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 63
Page xii
... law that upheld ... common identity with men as human beings endowed with a comparable capacity for reasoned judgment ? He asked , Did God ordain woman's eternal differences from man to be permanent , un- changing , and beyond the rule of law ...
... law that upheld ... common identity with men as human beings endowed with a comparable capacity for reasoned judgment ? He asked , Did God ordain woman's eternal differences from man to be permanent , un- changing , and beyond the rule of law ...
Page xiv
... law and society . Changes in American jurisprudence and radical reforms of the common - law tradition contributed to debates over women's legal standing and civil liber- ties . In an era when many were promoting constitutional revision ...
... law and society . Changes in American jurisprudence and radical reforms of the common - law tradition contributed to debates over women's legal standing and civil liber- ties . In an era when many were promoting constitutional revision ...
Page xv
... common - law definitions of runaway slaves and wives : their shared loss of personal liberty . Prostitution , cases of seduction , and the death penalty all underscored the sexual double standard in the law , reinforced by women's ...
... common - law definitions of runaway slaves and wives : their shared loss of personal liberty . Prostitution , cases of seduction , and the death penalty all underscored the sexual double standard in the law , reinforced by women's ...
Page xvii
... laws . This was , in part , because the theory behind the divestment of fugitive slaves paral- leled women's status under the common law . When women's rights activists discussed slavery during their conventions , the plight of the ...
... laws . This was , in part , because the theory behind the divestment of fugitive slaves paral- leled women's status under the common law . When women's rights activists discussed slavery during their conventions , the plight of the ...
Page 6
... Common law and the federal constitution recognized this right as the fundamental agreement between the state and its citizenry . While the federal government promised to “ guarantee to every state in this union a Republican form of ...
... Common law and the federal constitution recognized this right as the fundamental agreement between the state and its citizenry . While the federal government promised to “ guarantee to every state in this union a Republican form of ...
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