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I am working on revision of this article. Original was Copied from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsey_Guppy_Chamberlain?action=edit but what is below is the working revision area so it's really different.

Betsey Guppy Chamberlain (1797–1886) was a textile mill worker who wrote sketches and poetry that were published inThe Lowell Offering. Her co-worker, Harriet Hanson Robinson claimed that Chamberlain "had inherited Indian blood, and was proud of it,"[1] and some sources claim she was Native American[2]; however, there is little identifiable evidence to support the claim.[3][4] Some of her writing in the Lowell Offering protests the treatment of Native people by the U.S. government.[5]

Biography

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Betsey Guppy was born on 29 December 1797 in Brookfield, New Hampshire.[6] She was the daughter of William Guppy and Comfort Meserve.[7] During her early childhood, her family moved to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.[7] According to some sources, Guppy was of mixed Flemish/English and Algonquian descent.[8]

Guppy married Josiah Chamberlain in 1820, and had two children by him before he died in 1823.[9] She was forced to sell their small farm in Brookfield and travel to work in the mills, which paid decent wages for the time (considering the generally poor wages paid to women at the time), although the hours were long and working conditions often difficult.[10]

Lowell

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Betsey Chamberlain was recorded as joining the First Congregational Church in Lowell, Massachusetts in March 1831, and in April 1834 was married to Thomas Wright in that church.[7] The marriage does not seem to have lasted, and Betsey Chamberlain did not use the name "Wright" in later years.[11] According to Harriet Hanson Robinson, who worked with Guppy in the mills, "Mrs. Chamberlain was a widow, and came to Lowell with three children from some 'community' (probably the Shakers), where she had not been contented. She had inherited Indian blood, and was proud of it. She had long, straight black hair, and walked very erect, with great freedom of movement. One of her sons was afterwards connected with the New York Tribune."[12]

While in Lowell, Betsey worked in the mills and as a boardinghouse keeper.[7] From 1840 to 1843 she published sketches in the Lowell Offering (1840-1845) and from 1848 to 1859 she contributed to the New England Offering (1847-1850). Chamberlain used several pseudonyms including "Betsey", "B.C.", "Jemima", and "Tabitha."[13]

Later life

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In 1843 Betsey Chamberlain and Charles Boutwell were married in Illinois. He was a widowed farmer with children of his own.[14] Betsey joined Charles on his farm in Wayne Station, DuPage County, Illinois. She returned to Lowell in 1848 and then returned to Illinois in 1850.[15] She had four husbands in total, dying at the age of eighty-eight.[16]

Work

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Thirty-three prose works by Chamberlain were published in the Lowell Offering between 1840 and 1843, and five more in the New England Offering from 1848 to 1850.[17] A few of her writings, such as the 1842 The Indian Pledge and A Fire-Side Scene, are among the earliest protests against Indian persecution to be published by native women.[18] The satirical A Fire-Side Scene is highly critical of the way the government was treating native people, implying that their actions were far from following Christian morality.[19] Most of her published pieces are sketches of village life and legends told from a woman's viewpoint, in which she shows great powers of observation, bringing her characters vividly to life.[17] Harriet Hanson Robinson said of her "Mrs. Chamberlain was the most original, the most prolific, and the most noted of all the early story-writers. Her writings were characterized, as Mr. Thomas says, 'by humorous incidents and sound common sense,' and is shown by her setting forth of certain utopian schemes of right living."[12]

References

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Citations
  1. ^ Hanson Robinson, Harriet Jane (1898). Loom and Spindle: Or, Life Among the Early Mill Girls. With a Sketch of "The Lowell Offering" and Some of Its Contributors. https://books.google.com/books?id=5sNiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA145&lpg=PA145&dq=%22had+inherited+Indian+blood,+and+was+proud+of+it,%22&source=bl&ots=t5sGABhZJU&sig=ACfU3U2zBGnCZTKkXIKfdzWW81UNs9adWw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy-K2lrejlAhVuw1kKHaM-CmAQ6AEwBHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22had%20inherited%20Indian%20blood%2C%20and%20was%20proud%20of%20it%2C%22&f=false. p. 145. {{cite book}}: External link in |location= (help)CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ^ Ranta, Judith (2003). The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker. University Press of New England. p. 3.
  3. ^ Senier, Siobhan (December 2004). "Review: The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker by Judith A. Ranta". The New England Quarterly. 77: 672–675 – via JSTOR.
  4. ^ Bruchac, Margaret (Fall 2012). "The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker (review)". Studies in American Indian Literatures. 24: 138–141 – via Project MUSE.
  5. ^ Ranta, Judith A. (2003). The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker. UPNE. pp. 96–97. ISBN 9781555535643.
  6. ^ Ranta, Judith A. (2003). The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker. UPNE. p. 86. ISBN 9781555535643.
  7. ^ a b c d Ranta, Judith A. (2003). The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker. UPNE. p. 231. ISBN 9781555535643.
  8. ^ Porter, Joy; Roemer, Kenneth M. (2005-07-21). The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 161. ISBN 9780521822831.
  9. ^ Ranta, Judith A. (2003). The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker. UPNE. p. 231. ISBN 9781555535643.
  10. ^ Ranta, Judith A. (2003). The Life and Writings of Betsey Chamberlain: Native American Mill Worker. UPNE. pp. xi. ISBN 9781555535643.
  11. ^ Ranta 2003, p. 47-48. sfn error: multiple targets (6×): CITEREFRanta2003 (help)
  12. ^ a b Robinson 1898, p. 145.
  13. ^ Ranta 2003, p. xii. sfn error: multiple targets (6×): CITEREFRanta2003 (help)
  14. ^ Ranta 2003, p. 52. sfn error: multiple targets (6×): CITEREFRanta2003 (help)
  15. ^ Ranta 2003, p. 53. sfn error: multiple targets (6×): CITEREFRanta2003 (help)
  16. ^ Ranta 2003, p. 15. sfn error: multiple targets (6×): CITEREFRanta2003 (help)
  17. ^ a b Porter & Roemer 2005, p. 161.
  18. ^ Ranta 2003, p. 10. sfn error: multiple targets (6×): CITEREFRanta2003 (help)
  19. ^ Murphy 2008, p. 73.
Sources
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