Biography of harriet martineau

English author of fiction, reviews, travel writings, and religious, philosophical, and sociological essays, who was an advocate for women's rights, education, the abolition of slavery, and other liberal and radical causes of the 19th century .

Pronunciation: MAR-tin-O. Born Harriet Martineau on June 12, 1802, in Norwich, England; died at Ambleside, in the Lake District, on June 27, 1876; daughter of Thomas Martineau (a textile manufacturer) and Elizabeth (Rankin) Martineau; educated at home before being sent to Reverend Isaac Perry's school from 1813 to 1815; continued education at home under private teachers; never married; no children.

Grew up in Norwich in middle-class family of Unitarian faith; led an unhappy childhood beset by fears, illnesses, and the onset of deafness at age 12; sent from home at age 15 to relatives in Bristol for 15 months, and came under the influence of philosophical traditions of Locke, Hartley, and Priestley; publis