History 266: Women and Social Movements in Antebellum
America
Oberlin College
Spring
2002
King 235
Monday and Wednesday 2:30-3:50
|
Professor Carol
Lasser |
Office: Rice 313 |
|
carol.lasser@oberlin.edu |
Office Hours: Tuesday
2-3:30 |
|
X6712 |
|
|
Course Assistant Courtney McGee |
courtney.mcgee@oberlin.edu |
|
Class E-mail Contact List |
This class explores the participation of women
in the United States in social movements before the Civil War. It examines why and how women organized
for social and political change, the constraints on their actions, and their
understandings of their own roles in terms of the gendered constructions of
antebellum society. It then
explores the participation of antebellum Oberlin women in local and national
social movements in order to produce a collaborative case study of women’s
participation in an evangelical community.
During the first half of the semester, the
class will discuss historical and historiographical issues as well as approaches
to reading and using primary sources.
Students will write two short "Response Papers.” After Spring break, the class will be
divided into two working groups, and each group will meet one day per week. With guidance, each student will prepare
annotated editions of two primary documents to be posted on a class website that
focuses on women and social movements in
antebellum Oberlin.
|
Books to
Purchase |
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s
Cabin |
|
|
Lori Ginzberg, Women in Antebellum
Reform |
|
|
Julie Roy Jeffrey, The Great Silent
Army of Abolitionism |
|
|
Kathryn Kish Sklar, Women’s Rights
Emerges with the Antislavery Movement |
Students will also be able to purchase Roland Baumann, ed., Guide to
the Women’s History Sources in the Oberlin College Archives through the instructor at half of the regular cost ($5
for students), or they can access the electronic version of this publication at
http://www.oberlin.edu/~archive/resources/women/mainframe.html
Electronic Reserve and JSTOR: Class reading assignments not in the books to be
purchased will be available either through Electronic Reserve (http://eres.cc.oberlin.edu/) or through
the stable URLS on this syllabus for JSTOR articles.
Course Requirements: Students are expected to attend all classes, to complete
reading assignments for the days on which they are assigned, and to participate
productively in class. In addition, students are expected to
complete the following writing assignments, described more fully at the end of
the syllabus:
|
February 20 |
First Response Paper
|
|
March 13 |
Second Response
Paper |
|
April 8 |
Monograph
Analysis |
|
May 14 |
Final Submission of Final Project;
interim project deadlines are identified in the extended project
description, and on the schedule of
classes. |
Schedule of
Classes: Click on a linked date for handouts
|
Introduction: Women and Social Movements
in Antebellum America: Gender, History and
Agency | |
|
Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Gender, History and
Agency in an American Classic Reading Assignment: Uncle Tom’s
Cabin
(entire) | |
|
Monday, February
11 |
The Universe of Antebellum Reform for
Women Reading Assignment: Lori Ginzberg, Women in Antebellum
Reform,
entire. Questions to consider: what are the
social movements women joint?
