History: Women in Colonial Society 02/09/2009

17:35:00
← Women in the colonial society
• Early settlement
• Importance of wifely obedience
• The pros and cons of femininity
← The spiritual ideal
• Puritans and quakers: spiritual equality
Quaker women’s
The puritan ideal
← Patriarchy Family
• Men are the head.
• Women’s main role is to be obedient.
← Husband is the patriarch
• Wife is always subordinate
• Wife is the Jr. partner but never to over rule the husband
• Husband does not own the wife but rules her
← Wife wields some authority
• Children
• Servants
← Children are legally the Fathers possession
←
← These are all farming communities
• Parenthood is a joint occupation
← Mothers have more day to day responsibility but father has more
authority
←
← An individual’s gender had a direct impact on that person’s character
and place in society
←
← Gender determines character

Rationality was linked to specifically males

Women were viewed as being lustful, vain, capricious, prone to hysteria,

more prone to succumb to evil forces. (18th century)
←
← Women were more modest by nature, cheerful, graceful, affectionate,
sympathetic.
←
← The women were told to cultivate the positive stereotypes to attract
men and to avoid the negative
←
The church was the only social institution in which women could step out of
the patriarchal society.
Women could be active members of the church community, thus women
embraced this as their opportunity to step outside of their bounds.

New outlets for women are birthed through the puritan and quaker church
and women being spiritually equal.
The new view is that women and men are equal in view of God.

Women relied on their spirituality to help them cope with their place in the
patriarchal society, especially during the immigration.

Spiritual Individualism was a huge outlet for women.

Mid 1700: quakers settled in Pennsylvania and New Jersey

• Egalitarianism of all members of society.
• It is the start of an alternative role for women
• This proposed a threat to society’s norm of womens role
← Quakers: There were no professional minister’s
• All duties were carried out by members of the church none were
hired, all were equal.
• This gave women unprecedented opportunities to step out of their
bounds.
• Quakers believed anyone could receive salvation, inner light, and
this was reached inwardly not through another person.
←
← Public Friend: Was like an official volunteer or guide to the Quakers
belief.
•
Women could even be “public friends”
•
Public friends traveled from town to town and meeting to meeting
sharing god’s work and word to other Quakers and quakers
communities
← George Fox: Founder of the Quakers
• God makes no distinction between man or woman.
← About 60 public friends traveled to share gods work: about ½ which
were women who would proselytize this new doctrine upon other settlers.
←
← Many of these women took this to the extreme and even to
martyrdom.
• Mary Dyer- noted public friend who made many trips to boston hall
being rejected by the puritans.
• She was finally hung bc of her persistence and frequent trips.
← The puritans view this egalitarianism view held by the Quakers as
being a threat to the patriarchal society view held by the puritans.
←
• The quakers began having separate womens meetings.
o Women played an active role in these meetings and had their
own rules and regulations, own finances, and even found
ways to contribute to the higher level regional meetings.
← Circular letters were passed from one meeting to the next and this tool
was utilized heavily by women to gain influence in the greater parts of the
quaker movement.

Running out to find husbands and wife’s is the single greatest threat to the
quakers and women fought and preached against this practice.

Those who married outside of the quaker society, they were expelled from
the communities. Even familiy members of those who married outside were
looked down upon as this causes a sort of contamination within the
community.

Women were called upon to exert their influence to keep families and their
members from marrying outside the quaker society.

Puritans embraced spiritual equality but in a different way and in a much

more controlled way.
Class 3 9/9/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← The puritan female ideal
• “equality of souls”- with limits
• church membership
← gender relations
• husbands and wives
• parents and children
• women’s work
←
← Puritans viewed allowing women places of authority in church is
viewed as destructive and unimaginable.
←
← Key goal was to dramatically reform social order.
• They wanted to fundamentally gut the English society of corruption.
• Patriarchy must be the order of the day in the puritan family.
← Submission of women was just as vital in the home as it was in the
public eye.
←
They view women as being spiritually equal however with limitations.

Puritans referred to themselves as saints, others mockingly gave them the

name “puritan”.

