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 62
Page xi
... equal standing in the 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 ...
... equal standing in the 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 ...
Page xii
... equal rights were routinely denied to slaves , children , and the so - called dangerous classes of free blacks , paupers , resident aliens ( particu- larly non - Caucasian or Catholic foreigners ) , criminals , and those considered ...
... equal rights were routinely denied to slaves , children , and the so - called dangerous classes of free blacks , paupers , resident aliens ( particu- larly non - Caucasian or Catholic foreigners ) , criminals , and those considered ...
Page xiii
... 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 women were different , then they ...
... 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 women were different , then they ...
Page xvi
... equal protection . In both chapters I offer evidence that the process of developing a rights discourse went well beyond a liberal faith in individualism or abstract rights . Chapter 3 pursues the dilemma of women's relationship to the ...
... equal protection . In both chapters I offer evidence that the process of developing a rights discourse went well beyond a liberal faith in individualism or abstract rights . Chapter 3 pursues the dilemma of women's relationship to the ...
Page xviii
... equals , ” simultaneously the same and different . If we understand coequality as a democratic ideal , then the early women's rights movement emerges as much more than a political campaign for suffrage . In- deed , the concept of co ...
... equals , ” simultaneously the same and different . If we understand coequality as a democratic ideal , then the early women's rights movement emerges as much more than a political campaign for suffrage . In- deed , the concept of co ...
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