“What have we women to do with these matters?”: Women and Femininity in Pre-Revolutionary America, 1763-1775
21
In November of 1769, Mrs. Henry Barnes wrote in a letter to Elizabeth Murray Smith Inman, “…When the deluded multitude finds they have been led astray by false maxims they may Possibly turn upon them with their own weapons…This is my Private opinion, 1 but how I came to give it is a Mistry, for Politicks is a puddle I never choose to dabble in.” Barnes was not the only woman in the British American colonies surprised to find herself publicly expressing a political opinion in 1769. Since 1763, women in the colonies had become politicized through their role in pre-revolutionary activities and moved away from such traditional definitions of femininity as the colonial goodwife, whom God had created as an obedient and faithful helpmate to her husband, the deputy husband and the pretty gentlewoman. By the mid-1760s, women’s participation in consumer boycotts, their home production of manufactured goods, and their involvement in other gestures of political defiance against Great Britain brought them surely and swiftly into the world of politics. This paper examines how and why such a shift in women’s identities was possible by investigating the responses and justifications made by men and women to validate women’s involvement in political activity. In other words, it asks: how did men and women react to women’s changing role and were they able to conceptualize this role in a way that did not too radically challenge their understanding of femininity? Using a collection of primary and secondary sources, this essay begins with a discussion of the Consumer Revolution and how this brought women into the political conversation. It then examines men’s reactions to women’s politicization showing that men accepted women acting politically because it was necessary and done within the confines of domesticity. And finally, it explores women’s reactions and argues that three factors convinced them that this political behavior did not compromise their femininity: they were acting within the confines of domesticity, they received encouragement from men affirming the compatibility of political behavior and femininity, and they were able to use religion in ways to support their behavior. Throughout the paper, I argue that far from being a radical departure from traditional conceptions of femininity, the men and women of pre-revolutionary America adjusted their understanding of femininity in ways that they understood to be temporary and necessary if their efforts against Great Britain were to be successful; they did not intend for this to remain a long term change in women’s roles but rather it was purely a temporary expedient in difficult political times. During the eighteenth century, the American colonies experienced what historians have termed the Consumer Revolution in which the colonies became dependent on the im- 2 portation of manufactured goods from Great Britain for their social and economic livelihood. This process had several consequences that laid the foundation for women’s politicization
aegis 2008
Megan Hatfield