A Notorious Woman: Anne Royall in Jacksonian America

by Elizabeth J. Clapp

During her long career as a public figure in Jacksonian America, Anne Royall was called everything from an "enemy of religion" to a "Jackson man" to a "common scold." In her search for the source of such strong reactions, Elizabeth Clapp has uncovered the story of a widely read woman of letters who asserted her right to a political voice without regard to her gender. Widowed and in need of a livelihood following a disastrous lawsuit over her husband’s will, Royall decided to earn her living through writing--first as a travel writer, journeying through America to research and sell her books, and later as a journalist and editor. Her language and forcefully expressed opinions provoked people at least as much as did her inflammatory behavior and aggressive marketing tactics. An ardent defender of American liberties, she attacked the agents of evangelical revivals, the Bank of the United States, and corruption in government. Her positions were frequently extreme, directly challenging the would-be shapers of the early republic’s religious and political culture. She made many enemies, but because she also attracted many supporters, she was not easily silenced. The definitive account of a passionate voice when America was inventing itself, A Notorious Woman re-creates a fascinating stage on which women’s roles, evangelical hegemony, and political involvement were all contested.

280 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2016

Reviews

[Rose Paluch · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is redundancy of this story because the woman was consistent. I liked this book a lot, wishing more examples like her could be studied. I finished this book a while ago so this isn’t the best review. I best remember that everyone had an opinion of her, rarely good. Yet her story lends sympathy because the system was stacked against her. Interesting and worthwhile to read.

[Kusaimamekirai · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I want nothing to do with you madam. I dislike your character”
“She continues to make herself noxious to many persons”
“I was completely disgusted with the old hag”
“A common scold!”
“An evil disposed person and a common slanderer”
“A troublesome and angry woman who, by her brawling and wrangling among her neighbors, doth break the public peace, and beget, cherish and increase public discord”
“She is a perfect nightmare to many of the luckless wights who have fallen under her vengeance, and a source of endless amusement to those who are fortunate enough to escape the venom of her tongue and pen”
“She is no woman at all but a stout, saucy, swaggering, two fisted chap, with a skull of his own, who having a mind to live an easy life and be impudent with safety, has turned author, and equipped himself in petticoats for protection”

Long before Hillary Clinton became 'that nasty woman' there was Anne Royall.
For the majority of her 80+ years lived during the American Revolution, all the way to the cusp of the Civil War, Royall found trouble. When one of her heroes, Andrew Jackson, would say of himself, ‘I was born for a storm and calm does not suit me’, he may have just as easily describing his biggest female fan as well.
The thing about Royall though, is that she can’t easily be described as a strong woman fighting against the patriarchy in the mold of an Elizabeth Lady Stanton for example.
Royall was vehemently opposed to female equality, suffrage, and women who were more interested in social issues than their husbands.
While some would say that the various quixotic crusades she would pursue throughout her life such as for pensions for revolutionary war widows and eradicating evangelicalism, would be considered political, Royall would argue that she was not doing these things in her capacity as woman, but as a patriot for the good of the nation. Whatever gets you to sleep at night I guess.
In a fascinating life that included being a travel writer, door to door bookseller (she would burst into peoples homes and demand they buy her books or else she would write up an unflattering portrait of them in her next essay), reporter, and newspaper editor, the most interesting for me was her crusade against evangelicalism.
It was during this crusade that the men who had been her constant critics finally had enough and brought her to trial for being…”a common scold”. 21st century translation: a nasty woman.
Royall was no shrinking violet though and relished the stage it presented her, going so far as on the first day of the trial she:

“Marched into Court, demanded the names of the Jurymen, and so frightened the poor fellows, that not one of them dared to acknowledge himself concerned in presenting her”

While there was no specific charge that brought her into court to begin with other than a bunch of men just being tired of her insulting them, there was one incident involving Royall shouting from her window at groups of Evangelicals on their way to church.
Really.

“She shouted insults at the Sunday school teachers as they passed her windows in the way to the church, frightening some of them to the extent that one newspaper noted ‘Some of the young ladies were actually afraid to pass. Nor could they come within hearing, without having themselves outraged by language, to which no delicate female could listen”

We often say about some complicated historical figures that we cannot easily fit them into a box.
This saying fits Anne Royall better than anyone else I’ve read about in recent memory.
Was she the anti-feminist, extortionist bookselling, sunday school teacher abusing, Native American hating (a whole different Royall rabbit hole), nasty woman she could seem to many?
Or was she the fiercely independent, patriotic, free speech absolutist that the more admirable side of her revealed?
Well, she was all of these things. You can love Royall, but the walk to being repulsed by her is a very short one as well.
I think the only thing for sure we can say is that if she were here, she wouldn’t give a damn what you thought of her. And she’d probably make you buy one of her books.