Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia

Karin A. Wulf

Published by Cornell University Press 2000

Not All Wives

Women of Colonial Philadelphia

Karin A. Wulf

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501745355

Overview
Contents

About this book

Marital status was a fundamental legal and cultural feature of women's identity in the eighteenth century. Free women who were not married could own property and make wills, contracts, and court appearances, rights that the law of coverture prevented their married sisters from enjoying. Karin Wulf explores the significance of marital status in this account of unmarried women in Philadelphia, the largest city in the British colonies.

In a major act of historical reconstruction, Wulf draws upon sources ranging from tax lists, censuses, poor relief records, and wills to almanacs, newspapers, correspondence, and poetry to recreate the daily experiences of women who were never-married, widowed, divorced, or separated. With its substantial population of unmarried women, eighteenth-century Philadelphia was much like other early modern cities, but it became a distinctive proving ground for cultural debate and social experimentation involving those women. Arguing that unmarried women shaped the city as much as it shaped them, Wulf examines popular literary representations of marriage, the economic hardships faced by women, and the decisive impact of a newly masculine public culture in the late colonial period.

Author / Editor information

Karin Wulf is Assistant Professor of History at American University. She is coeditor of both Milcah Martha Moore's Book: A Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America and the forthcoming Diary of Hannah Callendar, 1758'1788.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	xii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
INTRODUCTION: "Not All Wives": The Problem of Marriage in Early America Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER ONE. Martha Cooper's Choice: Literature and Mentality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
CHAPTER TWO. Elizabeth Norris's Reign: Religion and Self Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
CHAPTER THREE. Mary Sandwith's Spouse: Family and Household Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
CHAPTER FOUR. Rachel Draper's Neighborhood: Work and Community Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
CHAPTER FIVE. Ann Dunlap's "Great Want": Poverty and Public Policy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
CHAPTER SIX. Lydia Hyde's Petition: Property and Political Culture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 240
Illustrations
- Other: 2 maps, 5 halftones, 7 tables
Keywords: U.S. History; Early American & Colonial History; Womens Studies

eBook

Published: May 15, 2019
ISBN: 9781501745355