Puritans believed that church membership should not be given out to

everyone but only those who proved their piety.
Pre-destination

God is just yet God is merciful

Women were praised bc of their piety and their meekness, by playing the
role or rather hand that they were given.
• Even with women’s public piety, they had limits
←
← Puritans insisted on a high rate of literacy
• Literacy was divided into two different things
• Literacy was only reading, not writing.
• Almost no girls were taught to write and even some boys were not
taught pending on their trade.
← Puritans believed that women’s brain’s were even weaker than men
thus they limited the education of women
←
← Women’s education was strictly for their own use.
←
← The term meddling was used to describe any and all unwanted
behavior from women
←
Anne Hutchinson
• arrived in boston in 1635
• very intelligent
• her intellect lead to her being very assertive and manipulative
 • had 15 children but 12 survived
• full member of puritan church
• her husband is a merchant and a public offical
• their family has status in boston
• she convinced her husband to move to boston to follow puritan
minister John Cotton
• She was also a very skilled midwife
• Summer of 1635 she began having meetings in which she invited
women to her home to recap the previous Sunday’s sermon
• Rapidly grew in size and the women’s husbands began attending
• Initially her efforts were applauded
• She begins critiquing the sermons and interpreting the sermons
herself to the point of deeming some of the ministers heretics
• She preached against the “ministry of works”
• She preached the covenant of grace
• At this point puritan leadership begins to frighten the leaders of the
church
• Men that had beef with the ministers began to attend her meetings
out of anger for the leaders of the church
• This religious debate turns to a power struggle with anne h. stuck in
the middle
• A very large portion of boston protected her from the leaders of the
church
• The Governor, John Winthrop, would not tolerate any sort of
disagreement.
• Even Anne’s supporters could not save her from her persecution
• She was arrested and convicted for heresy and sedition, and
ultimately was banned for the mass bay colony
←
← The puritans knew that certain things must be changed once they
moved but one thing they never wanted to change was their Patriarchy
←
← in 1670, a man was called by the magistrate and was ordered to
provide for his wife and lodge with her once a week.
←
← Physical abuse to wives was outlawed
• In England this was not so
←
← Most laws that were enstated in the puritan colonies were to ensure a
societal harmony
←
← Puritans allowed for divorce whereas this was not so anywhere else
• The reason for them allowing for divorce is once again for a
harmonious society and social order.
• Certain grounds must be met in order to be granted a divorce
← Divorce most frequently granted for desertion, bigamy, impotence
(only for males, females that were impotent would not be allowed for
divorce),
←
lecture 3
9.14.09t 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Women’s Place in colonial society
• Gender relations
• Parents and children
← Womens work
• Domestic responsibility
• Deputy husbands
• Women and paid labor
←
← Colonial families have more kids than the brits and also marry several
years younger.
←
← Children were beat regularly. “better to be ripped than damned.”
←
← Women died freq during child birth 1 in 20 women.
←
← Men are barred from having any part in child birth.
• However men have a role in the socialization of their daughters
← Almost all education took part at home.
• Only exception was wealthy families
• Education was character training coupled with vocational training.
← The patriarchal set up did not interfere with the level of intimacy, for
the most part.
←
Lecture
9/16/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Women and witchcraft
• Accusations and social conflict
• Accusers and accused
← Witches in Salem
• Community conflict
• Outlet for personal grievances
• Female aggression

Good wife
• Consort- sexual partner
• housewife
• Mistress-
Lecture 9/30/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← I. Women in West Africa
• Gender roles
• Enslavement
← II African women in the colonies
• Servants and slaves
• Wives and mothers
• Traders and market women
9/28/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00

