Separated by Their Sex , livre ebook

272

pages

English

Ebooks

2011

Écrit par
Beth Norton Mary

Publié par
Cornell University Press

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272

pages

English

Ebook

2011

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Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Cornell University Press

Date de parution

16 mai 2011

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780801460890

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

2 Mo

In Separated by Their Sex, Mary Beth Norton offers a bold genealogy that shows how gender came to determine the right of access to the Anglo-American public sphere by the middle of the eighteenth century. Earlier, high-status men and women alike had been recognized as appropriate political actors, as exemplified during and after Bacon's Rebellion by the actions of-and reactions to-Lady Frances Berkeley, wife of Virginia's governor. By contrast, when the first ordinary English women to claim a political voice directed group petitions to Parliament during the Civil War of the 1640s, men relentlessly criticized and parodied their efforts. Even so, as late as 1690, Anglo-American women's political interests and opinions were publicly acknowledged. Norton traces the profound shift in attitudes toward women's participation in public affairs to the age's cultural arbiters, including John Dunton, editor of the Athenian Mercury, a popular 1690s periodical that promoted women's links to husband, family, and household. Fittingly, Dunton was the first author known to apply the word "private" to women and their domestic lives. Subsequently, the immensely influential authors Richard Steele and Joseph Addison (in the Tatler and the Spectator) advanced the notion that women's participation in politics-even in political dialogues-was absurd. They and many imitators on both sides of the Atlantic argued that women should confine themselves to home and family, a position that American women themselves had adopted by the 1760s. Colonial women incorporated the novel ideas into their self-conceptions; during such "private" activities as sitting around a table drinking tea, they worked to define their own lives. On the cusp of the American Revolution, Norton concludes, a newly gendered public-private division was firmly in place.

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Publié par

Cornell University Press

Date de parution

16 mai 2011

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780801460890

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

2 Mo

 SEPARATED BY THEIR SEX

SEPARATED BY THEIR SEX n WOME N I N PUBL I C AND PRI VAT E I N T HE COLONI AL AT L ANT I C WORL D

M a r y B e t h N o r to n

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2011 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Norton, Mary Beth. Separated by their sex : women in public and private in the colonial Atlantic world / Mary Beth Norton. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780801449499 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Women—United States—History. 2. Women—Great Britain—History. 3. Women in public life—United States—History. 4. Women in public life—Great Britain—History. 5. United States—History—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775. I. Title. HQ1416.N67 2011 305.40973'09032—dc22 2010044492

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent pos sible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For John ( J. B.) Heiser

 Co nte nts

List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xvii List of Abbreviations xxi

Introduction 1. Lady Frances Berkeley and Virginia Politics, 1675–1678 Mistress Alice Tilly and Her Supporters, 1649–16502. English Women in the Public Realm, 1642–1653 Mistress Elinor James and Her Broadsides, 1681–17143. John Dunton and the Invention of the Feminine Private Mistress Sarah Kemble Knight and Her Journal, 17044. Women and Politics, Eighteenth Century–Style Lady Chatham and Her Correspondents, 1740s–1760s5. Consolidating the Feminine Private Conclusion: Defining “Women”

Notes 183 Index 241

105

109

140 144 175

vii

 I l lu s t r at i o n s

1.1. Lady Frances Culpeper Stephens Berkeley 2.1. “The Parliament of Ladyes” 3.1. “The Coffeehouse Mob” 3.2. “Emblem of the Athenian Society” 4.1. “The Devonshire Amusement” 5.1. Plans of BritishAmerican Houses in the MidAtlantic Region 5.2. “The TeaTable”

12 56 79 84 116–117

163 168

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