What are the historiographical questions that Ginzberg
addresses? What difference,
if any, existed between
women’s auxiliaries and women’s
organizations? |
|
Doing Antebellum Women’s History on the
Web We will examine two sites that explore
Uncle Tom’s Cabin: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/STOWE/stowe.html and We will also begin a collaborative web
page. | |
|
Monday, February
18 |
Moral Reform and Women’s
Organizations Reading
Assignments: Women and Social Movements Website—“What
was the Appeal of moral reform to Northern Women?” at http://womhist.binghamton.edu/fmrs/intro.htm#end1 Carroll Smith Rosenberg, “Beauty, the
Beast, and the Militant Woman,” American Quarterly 23 ( 1971), pp. 562-584, at Anne Boylan, “Women in Groups: An
Analysis of Women's Benevolent Organizations in New York and Boston,
1797-1840," Journal of American History, 71 (1984), 497-523, at |
|
Library Session: Finding Primary
Sources in Women’s History Presented by Jessica Grim, Reference
Librarian MEET IN MUDD 443 First Response Paper
due | |
|
Religion, Gender and Separate Spheres
During the Second Great Awakening Reading
Assignments: Barbara Welter, “The Cult of True
Womanhood,” American Quarterly 18 (1966):151-174, at Nancy Cott, “Religion,” from The Bonds
of Womanhood, pp. 126-159
(ERes). Optional: Mary Kelley, “Commentary [on
“The Cult of True Womanhood],” in Locating American
Studies, pp. 67-70
(ERes). | |
|
Oberlin College Archive
Orientation. MEET AT THE OBERLIN COLLEGE ARCHIVE, MUDD
LIBRARY, 4TH FLOOR Assignment: Read from Roland Baumann,
ed., Guide to the Women’s History Sources in the Oberlin College
Archives, the Table of Contents, Introduction,
and entry for one of the records groups mentioned on the Selected Archives
Research Page at the end of this syllabus. Please submit electronically, at least 2
hours before class, the name of the record group entry that you
read. | |
|
Monday, March 4 |
Women, Antislavery and
Abolitionism Reading Assignment: Julie Roy Jeffrey, The Great Silent
Army of Abolitionism,
entire. |
|
Wednesday, March
6 |
The Politics of Race in the Antislavery
Movement Reading Assignment: At least
two of the
following: Shirley Yee, Black Women Abolitionists: A
Study in Activism, Chapters 2 and
3, pp. 40-85
(ERes). Anne Boylan, "Benevolence and Antislavery
Activity among African American Women in New York and Boston, 1820-1840,"
pp. 119-137 in Jean Fagan Yellin and John C. Van Horne, eds., The Abolitionist Sisterhood
(ERes). James Horton, “Freedom’s Yoke: Gender
Conventions Among Antebellum Free Blacks,” Feminist
Studies 12(1986): 51-76
(ERes). |
|
From Antislavery to Women’s
Rights Reading
Assignments: Kathryn Kish Sklar, Women’s Rights
Emerges within the Antislavery Movement, 1830-1870, pp.
1-76 In addition, each student will be placed
in one of six groups to present on a group of documents to the class:
·
Seeking a Voice: pp.
77-83 (5 documents) ·
Women Claim the
Right to Act, pp. 84-109 (11 documents) ·
Redefining the
Rights of Women, pp. 110-152 (17 documents) ·
The Antislavery
Movement Splits, pp. 153-164 (5 documents) ·
An Independent
Women’s Rights Movement, pp. 165-190 (10 documents) ·
Epilogue, pp.
191-204 (6 documents) | |
|
Wednesday, March
13 |
And What about
Politics? Elizabeth Varon, “Tippecanoe and
Ladies, Too: White Women and Party Politics in Antebellum Virginia,”
Journal of American History
82(1995):494-521, at Response Paper
Due |
|
Monday, March 18 |
Antebellum Oberlin Women’s Movements in
Historical Perspective Reading Assignments Delevan Leonard, The Story of
Oberlin, Selections on ERes,
including: ·
Chapter 3, "The
Founders and their Scheme," pp. 76-103 ·
Chapter 6, "The
Development of Coeducation,"
pp. 153-179 Robert Fletcher, A History of Oberlin
College: From Its Foundation Through the Civil War, Volume I: Selections on ERes, including:
·
Chapter 14: The
Guarantee of Academic Freedom, pp. 167-178 ·
Chapter 21: Female
Reformers, pp. 290-315 ·
Chapter 26: The
Joint Education of the Sexes, pp.373-385 Lori Ginzberg, “The ‘Joint Education of
the Sexes’: Oberlin’s Original Vision,” in Carol Lasser, ed., Educating
Men and Women Together, pp. 67-80
(ERes). Catherine Rokicky, "Lydia Finney and
Evangelical Womanhood," Ohio History 103(1994): 170-189 (ERes). |
|
Wednesday March
20 |
Discussion of Primary Document assignment and monograph
analysis assignment.
Preliminary choice of document project
focus due. Please come to class prepared to suggest
a first and second choice for your monograph, and at least two preliminary
ideas for your final project.
