Eliza Macauley (1785-1837), actress, Owenite, socialist writer For Sale

MACAULEY, Elizabeth Wright. Autograph Letter Signed ‘Eliz Wright Macauley’, addressed ‘Sir’, evidently an editor, asking for a letter to the King to be published. 1 page 9 x 7 inches, edges ragged and creased. 52 Clarendon Square, undated [probably 1833]. A rare autograph. “Sir, If you will give insertion in your valuable columns to the enclosed Letter addressed to the King, you will confer a great obligation upon, Sir, your very obedient servant, Eliz Wright Macaulay.” Eliza Macauley (1785-1837), actress, Owenite, who came to notice as a socialist writer who campaigned on women's issues and financial reform. Owenism in the early 1830s promoted economic self-help of the working class through mutual co-operation. Working together to manufacture, trade, and create utopian–socialist and democratic communities. Women's equality was implicit in these plans. By 1832 she as the manager of the largest labour exchange where people bartered goods and services on the basis of the number of hours that was invested in them. Macauley delivered lectures on financial reform, child development, the evils of Christian orthodoxy, and women's rights. "Women have too long been considered as playthings, or as slaves", she said July 1832, "but I hope the time is at hand, when we shall hold a more honourable rank in the scale of creation" She was the author of Autobiographical Memoirs (1835).