American Women''s History - A New Narrative History

Offers a nuanced account of the multiple aspects of women's lives and their roles in American society
 
American Women's History presents a comprehensive survey of women's experience in the U.S. and North America from pre-European contact to the present. Centering women of color and incorporating issues of sexuality and gender, this student-friendly textbook draws from cutting-edge scholarship to provide a more inclusive and complicated perspective on the conventional narrative of U.S. women's history. Throughout the text, the authors highlight diverse voices such as Matoaka (Pocahontas), Hilletie van Olinda, Margaret Sanger, and Annelle Ponder.
 
Arranged chronologically, American Women's History explores the major turning points in American women's history while exploring various contexts surrounding race, work, politics, activism, and the construction of self. Concise chapters cover a uniquely wide range of topics, such as the roles of Indigenous women in North American cultures, the ways women participated in the American Revolution, the lives of women of color in the antebellum South and their experiences with slave resistance and rebellion, the radical transformation brought on by Black women during Reconstruction, the activism of women before and after suffrage was won, and more.
* Discusses how Indigenous women navigated cross-cultural contact and resisted assimilation efforts after the arrival of Europeans
* Considers the construction of Black female bodies and the implications of the slave trade in the Americas
* Addresses the cultural shifts, demographic changes, and women's rights movements of the early twentieth century
* Highlights women's participation in movements for civil rights, workplace justice, and equal educational opportunities
* Explores the feminist movement and its accomplishments, the rise of anti-feminism, and women's influence on the modern political landscape
 
Designed for both one- and two-semester U.S. history courses, American Women's History is an ideal resource for instructors looking for a streamlined textbook that will complement existing primary sources that work well in their classes. Due to its focus on women of color, it is particularly valuable for community colleges and other institutions with diverse student populations.

List of contents

Brief Introduction ix
 
Part I
Maeve Kane
 
1 Sky Woman, Dawnland, Turtle Island 3
 
Studying the Past 4
 
Creation 5
 
Peopling of the Americas 7
 
The Spread of Maize 9
 
Interpreting Cahokia 11
 
Jigonsaseh and the Founding 13
 
Chaco and Pueblo 14
 
Near the Rocks and Seagulls 16
 
Conclusion 17
 
Bibliography 17
 
2 Settling and Unsettling, 1492-1600 18
 
Early Encounters 18
 
"Virgin" Landscapes 22
 
Gender, Slavery, and the Creation of Race 24
 
Sex, Gender, and Sexuality 27
 
Conclusion 29
 
Bibliography 30
 
3 Growth and Disruption, 1600-1690 31
 
Creating Race 32
 
Race and Reproduction 34
 
Legislating Race 36
 
Good Wives and Disruptive Women 38
 
Gender and Social Order 41
 
Gender and Legal Rights 44
 
Conclusion 45
 
Bibliography 46
 
4 Atlantic Connections, 1690-1750 47
 
Gender and Warfare 48
 
Salem Witch Trials 50
 
Intermarriage and Intermediaries 52
 
Women and the Atlantic World of Goods 54
 
Conclusion 56
 
Bibliography 56
 
5 Rebellion and Revolution, 1750-1800 58
 
Resistance Before Revolution 59
 
Women's Land and Women's Lives 60
 
Gender and Liberty 61
 
Remember the Ladies 62
 
Cannons Roaring 64
 
The Society of Patriotic Ladies 66
 
A War Against Vegetables 67
 
Infant Liberty Nursed by Mother Mob 69
 
Conclusion 72
 
Bibliography 72
 
Part II
Vanessa M. Holden
 
6 Expansion and Division: The Women's Market Revolution, 1800-1820s 75
 
Maria Stewart: Women of Color, Activism, and the Rising Middle Class 76
 
A Land- Based Empire: Women's Migrations 78
 
Migrations and the Women's Market Economy: Feminine Ideals, Domestic Labor, and Wage Labor Opportunities 79
 
Making the South: Southern Women and Planter Migration 82
 
Making the North: European Immigration and Women's Labor 84
 
The West and Far West: Imagining Empire on Indigenous Lands 85
 
Conclusion 85
 
Bibliography 86
 
7 Reform, Revolt, and Women's Rights, 1830s-1860s 87
 
Competing Womanhoods: Middle- Class Women and Emerging Definitions of Womanhood 88
 
Reform and Imperial Aims: Women and "Civilizing" Missions 92
 
Indigenous Women Strategize for Survival: Violence and Indian Removal 94
 
Regions Drift Apart: Womanhood, Labor, and Regionalism 96
 
Class Relations and Women's Activism: Constructing a Deserving Poor 99
 
Conclusion 102
 
Bibliography 102
 
8 Disunion, 1850-1860 104
 
The Dred Scott Decision: Women's Intimate Lives, Marriage, and American's Crisis over Slavery 105
 
From the Margins to the Center: Abolitionism and Women's Activism in the Antebellum Period 107
 
The Crisis of 1850, Women in the West, and Women's Activism 110
 
Conclusion 112
 
Bibliography 113
 
9 The Civil War: Women's Homefronts and Battlefields 114
 
Harriet Tubman: Foot Soldier of Emancipation and War Veteran 114
 
1861: The Beginning 115
 
Bloody Realities 117
 
1862: A War for Emancipation 118
 
Escalating Casualties and Advances in Sanitation 119
 
1863: Battlefields and Homefronts 120
 
Joining the Fight: Soldiers with Female Bodies 122
 
1864: Women Face Hard War 123
 
1865: Emancipation, Lincoln's Assassination, and Reunion 124
 
Conclusion 125
 
Bibliogra

About the author

MELISSA E. BLAIR is an Associate Professor of History at Auburn University. She is the author of Revolutionizing Expectations: Women's Organizations, Feminism, and American Politics 1965-1980 and Bringing Home the White House: The Hidden History of Women Who Shaped the Presidency in the Twentieth Century. VANESSA M. HOLDEN is an Associate Professor of History and African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. She is the author of, Surviving Southampton: African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turner's Community. She is also the director of the Central Kentucky Slavery Initiative through which she manages numerous public history projects. MAEVE KANE is Associate Professor of History at the University at Albany - State University of New York. Her recent published work includes Shirts Powdered Red: Haudenosaunee Gender, Trade, and Exchange Across Three Centuries, as well as articles in the journal Ethnohistory, The Journal of Early American History, and a chapter in the edited collection Women and the American Revolution.

Product details

• Authors: Melissa E Blair, Melissa E. Blair, Melissa E. (Auburn University) Holden Blair, Melissa E. Holden Blair, Vanessa M Holden, Vanessa M. Holden, Maeve Kane
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 10.10.2023
• EAN: 9781119683827
• ISBN: 978-1-119-68382-7
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Geschichte, History, Geschichte der USA, US History, Historische Geschlechterforschung, Gender & History