Try to relate your monograph choice and your preliminary project
focus. Technology for Transcription
introduced |
|
Break Week | |
|
Monday, April 1 |
Group I: Monograph analysis
report |
|
Wednesday, April
3 |
Group II: Monograph analysis report |
|
Group I: Documents work session in King
235 | |
|
Group II: Documents work
session | |
|
Monday, April 15 |
Group I: Documents work session in
King 235 |
|
Wednesday, April
17 |
Group II: Documents work
session |
|
Monday, April 22 |
Group I: Documents work session in
King 235 |
|
Wednesday, April
24 |
Group II: Documents work session in
King 235 |
|
Monday, April 29 |
Group I: Documents work session in
King 235 Substantial transcription /annotations
for Document #2 Due |
|
Wednesday May 1 |
Group II: Documents work session in King
235 |
|
Monday, May 6 |
Group I: Final presentations
in King 235 |
|
Wednesday, May 8 |
Group II: Final presentations in
King 235 |
Grading
Students must complete
all assignments in order to pass the course. Late papers will be graded down
according to the degree of lateness, and will not receive comments if more than
two days late. Approximate
weighting of work will be as follows (although improvement over the course of
the semester is encouraged and will be appropriately
rewarded):
|
First Response
Paper |
10% |
|
Second Response
Paper |
10% |
|
Monograph
Analysis |
15% |
|
Document Project: Document #1 |
20% |
|
Document Project:
Document #2 |
20% |
|
Class
participation and collaboration |
25% |
Response Papers
Due: February 20 and March
13
You will write two response papers during the
first half of this course. Response
papers should be between 1000 and 1500 words in length (4-6 pages, double
spaced), with appropriate citations and academic apparatus (that means
footnotes/endnotes).
A response paper should be framed around the
readings for the particular week, and should identify the key historical issues
addressed. It should determine if
conflicting points of view or interpretative frameworks exist, and suggest
approaches to understanding
differences if they exist, or future directions for historical study if
current works seem incomplete or inadequate. You may use personal reactions to the
work, but please frame your reactions in analytic terms.
Monograph Analysis Assignment
Due: April 1/3/ and April
5
Each student will
read a monograph from the list provided here, and prepare a 1000 word analysis
of the work. The analysis should
concentrate on placing the book in historiographical context and identifying its
contribution to the historiography. Some information should be provided about
the scope of the study, and its use of evidence and argument, but the primary
focus of your work should be identifying the relationship of the particular work
to other work in the history of women and social movements in antebellum
America.
If at all possible,
please choose a book from this list that will relate to the topic of the
documents you will work with for the final assignment. All these books are available at Mudd
Library.
You will make a
10-minute class presentation on your work during the week of April 1. A final version of your 1000 word essay
is due no later than Friday, April 5.
Suggested Books for Monograph
Analysis
(Note: If you do NOT
choose one of the books on this list, you MUST consult with me, BEFORE SPRING
BREAK)
Lori Ginzberg, Women and the Work of
Benevolence
Catherine Brekus,
Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America,
1740-1845
Anna Speicher, The Religious World of
Antislavery Women
Mary Ryan,
Women in Public
Nancy
Isenberg, Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America
Deborah Gold Hansen, Strained Sisterhood:
Gender and Class in the Boston Female Antislavery
Society
Jean Fagan Yellin,
Women and Sisters: the Antislavery Feminists in American
Culture
Nancy Hewitt, Women’s
Activism and Social Change: Rochester, New York,
1822-1872
Caroline Lawes, Women and Reform in a New
England Community, 1815-1860
Ann Firor Scott, Natural Allies: Women’s
Associations in American History
James Horton and Lois Horton, In Hope of
Liberty
Bonnie Anderson, Joyous Greetings: The First
International Women’s Movement, 1830-1860
Chris Dixon, Perfecting the
Family
Clare Midgley, Women Against Slavery: the
British Campaigns
Karen Sanchez-Eppler, Touching Liberty:
Abolition, Feminism and the Politics of the Body
Glenn C. Altschuler and
Jan M. Saltzgaber, Revivalism, Social Conscience and Community in the Burnt
Over District: The Trial of Rhonda Bement
Final
Assignment: Document Transcription,
Annotation, and Headnote
The final
assignment for students in this class will involve the creation of an
authoritative edition of two or more documents that illuminate the role played
by Oberlin women in antebellum social movements. These documents can be of many different
types: newspapers, publications, organizational records, personal papers,
diaries, letters, correspondence, although at least one document MUST be drawn
from the Oberlin College Archives.
