Harriet Law: The Incarnation of Lilithian Myth in Victorian Europe

An analogy between mythical Lilith - the eternally damned woman and Harriet Law, one of the most venerated British woman activists and a public speaker is not without its own problems . It seems a bit far-fetched, a rather contrived idea to establish a relation between the two. But the evolution of Lilith myth, having marched forward relentlessly through various incarnations was finally given a legitimate underpinning in the modern feminist movements across the world. The reference to Harriet Law made sense in that perspective. Freedom of the eternally damned Lilith and assertion of a free spirited  modern woman, as exemplified by Harriet Law set in motion the 'woman question'- put so aptly by George Bernard Shaw in his play Candida. Before we elaborate on the role and contribution of Harriet Law to the cause of women empowerment and emancipation we may follow the trail of the Lilith myth and evolution of her character. 

Lilith in the Hebrew and Babylonian legends was Adam's rebellious first wife, who  had walked out of their relationship on charges of physical, sexual and psychological subjection. When Adam insisted that she play a subservient role, she grew wings and flew away. Lilith is the antithesis of Eve, sanctified by God as Adam's wife in the Bible. Whereas she is accorded a solitary reference ( 34:14) in the Bible  as a night demon in Isaiah's account.  Down the centuries since Middle Ages  Lilith remains the 'femme fatale'. She finds place in the western imagination as a witch, demoness, devourer of infants, who has partnered with Lucifer the devil in Hell. The twentieth century saw an emergence of Lilith myth in a new light. From a seductive, murderous demoness, she has undergone another transformation as a representative figure of woman victimhood. Modern feminists celebrate her bold struggle for independence from Adam, the archetypal dominant male. Her name also appears as the title of a woman's magazine in Israel.

We can absolutely compare the struggle of Lilith with Harriet Law in actual ground . Harriet  Teresa Law was a leading British freethinker in 19 th century London . At that time women were seen , by the middle class, as belonging to the domestic sphere , and this stereotype required them to provide their husbands with a clean home , to put food on the table and to raise their children. Women's rights were extremely limited in this era, losing ownership of their wages, all of their physical property, excluding land property, and all other cash they generated once married. When a Victorian man and woman married, the rights of the woman were legally given over to her spouse. Under the law the married couple became one entity represented by the husband, placing him in control of all property, earnings, and money. In addition to losing money and material goods to their husbands, Victorian wives became property to their husbands, giving them rights to what their bodies produced: children, sex and domestic labor. Marriage abrogated a woman's right to consent to sexual intercourse with her husband, giving him "ownership" over her body. Their mutual matrimonial consent therefore became a contract to give herself to her husband as he desired.

Keeping this background in mind we can go through the life of Harriet Law. She was born on 5th November 1831 in England (Ongar,Essex). Being the daughter of a small farmer , she was raised as a Strict Baptist. Her father was a small farmer, but when his business failed he moved with his family to East End ,London..Law taught in a Sunday school to earn for her family. Here she came into contact with Owenite Enfidels such as George Holyoake and Charles Southwell who were giving lectures in East London.

 In the process she lost her religious beliefs. She "saw the light of reason" in 1855 and became a strong supporter of Holyoake. She embraced atheism, feminism, and "Owenite co-operation" after these discussions.

Harriet married Edward Law on 11 January 1855. They lived at 38 Boyson Road in Walworth and had four children. Her husband was also a free thinker too and used to take care of the children when Harriet remained busy in her public work commitments. What is known of their family life remained an inspiration for feminists for long.

From 1859 Harriet Law was paid a salary for lecturing for the secular movement. She spoke out against Christianity at meetings around the country in the 1860s and 1870s. Often it was difficult to find premises that could be hired for such meetings, and often the audience was hostile and at times even violent. When giving a series of lectures in Keighley, Yorkshire, in September 1866 she had to compete with Henry Grattan Guinness, of the brewing family, a nonconformist evangelist who held meetings at the same time to try to counteract her influence. Writing in 1893, Annie Besant said of her, "Mrs. Harriet Law, a woman of much courage and of strong natural ability, had many a rough meeting in her lecturing days."Mainstream feminist groups excluded Law due to her Marxist and atheist beliefs. Other opponents dismissed Law's views as worthless since she was from the lower classes, poorly educated and a woman. A member of the Bible Defence Association said he "could not debate in the streets with a woman, and especially one of Mrs Law's class. A lecture that Law gave in Woolwich on "How I became a freethinker and why I remain one" was attacked in the press as ‘the infidel lecture’, where she was physically brutalized. Some of the lectures Law gave at Cleveland Hall in Fitzroy Square in London in the 1860s were titled "The Teachings and Philosophy of J.S. Mill, Esq.", "The Late Robert Owen: a Tribute to His Memory" and "Appeal to Women to Consider their Interests in Connection with the Social, Political, and Theological Aspects of the Times." In June 1867 she shared the stage at a suffrage meeting in Cleveland Hall with the American physician and woman's rights activist Mary Edwards Walker. Law talked of John Stuart Mills proposal for Woman's suffrage, which was being debated by the House of Commons, while Walker spoke of reform to the marriage laws. In 1876 Law was engaged by the Lancashire Secular Union to give ten special lectures, each attended by about 5,000 people.

