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
Results 1-5 of 61
Page xiii
... claiming merely that women were equal and not different from men . He was advocating that women required the vote on the constitutional grounds that democracy protected the idea of equal representation . Indeed , Phillips reasoned , if ...
... claiming merely that women were equal and not different from men . He was advocating that women required the vote on the constitutional grounds that democracy protected the idea of equal representation . Indeed , Phillips reasoned , if ...
Page 2
... claimed that " when I first heard from the lips of Lucretia Mott that I had the same right to think for myself that Luther , Calvin , and John Knox had , I felt at once a new - born sense of dignity and freedom . " 11 Clemmer FIRSTBORN ...
... claimed that " when I first heard from the lips of Lucretia Mott that I had the same right to think for myself that Luther , Calvin , and John Knox had , I felt at once a new - born sense of dignity and freedom . " 11 Clemmer FIRSTBORN ...
Page 4
... claiming that this one text " anticipated every demand of nineteenth - century femi- nism . " 20 Suffrage , the " one great leading idea [ that ] was a suggestion of her brain , " as Theodore Tilton asserted in 1869 , became another ...
... claiming that this one text " anticipated every demand of nineteenth - century femi- nism . " 20 Suffrage , the " one great leading idea [ that ] was a suggestion of her brain , " as Theodore Tilton asserted in 1869 , became another ...
Page 5
... claiming the ballot for women ; now thousands follow her lead . " Throughout her study DuBois contended that the radical edge of feminism truly came of age when the movement severed its ties from antislavery and religious reform . Like ...
... claiming the ballot for women ; now thousands follow her lead . " Throughout her study DuBois contended that the radical edge of feminism truly came of age when the movement severed its ties from antislavery and religious reform . Like ...
Page 7
... claimed that women and free blacks lacked the independence of character and judgment necessary for voting . In theory , a republican form of government required a FIRSTBORN FEMINISM uniform population of citizens who shared an active ...
... claimed that women and free blacks lacked the independence of character and judgment necessary for voting . In theory , a republican form of government required a FIRSTBORN FEMINISM uniform population of citizens who shared an active ...
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