← eptember 28, 2009

• Women in the southern colonies – had the same

societal expectations, but the ways that women

would put it into practice was radically different

o Cash crops and indentured servitude –

southern colonies gained profit through

tobacco, rice and indigo, these are cash crops,

concernes with tobacco plants: the plants

exhaust the soil which meant that you needed

a lot of land to get large crops of it, this

creates disperse community, no sense of

community but is more about individualism

and profit, tobacco also requires a lot of labor

because there are so many different steps (18

months to bring it into marketplace), this is a

real problem initially, no labor for hire in the

colonies because all people have just been

given land for settling there, solution was

found in enland since they had labor in

abundance, “sturdy beggars”, developed

indentured servitude (aka contracted labor),

these are the lowest ladder of English society,

the english fear that they are going to harm

English society, indentured servitude drains

them out of england and colonies have

workers, colonist pays for your transportation

and you pay back cost of passage by working

for 5 yrs, at the end of 5 yrs they can have

their own headright, this is a very powerful

draw because the English nobility have all the

land, this means land=status, environment in

south is very unhealthy (mosquitoes and

diseases etc), indentured servants knew they

could die, indentured servitude worked and

created large profits for farmholders,

contracts could also be sold and bought, this

becomes a source of currency, average

servant=25yrs and male, men outnumber

women 6 to 1, very odd demographic,

indentured servitude had a side benefit for

instructing social discipline because the

master is required to regulate behavior of

servants, had the responsibility to beat them

due to poor performance, could increase

contract if they ran away, servants couldn’t

marry until after contract is up, they have to

have a long period of celibacy, female

servants often punished harshly for pregnancy

(this was a concern because the master would

lose her work for a period of months, not due

to moral views), this was quite common, it

became possible that masters might be

responsible, worry that masters get them

pregnant so that they can add to their

contracts, passed a law that pregnant

servants are turned over to another master

for the rest of the term, child is taken away

and bound out to service themselves, women

servants complained that they had to work

harder than their counterparts in England,

English society had a strict limit on jobs that

women could do but the colonies didn’t and

women required to do male tasks like working

in the fields, because of gender demographics

the women servants could marry who they

pleased (more or less) and alter their status,

choice is solely up to the woman (no family

obligations etc), could be independent and

have a choice, but they could also be taken

advantage of and manipulated, when a

woman married she would now be responsible

of her own servants, this change of status

would have been unheard of in England,

o Wives and mothers – 1 in 10 died in

childbirth, these immigrants married relatively

late into a high mortality rate, produce few

children, no concern about suppressing

fertility but maximizing it, did this by using

wet nurses, the well ordered family as a

commonwealth was very slow to develop in

the southern colonies, in fact there is a sense

of impermanence in family life, more step

families and strong patriarchal authority was

limited, kids have high chance of their

parent’s dying, also had fragmentary

extended family groups, “modern” family

structure because they are very nuclear, knew

that few fathers would see their sons reach

adulthood, southerners had to come up with

another solution, wives were required to carry

out plans for the future of their children,

 women often exeters of the estate, men also

gave property to their wives since there was

so much uncertainty about who would survive

and land was abundant, so that she could be

self-sufficient, 10% of planter class were

therefore women, deputy husband is taken to

the extreme, this isn’t to empower women but

to adjust to the unique circumstances in the

south, couples given freedom of choice to

marry,

• Women’s place in southern society

o Domesticity and subordination – native born

daughters of servants married young (19) due

to shortage of women and life expectancies,

none of the southern colonies allowed divorce,

, marriage as the only path for women,

o Gender and race – slavery creates

complications for women in southern colonies

both black and white.

10/5/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Women and the law
• Womens legal status
• Women as dependents
• Widow’s rights
← Limitations on legal right
• Liabilities of married women
• Restrictions on single women
←
←
← its not about empowering women but keeping the best interest of the
community
←
← women autonomy was not the interest of the laws
←
← when women married, status changes to FEME COVERT
• no ability to decide anything, husbands right
←
← women are not fighting for autonomy either
←
← household production became a marker of status and increased
women’s visibility
←
← widow’s have a dramatic expansion of legal rights
• but their economic position is much harder
← widows are no longer feme covert, they are FEME SOLE
• dower right- gives women 1/3 of husbands property, and 1/3 of
real estate
← widow’s can reject husbands will and accept dower right if the
husbands will is less.
←
← Cant sell real estate after husbands death
←
10/7/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Women and the American Revolution
• Patriotism and domestic virtue
• Public participation
← The effects of Independence
• No change in legal status
• Domestic politics and the rise of companionate marriage
• Republican motherhood
←
← Debrah Sampson- war heroine
• Served in war, wasn’t found out until very sick.
• Dishonorable discharge
• Husband applied for widows pension, was granted.
←
← Tea was the only item that was still taxable by the britian.
←
← Women are trying to make tea substitutes in order to boycott tea.
←
← Coffee becomes the favored beverage of American.
10/12/2009 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Republican Motherhood
 • Changing attitudes about women
• Changing expectations of women
← The cult of domesticity
• Women’s separate sphere
• Social significance of domesticity
• Female moral superiority
←
← Most education even still was reserved for male, not female.
←
← Critics argued that too much education would make them unsuitable
for marriage.
• Women overly educated were seen as more masculine mentally and
with their mannerisms
←
← There is an enhanced view of domesticity in this period was due to the
fact that women were wanting to emerge from traditional roles. The reason
for this is also because society wanted to glamorize being domestic so that
there would be no disputes.
←
← Women now begin to be responsible for morality in the home and
spirituality as well
• Big change from previous roles
←
← Domestic sphere of women- expected to devote themselves to their
house work and their world outside of their husbands
←
← The Cult of Domesticity
 •The paradigm change of womens role in the home
o Devoting themselves entirely to domesticity
o Instill values in to their home
o True fulfillment would be gained only thru their contributions
domestically
← This cult of domesticity opens up a cultural divide between men
and women in the 19th century

Women now view their job as shaping the future society

In 1800, birth rate in America was highest in the world. 7 or 8

10 years after, a steady decline

1850, avg women had 5 or 6

maternal affection was directly linked to morality in children growing up

women maintain their relationship with each other through extended visits
and correspondence ect.

