Three Hundred Years Hence is the first known science fiction novel written by an American woman; it was published in 1836 by author Mary Griffith.
Griffith envisioned a utopian feminist future in the year 2135 and set the book in Philadelphia.
Presciently, Griffith predicts a new form of power replacing steam engines, prohibition of liquor, women working jobs outside of the home, self-propelled farm equipment, income taxes, buildings made of fireproof materials, public construction and ownership of roads, breakup of monopolies, and other changes that were to come to America.
A sleeping young man is sealed in his house by an avalanche and awakens 300 years later in the year 2135 when the house is uncovered by excavation.
Edgar Hastings, the main character, when leaving on a business trip, stops off at a small farmhouse on his estate. There he falls asleep. A great thaw causes a bank of snow from the hill above to cover the farmhouse.
Thee hundred years later, his descendants, who still own the property, hire workers to cut a road through the property. They come to a stratum of ice.
After the workers cut through the ice, they discover the farmhouse. Edgar's descendants step inside and that is when he thaws out and wakes up, still alive.
MARY GRIFFITH (1772–1846) was an American writer, horticulturist and scientist. She performed experiments in horticulture, natural history, economic entomology, the earth sciences, epidemiology, optics and vision, publishing her results in scientific and literary journals and newspapers. She also published novels and short stories including Three Hundred Years Hence, the first known utopian novel by a female American author.
