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 82
Page xviii
... husband's sexual rights , his right to his wife's wages , and his custody rights all reinforced a sexual economy of rights . Influenced by the legal and political discourses developed by temperance , labor , health , and land reformers ...
... husband's sexual rights , his right to his wife's wages , and his custody rights all reinforced a sexual economy of rights . Influenced by the legal and political discourses developed by temperance , labor , health , and land reformers ...
Page 2
... husband , Theodore Stanton , to the convention.7 9 As Keith Melder wrote in his 1977 study , The Beginnings of Sisterhood , the 1840 London antislavery convention occupied a special place in the history of the suffrage movement . The ...
... husband , Theodore Stanton , to the convention.7 9 As Keith Melder wrote in his 1977 study , The Beginnings of Sisterhood , the 1840 London antislavery convention occupied a special place in the history of the suffrage movement . The ...
Page 7
... husband , marriage for women implied not only economic dependence but civil death . According to Blackstone , " the very being , or legal existence of woman is suspended during the marriage . " 35 As Hannah Arendt contended , " civil ...
... husband , marriage for women implied not only economic dependence but civil death . According to Blackstone , " the very being , or legal existence of woman is suspended during the marriage . " 35 As Hannah Arendt contended , " civil ...
Page 10
... husband . Civil mastery , like self - mastery , was defined as a masculine prerogative rooted in divine and political authority . As a complex metaphor , the creation story details several overlapping allu- sions to explain marital and ...
... husband . Civil mastery , like self - mastery , was defined as a masculine prerogative rooted in divine and political authority . As a complex metaphor , the creation story details several overlapping allu- sions to explain marital and ...
Page 11
... husband — the same formula of exchanging rights for duties used to define citizenship . Additionally , the husband was the “ head ” of the family , and since the head rules the body , the husband had the same authority to supervise his ...
... husband — the same formula of exchanging rights for duties used to define citizenship . Additionally , the husband was the “ head ” of the family , and since the head rules the body , the husband had the same authority to supervise his ...
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