The Deconversion of Harriet Martineau: An Emotional History of Unbelief

Conceptualising the ‘Victorian crisis of faith’ as a phenomenon fuelled by wider intellectual forces can only take us so far in our understanding of it. The loss of faith of many contemporaries did not merely entail an intellectual volte‐face, but also an affective impact. Scholarly accounts have been primarily written by privileging the role of ideas, and without delving deeper into the historical record to reveal the emotional contours of these individuals' loss of faith. This article follows a different approach. Using the lens of the history of emotions, and taking as its case study Harriet Martineau, it illuminates the hitherto underappreciated emotional dimensions of her deconversion from Unitarianism to agnosticism. It demonstrates that her deconversion followed an emotional trajectory, albeit one which was not only defined by positive feelings about her new secular creed. The article simultaneously contextualises Martineau's emotions by examining the emotional responses of her friends, family and others. The final product is an inner and more intimate history. It is also one which offers new insights into the Victorian age of doubt and allows for a more meaningful examination of the relationship between individual experience, identity, human agency and wider intellectual forces.