Barnes was born in Massachusetts, the daughter of actors John Barnes (1761-1841), a popular comedian, and Mary Greenhill Barnes (1780?-1864), a distinguished tragic actress. She made her stage debut at the age of three on March 22, 1822 alongside her mother when they both appeared as mother and daughter characters in The Castle Spectre by Matthew Lewis.
Next to Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie, she was the most successful female dramatist of early American theatre. At age sixteen, in the role of Angela in that same play, she made both her official debut, at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, and later her New York stage debut, on March 29, 1834. Later career In 1841, Barnes and her mother, who was now retired from the stage, went to England, where Barnes successfully acted in a number of productions, including Octavia Bragaldi.
Barnes" next original drama was The Forest Princess.
Or, Two Centuries Ago, about Pocahontas, which premiered at the Architecture on February 16, 1848. Other Barnes works include an adaptation of the French monodrama A Night of Expectations, Charlotte Corday, based on the play by M.M. Dumanoir and Alphonse de Lamartine"s work Histoire des Girondins, and an adaptation of the short play A Captive by Matthew Lewis.
She continued writing and performing until 1863, when at age 45 she died after a sudden unnamed illness. Barnes" original works are collected in Plays, Prose and Poetry (1848), but her adaptations and translations do not survive.
She also adapted the Joseph Holt Ingraham novel Lafitte, The Pirate of the Gulf, about the French Gulf of Mexico pirate Jean Lafitte who helped win the Battle of New Orleans. In an 1881 interview, her widower remarked of her, "She was a good woman and an excellent actress--kind, accomplished, good.".
