![To Be Useful to the World](https://img.perlego.com/book-covers/539351/9780807877159_300_450.webp)
To Be Useful to the World
Women in Revolutionary America, 1740-1790
Joan R. Gundersen
- 344 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
To Be Useful to the World
Women in Revolutionary America, 1740-1790
Joan R. Gundersen
About This Book
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.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Table of contents
- Cover Page
- To Be Useful to the World Women in Revolutionary America, 1740â1790
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Preface to the 1996 Edition
- Chapter One: The Worlds of Their Mothers
- Chapter Two: Women on the Move
- Chapter Three: The Silken Cord
- Chapter Four: Mistress and Servant
- Chapter Five: Dutiful Daughters and Independent Minds
- Chapter Six: Sisters of the Spirit
- Chapter Seven: An Injurious and Ill Judging World
- Chapter Eight: The Garden Within
- Chapter Nine: Daughters of Liberty
- Chapter Ten: Mothers of the Republic
- Essay on the Sources
- Notes
- Index