Men were very distant in the writing of women. Women expressed their
affection for one another, not necessarily for men.

Women view each other as kindred souls, not as competition.

Character traits were view as being gender specific
• Men- assertive, materialistic, competitive,
• Women- dependent, affectionate, benevolent, self-sacrificing, pious,
ect.
← These traits are innate
←
With the emergence of middle class, women are looked upon as moral
superiors to males.

18th century women were view as lustful, now they are view as pure in the
19th century.

Women are viewed as lacking all sexual desire.

10/14/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
Women’s status in the south
• Impact of slavery
• United opportunities for women
• Purity and piety
← Women and slavery
• White women’s attitudes towards slavery and slaves
• White images of black women
←
← white women were always subordinate to men
←
← a women’s appearance is every bit as important as her character
• appearance was equivalent to piety
• fine line as well bc women did not want to appear too fashionable
• dress must line up with type of work
• corset was most important, worn at all times
o corset was a sign of piety
←
← 20 in waist was ideal.
←
← Women wrote about sorrows
← Men tended to write more verbose and haughty
←
← white women did not want slaves to go to heaven
←
10/19/2009 02/09/2009 17:35:00
Black women and slavery
• women and work
• motherhood and family
• marriage and gender roles
← Black Women’s Bodies
• Morality and the slave community
• Jezebel and mammy
←
← Black women are denied the cult of domesticity
←
← Cotton as a cash crop demands a large work force.
←
← Free black people were thought to incite rebellion
←
← adult women are ¾ hands
← children are ½ hands
← adult men are full hands
←
← post menopausal women work harder t
←
← creating a family gave black slaves a personal meaning
←
←
←
10/26/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
10/28/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Westward migration
• The overland journey a man’s world
o Maintaining distinct gender roles
← Women in the west
• Creating families and communities
• Expanded opportunities for women
← Something resembling equality occurs but not fully
←
← wagon trails were the way to travel in groups
←
← women would pack iron stoves, rocking chairs, and other sorts
←
← women’s mode of dress is influence bc of their “moral superiority” and
not one woman wore trousers
←
← women given the opportunity to become nurses, ministers,
missionaries, teachers
←
← much more control over their marriages
←
← yankee husbands are suppose to be the best bc they understand the
cult of domesticity
←
← women begin taking deliberate steps towards equality and feel a sense
of responsibility to do so
←
← mormon’s are looked down upon and are seen as brothels
←
11/2/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Mexican women on the frontier
• Social and legal independence
• White migration and cultural conflict
• Racial segregation
← Chinese women: a minority within a minority
• Limitations on female migration
• Chinese women in the American west

Mexican women kept maiden name and could own their own land
Mexy women outnumbered men

Mexican women were viewed as women of little virtue

Mexican women danced with partners in public, anglos looked down on that
Betraying own morality was betraying family morality

Anglo American men referred to their Mexican wives as being Spanish to

alieviate the negative stigma

They want to remain culturally different

1100 chinese immigrants and only 7 were women

11/4/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Women and the reform impulse
• Perdectionism and reform
• Utopan communitie
←
← Reform and womens bodies
• Voluntary motherhood
• Free love
• Dress reform and other cures
←
←
← Perfectionism helps the women have a greater sense of cures
←
← Improving marriage is the building block of the new “reform”
←
← How does one improve their marriage?
←
← The shakers embraced celibacy in order to free women of the
oppression
←
← Onida was planning an alternative goal FOR WOMEN.
←
← MONOGAMY WAS FORBADE
←
← gov made info on birth control illegal
←
← in the 1800 ave women 78 children
← 1900 lowered to 3-4 children

Forced love is when one spouse is not accepting the sexual offereing

Victoria woodhull
• smart, articularte, and draws a cause
← Stanton said that women have the right to be soverign in their
decisions regarding marriage
←
← Dress reform is one of the most important reforms of the age.
←
11/9/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Female associations
• Addressing social problems
• Women as abolitionists
• Concern with the plight of female slaves
← Abolition and the woman
←
← the institution of slavery was not looked highly upon as people thought
that they would be judged harshly due to slavery.

It was a selfish motive that caused abolition of slavery bc they did not want
to be judged harshly not out of concern of the slaves.

