us women before 1870

Work and gender in Native America

Women were the backbone of agriculture, societies had strict gender divisions but with a bit of “trans” ness

Native American families

Women had control of children, immense power when on period/giving birth (were isolated)

Contact with Europeans

Couldn’t handle strong women or men respecting women, Women incorporated Catholic Mary into Native religion

Matrilineal

All power/relations/possesions passed down via female line

Matrilocal

Women controlled house, men moved in with women via marriage

Clan matrons

Women with most power, as important as chiefs, controlled marriages, genealogy, food, war, clothing

Mary Jemison

Girl captured by Seneca tribe, was treated well by her host family and described the women positively, didn’t leave

Creation myths

Uplifted women and animals, positive and wholesome

Mestizo

Half native half white, had a middle ground, negotiators

“Trading girls”

Traded sex for goods, initiated business deals, no shame about it in native culture

Pocahontas

Real name Mataoka, real woman who moved to England and was treated as an attraction

Religion women early colonies

Vast majority Protestant Christian, women had to be submissive, Eve = temptress, stupid, bad childbirth, sexuality was bad

Education

Limited, for elite white women, most women learned what their mothers knew

Authoritarian family

Primary unit of social organization, father/husband is the “head”, polices behavior, chooses spouses

Benjamin Wadsworth

Minister, be a “nice dictator” because God said so

Dame school

Puritan women’s schools, rudimentary learning for a few years, ran by widows

coverture

women were legally nonexistent after marriage, only elite women had prenups, women couldn’t do much of anything w/out husband’s permission

femmes covert/femmes sole

married women vs single women, single women had much more rights in the law

dower 3rds

when husband dies, widows recieve at least 1/3 of his assets

marriage in colonies

not usually by choice, average age for women 21 in north 16 ½ in south, could not get married w/out family consent, only some groups looked for mutual affection

dowry

part of marriage ceremony, men got real estate, women got household goods

“help-meet”

men wanted women for obedience, duty, and submissiveness, not anything else

Anne Bradstreet

first female published poet in USA, poems were about her family

fornication

any freak outside of marriage, lighter punishment

adultery

any sex w/a married woman, could recieve death penalty

deputy husband

if husband was gone for a long time, he could sign some rights over to his wife.

Midwives/healers

One of the few ways women could make money, considered female knowledge, could be accessed of witchcraft

Widowhood

Common, women could collect real estate/money, gave women status and power

Motherhood/labor

Large families very common, most important thing, no concept of childhood, parenting was teaching children their place

Bed/board divorce

Couple wouldn’t live together but couldn’t remarry, women still under coverture

Self divorce

One person would just move far away, for poor people, outside the law

Anne Hutchinson

Woman who shared her religious beliefs and got exiled

Indentured servants

Most families had one at some point, primary form of labor, 7 years, treated like shit

Salem witch trials

Hundreds accused, 20 executed, majority women, sexual connotations, outsider women were accused the most

Transition to slavery

Blackness was a loaded concept, seen as sexual, in between humans and property, took 80 years to become a slave state

Slave family

Form of resistance, reminder that you are a person, first to marry for love

Virginia law 1662

First law about slavery, declared that biracial children = slaves

Virginia law 1691

Any white/nonwhite coupling was illegal, policing women’s sexuality, intense punishment, every colony passed that law

Fictive kinship

You create your own family

Larger changes

More colonists felt close to Uk, emphasis on genteel

Marriage/family changes

More affection, more motherhood, emotional satisfaction, sex and virginity

Views of women

Great awakening+ secularism, women had more access to education, gender roles were nature instead of religion

Economic changes

Families were no longer a unit of production, women could be single easier, women were supposed to focus on children

Population explosion

Population doubled every 22 years, average age 16

Secularization

Good life on earth, science/reason, increased desire for autonomy and personal happiness

Immediate family

Considered more important

Benevolent patriarch

Man’s authority weakened in household, paternal, obedience = love

Eliza Lucas Pinckney

Women can have the benevolent patriarch attitude too

Companionate marriage

You should like your partner, most important choice, women can say no

Childhood

4-12, children are the focus of families, born innocent, childhood is cherished, still duty

Great awakening

Intense religious revival, more women in church so ministers are nicer to women

New choices

Women had to be politically involved, saw themselves as political beings with boycotts, public attention, and suspicion from men

Women and independence

Women weren’t supposed to be political, harrassed merchants

Patriots/loyalists

Everyone has to decide, majority flip flopped

Daughters of Liberty

Association for women with woodcuts

Homespun

Women making homemade goods as a form of boycotts

Sentiments of an American woman

By Esther DeBerdt Reed, letter about women’s involvement, referenced Bible and history, spread wide

Ladies associations

SAW created them, led by important women, collected money, food, pewter, and medicine

Mercy Otis Warren

Risked her life publishing satires and a history of the American revolution

Camp followers

Poor women who couldn’t afford to live without their male relation, cooked food, laundry, nursing, helped on battle field

Deborah Sampson

Women who disguised herself to fight as a man, only got a pension because she didn’t “subvert” post war

Legal status

Some states made divorce easier, no more dower rights or prenups, only white women were citizens

No wills

Why married women couldn’t vote

Republican wives/mothers

For the good of the country, only marry Republican men, raise virtuous children

Abigail Adams

Against covertute

1790 census

Only one man per household recorded

NJ Constitution 1776

Let single women with property vote, ended 1807

On the equality of the sexes

By Judith Sargent Murray, education for women to be good moms

Young ladies academy

Started by Ben Rush in 1787, girls could learn some of what boys learned

Public virtue

Sacrifice wealth/life for the country