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. |
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Page xi
... court system ( protection against " artificial distinction , " " exclusive privileges , " and grossly unfair treatment ) . It is just as clear that the idea of equality coexisted with conditions sanctioned by civil law —xi — Introduction.
... court system ( protection against " artificial distinction , " " exclusive privileges , " and grossly unfair treatment ) . It is just as clear that the idea of equality coexisted with conditions sanctioned by civil law —xi — Introduction.
Page xii
... courts , the halls of Congress , indeed in all public affairs . Equality was a difficult concept because it was premised on a false di- chotomy . Women had to act exactly like men to secure equal rights , and yet they were supposedly so ...
... courts , the halls of Congress , indeed in all public affairs . Equality was a difficult concept because it was premised on a false di- chotomy . Women had to act exactly like men to secure equal rights , and yet they were supposedly so ...
Page xiv
... court ) was held up against the right of consent , a right based on a “ fictive ” membership in the original social contract — on being one of the sovereign people . Each of the guide- lines Americans used to declare rights engendered ...
... court ) was held up against the right of consent , a right based on a “ fictive ” membership in the original social contract — on being one of the sovereign people . Each of the guide- lines Americans used to declare rights engendered ...
Page 23
... courts judged children to be lacking the maturity necessary for self - representation , while wives were legally dependent on the consent of their husbands in all civil suits.44 Legal capacity thus provided the ratio- nale for denying ...
... courts judged children to be lacking the maturity necessary for self - representation , while wives were legally dependent on the consent of their husbands in all civil suits.44 Legal capacity thus provided the ratio- nale for denying ...
Page 33
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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