Women in the 19C United States of America: Heading West in 19C America

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Heading West in 19C America

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson quietly purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, & it doubled the size of the United States. To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s moral health. He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, & that independence & virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. “Those who labor in the earth,” he wrote, “are the chosen people of God.”

Albert Fitch Bellows (American, 1829 - 1883) Blueberry Pickers 1864

Whortleberry (Blueberry) Pudding

Whortleberries are good both in flour & Indian puddings. A pint of milk, with a little salt & a little molasses, stirred quite stiff with Indian meal, & a quart of berries stirred in gradually with a spoon, makes a good-sized pudding. Leave room for it to swell; & let it boil 3 hours.When you put them into flour, make your pudding just like batter-puddings; but considerably thicker, or the berries will sink. Two hours is plenty long enough to boil. No pudding should be put in till the water boils. Leave room to swell.
Child, Lydia Maria. The Frugal Housewife. Boston: 1830

About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”