Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum AmericaWith this book, Nancy Isenberg illuminates the origins of the women's rights movement. Rather than herald the singular achievements of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention, she examines the confluence of events and ideas--before and after 1848--that, in her view, marked the real birth of feminism. Drawing on a wide range of sources, she demonstrates that women's rights activists of the antebellum era crafted a coherent feminist critique of church, state, and family. In addition, Isenberg shows, they developed a rich theoretical tradition that influenced not only subsequent strains of feminist thought but also ideas about the nature of citizenship and rights more generally. By focusing on rights discourse and political theory, Isenberg moves beyond a narrow focus on suffrage. Democracy was in the process of being redefined in antebellum America by controversies over such volatile topics as fugitive slave laws, temperance, Sabbath laws, capital punishment, prostitution, the Mexican War, married women's property rights, and labor reform--all of which raised significant legal and constitutional questions. These pressing concerns, debated in women's rights conventions and the popular press, were inseparable from the gendered meaning of nineteenth-century citizenship. |
From inside the book
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Page iv
... Feminism - United States - History . I. Title . HQI236.5.U6183 305.42'0973 - dc21 1999 98-13349 CIP Frontispiece : Ye May Session of ye Woman's Rights Conven- tion - Ye Orator of ye Day Denouncing ye Lords of Creation . 02 01 00 99 98 5 ...
... Feminism - United States - History . I. Title . HQI236.5.U6183 305.42'0973 - dc21 1999 98-13349 CIP Frontispiece : Ye May Session of ye Woman's Rights Conven- tion - Ye Orator of ye Day Denouncing ye Lords of Creation . 02 01 00 99 98 5 ...
Page vi
Nancy Isenberg. This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Firstborn Feminism I Citizenship Understood.
Nancy Isenberg. This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Firstborn Feminism I Citizenship Understood.
Page vii
Nancy Isenberg. Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Firstborn Feminism I Citizenship Understood ( and Misunderstood ) 15 Visual Politics 41 4 Conscience , Custom , and Church Politics 75 C The Political Fall of Woman 103 B The ...
Nancy Isenberg. Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction xi Firstborn Feminism I Citizenship Understood ( and Misunderstood ) 15 Visual Politics 41 4 Conscience , Custom , and Church Politics 75 C The Political Fall of Woman 103 B The ...
Page ix
... feminist politics and theory . Hendrik Hartog read the dissertation and the manuscript and added invaluable suggestions . Since then , I have been impelled to reconceptualize feminist theory for the nineteenth century by examining the ...
... feminist politics and theory . Hendrik Hartog read the dissertation and the manuscript and added invaluable suggestions . Since then , I have been impelled to reconceptualize feminist theory for the nineteenth century by examining the ...
Page xiii
... feminist critique . The orientation of antebellum feminists was premised on a sophisticated theoretical model that could explain citizenship , the public sphere , and the constitutional limi- tations that had evolved in the nineteenth ...
... feminist critique . The orientation of antebellum feminists was premised on a sophisticated theoretical model that could explain citizenship , the public sphere , and the constitutional limi- tations that had evolved in the nineteenth ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
3 Visual Politics | 41 |
4 Conscience Custom and Church Politics | 75 |
5 The Political Fall of Woman | 103 |
6 The Bonds of Matrimony | 155 |
7 The Sovereign Body of the Citizen | 191 |
Notes | 205 |
Bibliography | 273 |
Index | 309 |
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Common terms and phrases
antebellum antebellum feminists antebellum period Anti-Slavery Bugle argued authority Bloomer body BONDS OF MATRIMONY Boston century Child Christian CHURCH POLITICS citizens CITIZENSHIP UNDERSTOOD civil claimed common law constitutional convention contract courts coverture Culture custody Declaration of Sentiments defined democratic divestment Divorce domestic duties Elizabeth Cady Stanton equal FALL OF WOMAN Feminism feminists fugitive slave Gage Gender Gerrit Smith husband Ibid issue John Journal labor letter liberty Lily Lucretia Mott Lydia Maria Child male marital marriage married women Mary Massachusetts meeting moral natural nineteenth Nineteenth-Century NOTES TO PAGES Ohio Paulina Wright Davis petition Philadelphia POLITICAL FALL Progressive Friends prostitutes protection public sphere Quaker reform religious Republican Review rule Sabbath Seneca Falls convention Sentiments sexual slavery social status Swisshelm theory tion University Press VISUAL POLITICS vote wages wife wife's William wives Woman Suffrage women's rights activists women's rights advocates women's rights convention Worcester WRC 1850