1st Edition

Women's Agency in Early Modern Britain and the American Colonies

By Rosemary O'Day Copyright 2007
504 Pages
by Routledge

504 Pages
by Routledge

504 Pages
by Routledge

Women in early modern Britain and colonial America were not the weak husband- and father-dominated characters of popular myth. Quite the reverse, strong women were the norm.  They exercised considerable influence as important agents in the social, economic, religious and cultural life of their societies. This book shows how women on both sides of the Atlantic, while accepting a... Read more

1. General introduction 2. How and where were marriages solemnised? 3. What was marriage? What was its purpose?4. Finding a partner among the landed aristocracy 5. Making marriages among women of the professional and the middling sorts 6. Attitudes to marriage 7. Patriarchy 8. Partnership and separation 9. Mistress of the household: what wives did all day 10. Mothers 11. Wives and property 12. Widows and widowhood 13. Women's formal and informal education 14. Women and religion 15. Contemporary culture: print and non-print, public and private 16. Women's cultural lives: participation

Biography

Rosemary O'Day