As American as Motherhood and Apple Pie

The Founding Mothers Kevin P. Dincher www.kevindincher.com

Motherhood and Apple Pie

• American Idiom – Quintessential elements of American home life. “Fred is so old-fashioned. Everything about old times is good to him. He's all motherhood and apple pie.”

Motherhood and Apple Pie

• American Idiom – Principles or values with which few disagree

Flag, Motherhood and Apple Pie

• American Idiom: • Patriotism and traditional American values • Something that can't be questioned because it appeals to patriotism and widely-held American traditional values.

What’s he going on about?!?!?

As American as Motherhood and Apple Pie Women in the Early Republic Republican Motherhood

Not talking about Republican mothers!

Not talking about baking pies!

This is a course about women

Simone de Beauvoir (1908 – 1986)

1953: The Second Sex (Le Deuxième Sexe) – Study of the treatment of women through history – Inferior status – Second Wave of Feminism Simone-Lucie-Ernestine-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir

Second Wave of Feminism

• • •

1963

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Equal Pay Act 1964

–

Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act 1972

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Equal Rights Amendment

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Title 9 of the Educational Amendments of 1972

• 2009 – Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

First Wave of Feminism

• 19th and Early 20th Centuries – focused officially mandated inequalities • • Property Rights Suffrage – Lucretia Mott – Elizabeth Cady Stanton – Lucy Stone – Susan B. Anthony

Women's suffrage laws before 19 th Amendment Full Suffrage Presidential Suffrage Primary Suffrage Municipal Suffrage School, Bond, Tax Suffrage Municipal Suffrage some cities Primary Suffrage some cities No Suffrage

19 th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – 1870: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton – 1919: Congress approved; sent to States – 1920: Tennessee became 36 th State to ratify amendment on August 18

19

th

Amendment

1922: Leser v. Garnett – Maryland Constitution limited suffrage to men • Maryland had not ratified 19 th Amendment – Destroyed State autonomy • Increased electorate without the state's consent – State Constitutions in some ratifying states did not allow their legislatures to ratify – Tennessee and West Virginia violated their own rules of procedure

19

th

Amendment

1.

Connecticut: Sep 14, 1920 2.

Vermont: Feb 8, 1921 3.

– Delaware: Mar 6, 1923 rejected Jun 2, 1920 4.

– Maryland: Mar 29, 1941 rejected on Feb 24, 1920 – not certified until Feb 25, 1958 5.

– Virginia: Feb 21, 1952 rejected on Feb 12, 1920 6.

– Alabama: Sep 8, 1953 rejected on Sep 22, 1919 7.

Florida: May 13, 1969 8.

– South Carolina: Jul 1, 1969 rejected on January 28, 1920 – not certified until Aug 22, 1973 9.

– Georgia: Feb 20, 1970 rejected on July 24, 1919 10. Louisiana: Jun 11, 1970 – rejected on July 1, 1920 11. North Carolina: May 6, 1971 12. Mississippi: Mar 22, 1984 – rejected on March 29, 1920

1776

REBELLION OR REVOLUTION?

Rebellion or Revolution?

• American Rebellion – – Armed Insurrection Breaking with British and establishing own government • American Revolution – Fundamental Change • In power or organizational structures • In culture, economy, and socio political institutions • Old world view

Pre-Revolution - 18 th Century Women • “Woman’s Domain” – Feminine domestic circle • Pre-industrial, family economy – Rural/agricultural – Isolation – Rudimentary literacy • Politically – Deferential colonial democracy – Political apathy – Both men and women

Late 18

th

Century

• Technological and Political Revolutions – Industrial Revolution • • • New Technology Reshape domestic labor Eroded stability of households – Political Revolution • Constitutional experiment • • Political innovation Aggressive, egalitarian, participatory democracy

• What does it mean to be a citizen – rather than a subject?

• Who ought to rule – and who ought to be content to be ruled?

• Could a woman be a patriot – a political person – and if so, what does a “female patriotism” look like?

Republican Motherhood

Linda K. Kerber – Philosophy about the role of women in the emerging United States before and after the American Revolution Department of History University of Iowa

What’s he going on about?!?!?

