The Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England, 1780-1835

256 Pages·1997·9.851 MB·English

by  Nancy F. Cott

The Bonds of Womanhood

The Bonds of Womanhood
Woman's Sphere7'i n New England, 1780-1835
Second Edition
With a new Preface
Nancy F. Cott
Yale University Press New Haven and London
First published in 1977 by Yale University Press.
Second edition published in 1997 with a new preface.
Copyright @ 1977 by Yale University.
Preface to second edition C3 1997 by Yale University,
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the
U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without
written permission from the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number 97-60429
ISBN 0-300-07298-8
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of
the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council
on Library Resources.
To my parents
Estelle Hollander Falik
and
Max E. Falik

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Acknowledgments for the Second Edition x
Preface to the Second Edition xi
List of Abbreviations xxix
Introduction 1
1. Work 19
2. Domesticity 63
3. Education 101
4. Religion 126
5. Sisterhood 160
Conclusion: On "Woman's Sphere"
and Feminism
List of Women's Documents Consulted
List of Ministers' Sermons Consulted
Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The curators, archivists, and librarians in the libraries listed
on the following page, and Faith L. Pepe of Westminster,
Vermont, kindly assisted me in my search for source ma-
terials. I am also obliged to those libraries for permission
to quote from documents in their collections.
I remain indebted to John P. Demos for his suggestions
and encouragement while I was writing my Ph.D. disserta-
tion, which was the first version of this book. To the men-
tors and friends who generously commented on that earlier
work and helped me to improve this one-especially Sac-
van Bercovitch, Laurie Crumpacker, Ellen DuBois, David H.
Fischer, Tamara K. Hareven, Aileen S. Kraditor, Mary Beth
Norton, Kathryn Kish Sklar,Judith Smith, Alan Trachten-
berg, and Lise Vogel-and to Lynn Walterick of Yale Uni-
versity Press, who leavened the process of book production
with both faith and work, I hope to express here some
fraction of my sincere thanks; and to Lee Cott, a longer-
standing appreciation, for improving the environment in
more ways than one.