scholarly journals Matrimonial Bonds: Slavery and Divorce in Nineteenth-Century America

1990 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth B. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
Marriage And Divorce ◽  
Divorce Laws ◽  
Public Meeting ◽  
The Social ◽  
Woman's Rights

As early as 1848, in the first public meeting on woman's rights, feminists raised the touchy issues of women's marital subjugation and divorce. They complained that the laws of marriage and divorce were framed for the benefit of men and to entrap women within the oppressive institution of marriage. Another controversial claim made at Seneca Falls—that to the ballot—went on to become the great organizing principle for women's campaigns for legal and political reform. But despite the bold beginning, divorce remained a complex and divisive issue for feminists throughout the century. Although legislatures in most states in the mid-nineteenth century were systematically liberalizing divorce laws, they could not lift the social stigma attached to it. Fearful of being branded as anti-marriage or anti-family, or believing in the permanency of marriage, many feminists spoke of divorce reluctantly, and never used their formidable organizing skills to launch a full-scale assault on laws restricting the dissolution of marriage.

Radical Friend

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy A. Hewitt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Underground Railroad ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
Local Leader ◽  
William Lloyd Garrison ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Woman's Rights ◽  
Radical Activism

A pillar of radical activism in nineteenth-century America, Amy Kirby Post (1802–89) participated in a wide range of movements and labored tirelessly to orchestrate ties between issues, causes, and activists. A conductor on the Underground Railroad, co-organizer of the 1848 Rochester Woman’s Rights Convention, and a key figure in progressive Quaker, antislavery, feminist, and spiritualist communities, Post sustained movements locally, regionally, and nationally over many decades. But more than simply telling the story of her role as a local leader or a bridge between local and national arenas of activism, Nancy A. Hewitt argues that Post’s radical vision offers a critical perspective on current conceptualizations of social activism in the nineteenth century. While some individual radicals in this period have received contemporary attention—most notably William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Lucretia Mott (all of whom were friends of Post)—the existence of an extensive network of radical activists bound together across eight decades by ties of family, friendship, and faith has been largely ignored. In this in-depth biography of Post, Hewitt demonstrates a vibrant radical tradition of social justice that sought to transform the nation.

The Origin and Enactment of the Indian Age of Consent Bill, 1891

1962 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Heimsath
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
National Organization ◽  
Age Of Consent ◽  
The Social ◽  
Local Support

The Indian social reform movement in the nineteenth century, like the political reform movement, remained unorganized on an all-India basis until the 1880's. Local groups functioned throughout the country in many cases along similar lines, but without regular and specific knowledge of each other. Virtually the only effort for social reform well publicized throughout the country had been Vidyasagar's Widow Remarriage movement, which however was never nationally organized and which found local support only when a reformer felt inclined to press for it; the founder himself lost interest in the cause long before his death in 1891. Unlike the political reformers, the social reformers gave no evidence, so far as the present writer knows, of concern about the absence of a national organization to direct and stimulate their activities. If it had any strength, such an organization would, in fact, embarrass them into a unity of principles and methods for which, before 1880, they were quite unprepared.

Infidel Deathbeds: Irreligious Dying and Sincere Disbelief in Nineteenth-Century America

2017 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley Kime
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Society

This article inquires into the piecemeal, provisional de-marginalization of American irreligion and analyzes the social stakes and strategies of dis/belief's invocation during the long nineteenth century. It does so by considering the era's corpus of American deathbed narratives. It argues that late-century irreligionists mimed and subverted the deathbed strategies of their Christian detractors to convince a skeptical American audience to concede the contested sincerity of their disbelief. For much of the nineteenth century, Christian-produced infidel deathbed narratives mapped the mixture and multiplicity of inner irreligion and interrogated the sincerity of disbelief. In response, irreligionists—initially ambivalent about the interpretability of the deathbed—eventually came to invest it with as much power to prove sincerity as had American Christians. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, irreligionists developed a nationwide network of irreligious dying and selectively, strategically deployed the deathbed's accrued power to prove the uniform sincerity of their disbelief. By the turn of the century, they had largely neutralized the derisive force of the infidel deathbed genre, leaving disbelief a partially, provisionally less marginal and less multiplex marker in American society, and re-tethering themselves to their Christian detractors in the process.

Woodrow Wilson and the Study of Administration: A New Look at an Old Essay

1973 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 582-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Stillman
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Social Darwinism ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Historic Landmark ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Unquestionably, Woodrow Wilson's scholarly essay, “The Study of Administration,” (1887) stands as an historic landmark in American administrative thought. As Leonard D. White once wrote, “Wilson's essay introduced this country to the idea of administration.” Based upon the recent publication of the Woodrow Wilson papers by Princeton University Press, the present paper attempts to examine the origin and enduring contribution of Wilson's administrative thought. The central thesis of the paper is that Wilson's administrative theories grew out of the salient ideas of late nineteenth century America, particularly, Social Darwinism and the pressing demands for political reform. In many respects, however, Wilson's essay created more issues than it resolved since it failed to delineate clearly the substance and boundaries of the field of administration.

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