Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America

318 Pages·1990·16.573 MB·English

by  Linda K. Kerber

Womenoft/i& tftefiuldiv
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LINDA K. KERBER
Ukmesi;af(A&tftefia&ko
INTELLECT AND IDEOLOGY
IN REVOLUTIONARY AMERICA
PUBLISHED FOR THE OMOHUNDRO INSTITUTE
OF EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTUR
WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
BY THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
CHAPEL HILL
The Omohundro Institute of
Early American History and Culture
is sponsored jointly by
The College of William and Mary and
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
© 1980 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
07 06 05 04 II 10 9 8 7
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 79-2.8683
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kerber, Linda K
Women of the Republic.
Includes index.
i. Women—United States—History. 2.. United
States—History—Revolution, 1775-1783. I. Title.
HQi4i8.K47 305-4Vo973 79-2.8683
ISBN 0-8078-1440-7 (cloth: alk, paper)
ISBN 0-8078-4631-5 (pblc.: alk. paper)
FOR
Justin Seth Kerber and
Ross Jeremy Kerber
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d)afi£esit&
PREFACE XI
INTRODUCTION
The Women's World of the Early Republic 3
1. "EMPIRE OF COMPLACENCY"
The Inheritance of the Enlightenment 13
2. "WOMEN INVITED TO WAR"
Sacrifice and Survival 33
3. "WHAT HAVE i TO DO WITH POLITIC K s ?"
The Meaning of Female Patriotism 69
4. "SHEECAN HAVE NO WILL DIFFERENT FROM HIS
Revolutionary Loyalties of Married Women 115
5. DISABILITIES . . . INTENDED FOR HER
PROTECTION' '
The Anti-Republican Implications of Coverture 137
6. "DOMESTIC LIBERTY"
Freedom to Divorce 157
7. "WHY SHOULD GIRLS BE LEARND OR WISE?"
Education and Intellect in the Early Republic 185
8. "WE OWN THAT LADIES SOMETIMES READ"
Women's Reading in the Early Republic 233
9. THE REPUBLICAN MOTHER
Female Political Imagination in the Early Republic 2,65
NOTE ON SOURCES 2.89
INDEX 2,95
^^a&fratiofi^
Benjamin Tanner after John J. Barralet, America Guided by
Wisdom (i8zo). 4-5
Keep Within Compass (ca. 1785-1805). 14
Jonathan Spilsbury after Catharine Read, Catharine Macaulay
( @9
The Congress, from Pennsylvania Magazine: or, American
Monthly Museum, I (1775). 34
Paul Revere, The able Doctor, or America Swallowing the Bitter
Draught. 40
America Triumphant and Britannia in Distress, from Weather-
wise's Town and Country Almanack (1781). 7°~7Z
James Sharpless, Sarah Livingston Jay and Her Children. 77
Mather Brown, Abigail Adams (1785). 81
Petition of Rachel Wells, May 18, 1786. 88-89
Petition of Elizabeth Burgin, November 19, 1779. 90-91
Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker, unknown artist. 94
Charles Willson Peale, Esther De Berdt Reed. 100
John Hoppner, Sarah Franklin Bache (1797). 101
Woodcut from "A New Touch on the Times. ... By a Daughter
of Liberty, living in Marblehead" (1779). 107
J. L. Morton after Thomas Kelley, Washington's Reception on
the Bridge at Trenton. 108-109
Joseph Strutt after R. E. Pine, To Those who wish to Sheathe the
Desolating Sword of War . , . (1778). 116-117
Enoch G. Gridley after John Coles, Jr., Pater Patriae (1810). 138
Britania and Her Daughter. A Song (1780). i58
Divorce petition of Elisabeth Gillet, August 10, 1768. 165
Divorce petition of Aehsah Evans, August z6, 1788. i?1
I L LU S TRATI O N S
Nancy Shippen Livingston, attributed to Benjamin Trott. 182,
Needlework picture of a Harvard College building (ca.
1750-1775). 186-187
Samuel King, Ezra Stiles (1771). 194
Samuel King, Elizabeth Hubbard Stiles (1771). 195
Thomas Sully, Gertrude Gouverneur Ogden Meredith (1808). 197
Needlework picture by Mary M. Franklin (1808). 2,16-2,17
Charles Fevret de Saint-Memin, Theodosia Burr (1796). 2.19
Frontispiece from Lady's Magazine, I (1792.). 2.2.3
Frontispiece from Columbian Magazine, or Monthly Miscellany
( @3
John Singleton Copley, Mercy Otis Warren (1763). 2.50
Needlepoint embroidery by Mercy Otis Warren. 2,5 1
Bed rug made by Abigail Foote. 2.54
Cover from Universal Asylum and Columbian Magazine, V
(1790). 2.55
America Lamenting at the Tomb of Washington (early i9th
century). 266-2.67
Philip Dawes, A Society of Patriotic Ladies (1775). 2.80
Liberty and Washington, unknown artist (ca. 1800-1810). 286
• x •