WOMEN IN THE UNITED STATES TO 1890
History 260 -- Fall 2006
Rebecca
Edwards Office: Swift 35
E-mail: reedwards Office
Hours: Mon. 2-4 Wed. 1-3,
Telephone:
x5675 Thurs. 3-4:30, and by appointment
This course
examines womenÕs social, economic, and political roles in colonial America and
the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century United States. In reading works by
historians as well as autobiographical writings by historical actors, we
explore the varieties of womenÕs experiences based on race, ethnicity, economic
position, education, and geographic region. Course themes include womenÕs work
and family life; social constructions of gender roles; sexuality; and womenÕs
political activism and reform work.
The course introduces you to a variety of primary historical sources,
from diaries and letters to legal records, newspapers, and fiction.
Course
Materials
The following
books are available at VassarÕs bookstore and most are on reserve at the
library:
Ulrich,
Laurel Thatcher. A Midwife's
Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her
Diary,
1785-1812.
Carol
Berkin, Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's
Independence
Srebnick,
Amy G. The Mysterious Death of
Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in
Nineteenth-Century
New York.
Sklar,
Kathryn Kish. WomenÕs Rights Emerges Within the Antislavery Movement,
1830-1870: A Brief History with
Documents.
Maines,
Rachel. The Technology of
Orgasm: ÒHysteria,Ó the Vibrator, and WomenÕs
Sexual Satisfaction.
Jewett,
Sarah Orne. The Country of the Pointed Firs.
Additional
readings will be handed out in class. We will also view several films that are
on reserve. You may check these out and watch them if you cannot attend the
scheduled class screenings, but you are responsible for viewing them before we discuss them in class.
Course
Requirements
1. Class Participation (15% of final
course grade). You
should complete all the reading, attend class on time and prepared, and
participate regularly in discussions--which includes listening carefully to
othersÕ insights as well as contributing your own.
2. Three-page analysis of documents
relating to witchcraft in colonial New England (10%), due at the start of class on Tuesday,
September 12. Se attached
assignment sheet.
3. Group presentation on women's artistic
and material cultures (10%);
TBA.
4. Three- to four-page essay on a
narrative by a woman in the antebellum South (15%), due at the start of class on Thursday,
October 12. See attached assignment sheet.
5. Ten- to twelve-page research paper
(25%). This includes a prospectus due at the
start of class on Thursday, Sept. 28, and a final paper due Friday, Dec. 8 by 5
pm. See attached assignment sheet.
6. Regularly scheduled final exam (25%).
Vassar requires approval of the Dean of Studies for a make-up final
exam. If you believe you cannot
take the final as scheduled, you should seek guidance from the DeanÕs office.
Policy on
late papers: Requests for extensions, based on
illness or extraordinary circumstances, must be made in consultation with the
Dean of Studies in advance of the due date. If no extension is granted, the policy is: for the first three days, the grade is
reduced by one-third letter grade each day (an A paper becomes an A- in the
first 24 hours after it was due, a B+ in the next 24 hours, and a B in the
next.) After three day, I reduce
the grade by one full letter per day (the A paper now becomes a C, D, and
F). Saturdays and Sundays count;
if you plan to complete a paper during a weekend, you must make arrangements in
advance to deliver it.
Disability
Support:
Academic
accommodations are available for students with disabilities who are registered
with the Office of Disability and Support Services. Students in need of
disability accommodations should schedule an appointment with me early in the
semester to discuss any accommodations for this course which have been approved
by the Office of Disability and Support Services, as indicated in your DSS
accommodation letter.
Course Schedule
Thurs.
Aug. 31 Introduction to
the Course
Tues.
Sept. 5 Discussion:
Gender, Race, and Sex in Early Virginia
Read: Peter Wallenstein, "Indian
Foremothers: Race, Sex, Slavery and Freedom in Early Virginia," from The
Devil's Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South, ed. Catherine Clinton and
Michele Gillespie (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 57-73.
Kathleen M.
Brown, Ò'Good Wives' and 'Nasty Wenches': Gender and Social Order in a Colonial
Settlement,Ó and "Engendering Racial Difference," from Good Wives,
Nasty Wenches, and Anxious Patriarchs: Gender, Race, and Power in Colonial
Virginia (Chapel Hill: University
of North Carolina Press, 1996), 75-136.
