Grace Seixas Nathan (1752–1831) was an

American Jewish American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as Ashkenazi, 3% ide ...

poet and a member of a prominent Western Sephardic family.

Biography

Grace Seixas was born on November 11, 1752, in

Stratford, Connecticut Stratford is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is situated on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. The town is part of the Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, Connecticut, Greater Bri ...

. In 1780, she married Simon Nathan, a merchant and a supporter of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

. The couple had one son, Isaac Mendes (born 1785–1852). Seixas Nathan died in New York on November 8, 1831. Her poetry was never published in her lifetime. In 1947, some of her correspondence was published by the

American Jewish Historical Society The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...

. She was the great-grandmother of poet

Emma Lazarus Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 – November 19, 1887) was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations, as well as an activist for Jewish and Georgism, Georgist causes. She is remembered for writing the sonnet "The New Colossus", which wa ...

References

People from Stratford, Connecticut Jewish American poets Jewish women writers 1752 births 1831 deaths American women poets {{US-poet-stub