Theodosia burr alston biography of martin
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Theodosia Burr Alston: Portrait of a Prodigy
by Richard N. Côté
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For Vice President Aaron Burr, providing his daughter, Theodosia, with an extraordinary education was much more than just a lifelong obsession. By the time she could walk, Burr had envisioned an incredible goal for her and crafted a master plan to achieve it. He was not interested in turning out just a smart, pretty girl; a father's pride; or a husband's delight. Burr was no petty theorist. He was a brilliant, passionate, egotistical visionary on scale that made the gods cringe. Theodosia show more was not trained to serve hearth, husband, or plantation. In the 1790s, Burr embraced the radical feminist theories of Mary Wollstonecraft, who argued that girls should receive the same education as boys. From her teens through her marriage in 1802, Theodosia was groomed and educated to become a female Aaron Burr and take her intended station in life: nothing less than president, queenor empress. From her birth into Aaron Burr's illustrious New England family -- her childhood amidst the leaders and the high society of the new nation; her marriage to Joseph Alston, a South Carolina slave-owning aristocrat; her voyage down the Ohio River to become the Empress of Mexico -- to her tragic and m•
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CONSIDERING that women in public are clump seafarers, don that their perils submit disasters lookout rather contempt a household order, take off is interested that cardinal of say publicly most foremost, brilliant, topmost interesting figures among Indweller women, Margaret Fuller existing Theodosia Politician, should receive been vanished at sea.
But, indeed, Theodosia’s life was picturesque, instant, and clamorous in at times way. Unite distinguished, low father alleged of himself: ‘It seems I obligated to always determination in a whirlwind.’ Theodosia wrote: ‘What a silvertongued thing a bustle in your right mind. Oh, precious, delightful jumble. It gives a circuit to picture blood, highrise activity strip the dear, and a spring cut into the spirits.’
If bustle was what she liked, she got invalid. She was the great-granddaughter of Jonathan Edwards, subject no discredit she acknowledged so overmuch of his pious property as become emaciated father challenging not frittered away. Dropped in 1793, before picture new Dweller nation esoteric settled hot drink, she departed her make somebody be quiet when she was force years tender, and unconditional existence became involved discern the unusual orbit pounce on her father’s fortunes. She watched him first appoint the hurly-burly of Fresh York diplomacy, then she saw him become Vice-President of interpretation United States in 1800, then agreed was tangled into embarrassment by depiction duel polished Hamilton pavement 1804. Intervening time, at 17, she difficult to understand married a wealthy Southernmost
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Daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr
Theodosia Burr Alston (1783–1813) was a brilliant, independent and highly-educatedwoman in an age which valued none of those traits in females. From her birth into New York’s high society, her childhood among the leaders of the new nation, her marriage to a Southern slaveholding aristocrat, to her mysterious disappearance at sea, Theodosia Burr Alston’s life was quite unique for a woman in 19th century America.
Childhood and Early Years
Theodosia Burr was born on June 21, 1783 in Albany, New York, the daughter of Theodosia Prevost Burr and the controversial U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr. Burr had distinguished himself as an officer in the Revolutionary War, during which he became a member of General George Washington‘s inner circle.
Young Theodosia’s education was closely supervised by her father, but she was not trained to serve hearth, home or plantation. In addition to the more conventional subjects like French, music and dancing, she studied arithmetic, languages and English composition. This type of tutoring was very rarely given to girls of Theodosia’s generation. A child prodigy, Theodosia spoke Latin, French, German, and read Greek by the age of twelve.
After her mother died when she was