The authoritative edition will include for each
document:
·
a headnote introducing
the context,
·
an error-free
transcription, and
·
appropriate
annotation.
In addition
to creating two authoritative documents, each student will also collaborate on a
section introduction. Student
partnerships will be established to assist in transcription and proofing, and,
when possible, will involve students in collaborative research for annotations,
headnotes, and section introductions.
The following
timeline identifies the due dates for each step of the process by week. Students
will be divided into two meeting groups for the second half of the
semester. Within the meeting
groups, collaborative workteams of two or three students will be
established.
|
Preliminary choice
of focus |
Wednesday, March
20 |
|
Choice of
Document 1 |
April
8/10 |
|
Choice of
Document 2 |
April
15/17 |
|
Transcription and
substantial annotations for Document 1 |
April
22/24 |
|
Transcription and
substantial annotations for
Document 2 |
April
29/May |
|
Headnotes
and completed annotations for both documents |
May
6/8 |
|
Corrections to
Documents and Contribution to Collaborative
Introduction |
May
14 |
Selected Archives
Research Leads
The list below
provides a series of “research leads” in the archive that the instructor
believes may well yield good documents.
The leads are listed here by the record group in which the documents may
be found with occasional marginal notation about what might be found in the
collection. You will want to
supplement this information with the appropriate entries in Baumann, ed., Guide
to Women’s History Sources in the Oberlin College Archives, and finding guides
to particular collections available at the Oberlin College Archives website: http://www.oberlin.edu/~archive/holdings/finding/mainframe.html
You may also
want to consult Robert Fletcher, A History of Oberlin College, Volume II: "A
Partial List of Sources, " pp.
927ff which, in the words of the Archivist, “offers students a nice glimpse into
individual documents held by us.”
But
remember, nothing in research is assured!
You are participating in a real collaborative research project, not a
“canned” laboratory or exercise, so be patient, look carefully, and be prepared
for surprises.
Group 1:
Records of the Board of Trustees
·
Microfilm minutes of
meetings, 1834-1964 (decisions on the admission of women, admission of African
Americans, relations to moral reform)
·
Document files
supporting meetings of the Board of Trustees (as above)
·
Student Labor
Accounts
·
Indexes of the meetings
of the Board of Trustees and Prudential Committee, particularly with respect to
entries for
o
Women’s Board of
Managers, aka Ladies’ Board
o
Mrs. Pelton
o
Missionaries
o
Literary
societies
Group 2: Papers
of the Presidents, Papers of James Harris Fairchild
·
Papers, reviews and
publications relating to his books:
o
Women’s Rights and
Duties (1849)
o
Joint Education of the
Sexes (1852)
·
Correspondence with
Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and others
·
Correspondence with Mary
Kellogg Fairchild
Group 7: Records of the Office of the
Treasurer
·
Biographies of female
students, 1834-1836
·
Printed material
relating to the Ipswich Female Seminary
·
File of Timothy
Hudson
·
File of Emily P.
Burke
Group 19:
Records of Student Life: Records of the Ladies Literary
Society
Group 20:
Records of the Alumni Association
Group 21:
Autograph File (assorted materials)
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: George A. Adams
·
Correspondence with
abolitionists and with wife, Emily Higgins
·
Correspondence of Emily
Higgins Adams with Lucy Mahan, wife of OC President Asa
Mahan
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: George Nelson Allen
·
Correspondence with
wife, Caroline Mary Rudd, among first women to earn the Oberlin A.B. in
1841
·
Newly added
material
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Archibald McCullum Ball and Sarah Curtis
Ball
·
Includes correspondence
of Irene Ball Allen, early OC student and wife of abolitionist
minister
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Dan Beach Bradley
·
Includes papers of his
family while he was a missionary in Thailand, including
o
Emilie Royce Bradley,
first wife
o
Sarah Blachly Bradley,
second wife
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Betsy Mix Cowles
·
Correspondence from and
to OC 1840 graduate, active in antislavery and education.
