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Case file s1832 · Literature and art · 1850
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1850
Margaret Fuller: Daguerreotype of Margaret Fuller (1810-1850). Further information from Margaret Fuller: An American Romantic Life (Volume 1) by Charles Capper: The original daguer
Margaret Fuller. John Plumbe. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
19 July 1850
Place
off Fire Island, New York · United States
Field
critic, journalist and writer · Media and publishing on the timeline
Legal tradition
US common law; Papal States (marriage) · Common law · Royal and church law
Historical event
The Roman Republic of 1849
Literature and artBurned papers and destroyed workIndustry and empireNorth AmericaUnited States

Margaret Fuller, her husband and their son drowned 100 yards from Fire Island in 1850, and her manuscript history of the Roman Republic was lost

Margaret Fuller reported from Rome on the 1849 Roman Republic and wrote a history of it. She called the manuscript "most valuable to me if I live of any thing." She sailed from Italy on 17 May 1850 with Giovanni Ossoli and their son Angelo on the Elizabeth, a freighter carrying Carrara marble. The captain, Seth Hasty, died of smallpox on the voyage and the first mate took command. About 3:30 a.m. on 19 July the ship struck a sandbar less than 100 yards from Fire Island. Passengers and crew left the ship. Fuller and Ossoli were reported to have been urged to save themselves and their child. A wave threw Ossoli overboard, and a crewman said Fuller could no longer be seen. People on the beach salvaged cargo but did not try to rescue those aboard. Angelo's body washed ashore and lies under a monument to the family at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Neither parent's body was found. At Emerson's urging Henry David Thoreau searched the shore and found nothing. Few belongings, mostly a child's clothes and some letters, were recovered. The manuscript has never been found. A memorial was placed on the beach in 1901.

What the law took from it

A single copy of an unpublished work travelling by sea has no recovery if the vessel is lost.

Sources
  1. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Margaret Fuller, her husband and their son drowned 100 yards from Fire Island in 1850, and her manuscript history of the Roman Republic was lost,” story s1832, https://www.celebrity.estate/margaret-fuller-1850, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Literature and artBurned papers and destroyed workIndustry and empireNorth AmericaCommon lawRoyal and church lawUnited States