Martha Griffith Browne

Burial location: Jessamine Path, Lot 755, Grave# 8.

Martha (Mattie) Griffith was born far from Salem, in Owensboro Kentucky on October 2, 1828. She was an orphan at a young age. Her mother, Martha (Mattie) Young Griffith died in childbirth and her father Thomas Griffith, died when Mattie was only two years old. She was cared for by her paternal grandfather Caleb Griffith until his own death in 1846. Later, she would free the slaves she had inherited, much to the dismay of her pro-slavery relatives.

By 1850 Miss Griffith was writing poetry which was published in the Louisville Daily Courier and a collection was later published which was titled Poems by Mattie Griffith. Her best known work though, was a novel called Autobiography of a Female Slave. Told through the voice of an enslaved woman called Ann, this book gained the attention of such well known abolitionists as William Lloyd Garrison,   Wendell Phillips and Lydia Maria Child. Published in 1856, her writing led to a role as a speaker in the cause of abolition. She also worked with Maria Weston Chapman in planning and carrying out National Anti-Slavery Bazaars which were the major sources of funding for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

Griffith traveled to Europe in 1860 and returned to the United States in 1861.

In 1863, Griffith joined the Women’s National Loyal League which stood not only for women’s rights, but also for emancipation and universal suffrage during the Civil War.

On June 27, 1867, Mattie Griffith married journalist, abolitionist and banker Albert Gallatin Browne Junior in New York City. She died on May 25, 1906.

Sources Consulted:

• ‍Documenting the American South: Collections>Titles by Martha Griffith Browned. 1906‍
• Encyclopedia.Com 1080 Carolyn Wedin Sylvander: Browne, Martha Griffith
• En.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mattie_Griffith_Browne&oldid=1071605180