Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Colonial Women Critics: Performing Religion, Race, Possession, and Pornography
- 2 Revolutionary Women Critics: Performing Rational Christianity, Patriotism, and Race
- 3 Republican Women Critics: Performing Christian Activism, American Culture, and Race
- Index
- References
3 - Republican Women Critics: Performing Christian Activism, American Culture, and Race
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Colonial Women Critics: Performing Religion, Race, Possession, and Pornography
- 2 Revolutionary Women Critics: Performing Rational Christianity, Patriotism, and Race
- 3 Republican Women Critics: Performing Christian Activism, American Culture, and Race
- Index
- References
Summary
I had unusual life and liberty in speaking.
Jarena Lee, Religious Experience, 23Woman was never formed to be the abject slave of man. Nature made us equal with them, and gave us the power to render ourselves superior.
Susanna Rowson, Slaves in Algiers, 9From the 1780s through the 1820s, women critics expanded their access to public debates. Through newly devised host bodies, they demanded positions within the church, established literary societies, published essays and novels in the magazine and book market, took their complaints to court, wrote textbooks for the schools they founded, and staged their plays in newly built theatres. Performance continued to be crucial: they practiced public speaking within female academies, literary salons, and church circles and as they launched careers as actress-playwrights in newly politicized theatres. They strengthened ties with other women through benevolent associations, moral societies, and camp meetings. They preached. They imagined a specifically American womanliness, dedicated to life, liberty, and the pursuit of superiority. They articulated this superiority primarily as a standard of religious and moral dominance within Christian activism or as a standard of artistic sophistication and civilization within a specifically American culture. They assumed disparate host bodies as performing critics and as performance critics, shaping race, American-ness, and gender in the new republic, often through religion or American letters.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Early American Women CriticsPerformance, Religion, Race, pp. 149 - 234Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
References
, , and , eds. Female Subjects in Black and White: Race, Psychoanalysis, Feminism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.Google Scholar
, ed. Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women's Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Anonymous [Samuel Harrison Smith]. “Art. x. Ouabi: Or the Virtues of Nature. An Indian Tale; in four Cantos. By Philenia, a Lady of Boston.” The American Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal (1795–95); January 1795; 1, American Periodicals Series Online: 61–66.
Anonymous [Samuel Harrison Smith]. “Art. xxii. A Bone To Gnaw for the Democrats; or, Observations on a Pamphlet, entitled, ‘The Political Progress of Britain.’” The American Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal (1795–95); February 1795; 1, 000002; American Periodicals Series Online: 191–95.
Anonymous. “A Defence [sic] of the Stage.” The Thespian Oracle; or, Monthly Mirror. January 1798, 1. 1; American Periodicals Series Online: 1.
Anonymous. “Mrs. Rowson's Academy.” The Boston Weekly Magazine, Devoted to Morality, Literature, Biography, History …. 30 October 1803; 1,1; American Periodicals Series Online: 2.
Anonymous. “New Theatre.” The Thespian Monitor, and Dramatick Miscellany. 25 November 1809, 1, 1, American Periodicals Series Online: 3.
Anonymous [John Swanwick]. A Rub from Snub; or a Cursory Analytical Epistle: Addressed to Peter Porcupine, Author of the Bone to Gnaw, Kick for a Bite, &c. &c., Containing Glad Tidings for the Democrats, and a Word of Comfort to Mrs. S. Rowson, Wherein the Said Porcupine's Moral, Political, Critical and Literary Character is Fully Illustrated. Philadelphia: Printed for the Purchaser, 1795.
Anonymous. “Sketches in favour of the Ladies, from the comparative view of the Sexes.” The Gentleman and Lady's Town and Country Magazine. September 1784. American Periodicals Series Online: 199.
Anonymous.“Universalism Indeed!” The New-Haven Gazette, and the Connecticut Magazine. 25 October 1787, 2, 36, American Periodicals Series Online: 283.
