In this Book
- Revolutionary Conceptions: Women, Fertility, and Family Limitation in America, 1760-1820
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
- Series: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia
summary
In the Age of Revolution, how did American women conceive their lives and marital obligations? By examining the attitudes and behaviors surrounding the contentious issues of family, contraception, abortion, sexuality, beauty, and identity, Susan E. Klepp demonstrates that many women--rural and urban, free and enslaved--began to radically redefine motherhood. They asserted, or attempted to assert, control over their bodies, their marriages, and their daughters' opportunities.
Late-eighteenth-century American women were among the first in the world to disavow the continual childbearing and large families that had long been considered ideal. Liberty, equality, and heartfelt religion led to new conceptions of virtuous, rational womanhood and responsible parenthood. These changes can be seen in falling birthrates, in advice to friends and kin, in portraits, and in a gradual, even reluctant, shift in men's opinions. Revolutionary-era women redefined femininity, fertility, family, and their futures by limiting births. Women might not have won the vote in the new Republic, they might not have gained formal rights in other spheres, but, Klepp argues, there was a women's revolution nonetheless.
Late-eighteenth-century American women were among the first in the world to disavow the continual childbearing and large families that had long been considered ideal. Liberty, equality, and heartfelt religion led to new conceptions of virtuous, rational womanhood and responsible parenthood. These changes can be seen in falling birthrates, in advice to friends and kin, in portraits, and in a gradual, even reluctant, shift in men's opinions. Revolutionary-era women redefined femininity, fertility, family, and their futures by limiting births. Women might not have won the vote in the new Republic, they might not have gained formal rights in other spheres, but, Klepp argues, there was a women's revolution nonetheless.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgments
- pp. v-vi
- List of Illustrations
- pp. ix-xii
- List of Tables
- pp. xiii-xiv
- 2. Old Ways and New
- pp. 56-87
- 3. Women's Worlds
- pp. 88-127
- 4. Beauty and the Bestial: Images of Women
- pp. 128-178
- 7. Reluctant Revolutionaries
- pp. 248-271
Additional Information
ISBN
9781469600796
Related ISBN(s)
9780807833223, 9780807838716, 9780807859926, 9798890885470
MARC Record
OCLC
861793438
Pages
328
Launched on MUSE
2016-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No