Book Review: Rewriting Citizenship: Women, Race and Nineteenth Century Print Culture
Rewriting Citizenship: Women, Race and Nineteenth-Century Print Culture. By Susan J. Stanfield. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2022. Hardcover, 256 pp., $59.95.
Reviewed by Sara L. Elliott
What’s a woman to do? Living in antebellum America, she had no (or very few) legal rights. In general terms, her husband or some other male made decisions for her. She was not considered a “real” citizen because she was female, could not own property, and could not vote. How was she to express her opinions and try to make changes in her community?
According to Susan J. Stanfield’s Rewriting Citizenship: Woman, Race and Nineteenth-Century Print Culture, white and Black women turned to the printed word as a forum for their activism. If society limited their participation to staying close to home e.g. attending reading circles and writing sentimental poetry, then their options were narrow indeed. Women had been writing books, essays, and poetry for a long time. However, too few received publication. With books and magazines becoming more accessible and literacy rates increasing, it was natural for women to turn to the printed word as a way of sharing their social and political views. In addition, being published lent credibility to the authors and gave their actions more weight.
Early on in this era women authors focused on domestic issues, creating handbooks on how to create a smooth-running household. A proper home reflected the husband’s status in the community and his standing as a citizen. The wife was considered a citizen by her association with him. These publications originally were written for white middle-class women. However, household advice articles were reprinted in magazines created for Black women with the same purpose in mind. By providing a properly run home, women of color were creating that same picture of a good citizen for their husbands. It also aided in their quest for acceptance and equality in the community.
Stanfield profiles five authors/activists: Sarah Hale, Catherine Beecher, Lydia Maria Child, Sarah Forten, and Sarah Mapps Douglass. The latter two were African American. Hale and Beecher through their writings confirmed the part of women in society but reinterpreted it to give them a role as citizen. Child, more of a radical than Hale and Beecher, considered activism as part of her duty as an American woman. Seeing herself as having a limited sphere of influence, Child used her writings as a weapon to influence political and social change.
Opportunities for publishing were fewer for Forten and Douglass. As Black women their options were limited to the anti-slavery press or private printing. Forten, whose father was a well-to-do activist in Philadelphia, had an early exposure to the power of the press. His writings and those of his friends brought a multitude of political views into their homes. Sarah Forten used those printed words as inspiration for her poetry and essays.
Sarah Mapps Douglass, no relation to Frederick Douglass, was involved in the abolition movement but was also very concerned about the educational opportunities for people of color. In addition to being a full-time teacher and head of her own school, Douglass found time to write and be active in various anti-slavery groups, benevolent societies, and literary circles. Both women had their work published in William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator, the most influential abolitionist newspaper in the antebellum United States.
Having their writings published allowed both Black and white 19th-century women to challenge the limits of citizenship and provided them with new ways to perform their civic duty. By highlighting the activities of these five authors, Stanfield shows how the printed word facilitated their civic engagement. These mini-biographies will inspire readers to delve deeper into the lives and writings of these and other women activists of the antebellum era.
Sara L. Elliott is a retired museum professional. As park manager at Waveland State Historic Site in Lexington, Kentucky, Ms. Elliott introduced the full story of enslaved people for the first time at a Kentucky historic site. She continued her efforts in the telling of Kentucky’s history through her work as director at Liberty Hall Historic Site and Director of Museum Collections and Exhibitions at the Kentucky Historical Society both in Frankfort Kentucky.
What is always missing from volumes like this is the often egalitarian work being performed by rural, in many cases unlettered, farm families. These still constituted the majority of domestic households in the United States and it’s territories at this time.