Before they could vote : American women's autobiographical writing, 1819-1919 / edited by Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Smith, Sidonie.

Watson, Julia, 1945-

Series:

Wisconsin studies in autobiography.

Wisconsin studies in autobiography

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--United States--Biography.

Women.

Women--United States--History--19th century--Sources.

Women--United States--History--20th century--Sources.

Women's studies--United States--Biographical methods.

Women's studies.

Autobiography--Women authors.

Autobiography.

Physical Description:

xii, 454 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, c2006.

Summary:

The life narratives in this collection are by ethnically diverse women of energy and ambition - some well known, some forgotten over generations - who confronted barriers of gender, class, race, and sexual difference as they pursued or adapted to adventurous new lives in a rapidly changing America. The engaging selections - from captivity narratives to letters, manifestos, criminal confessions, and childhood sketches - span a hundred years in which women increasingly asserted themselves publicly. Some rose to positions of prominence as writers, activists, and artists; some sought education or wrote to support themselves and their families; some transgressed social norms in search of new possibilities. Each woman's story is strikingly individual, yet the brief narratives in this anthology collectively chart bold new visions of women's agency.

Contents:

Introduction : Living in public / Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson

An authentic statement of the case and conduct of Rose Butler, who was tried, convicted, and executed for the crime of arson (1819) / Rose Butler

A narrative of the life of Mrs. Mary Jemison (as told to James E. Seaver) (1824) / Mary Jemison

The life and religious experience of Jarena Lee (1836) / Jarena Lee

Selections from Journal of a residence on a Georgian plantation in 1838-1839 (1863) / Fanny Kemble

Transcription of speech given at the Akron Women's Rights Convention, from the Anti-slavery Bugle (June 21, 1851) / Sojourner Truth

Selections from "Youth," from Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1852) / Margaret Fuller

Testimony, given in Canada (1855) / Harriet Tubman

A brief narrative of the life of Mrs. Adele M. Jewel (1869) / Adele M. Jewel

Selections from her journals (1874/78) / M. Carey Thomas

The Yakima affair, from Life among the Piutes : their wrongs and claims (1883) / Sarah Winnemucca

An old woman and her recollections (as recorded by Thomas Savage) (1877) / Eulalia Pérez

Beginning to work, from A New England girlhood (1889) / Lucy Larcom

"Looking back on girlhood" (1892) / Sarah Orne Jewett

The Club movement among colored women of America (1900) / Fannie Barrier Williams

Sketches from The Atlantic monthly / Zitkala-Ša

Nurslings of the sky, from The land of little rain (1903) / Mary Hunter Austin

Mary MacLane meets the vampire on the isle of treacherous delights (1910) / Mary MacLane

The promised land, from The promised land (1912) / Mary Antin

Lives in The Independent and the question of race / Anonymous

How I made my first big flight abroad : my flight across the English Channel (1912) / Harriet Quimby

Autobiographical essays / Sui Sin Far

Selections from Madeleine, an autobiography (1919) / "Madeleine."

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 447-454).

ISBN:

1-282-27036-2

9786612270369

0-299-22053-2

OCLC:

223393524