Womanhood from 1770s to 1830s

Womanhood from 1770s to 1830s

In the American history, as the time passed, women’s roles got bigger and bigger but they were always seen as “the casket of his privacy, the shield of his true individuality, the guardian of his essential humanity”… Between the time period from American Revolution (1770s) to the Civil War (1860), starting with Republican Motherhood, a lot changed but some things stayed the same in women’s roles in community; these changes and continuities were conditioned by some economic, social and cultural factors.

Before the American Revolution, unmarried women had rights to live anywhere and support themselves by working in any occupation that did not require a college degree; they could enter into contacts, buy and sell… As long as they remained single they could sue and be sued, write wills and serve as guardians and act as executors of estates. But as soon as women got married, and most of them did, they still had legal rights but no autonomy. Married women did not have any property, all of their property belonged to their husbands and the only thing men could not do with their wives’ family heritage was to sell the property. Married women were dependent in almost every aspect on their husbands and the ladies only job was household business. Women could legally sue their husbands but the judges did everything to prevent men from neglecting their wives. If creditors pursued the husband for debts, his wife was entitled to keep only necessities of life: two dresses, kitchen utensils and a bed. (According to Marylyn Salmon)

As time passed on, lawmakers started to realize that the old system of property did not work in the rapidly expanding and industrializing nineteenth-century United States. So married women slowly gained the same right on the property as the single women.

Political rights were almost nonexistent to married or unmarried woman. The reasoning behind the discrimination why married women could not vote was that “women were liable to coercion by their husbands.” Yet single women were also unable to vote and the only way to explain why is that men did not want to share their political power. Men with property could vote but women with property were not allowed to. New Jersey became the first and only state which allowed women with property to vote after revolution.

During the Republican Era, women started gaining more roles. They helped with the revolution, becoming engaged in social life and going from door to door and explaining to people why it was important to become independent for Great Britain. Then men started to see that if they wanted to have generations raised well, with republican and patriotic ideas, they needed to have their wives educated so the women could educate their children. That’s when Republican Motherhood started and women became more respected and valued.

By the 1830s, women were the backbone of many causes (temperance and abolition movements), even though educated women were