Ramsay, Martha Laurens

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RAMSAY, Martha Laurens

Born 3 November 1759, Charleston, South Carolina; died 10 June 1811, Charleston, South Carolina

Daughter of Henry and Eleanor Ball Laurens; married David Ramsay, 1787; children: 11 children

Martha Laurens Ramsay was the daughter of a prominent South Carolina patriot leader and the wife of another Revolutionary patriot. She achieved posthumous recognition as a writer when her husband published Memoirs of the Life of Martha Laurens Ramsay (1811). The work included his memoir of Ramsay as well as her writings: extracts from her diary, letters, and religious meditations and exercises. Ramsay had kept the writing secret until immediately before her death, and David Ramsay published them as a testimonial and a guide to others.

Although Ramsay began writing in childhood, only a few things remain from the early years, the significant one being the "Covenant with God" which she drew up at age fourteen. There are some religious meditations from the period 1775-85, when Ramsay lived in England and France. These works reflect both the faith and the fear of "apostasy" on the part of a young woman first entering "gay, worldly, and even…profane company." Ramsay did experience a decline of religious fervor at one point. What proved of more lasting significance was her encounter with the English evangelical movement, which helped confirm what Ramsay called her "heart religion."

The central core of Ramsay's writings is the diary she kept after her return to Charleston and her marriage. The published extracts cover the period 1791 to 1808. Hers was a sporadically kept record of a life of faith, troubled by a recurring sense of falling away from God. Throughout Ramsay underscores a "sense of being drawn to God through trials." These trials included the deaths of three of her 11 children and the family's troubled financial affairs.

Ramsay did not give details of the experiences of trial but instead recorded her inner turmoil and anguished efforts to regain stability. She felt the weight of "those sins which required this chastisement" and the fear lest her rebellions lead to "forfeiting all thy mercies." Throughout the diary Ramsay stresses the importance of the sense of that grace "by which alone I stand."She utilizes hymns and religious poetry to sum up her faith and the struggles with doubt.

Almost all the writings were for Ramsay's own use, with the exception of the letters, a small number of which were included. The warmth of Ramsay's nature is more evident here; the letters to her children are instructive, supportive, and appreciative.

Ramsay gives the impression of being at ease with the traditional role of women. Although she had read contemporary feminist writings, her husband maintained that she preferred "the teachings of the Bible to human reasoning." She gives no indications of her feelings about the institution of slavery, which so troubled her fellow Charlestonian Sarah Grimké.

Ramsay's writing was essentially a private experience, a means of intensifying her religious life. One feels the intensity of her religious struggles and personal affection for her family, but she does not reveal herself as a rounded human being. For Ramsay, personal spirituality was at the heart of existence; it was also at the heart of her writing.

Bibliography:

Begos, J. D., ed., A Women's Diaries Miscellany (1989). Rogers, G. C., Jr., Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1962). Pair, J. M., eds., A Selection of Papers from Women and the Constitution: A Bicentennial Perspective (1990). Spruill, J. C., Women's Life and Work in the Southern Colonies (1938). Wallace, D. D., The Life of Henry Laurens (1915).