Buckley, Peter G. “Paratheatricals and Popular Stage Entertainment.” The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Vol. i. Eds. and . Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998: 424–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Women Patriots of the American Revolution: A Biographical Dictionary. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Davis, Peter A. “Plays and Playwrights to 1800.” The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Vol. i. Eds. and . Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998: 216–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dick, Everett. “Religious Democracy.” The Social Fabric: American Life from 1607 to 1877. Eds. and . Vol. i, 6th ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.Google Scholar
. “Slaves in Algiers: Race, Republican Genealogies, and the Global Stage.” American Literary History. 16.3 (2004): 407–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
. Getting into the Act: Women Playwrights in London, 1776–1829. New York: Routledge, 1995.Google Scholar
Women in the American Theatre: Actresses & Audiences 1790–1870. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Dark Symbols, Obscure Signs: God, Self and Community in the Slave Mind. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1994.Google Scholar
Elaw, Zilpha. Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw, An American Female of Colour; Together with Some Account of the Great Religious Revivals in America [Written by Herself]. London: Published by the Authoress. 1846. Rpt. in Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women's Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century. Ed. William L. Andrews. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
Fabre, Geneviève. “African-American Commemorative Celebrations in the Nineteenth Century.” History and Memory in African-American Culture. Ed. and . New York: Oxford University Press, 1994: 72–91.Google Scholar
, ed.. English Trader, Indian Maid: Representing Gender, Race, and Slavery in the New World. An Inkle and Yarico Reader. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
. Constantia: A Study of the Life and Works of Judith Sargent Murray. Orono, Me.: Printed at the University Press, 1931.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. . New York: Vintage, 1979.Google Scholar
. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
. Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
. Some Wild Visions: Autobiographies by Female Itinerant Evangelists in Nineteenth-Century America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
To Be Useful to the World: Women in Revolutionary America, 1740–1790. New York: Twayne, 1996.Google Scholar
Hall, Benjamin Homer. A Collection of College Words and Customs. Part 4. Prod. Rick Niles, John Hagerson, Tony Browne. 3 January 2005. n.p. http://www.fullbooks.com/A-Collection-of-College-Words-and-Customs4.html.
Halsey, Frances W. Introduction. Charlotte Temple, a Tale of Truth; reprinted from the rare first American edition (1794). 1905. By Susanna Haswell Rowson. Electronic Text Center. Early American Fiction. University of Virginia Library. 1 October 2004. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/eaf/authors/shr.htm.
, ed. Selected Writings of Judith Sargent Murray. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Henderson, Mary C. “Scenography, Stagecraft, and Architecture in the American Theatre, Beginnings to 1870.” The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Vol. i. Eds. and . Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998: 373–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
. “African-American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 17.2 (Winter 1992): 251–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warriors, Conjurers and Priests: Defining African-centered Literary Criticism. Chicago: Third World Press, 1994.Google Scholar
, and . Public Women, Public Words: A Documentary History of American Feminism. Vol. i: Beginnings to 1900. Madison, Wis.: Madison House, 1997.Google Scholar
. Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Lee, Jarena. The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, a Coloured Lady, giving an account of her call to preach the gospel (Philadelphia, Published for the Author, 1836), Rare Book/Special Collections Reading Room, Library of Congress; Rpt. in The Female Autograph. Ed. Domna Stanton. New York: New York Literary Forum, 1984.
. Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee, Giving an Account of Her Call to Preach the Gospel, Revised and corrected from the Original Manuscript, written by herself. Philadelphia: Printed and Published for the Author, 1849. Rpt. in Spiritual Narratives. Ed. Sue E. Houchins. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Lincoln, C. Eric and Lawrence H. Mamiya. “The Black Denominations and the Ordination of Women.” Down by the Riverside: Readings in African American Religion. Ed. . New York: New York University Press, 2000: 367–80.Google Scholar
MacLain, Paul. “Unitarian and Universalist Denominational and Individual Involvement in the Anti-Slavery Movement Prior to the U. S. Civil War.” Starr King School for the Ministry. 20 June 2003. http://online.sksm.edu/1/papers/frmset_pres.htm.
, and , eds. Slaves in Algiers or, A Struggle for Freedom. Acton, Mass.: Copley, 2000.Google Scholar
McConachie, Bruce. “American Theatre in Context, from the Beginnings to 1870.” The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Vol. i. Eds. and . Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998: 111–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
. An Emerging Entertainment: The Drama of the American People to 1828. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
. Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism. Durham, N.C. and London: Duke University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
. A History of American Magazines Volume 1: 1741–1850. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1938.
, ed. Crossing the Danger Water: Three Hundred Years of African-American Writing. New York: Doubleday, 1993.Google Scholar
Murray, John. Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray; Late Minister of the Reconciliation and Senior Pastor of the Universalists, Congregated in Boston. Written by Himself. The Records Contain Anecdotes of the Writer's Infancy, and Are Extended to Some Years After the Commencement of His Public Labours in America, To Which Is Added, A Brief Continuation. To the Closing Scene by a Friend [Judith Sargent Murray]. Boston: Munroe and Franch [sic], 1816.
