America's Women

by Gail Collins

Lewis Miller, writing… Larkin, p. 161.

  “STRANGERS ARE SOUGHT AFTER WITH GREEDINESS”

  Julia Cherry Spruill is another one of the pioneer women historians, born early enough to have been a supporter of suffrage in her teens. When she was a faculty wife at the University of North Carolina, she enrolled in a graduate history seminar, where she discovered that there had been almost no research on southern women. From this came Women’s Life and Work in the Southern Colonies, which is still one of the most terrific books on women in the South ever written. This section and a great many sections to come are indebted to it.

  “Strangers are sought…” Earle, Home Life, p. 396.

  A circuit judge… Spruill, pp. 109–10.

  They were a chance… Larkin, p. 298.

  Carving became… Spruill, p. 70.

  CHAPTER 4: TOWARD THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

  “TO SPEND. WHAT OTHERS GET”

  Except where otherwise noted, this section is based on Jeanne Boydston’s Home and Work: Housework, Wages and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic.

  Hetty Shepard: Koehler, A Search for Power, p. 339.

  While he was traveling… Spruill, p. 41.

  Women, Cotton Mather told… Boydston, p. 26.

  In New Amsterdam… Berkin, pp. 79–87.

  A well-known Puritan… William Gouge, as quoted by Ruth Bloch in “American Feminine Ideals in Transition: The Rise of the Moral Mother,” Feminist Studies (June 1978), p. 107.

  “LEFT TO PONDER ON A STRIP OF CARPET”

  Constance Schulz has a good biography of Eliza Pinkney in Portraits of American Women, pp. 65–81, edited by Barker-Benfield and Clinton. Eliza’s letters are still in print, with an introduction by her descendant, in The Letterbook of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, 1739–1763.

  “I have frequently seen…” Spruill, p. 71.

  Caroline Gilman… Gilman, Recollections of a Southern Matron, pp. 252–56.

  “THEY LACED HER UP, THEY STARVED HER DOWN”

  “They braced my aunt…” Earle, Child Life in Colonial Days, p. 109.

  When upper-class… Ulrich, p. 115.

  Nicholas Culpepper… Berkin and Horowitz, p. 19.

  Lucinda Lee… Spruill, pp. 105–7.

  Dr. William Buchan… Fox, p. 73.

  shoes with very high heels… See Alice Earle’s Two Centuries of Costumes, chapter 13.

  “Some of the ladies…” Carolyn Shine, “Dress for the Ohio Pioneers,” in Dress in American Culture, edited by Patricia Cunningham and Susan Lab, pp. 43–45.

  a Boston journal in 1755… Eric John Dingwall, The American Woman, p. 51.

  Cotton Mather, naturally… Koehler, A Search for Power, p. 354.

  “MISERABLE OLD AGE AND HELPLESS INFANCY”

  Except where otherwise noted, this section is based on Gary Nash’s “The Failure of Female Factory Labor in Colonial Boston,” Labor History (Spring 1979).

  The maximum weekly rate… Berkin, p. 153.

  Judith Stevens… Berkin and Horowitz, p. 110.

  “A VERY EXTRAORDINARY FEMALE SLAVE”

  There are several different editions of Phillis Wheatley’s poems in print. This section is based on a biography by Charles Scruggs in Portraits of American Women, Barker-Benfield and Clinton, eds.; as well as the entries in Notable American Women, James and James, eds.; and Black Women in America, Darlene Clark Hine, ed.

  “WHAT HAVE I TO DO WITH POLITICKS?”

  My two favorite books about American women in the Revolutionary War are Linda Kerber’s Women of the Republic and Mary Beth Norton’s Liberty’s Daughters.

  Getting the cooperation… Kerber, p. 37.

  half of all homes had tea sets… Larkin, p. 174.

  Susan Boudinot… Kerber, Woman of the Republic, p. 39.

  In 1774, fifty-one women… Kierner, pp. 81–82.

  A much-quoted poem… Kerber, Women of the Republic, p. 38.

  The Virginia Gazette announced… Kierner, p. 83.

  Eliza Pinckney…Pinckney, p. xxiii.

  Some women were raped… Berkin, p. 184.

  A North Carolina man… Kierner, p. 89.

  “We are in no ways…” Abigail Adams to her husband, Sept. 20, 1775. As quoted in Kerber, p. 67.

  “And such is the distress…” Abigail Adams to her husband, Sept. 8, 1775, in Charles Francis Adams, Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams, p. 124.

  In November 1775… Adams, p. 124.

  In the summer of 1777… Rosemary Keller, Patriotism and the Female Sex, p. 118.

  one South Carolina man claimed… Kierner, p. 95.

