What personal stories (anecdotes) best illustrate how you became successful in the arts?

                A: I was basically raised around politics, as I said before I had a very patriotic family. My eldest brother grew up to be a lawyer, my family knew a lot of famous politicians, and my best friend was Abigail Adams. My husband was on the House of Representatives, I literally breathed it every day. The blue and red colors ran through my veins and nothing was going to stop me from speaking my mind. My pieces of writing are what I feel, what I would love, and what should change. And that is what I try to deliver to my audience with every word.

                One day during my brothers and my teaching lesson we read a bunch of books and parchments and I see there are no women. This at first confused me, so I asked Reverend John Russell why that was. And he explains to me how there aren’t any women involved in politics and why he thinks that is. Then I remember James, my eldest brother, talking about how he wants to be a lawyer when he grows up and how I will never be. And from then on I wrote poems and plays that made the injustices for women just, and that’s when I found my ride of passage. My heart was in writing and that’s where it remains to this day.    

Bibliography Listed

By, Savannah Haas

1. "By the Declaration of Independence... at BrainyQuote." Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote. BookRags Media Network, 2001. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mercyotisw295825.html>.

 2. Gillis, Jennifer Blizin. Mercy Otis Warren: Author and Historian. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point, 2006. 56. Print.

3. "Heath Anthology of American LiteratureMercy Otis Warren - Author Page." Redirection to Equivalent @ Cengage. Ed. Paul Lauter. Cenage Leaning. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://college.cengage.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/eighteenth/warren_me.html>.

 4."Mercy Otis Warren." The Revolutionary War: A Journey Towards Freedom. Think Quest. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://library.thinkquest.org/10966/data/bwarren.shtml>.

5. Rubin, Stuart Nancy. The Muse of the Revolution: the Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation. Boston: Beacon, 2008. Print.

6. "Traitors, Seamstresses and Generals: Voices of the American Revoluion." People of the Revolution. Think Quest. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312848/mowarren.htm#

7. Warren, Mercy Otis, and James Warren. The Adulator. Plymouth, MA: Anonymous, 1773. Print.

8. “Warren, Mercy Otis." Info: Main Page - New World Encyclopedia. Paragon House, 21 Jan. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mercy_Otis_Warren#Post-Revolutionary_writings>.g of a Nation. Boston: Beacon, 2008. 12. Print.

9. White, David. "Mercy Otis Warren: Playwright of the Revolution." Social Studies for Kids. 2002. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/mercyotiswarren.htm>.

10. YouTube - Mercy Otis Warren.mov. Dir. Fodalek. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Youtube, 20 Oct. 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg4FdXSXwyo>.