What’s he going on about?!?!?

The “Old World”

 Women and an BRIEF “History” of Marriage  Coverture

The Enlightenment

 Aristotle • Who thought women were “idiots”  John Locke • Who opened the door on natural rights)

The “New World”

 The American Colonial/Revolutionary Experience  Republican Motherhood • Educating Women  The First Wave of Feminism • Property Rights • The Seneca Falls • Convention Suffrage and Abolition Some of the Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty

Founding Mothers

Linda K. Kerber •

Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America (1997)

•

No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship (1999)

Cokie Roberts

Founding Mothers

•

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation (2005)

•

Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation (2008)

Founding Mothers

Woody Holton •

Abigail Adams (2010)

Not the Founding Mothers

Woody Holton –

Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (2008)

–

Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (1999)

–

Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era: A Brief History with Documents (2009) Joseph Ellis

– Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence (2013)

Women and Marriage

THE “OLD WORLD”

The Bible: Women and Marriage

Dirt, Greed and Sex: Sexual Ethics in the New Testament and Their Implications for Today – L. William Countryman (1988) Chapter 8: Women and Children as Property in the Ancient Mediterranean World

The Bible: Women and Marriage

1. Women: by nature inferior to men Liberating Elements – Individual women – Christian “counter-message” – Early Christian communities

The Bible: Women and Marriage

1. Women: by nature inferior to men • • Creation Stories Genesis 1:1 – 2:3 – – Genesis 2:4 – 3:24 Exegesis vs. Eisegesis • • Woman Derivative being Named by (subject to) man

The Woman is not created in the image of God.

The Bible: Women and Marriage

1. Women: by nature inferior to men 2. Woman = source of sin

The Bible: Women and Marriage

•

Every woman should be filled with shame by the thought that she is a woman.

Clement of Alexandria (150-215)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

• Do you not know that you are Eve? The judgment of God upon this sex lives on in this age; therefore, necessarily the guilt should live on also. You are the gateway of the devil; you are the one who unseals the curse of that tree, and you are the first one to turn your back on the divine law; you are the one who persuaded him whom the devil was not capable of corrupting; you easily destroyed the image of God, Adam. Because of what you deserve, that is, death, even the Son of God had to die.” •

Tertullian

–

c. 160–c. 225

The Bible: Women and Marriage

•

What is the difference whether it is in a wife or a mother, it is still Eve the temptress that we must beware of in any woman... I fail to see what use woman can be to man, if one excludes the function of bearing children.

Saint Augustine of Hippo (185-254)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

•

Woman was merely man's helpmate, a function which pertains to her alone. She is not the image of God but as far as man is concerned, he is by himself the image of God.

Saint Augustine of Hippo (185-254)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

•

As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power.

St. Albert the Great (c.1193 – 1280)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

•

As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active power of the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex; while the production of a woman comes from defect in the active power.

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

•

If [women] become tired or even die, that does not matter. Let them die in childbirth—that is why they are there.

Martin Luther (1482-1546)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

•

Woman was made for only one reason, to serve and obey man.

John Knox (1513-1572)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

•

Wife: Be content to be insignificant. What loss would it be to God or man had you never been born?

John Wesley (1703-1791)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

• The Feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.

Pat Robertson (1992)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

•

A wife should submit herself to the leadership of her husband. Leadership in the church should always be male.

Southern Baptist Convention (2000)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

1. Women: by nature inferior to men 2. Woman: source of sin 3. Marriage: women as property • • Contract between two men Economic arrangement • Adultery • Polygamy (polygyny)

The Bible: Women and Marriage

1. Women: by nature inferior to men 2. Woman: source of sin 3. Marriage: women as property 4. Christians: quarreled over sexual ethics • • Virginity/Monogamy Role of women • Maintained property ethic

Post Biblical Greco-Roman World (100-400) • Marriage – Economic agreement/contract • Between two men (woman’s consent?) – – Monogamy (sort of) Inferior status of women • Classic era – Athens: women fitted approximately the same category as slaves – Early Roman law candidly referred to the "perpetual tutelage of women" and considered them to be under the manus (hand) of their fathers • Not exactly property – but not their own person • • No political role (Aristotle: “idiots”) Property rights – Greeks: none – Romans: some

