Women and Freedom in Early America by Larry EldridgeCall Number: Wilm Circulating Books HQ 1416 .W65 1997
ISBN: 0814721931
Publication Date: 1997
This eclectic collection of essays skillfully accomplishes one of its intended, if somewhat old-fashioned goals: "to better understand the lives [women] led, the struggles they faced, the tragedies, triumphs, foibles, and fulfillment that made up their existence" (p. 4). The compilation of 16 essays, averaging 15-20 pages each (including notes), represents the wide range of current scholarship on women in early America, and offers a substantial volume that will enhance any graduate seminar reading list. Here you will find new material on the cultural, religious, economic, social, and legal roles of women whether married, widowed, or single; black, white, or Indian; urban or backcountry dweller; rich or poor; Quaker, Catholic, or Baptist; free or unfree. This last aspect of women's lives--their differing and shifting degrees of freedom--is the organizing principle of the volume. Beyond describing women's lives, the authors address "how freedom was defined for and by women, how it was achieved or missed, how the parameters and realizations of freedom expanded or contracted over time.