  Edmund Burke told the British… I found this quote from the Nov. 6, 1776, debate in the House of Commons in Sara Evans’s Born for Liberty. It was first noted by historian Linda Kerber, but neither Kerber nor anyone else appears to have ever found any other references to the woman who burned down New York. One letter written from New York reported: “The first Incendiary who fell into the Hands of the Troops was a Woman, provided with Matches and Combustibles; but that her Sex availed her little, for without Ceremony she was tossed into the Flames.” But other letter-writers named other suspects. (See The Iconography of Manhattan by I. N. Phelps Stokes, Vol. 5. pp. 1020–26.)

  Deborah Sampson Gannett: Elizabeth Evans, Weathering the Storm, pp. 303–34.

  “Molly Pitcher”: Holly Mayer, Belonging to the Army, p. 21.

  Margaret Corbin… Mayer, pp. 50, 144.

  Letters to husbands… Keller, pp. 108–14.

  Ann Gwinnett… Kerber, Women of the Republic, p. 79.

  “Tho a female…” S. Evans, Born for Liberty, p. 48.

  Thomas Jefferson wrote… E. Evans, p. 5.

  One of the era’s most quoted… Abigail Adams, March 31, 1776, in L. H. Butterfield et al., eds., The Book of Abigail and John, p. 121.

  Adams’s response… John Adams, April 14, 1776, in Butterfield et al., eds., p. 122.

  “WE MAY SHORTLY EXPECT TO SEE THEM TAKE THE HELM. OF GOVERNMENT”

  Except where noted, this section is based on Edward Raymond Turner’s “Women’s Suffrage in New Jersey, 1790–1807,” Smith College Studies in History (October 1915).

  In 1797, during… Marion Thompson Wright, “The Early Years of the Republic,” Journal of Negro History (April 1948), p. 173.

  CHAPTER 5: 1800–1860

  “MAN IS STRONG—WOMAN IS BEAUTIFUL”

  One valuable book about this era is The Feminization of American Culture, by Ann Douglas.

  Sarah Josepha Hale… Nancy Woloch has an excellent section on Hale in Women and the American Experience. An interesting biography of Hale was published by Ruth Finley in 1931. A good shorter biography, by Paul Boyer, is in Notable American Women, Edward James and Janet Wilson James, eds.

  “not to win fame…” Woloch, p. 138.

  Harper’s Magazine estimated… Woloch, p. 136.

  Its publisher boasted… Woloch, p. 116.

  “Our men are sufficiently…” Douglas, Feminization of American Culture, p. 57.

  When Mrs. Hale noticed… Glenna Matthews, “Just a Housewife,” p. 71.

  qualities of the True Woman… In 1966, Barbara Welter published an essay on “The Cult of True Womanhood” in American Quarterly. Her description of how the early-nineteenth-century mass media—and middle-class society—viewed women was, and still is, one of the most influential pieces of writing on this period. In the spring of 2002, the Journal of Women’s History published a restrospective on it.

  “Man is strong…” Boydston, pp. 142–43.

  “The majority of women…” Woloch, pp. 127–28

  “True feminine genius…” Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood,” p. 160.

  she had to suffer in silence… Douglas, Feminization of American Culture, p. 46.

  In the bust of 1818… Celia Morris Eckhardt, Fanny Wright, p. 46.

  when the panic of 1837… Sean Wilentz, Chants Democratic, p. 294.

  The railroads kept having wrecks… Daniel Boorstin,
The Americans: The National Experience, p. 101.

  “IN DANGER OF BECOMING PERFECT RECLUSES”

  Anyone interested in this section should read Mary P. Ryan’s Women in Public. The observations from Frances Trollope should make it clear that Domestic Manners of Americans is still a great read, almost 200 years after it was written.

  Frances Trollope reported from Cincinnati… Trollope, p. 60.

  “Staid in…” Ryan, Women in Public, p. 24.

  “She has a head…” Wertz and Wertz, p. 58.

  Complaining about the constant presence… Trollope, p. 70.

  “This darkness…” Trollope, p. 210.

  “I hardly know…” Trollope, p. 18.

  A Mrs. Hall… Larkin, p. 168.

  Mrs. Trollope attended… Trollope, pp. 176–77.

  “INITIATED INTO THE ARTS AND MYSTERIES OF THE WASH TUB”

  This section, and sections to come, are indebted to three wonderful biographies: Joan Hedrick’s Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life, Carolyn Karcher’s First Woman in the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child, and Kathryn Kish Sklar’s Catharine Beecher: A Study in Domesticity.

  “Oh, if we only…” Matthews, p. 23.

  published as The American Frugal Housewife … Child’s housekeeping guide is still in print today.

  “written for the lower…” Karcher, pp. 133–35.

  “wandering like a trunk…” Hedrick, p. 390.

