To Be Useful to the World

by Gundersen, Joan R.

• ISBN13: 9780807856970
• ISBN10: 0807856975
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-31
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr

Summary

Offering an interpretation of the Revolutionary period that places women at the center, Joan R. Gundersen provides a synthesis of the scholarship on women's experiences during the era as well as a nuanced understanding that moves beyond a view of the war as either a "golden age" or a disaster for women. Gundersen argues that women's lives varied greatly depending on race and class, but all women had to work within shifting parameters that enabled opportunities for some while constraining opportunities for others. Three generations of women in three households personalize these changes: Elizabeth Dutoy Porter, member of the small-planter class whose Virginia household included an African American enslaved woman named Peg; Deborah Franklin, common-law wife of the prosperous revolutionary, Benjamin; and Margaret Brant, matriarch of a prominent Mohawk family who sided with the British during the war. This edition incorporates substantial revisions in the text and the notes to take into account the scholarship that has appeared since the book's original publication in 1996.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Preface to the 1996 Edition	xiii
1 The Worlds of Their Mothers	1	(16)
2 Women on the Move	17	(28)
3 The Silken Cord	45	(22)
4 Mistress and Servant	67	(22)
5 Dutiful Daughters and Independent Minds	89	(20)
6 Sisters of the Spirit	109	(24)
7 An Injurious and Ill Judging World	133	(20)
8 The Garden Within	153	(20)
9 Daughters of Liberty	173	(28)
10 Mothers of the Republic	201	(18)
Essay on the Sources	219	(18)
Notes	237	(78)
Index	315