Barbarian Invasions and Aftermath (400 - ?) • Church filled the political/social gap & established social order that would last 1000 years – Women • Naturally inferior – weak – source of sin • Not exactly property – not a separate person • No property rights – no innate political role – Exceptions: “France”

Powerful Women of the Middle Ages • Nancy Goldstone – Four Queens: The Provençal Sisters who Ruled Europe – Lady Queen The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem and Sicily – The Maid and the Queen: the Secret History of Joan of Arc

• Barbarian Invasions and Aftermath (400 - ?) Church filled the political/social gap & established social order that would last 1000 years – No direct involvement by church or state • Church kept registry of marriages; identified causes for nullification – Marriage • Ideal = Virginity/celibacy – Corrective for sin (lust) – Necessary for procreation • Economic agreement – Generally between 2 men with the woman’s “consent” – “One flesh” = husband – Affection/companionship ? Romantic love?

– 1500s • Martin Luther – Transferred registration to state • Council of Trent – Catholic marriage required a ceremony officiated by a priest with two witnesses • John Calvin – required both state registration and church consecration to constitute marriage

Modern Marriage

• The Enlightenment (1600-1800) • Rise of the Individual • Question the status of women in marriage • Industrial Revolution (1750 – 1850) • Family no longer the primary economic unit • Romantic love/affection: basis for marriage • Economic/social stability

The Enlightenment (1600 – 1800)

A phase in Western philosophy and cultural life René Descartes 1596 – 1650 “Father of Modern Philosophy” Voltaire 1694 – 1798 François-Marie Arouet

Robert Filmer (1588-1653)

• Patriarcha, 1680 – A defense of the divine right of kings to rule. • God … Adam • Adam … Noah • Noah … Shem, Ham, Jepheth • Shem, Ham, Jepheth … all kings/governors

John Locke (1632-1704)

• 1689 – Two Treatises on Government • The First Treatise – Refutes Filmer’s Patriarcha • The Second Treatise – Theory of civil society

John Locke (1632 – 1704)

“The first society was between man and wife, which gave beginning to that between parents and children... conjugal society is made by a voluntary compact between man and women.“

John Locke (1632-1704)

• Natural Rights – Individual self • Conscious, self-aware, self-reflective – Human nature • Characterized by reason and tolerance – In a natural state • All people were equal and independent, and everyone had a natural right to defend his “Life, health, Liberty, or Possessions”

The Declaration of Independence

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

The French Revolution

• The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (Lafayette,1789) • The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (Olympe de Gouges, 1791) • The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1793

UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

– “... Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” – “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

"All are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness."

John Locke (1632-1704)

Second Treatise of Government (1689) – Status of women: • Women are not property – Although not equal to men • Retain power over children in the absence of the father – But second to him when he is around • Capable of leaving the compact of marriage – But would probably be foolish to do so • To be honored and respected by adult children – Independent of honor/respect for father

• What does it mean to be a citizen – rather than a subject?

• Who ought to rule – and who ought to be content to be ruled?

• Could a woman be a patriot – a political person – and if so, what does a “female patriotism” look like?

Enlightenment Tradition Revolutionary Experience Founding

Fathers

?

Pre-Revolution - 18 th Century Women • “Woman’s Domain” – Feminine domestic circle • Pre-industrial, family economy – Rural/agricultural – Isolation – Rudimentary literacy • Politically – Deferential colonial democracy – Political apathy – Both men and women

Pre-Revolution Women

• Not part of the political community • Men – and most women – did not trust women to take politics seriously • Pre-revolutionary Activists/Agitators addressed themselves to men; challenged men to act • Did not address concerns of women; did not try to engage women

Pre-Revolution Women

Not part of the political community – Exceptions • Protest small pox inoculation centers • • Cooks/nurses in French and Indian War New York’s “She-Merchants”

She-Merchants

• January 21, 1733 – New York Weekly Journal – satirical newspaper article, to describe women who engaged in trade. – New York had numerous women traders in the 1700s.