On her lecture tours in the provinces Harriet Law did not represent the leadership of the movement, but served as a freelance speaker at the meetings of the local secularist societies. Although prominent in the movement, Law did not join the leadership of the National Secular Society (NSS). This may have been due to difficulty working with its leader, Charles Bradlaugh. At the 1866 NSS conference in Leeds she backed George William Foote in his attempt to oust Bradlaugh, which did not succeed. Soon after, Foote was expelled from the NSS. She was offered a vice-presidency of the NSS in 1867 and again in 1876, but refused both times.

At first the International Workingmens Association (IWA), now known as the First International, had mostly male membership, although in 1865 it was agreed that women could become members. The initial leadership was exclusively male. At the IWA General Council meeting on 16 April 1867 a letter from Harriet Law about Women's Rights was read, and it was agreed to ask her if she would be willing to attend council meetings. On 25 June 1867 she was admitted to the General Council, and for the next five years was the only woman representative. Mostly she remained silent, but she is recorded to have intervened in a number of discussions. On 27 August 1868 Law argued against Karl Marx , who opposed turning the IWA into what he called a "debating club". She was in favour of debates. On 28 July 1868 she again appeared to oppose Marx, praising the positive effect of factory automation in reducing the dependence of women on men. However, despite all the debates, Harriet and Marx made a unique combination in the platform of the First International, where each played complementary role in developing the other’s theoretical niche. If presence of Harriet Law helped Marx articulate slogans and demands in relation to women workers, it gave Law the opportunity to comprehend women’s issues in the broader perspective of revolutionary social transformation.

 

Law did not attend the IWA General Council meetings between August 1870 and October 1871. In response to a question on her absence Friedrich Engels said she had told him she considered she was still a member. She was among the signatories on the 1872 brochure The Fictitious Splits in the International in which Marx and Engels opposed Mikhail Bakunin and his supporters. After leaving the General Council, Law was elected to represent the Central Society of Working Women of Geneva at the IWA's Hague Congress in 1872, but for some unexplained reason was unable to attend. The Internationalist women of Geneva were against the "family wage" concept that was being advocated in America by Marxists such as Friedrich Adolph Sorge , and wanted the IWA to demand clauses requiring "equal advantages" for women in labour agreements.

 

Harriet Law bought out the Secular Chronicle after the founder, George Reddells, died in October 1875. She was editor of the journal from 1876 to 1879, assisted by her daughter. She gave the paper a broader scope, with sections that covered atheism, women's rights, Owenite co-operation and republicanism. She published a short biography of Karl Marx, with a portrait, and in the next issue published an article by Marx in which he pointed out the errors in George Howell's History of the International. She published profiles of women such as the freethinker and women's rights activist Mary Wollstonecraft. In 1877 she published An Hour with Harriet Martineau.

 

Law continued to speak in public. In July 1877 it was reported that she had engaged Cleveland Hall for another 12 months, and that she and others would talk on "The Recent Trial in Relation to Secularism." On 29 July 1877 she was scheduled to speak in Manchester on "The Freethought of the Future, as Foreshadowed in the Writings of Moncure D. Conway." However, illness forced her to cancel the talk. On 23 December 1877 she spoke in Glasgow, and a week later in Leeds. On 6 and 13 January 1878 she spoke in Newcastle-on-Tyne. Harriet Law handed the Secular Chronicle to new owners at the end on 1878. During her three years running the paper she had lost £1,000, a significant amount at the time.

 

Law's health forced her to cut back her activities after 1879. However, she continued to speak at times. A hostile account of a meeting in 1880 was given in The Shield of faith, which called her a "secular lady lecturer". The writer said "A long course of Woman's Rights may have satisfied Mrs. Law that every married woman should rule her husband..." but pointed out that "In law the husband is held responsible for what his wife says; the law holds that the husband rules the wife." On 6 March 1881 she spoke at the opening of Leicester Secular Society's new Secular Hall in Humberstone Gate, Leicester. The other speakers were George Jacob Holyoake, Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh.

Harriet Law died on 19 July 1897. Her journey can be seen as from one pole to the opposite one , from orthodox christianity to atheism. In later period her belief and activities influenced women liberal movements. As Eleanor Marx said she was one of the first women to recognise, "the importance of a woman's organisation from the proletarian point of view", and went on to say "When the history of the labour movement in England is written, the name of Harriet Law will be entered into the golden book of the proletariat."