Women in Early America

by Thomas A. Foster (Editor), Carol Berkin (Foreword), Jennifer L. Morgan (Afterword)

Women in Early America tells the fascinating stories of the myriad women who shaped the early modern North American world from the colonial era through the first years of the Republic. In these essays we learn about the conditions that women faced in many different circumstances: during the Salem witchcraft panic and the Spanish Inquisition in New Mexico, as indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland, while caught between warring British and Native Americans, as traders in New Netherlands and Detroit, as slave owners in Jamaica, as Loyalist women during the American Revolution, while enslaved in the president's house, and as students and educators inspired by the air of equality in the young nation.
Women in Early America heeds the call of feminist scholars: it does not merely reproduce male-centered narratives, "add women, and stir" but rather rethinks master narratives themselves so that we may better understand how women and men created and developed out historical past.

Genres: History

294 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Thomas A. Foster is Professor of History at Howard University, in Washington, DC, and author of Sex and the Eighteenth-Century Man: Massachusetts and the History of Sexuality in America, and Sex and the Founding Fathers: The American Quest for a Relatable Past. He is also editor of Long Before Stonewall: Histories of Same-Sex Sexuality (NYU Press, 2007), New Men: Manliness in Early America (NYU Press, 2011), and Documenting Intimate Matters: Primary Sources for a History of Sexuality in America.

Reviews

[Louisa Olsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I read it for a history class, but it felt like a book I would pick up on my own. Each chapter offers a different look into a specific time/place/community in early America, and shows the very different lives and perspectives present in each one. The chapters, although written by different people, all were very engaging. I didn't want to put it down!

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good non fiction work. A must read for you American History fans.

[becca sporky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book! learning about early American women was fun. There was stuff about Native Americans and slaves and the first president. A good read.

[Mills College Library]

305.40973 W87241 2015