• Jean Zimmerman (2006) •

The Women of the House: How a Colonial She Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune, and a Dynasty

American “Boycott” of British Good (Began in March of 1769)

• • American “Boycott” of British Good (Began in March of 1769) Trade and Navigation Acts – Molasses Act of 1733 – Sugar Act of 1764 – Tea Act of 1773 • Townsend Acts – Revenue Act of 1767 – Indemnity Act – Commissioners of Customs Act, – – Vice Admiralty Court Act New York Restraining Act The Stamp Act of 1765 • The Quartering Act of 1765 • Intolerable Acts (1774) – The Boston Port Act – The Massachusetts Government Act – – The Administration of Justice Act The Quartering Act – The Quebec Act

Charles Cunningham Boycott

• Irish Land War – – 1870s, 1880s and 1890s Unpopular landlord's agent • ostracized by the local community. – Also applied to • Tenants who wanted to pay their rent • Police • Shops and other businesses who traded with boycotted people.

American “Boycott” of British Good (Began in March of 1769) • Impact: 38% reduction in purchase of British imports

American “Boycott” of British Good (Began in March of 1769) • Could only succeed with women’s support and active participation • Needed to address women

Christopher Gadsden

• Principal leader of the South Carolina Patriot movement • Delegate to the Continental Congress • Brigadier general in the Continental Army • “To the Planters, Mechanics, and Freeholders of the Province of South Carolina, No Ways Concerned in the Importation of British Manufacturers “ (June 22, 1769) Gadsden Flag

Christopher Gadsden

I come not to the last, and what many say and think is the greatest difficulty of all we have to encounter, that is to persuade our wives to give us their assistance, without which ‘tis impossible to succeed. I allow of the impossibility of succeeding without their concurrence.

Christopher Gadsden

But, for my part, so far from doubting that we shall have it, I could wish, as our political salvation at this crisis, depends altogether upon the strictest oeconomy, that the womem could, with propriety, have the principle management thereof; for ‘tis well know, that none in the world are better oeconomists, make better wives or more tender mothers, than ours.

Christopher Gadsden

Only let their husbands point out the necessity of such a conduct; convince them, that it is the only thing that can save them and their children, from distresses, slavery, and disgrace; their affections will soon be awakened, and cooperate with their reason. When that is done, all that is necessary will be done; for I am persuaded that they will be then as anxious and presevering in this matter, as any the most zealous of us can possible wish.

Christopher Gadsden

Very Traditional – Women = wives – Doesn’t address women; addresses their husbands – Ignores independent or single women – Domestic duties and responsibilities

Christopher Gadsden

Breaks New Ground – Recognizes women as political – Women could be patriots and had a key role in the patriot cause – Domestic duties and responsibilities have political ramifications – Consumption behaviors had political implications, and women make political decisions whether they intend to or not

Women Patriots

• • • • •

Boycott

Spinning Circles Shopping/Purchases – Tea Clothing – – – Homespun Old British clothes Clothing for the army Recycling – – – Rags Lead weights Urine Policed local merchants • •

Daughters of Liberty

About 1766 Women who displayed their loyalty by participating in boycotts of British goods

Women Patriots

• • • • •

Boycott

Spinning Circles Shopping/Purchases – Tea Clothing – – – Homespun Old British clothes Clothing for the army Recycling – – – Rags Lead weights Urine Policed local merchants • • •

War

Maintain household economy while men were at war Supported/accompanied the army as cooks, nurses, etc.

Boardinghouses – – – Members of Congress Soldiers Prisoners

Molly Pitcher

• Mary Ludwig Hays (1754-1832) – 1777 • Valley Forge •

Water Girls

• “Molly! Pitcher!” – June 28, 1778 • Battle of Monmouth • “Sergeant Molly”

Women Patriots

We are no way dispirited here, we possess a Spirit that will not conquered. If our Men are all drawn off and we should be attacked, you would find a Race of Amazons in America.

Abigail Adams to John Adams

Enlightenment Tradition Revolutionary Experience Founding

Fathers

?