  “initiated into…” Catharine Beecher, A Treatise on Domestic Economy, p. 55.

  “HOW COULD I TELL SHE WAS GOING TO BE SO FAMOUS!”

  Some of the popular women’s novels of the pre–Civil War period are in print today. They are generally rather heavy going; one of the most accessible to modern women might be Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall. A number of scholars have done the job of reading them for us, however—most recently Nina Baym in Women’s Fiction, a very good guide to both the books and the period.

  The Lamplighter, the novel… Nina Baym, in the introduction to The Lamplighter, p. ix.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose writings… Hedrick, pp. 239–40.

  was estimated to have “245 tear flows”… Fred Lewis Pattee, The Feminine Fifties, p. 56.

  Nathaniel Willis: Pattee, pp. 52–53.

  “I love everybody”… Douglas, p. 206.

  “I observe that feminine…” Pattee, p. 70.

  “My mother, then a loom-tender…” Pattee, p. 53.

  “INTEMPERANCE AMONG THE MEN

  AND LOVE OF DRESS AMONG THE WOMEN”

  Anyone interested in this section should read Lori Ginzberg’s Women and the Work of Benevolence.

  The Advocate of Female Reform called… Ryan, Women in Public, p. 100.

  When a young man… Barbara Epstein, The Politics of Domesticity, p. 94.

  Louisa May Alcott: Ginzberg, p. 58.

  A refuge for prostitutes… Ryan, Women in Public, pp. 101–2.

  One member of… Anne Boylan, “Women in Groups,” Journal of American History (December 1984), p. 504.

  Maria Burley… Christine Stansell, City of Women, p. 71.

  “You cannot imagine…” Ginzberg, p. 76.

  “STANDING UP WITH BARE-FACED IMPUDENCE”

  When Harriet Beecher… Hedrick, p. 238.

  Mary Ann Duff… Claudia Johnson, American Actress: Perspectives on the Nineteenth Century, p. 3.

  William Wood… Johnson, p. 8.

  Wood’s wife survived not only… Johnson, p. 23.

  In 1840, when factory girls… Johnson, pp. 54–56.

  Fanny Wright: Unless otherwise noted, the information on Fanny Wright comes from Celia Morris Eckhardt’s Fanny Wright: Rebel in America.

  Mrs. Trollope said her most outrageous… Trollope, p. 203.

  One of Brown’s biographers noted… Elizabeth Cazden’s Antoinette Brown Blackwell, p. 62.

  “OUR SIS CAME OFF WITH FLYING COLOURS”

  In Lancaster, Pennsylvania… Wilson, p. 153.

  Dorothea Dix: See Dorothy Clarke Wilson’s Stranger and Traveler: The Story of Dorothea Dix.

  She was on board… Thomas Brown’s Dorothea Dix: New England Reformer, p. 136.

  Margaret Fuller: Bell Gale Chevigny has a biography of Margaret Fuller in Barker-Benfield and Clinton’s Portraits of American Women, and Ann Douglas has a very good section on Fuller in The Feminization of American Culture. Those who want to know more about her should find The Portable Margaret Fuller, edited by Mary Kelley.

  “Humanity is divided…” Barker-Benfield and Clinton, eds., p. 193.

  Antoinette Brown… See Cazden.

  Elizabeth Blackwell… Blackwell left her own autobiography of sorts, a collection of letters she called Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women.

  “The idea of winning…” Malcolm Sanders Johnston, Elizabeth Blackwell and Her Alma Mater, p. 10.

  “A hush fell over the class…” Jordan Brown, Elizabeth Blackwell, Physician, p. 52.

  “Our sis came off…” Johnston, p. 24.

  “Who will ever guess…” Blackwell, p. 198.

  Before she married… Matthews, pp. 58–59.

  “APPEAR TO BE AVERSE TO WHAT SHE INWARDLY DESIRES”

  Henry Bedlow: To read more about the Bedlow trial, see Christine Stansell’s City of Women and Marybeth Hamilton’s essay, “The Life of a Citizen in the Hands of a Woman,” in New York and the Rise of Capitalism, published by the New-York Historical Society in the spring of 1983.

  “Any woman who is not…” Hamilton, “The Life of a Citizen,” p. 233–34.

  “in the hands of a woman…” Hamilton, “The Life of a Citizen,” p. 246.

  Daniel Sickles… I wrote about the Sickles trial in Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity, and American Politics.

  “THE CHANCE THAT IN MARRIAGE SHE WILL DRAW A BLOCKHEAD”

  Thomas Jefferson… Boorstin, p. 187.

  Sara Hale enthusiastically… Woloch, p. 110.

  In a demonstration of Hale’s commitment… Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood,” p. 167.

