Hannah Griffitts facts for kids

Hannah Griffitts (1727–1817) was an American poet who lived in the 1700s. She was a Quaker, which is a type of Christian group. Hannah was known for supporting the American colonists when they were resisting British rule before the American Revolution.

Early Life of Hannah Griffitts

Hannah Griffitts was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She lived in this city her whole life. Her parents were Thomas and Mary Norris Griffitts. She also had a sister named Mary and a brother named Isaac.

Hannah's grandfather was a merchant named Isaac Norris. This made her part of an important Quaker family in Pennsylvania. One of Hannah's cousins was Mary Norris, who married Founding Father John Dickinson. Another cousin was Hannah Harrison, who married a leading Patriot named Charles Thomson. (A Patriot was someone who supported the American colonies becoming independent from Britain.)

Hannah knew she wanted to be a poet from a young age. When she was just 10 years old, she promised that her poems would always be about important topics. In 1751, after both her parents had died, she moved to live with some of her Norris cousins at a place called Fairhill.

She stayed at Fairhill for more than ten years. She became very close to her cousin Mary Norris. They wrote letters to each other often when they were adults. Hannah never married. She once wrote that not everyone is meant for marriage, and she felt she was not. From the 1770s to the 1790s, she took care of several older relatives, including her sister Mary.

Hannah Griffitts' Poetry and Views

Hannah Griffitts is most famous for her strong poems that supported the American colonists. These poems were written in the years before the American Revolution. For example, she wrote several poems that supported women's rights. These poems were about the Daughters of Liberty. This was a group of women who protested against British rules in the Thirteen Colonies.

Her poem "The Female Patriots" (written in 1768) criticized the Sugar Act of 1765 and the Townshend Duties of 1767. These were taxes put in place by Britain to raise money from the colonies. They taxed goods like molasses and tea. In her poem, Hannah also criticized colonial men who did not stand up to the British:

Since the Men from a Party, on fear of a Frown,
Are kept by a Sugar-Plumb, quietly down.
Supinely asleep, & deprived of their Sight
Are stripped of their Freedom, and robbed of their Right.
If the Sons (so degenerate) the Blessing despise,
Let the Daughters of Liberty, nobly arise,
And tho' we've no Voice, but a negative here.
The use of the Taxables, let us forebear.
—from Hannah Griffitts, "The Female Patriot"

Even though her poems were powerful, Hannah Griffitts did not want violence. Like many Quakers at the time, she hoped for a peaceful solution to the taxes. She did not want a full revolution. After the war started, she was upset with people like Thomas Paine. She felt their strong ideas had won over the more moderate views.

Hannah refused to leave Philadelphia even when the British took control of the city. She continued to speak out against the war. During the war, some neutral American Quakers were seen as Loyalists. (Loyalists were people who stayed loyal to Britain.) However, Hannah was quick to criticize both the British and the Americans. For example, she saw the Mischianza as a bad example of British culture. The Mischianza was a big party the British held in 1778 to honor General George Howe when he left for England.

Throughout her life, Hannah's writing showed her care for people's suffering. She wrote many elegies (poems for the dead) for parents who had lost children. She also wrote them for fellow Quakers and friends, like the poet Susanna Wright.

At that time, it was hard for women poets to get their work published. Because of this, Hannah Griffitts did not try to publish her poems. Instead, she shared them with her friends, mostly women. A few of her poems did get printed, probably without her permission. They appeared in newspapers like the Pennsylvania Chronicle and the Pennsylvania Evening Post.

Today, we know that women during this period often used commonplace books. These were like personal notebooks where they collected poems and writings. About 60 of Hannah Griffitts' poems are in her cousin Milcah Martha Moore's commonplace book. This book was published in 1997 as Milcah Martha Moore's Book.

Hannah Griffitts was one of the main writers in Moore's book. She used the pen name 'Fidelia'. This name comes from a Latin word meaning 'faithfulness' or 'loyalty'. Hannah only used this pen name when she sent out clean copies of her poems. She signed her letters with her real name. Her own rough drafts often had her initials. A small book of her draft poems and notes still exists today.

Hannah Griffitts died in 1817. Her writings, including hundreds of poems and many letters, are now kept at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.