[.] Constantia. “Desultory Thoughts upon the Utility of Encouraging a Degree of Self-complacency, Especially in Female Bosoms.” The Gentleman and Lady's Town and Country Magazine; or, Repository of Instruction and Entertainment 6 (October 1784): 251–53.Google Scholar
. Early American Theatre from the Revolution to Thomas Jefferson: Into the Hands of the People. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Nora, Pierre. “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire.” History and Memory in African-American Culture. Ed. and . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994: 284–300.Google Scholar
. Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750–1800. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980.Google Scholar
“Peter Porcupine” [William Cobbett]. A Kick for a Bite; or, Review upon Review; with a Critical Essay, on the Works of Mrs. S. Rowson, in a Letter to the Editor, or Editors, of the American Monthly Review. Philadelphia: Thomas Bradford, 1795.
. Doers of the Word: African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the North (1830–1880). New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Slave Religion: The “Invisible Institution” in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Roach, Joseph. “The Emergence of the American Actor.” The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Vol. i. Eds. and . Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998: 338–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowson, Mrs. [Susanna Haswell]. Charlotte: A Tale of Truth. Philadelphia: D. Humphreys for M. Carey, 1794. 2 Vols. Rare Book/Special Collections Reading Room, Library of Congress.
. [Susanna Haswell]. Mentoria; or the Young Lady's Friend. Vol. i. Philadelphia: Robert Campbell, 1794. Early American Imprints. First Series. Microcard 2. No. 27654. Microopaque. Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society, 1955–83.
Rowson, Susanna [Haswell]. Present for Young Ladies; Containing Poems, Dialogues, Addresses, &c. &c. &c. As Recited by the Pupils of Mrs. Rowson's Academy, at the Annual Exhibitions. Boston: John West, 1811. Early American Imprints. Second Series. Microcard 3. No. 23840. Microopaque. New York: Readex, 1972.
Rowson, Susanna [Haswell]Slaves in Algiers; or, a Struggle for Freedom: A Play, Interspersed with Songs, in Three Acts. Philadelphia: Wrigley and Berriman, 1794. Microcard 11. American, 1714–1830. Microopaque. New York: Readex, 1952.
[]. A Trip to Parnassus; or, the Judgment of Apollo on Dramatic Authors and Performers. London: John Abraham, 1789.Google Scholar
Sawyer, Mary R. “Sources of Black Denominationalism.” Down by the Riverside: Readings in African American Religion. Ed. . New York: New York University Press, 2000: 59–67.Google Scholar
Schofield, Mary Anne. “‘Quitting the Loom and Distaff ’: Eighteenth-Century American Women Dramatists.” In Curtain Calls: British and American Women and the Theater, 1660–1820. Ed. and . Athens: Ohio University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
. U.S. Orientalisms: Race, Nation, and Gender in Literature, 1790–1890. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
History of the American Theatre [1774–1797]. 3 vols. Philadelphia: Globe Printing, 1888–91.
Reminiscences of Lucius Manlius Sargent: with an Appendix Containing a Genealogy of His Family. Boston: D. Clapp, 1871.Google Scholar
, ed. From Gloucester to Philadelphia in 1790. Observations, Anecdotes, and Thoughts from the 18th-century Letters of Judith Sargent Murray with a Biographical Introduction. Cambridge: Judith Sargent Murray Society, 1998.Google Scholar
Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. “The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America.” Women's America: Refocusing the Past. Ed. and . New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 156–79.Google Scholar
, ed. We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1984.Google Scholar
[Stevens, Judith Sargent]. Some Deductions from the System Promulgated in the Page of Divine Revelation: Ranged in the Order and Form of a Catechism: Intended as an Assistant to the Christian Parent or Teacher. Norwich: Trumbull, 1782; Microform Card 2 no. 17729, Early American Imprints, 1639–1800. Ed. Clifford K. Shipton. Readex Microprint. Evans numbers. Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society.
. In Defense of Women: Susanna Rowson (1762–1824). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Wills, David W. “Womanhood and Domesticity in the A. M. E. Tradition: The Influence of Daniel Alexander Payne.” Black Apostles at Home and Abroad: Afro-Americans and the Christian Mission from the Revolution to Reconstruction. Eds. and . Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1982: 133–46.Google Scholar