  Elizabeth Buffum Chace… Chace and Lovell, Two Quaker Sisters, pp. 23–24.

  Thomas Gallaudet… Keith Melder, Beginnings of Sisterhood, pp. 24–25.

  One superintendent wrote… Jackie Blount, Destined to Rule the Schools, p. 19.

  In 1838, Connecticut paid… Melder, p. 25.

  In Ohio, the Superintendent… Carl Kaestle, Pillars of the Republic, p. 123.

  By 1870… Catherine Clinton, The Other Civil War, p. 46.

  “They are the natural…” Melder, p. 24.

  “They’ll be educating the cows…” Douglas, Feminization of American Culture, p. 59.

  Although there have been… Barbara Welter, “Anti-Intellectualism and the American Woman,” Mid-America (October 1966), p. 264.

  Margaret Fuller… Douglas, Feminization of American Culture, p. 58.

  In Petersburg… Suzanne Lebsock, The Free Women of Petersburg, p. 173.

  Catharine Beecher’s first… Vivian Hopkins, Prodigal Puritan: A Life of Delia Bacon, p. 20.

  “Dear Madam”… Bernard Wishy, The Child and the Republic, p. 14.

  “THEY WEAR OUT FASTER THAN ANY OTHER CLASS OF PEOPLE”

  A quarter of the native-born women… Maris Vinovskis, “The Female School-Teacher in Ante-Bellum Massachusetts,” Journal of Social History (March 1977), p. 333.

  Maria Waterbury… Susan Cayleff, Wash and Be Healed, p. 82.

  A special commission in Connecticut… Boorstin, p. 44.

  “Went over to make…” Many of these anecdotes are taken from Polly Welts Kaufman’s very interesting Women Teachers on the Frontier, p. 140.

  “Teaching before dependence…” Mary Elizabeth Massey, Women in the Civil War, p. 113.

  A would-be teacher… Kaufman, pp. 12–34.

  Elizabeth Blackwell… Blackwell, p. 17.

  Augusta Hubbell… Kaufman, pp. 158–59.

  In the South during… Massey, p. 114.

  “I AM LIVING ON NO ONE�
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  By the 1820s, New England… Mary Ryan, Womanhood in America, p. 105.

  “Don’t I feel independent!”… Woloch, pp. 142–43.

  Harriet Hanson…Claudia Bushman, A Good Poor Man’s Wife, pp. 13–14.

  In 1833, when President Jackson… Harriet Jane Hanson Robinson, Loom and Spindle, p. 50.

  A third of the female workers… Bushman, p. 41.

  Eliza Hemingway: Rosalyn Baxandall and Linda Gordon, America’s Working Women, p. 65.

  Some women kept…Edwin Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham, p. 406.

  In 1845, the New York… Alice Kessler-Harris, Out to Work, p. 65.

  Millworker Mary Paul… Thomas Dublin, Farm to Factory, p. 136.

  Elizabeth Sullivan Stuart… Faye Dudden, Serving Women, p. 66.

  “OH LIZZIE! THOU WILL MAKE US RIDICULOUS!”

  This section is based on Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s autobiography, Eighty Years and More, and Elisabeth Griffith’s biography of Stanton, In Her Own Right.

  “As Mrs. Mott and I…” Stanton, pp. 82–83.

  “There is such a struggle…” Stanton, p. 137.

  “with such vehemence…” Stanton, p. 148.

  “Oh Lizzie!…” Alma Lutz, Created Equal, p. 46.

  “My only excuse…” E. Griffith, p. 59.

  CHAPTER 6: LIFE BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

  “A TERRIBLE DECAY OF FEMALE HEALTH ALL OVER THE LAND”

  My favorite essay on this subject is Ann Douglas’s “The Fashionable Diseases” in Clio’s Consciousness Raised, edited by Mary Hartman and Lois Banner.

  Catharine Beecher… Woloch, p. 129; Page Smith, Daughters of the Promised Land, pp. 133–35.

  by 1840, their life expectancy… Carl Degler’s At Odds: Women and the Family in America from the Revolution to the Present, p. 28.

  The nineteenth century was the first time…Ann Dally makes this point about the “chronic sufferer” in her book Women Under the Knife.

  The number of doctors increased… Larkin, p. 87.

  “Let the reader imagine…” Caroll Smith-Rosenberg’s Disorderly Conduct, p. 200.

  One professor of medicine thought… Douglas in Hartman and Banner, p. 3.

  Tuberculosis, or consumption: Anyone interested in this subject should read Sheila Rothman’s Living in the Shadow of Death. The quote from Dr. Sweetser is on p. 16; Mrs. Fiske, p. 120.

  In The Young Lady’s Friend … Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood,” p. 164.

  one was so large… Dally, p. 130.