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Henry Cowles
·
Diary dealing with death
of Mary Edmondson, former slave who studies at Oberlin with support from Harriet
Beecher Stowe
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Francis H. Dart
·
Autobiography of Helen
Mary Dart Leonard (1825-1916) dealing with antebellum women’s rights
movement
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Florence Fitch
·
Letters to Frank Fitch
(father of Florence Fitch) written by Frank Fitch’s mother, 1856-1863,
describing antebellum schools
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Robert S. Fletcher. As the preeminent historian of
antebellum Oberlin, Fletcher collected Oberlin history materials that have been
preserved in his personal papers.
Among these sources are:
·
Diary of Mary Louise
Cowles, April-August 1854
·
Letters of Hannah Warner
Huntington, 1840-1863
·
Letters of Delia Fenn on
Oberlin in 1835
·
Letters of Nancy
Prudden, 1836-7
·
Miscellaneous Copies
including matters relating to:
o
Temperance
o
Antislavery
o
Female Moral
Reform
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Frances Juliet Hosford. Hosford’s Father Shipherd’s Magna
Charta: A Century of Coeducation in Oberlin College was prepared in 1937 for the
college Centennial Celebration.
In her papers are sources collected for that volume,
including:
·
Many early Oberlin women
(Betsey Mix Cowles, Marianne Parker Dascomb, etc.)
·
Materials on the Amistad
case
·
Statistics on
occupational and marriage patterns of early Oberlin
graduates
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Lucy Fletcher Kellogg
·
Notebooks and
correspondence, including with her daughter, Lucy Fletcher Kellogg, one of first
female students in OC College course, addressing religion, antislavery and other
topics
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Ellen Lawson and Marlene Merrill. From 1977 to
1984, Lawson and Merrill conducted a project on Antebellum African American
women at Oberlin, identifying 152 African American women who attended Oberlin
1835-1865. Papers collected here
include:
·
Copies of records of
Antebellum African American students at Oberlin
·
Relevant portions of
records of First Church in Oberlin
·
Materials on African
American teachers in American Missionary Association
·
Materials on African
American women and temperance
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Prudden Family
·
Letters of Nancy Prudden
written in 1837 while she was enrolled in OC Ladies Course
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Mary Sheldon (Vincent)
·
Composition books and
essays of Mary Sheldon while an OC student (1848-1852) before marrying and
becoming deeply involved in antislavery movement
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: John J. Shipherd
·
1834 Letter of Maria
Fletcher from Cincinnati where she worked with the “Lane Rebels” and taught in
African American Sunday Schools.
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Papers of Various People Of potential interest
here:
·
Letters of Lovancia
Pease and classmates Rhodelia Cole and Fannie Hovie while at Oberlin,
1839-1841
·
Letters of Lucinda Pease
to Lovancia Pease, 1839-40
·
Letters of Elizabeth
Russell Lord, especially as relating to fugitive slaves, verdict in the Norton
antislavery case of 1842, and other matters
Group 30:
Papers of Other Individuals: Henry E. Woodcock
·
Letters to Henry
Woodcock from his sister Lucy Woodcock, 1856-1871, from Jamaica, where Lucy
worked as a missionary after receiving a literary degree from Oberlin in
1852.
Group 31:
Records of the Oberlin Community: Records of First and Second Church. Of special
interest: 3 church trials for domestic violence, abuse and slander of a woman’s
reputation:
·
Maria Penfield v. E. J.
Penfield, 1852
·
Brokaw v. Bardwell,
1853-1854
·
Eliza Livingston v.
Jasper Livingston, 1848-1857
Group 31:
Records of the Oberlin Community: Records of the Maternal Association,
1835-1866
Group 31:
Records of the Oberlin Community: Records of the Female Moral Reform Society,
1835-1857
Group 21: The
Oberlin File Assorted materials such as:
·
Poetry and watercolors
of Thirza B. Skinner Pelton
Newly Acquired
Collections in the Oberlin College Archives:
Papers of William C. Cochran: many items relating
to life and family of this grandson of Charles Grandison
Finney
Papers of Sally Rudd,
aunt of Caroline Mary Rudd, one of first female students enrolled in college
course at OC