First Woman Geographer: Susanna Rowson 1805

 

The bestselling book in American literature, Charlotte Temple, written by author Susanna Rowson, is published in 1791.

 This book remains the bestselling book of the times until Harriet Beecher Stowes

‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’ is published in 1851.

 

   Susanna Rowson was born in 1762 in Portsmouth, England  but the family almost immediately moved to the America’s. The ship did not even make it to the docks; the ship becoming grounded and considered shipwrecked some distance out the crew and passengers were stuck on the ship until rescued days later.

   With the American Revolutionary War going on, Susanna’s father was immediately placed under house arrest. Following a prisoner exchange in 1778, the family was sent to live in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and then back to England. Their property in America was seized and the family found themselves living in poverty. Susanna would go on to become a famous and beloved writer and the first woman geographer when she published the first human geography textbook, ‘Rowson’s Abridgement of Universal Geography’ in 1805.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Women's History: Trivia, Firsts, & Musings by Paula C. Henderson https://amzn.to/3C2WWN2