Women in American History to 1880 presents a collection of primary source documents that illuminate the rich diversity of women's experiences from the colonial period through Reconstruction. Carefully chosen readings reveal the simultaneous processes of constructing gender and national identity, and examine how women viewed colonization, slavery, the American Revolution, industrialization, sectional conflict, and emancipation from very different -- and often clashing -- religious, ethnic, racial, and national perspectives. The readings show not only how politicians, businessmen, and writers utilized abstract images of women as symbols for a variety of causes, but also reveal the ways in which many women articulated their own political perspectives. With images, poems, newspaper articles, and personal letters, many of which are collected here for the first time, Women in American History to 1880 illuminates the ways women contributed to and challenged the gender roles that emerged with the young nation and helped shape America's future national identity.
"Carol Faulkner has assembled a vivid patchwork of Americanvoices with an elegant, inclusive design. Readers will followthree centuries of women's progress and protest, gaining acomprehensive first-hand understanding of the scope of Americanfemale experience."
Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters: Three WomenWho Ignited American Romanticism
"Using an impressive range of source material and offeringthought-provoking discussion questions, Carol Faulkner'sdocumentary reader reflects the diversity of women'sexperiences and calls attention to the centrality of women inAmerican history."
Anya Jabour, editor of Major Problems in the History of AmericanFamilies and Children and author of Topsy-Turvy: How the Civil WarTurned the World Upside Down for Southern Children.
"By selecting documents that range from the Englishcolonies to French Louisiana and Spanish New Mexico, Carol Faulkneroffers readers a fascinating array of early American women'slives: Indian and African American women; Catholic andProtestant women; plebian, middling, and elite women; and girls aswell as adult women. Her brisk introduction raisesprovocative questions about women's varied roles in early America,and encourages students to see their experiences as foundational toAmerican history."
Ann M. Little, Colorado State University
Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters: Three WomenWho Ignited American Romanticism
"Using an impressive range of source material and offeringthought-provoking discussion questions, Carol Faulkner'sdocumentary reader reflects the diversity of women'sexperiences and calls attention to the centrality of women inAmerican history."
Anya Jabour, editor of Major Problems in the History of AmericanFamilies and Children and author of Topsy-Turvy: How the Civil WarTurned the World Upside Down for Southern Children.
"By selecting documents that range from the Englishcolonies to French Louisiana and Spanish New Mexico, Carol Faulkneroffers readers a fascinating array of early American women'slives: Indian and African American women; Catholic andProtestant women; plebian, middling, and elite women; and girls aswell as adult women. Her brisk introduction raisesprovocative questions about women's varied roles in early America,and encourages students to see their experiences as foundational toAmerican history."
Ann M. Little, Colorado State University