Harriet Teresa Law (née Frost, 5 November 1831 – 19 July 1897) was a leading British freethinker in 19th-century London.
The daughter of a small farmer, she was raised as a "Strict Baptist" but later converted to atheism. She became a salaried speaker for the secularist movement and addressed many often hostile audiences around the country. She was invited to sit on the general council of the First International, the only woman to do so, where she engaged in debate with prominent communists including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. From 1877 to 1878 she published The Secular Chronicle, which covered subjects such as socialism, atheism and women's rights.
Early years
Harriet Teresa Frost was born in Ongar on 5 November 1831. She was brought up as a Strict Baptist. Her father was a small farmer, but when his business failed he moved with his family to London's East End. Law taught in a Sunday school to bring some income to the family. In the 1850s she began debating with Owenites such as George Holyoake and Charles Southwell who were giving lectures in East London. In the process she lost her religious beliefs. She "saw the light of reason" in 1855 and became a strong supporter of Holyoake. She embraced atheism, feminism, and "Owenite co-operation" after these discussions.
Harriet married Edward Law on 11 January 1855. They lived at 38 Boyson Road in Walworth and had four children. Her husband was also a free thinker.
Public figure
Secularist speaker
From 1859 Harriet Law was paid a salary for lecturing for the secular movement. She spoke out against Christianity at meetings around the country in the 1860s and 1870s. Often it was difficult to find premises that could be hired for such meetings, and often the audience was hostile and at times even violent. When giving a series of lectures in Keighley, Yorkshire, in September 1866 she had to compete with Henry Grattan Guinness, of the brewing family, a nonconformist evangelist who held meetings at the same time to try to counteract her influence. Writing in 1893, Annie Besant said of her, "Mrs. Harriet Law, a woman of much courage and of strong natural ability, had many a rough meeting in her lecturing days."
Mainstream feminist groups excluded Law due to her Marxist and atheist beliefs. Other opponents dismissed Law's views as worthless since she was from the lower classes, poorly educated and a woman. A member of the Bible Defence Association said he "could not debate in the streets with a woman, and especially one of Mrs Law's class." A lecture that Law gave in Woolwich on "How I became a freethinker and why I remain one" was attacked in the press as "the infidel lecture."
Some of the lectures Law gave at Cleveland Hall in Fitzroy Square in London in the 1860s were titled "The Teachings and Philosophy of J.S. Mill, Esq.", "The Late Robert Owen: a Tribute to His Memory" and "Appeal to Women to Consider their Interests in Connexion with the Social, Political, and Theological Aspects of the Times." In June 1867 she shared the stage at a suffrage meeting in Cleveland Hall with the American physician and woman's rights activist Mary Edwards Walker. Law talked of John Stuart Mill's proposal for Woman's suffrage, which was being debated by the House of Commons, while Walker spoke of reform to the marriage laws. In 1876 Law was engaged by the Lancashire Secular Union to give ten special lectures, each attended by about 5,000 people.
On her lecture tours in the provinces Harriet Law did not represent the leadership of the movement, but served as a freelance speaker at the meetings of the local secularist societies. Although prominent in the movement, Law did not join the leadership of the National Secular Society (NSS). This may have been due to difficulty working with its leader, Charles Bradlaugh. At the 1866 NSS conference in Leeds she backed George William Foote in his attempt to oust Bradlaugh, which did not succeed. Soon after, Foote was expelled from the NSS. She was offered a vice-presidency of the NSS in 1867 and again in 1876, but refused both times.
In the mid-1870s Annie Besant threatened to eclipse Law as the leading woman free thought lecturer. A biographer of Bradlaugh said "Mrs Besant had come on the scene, and there was not room for two ladies as Secularist advocates." Law fell out with Bradlaugh and Besant and left the NSS in 1877. George Holyoake, Charles Watts and Harriet Law then founded the British Secular Union, which remained active until 1884.