Thurs.
Sept. 7 Lecture: Colonial Contexts
Tues.
Sept. 12 Discussion: Beyond Salem (FIRST SHORT ESSAY DUE
TODAY)
Documents on
witchcraft trials in colonial New England (see short essay assignment sheet)
Thurs.
Sept. 14 Lecture: North and South
Tues.
Sept. 19 Discussion: Women's Networks
Ulrich, Midwife's
Tale, Introduction and
Ch. 1-7 (pp. 3-261)
Thurs.
Sept. 21 Lecture: Colonial Transformations
Tues.
Sept. 26 Discussion:
Women in the American Revolution
Berkin, Revolutionary
Mothers
Thurs.
Sept. 28 Lecture: Domesticity (RESEARCH PROSPECTUS DUE
TODAY)
Tues. Oct.
3 Discussion: Women, Work, and Home
View: ÒHearts and Hands,Ó video #4317 (63 min.)
Read
approximately thirty pages of your choice from one or more of the
following:
Lydia
Maria Child, The American Frugal Housewife (1832)
Sarah
Josepha Hale, The Good Housekeeper:
Early American Cookery (1841)
Catherine
Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe, eds., The American Woman's Home
(1869;
largely a reprint and enlargement of Beecher's Treatise on Domestic Economy, 1841)
All of the
above are on reserve in the library and some chapters of Beecher/Stowe are
available online at Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6598
Thurs.
Oct. 5 Culture
and Material Culture Presentations
Tues. Oct.
10 Lecture: Limits of Domesticity
Thurs.
Oct. 12 Discussion: Slavery (SECOND SHORT ESSAY DUE TODAY)
Friday,
Oct. 13, 8:30 to 10:30 am: field
trip to schooner Amistad
for those who can go
FALL
BREAK (Take Mary
Rogers with you)
Tues. Oct.
24 Lecture: Gender, Medicine, and Science
Thurs.
Oct. 26 Discussion: Sex and the City (circa 1840)
Read: Srebnick, The Mysterious Death of
Mary Rogers
Tues. Oct.
31 Lecture: Domesticity as an Engine of Liberation?
Thurs.
Nov. 2 Discussion: Antislavery and Women's Rights
Read: Sklar, WomenÕs Rights Emerges Within
the Antislavery Movement,
pp. 1-76 and Documents 1-8, 12-14, 22-30, 39-48, and 52-53
Tues.
Nov. 7 Lecture:
Women and the Civil War
Thurs.
Nov. 9 Discussion: Women and Higher Education
Read: Excerpts from the Vassar College
Catalogue, 1866-1867 and
1883-1884 (handouts)
View "We
Are Women Studying Together: The Legacy of Maria Mitchell," video #2037
(30 min.)
Tues.
Nov. 14 Lecture: Women and Reform in the Gilded Age
Thurs.
Nov. 16 Discussion: Beyond Domesticity
Read: Maines, Technology of Orgasm
Tues. Nov.
21 Lecture: Women, Suffrage, and Politics
THANKSGIVING
BREAK
Tues. Nov.
28 Discussion: Race and Reform
View: ÒIda B. Wells: A Passion for Justice,Ó Video
#4317 (63 min.)
Read: Browse one of the following
collections and read documents and analysis from ÒWomen and Social Movements in
the United States, 1830-1930," on the Vassar Library webpages,
"Indexes and Databases," http://alexanderstreet6.com/wasm/index.html
1) "How Did White Women Aid Former Slaves during and after the
Civil War, 1863-1891?"
2)
"Why Did African-American Women Join the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, 1880 to 1900? "
3)
"How Did Gender and Class Shape the Age of Consent Campaign Within the
Social Purity Movement, 1886-1914?"
4) ÒWhat Gender Perspectives Shaped the Emergence of the
National Association of Colored Women, 1895-1920?Ó
Thurs. Nov. 30 Lecture: Into the Twentieth Century
Tues. Dec. 5 Discussion: Looking Backward
Read: Jewett, Country of the Pointed
Firs
Thurs.
Dec. 7 Conclusions
RESEARCH
PAPER DUE BY FRIDAY, DEC. 8 at 5 P.M. IN MY OFFICE (SWIFT 35).