1837 anti slavery conventions

women start becoming more of an active voice

• pronounced radical movement
← women feel elevated by commitment though they went through
hardships due to their freverence
←
← Crandel admitted a black girl to her academy
• All of the white students were withdrawn
• Crandel then opened doors to all black girls
• Repeatedly arrested and convicted
←
← women are now prepared to move beyond traditional activism as they
form and official group of : AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY SOCIETY
• founded in 1831
o moved beyond
← 1836 many women speakers begin holding rallies
• maria stewart (first black spokesperson)

man was known as the public reformers and women were the private
reformers but the AAS started changing those views as their organization
became more public.
11/11/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
Women and moral reform
• Religious motivation
• Prisons and asylums
• Temperance: the danger of drink
• Anti prostitiution
← Women’s rights
• Activism sparks calls for change
• Legal reform

Women begin to be applauded for their reform efforts

←
← Starts to become criticized when they begin to take action further with
petitions and actual movement beyond their traditional roles.
←
← Most middle class white women were drawn to the cause but they
were drawn to the private cause.
←
← Women begin establishing maternal societies
• Purpose to share methods of raising optimal offspring
←
← Women in urban areas begin moving out more quickly and more
activist driven
←
← what drives women to reform are issues that deal with other women
←
← women began starting Sunday schools in order to help instill values
and religion to the poor
←
← no outcry against this bc this Is considered a logical step in their roles
← Sunday schools branch off into orphanages and other shelters
←
← Providence employment society
• Created in 1830 to help employ poor women.
• Was a garment business and also was underwritten by other
middle class women
← When questioned about this organization, the women responded this
was just a logical extension in their role as managers of the home and also
this was a way to reach out to other hurting women.
←
← Organizations had a structure
← The reason that the women had the aptitude to create this corporate
structure is from their husbands, brothers, fathers who were directly
involved in commerce
←
← they see their activism as a way to influence the society as a whole, to
give them a sense of comrodery outside the home.
←
← The women view this as filling a mission not as trying to over throw
the norm
←
← Class is more important to them then their gender
• Participating in these activism activities was a way to show their
status
• Also participation in activism deepens the divide between poor
women and middle class, separating them even further rather then
bringing them together
← Dorthia Dicks
• Leader in asylum activism
• Began teaching Sunday school to women in MA that were in prisons
and began noticed there were many mentally retarded women as
well.
• The condition women were kept in was startling
• Her outrage turned into activism
• She brought this into the attention to the state and took the cause
nationwide.
Requested that the insane and mentally retarded would be
housed separate from criminals

Women began viewing drinking as a classless act

Middle class women were never to drink in public

Men who were heavy drinkers hurt their families financially, and drunk
husbands were abusive, etc.

Prostitution starts to become more visible in society

Men are not happy about this
Women began standing outside brothel and protesting the prostitutes

Women began trying to advocate for more legal rights

• In 1839 Mississippi passed legal provisions that previously did not
exist
← By 1860, states considered giving women the right to control their own
earnings, NY.
←
10/16/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
10/18/09 02/09/2009 17:35:00
← Women and the Civil War
• The war effort: women’s rights activities haulted
• Women as volunteers at home and at war
← Effects of the war on women’s lives
• New attitudes
• New opportunites

1861 a womens org wrote another org saying that pushing for women’s
rights is going to be counteractive

women are beginning to use their domestic skills for the war and also to
raise money to supply military hospitals and other things

Sanitary commissions key responsibilities were to supply the hosipital and to

staff the hospitals

Women from north and south are positioning themselves for activism
• Pulling resources and doing whatever they can, ex knitting socks,
and baking, ect.
Refreshment saloons made to help boost morale

Women representatives are sent to the front line to distribute the supplies
• Women found nothing but complete chaos
←
← Annie wittenmyer
←
← clara barton- found the sanitary and practices of the military hospital
• becomes an agent to the sanitary org
←
← Women justify their new responsibilities as being an extension of their
duties and they were just looking towards the better of the community
←
← women have not been given the opportunity to be professional nurses
• only exception were catholic nuns
• the civil war brought on this opportunity to be professional nurses
←
← Nurses are treated with disrespect by army dr
• Army dr said that women are unfit as nurses bc they are annoying,
incapable of dealing with bodies of strange men, that they were too
weak, not prudent enough,
← Women begin to dominate the nursing field
←
← Mary Walker Edwards
• Given Congressional Award of Honor but it is stripped from her due
to the fact she dressed more manly
• In 1919 award is re-enstated posthumously
← White women took all responsibility in taking on all of the slaves.
←
← The myth of female dependence is cast aside due to the war effort
←
←
← Women begin to increase in numbers that graduate from hs and
college and a whole other host of opportunites expand due to the war
←
← and the