Before They Could Vote: American Women's Autobiographical Writing, 1819–1919Sidonie A. Smith, Julia Watson, Sidonie Smith 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. |
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... happy, and the bad miserable; and that the acquisition of that happiness, depends primarily upon human volition, and the consequent good deeds of the happy recipient of blessedness. The doctrines taught in the Christian religion, she is ...
... happy kind which tends directly to sweeten the cup of life; to render connubial sorrows lighter; to assuage every discontentment; and to promote not only their own comfort, but that of all who come within the circle of their ...
... happy days, will ever stand fresh in my remembrance, notwithstanding the many severe trials through which I have passed, in arriving at my present situation, at so advanced an age. Even at this remote period, the recollection of my ...
... happy.” During this time, the Indians stripped the shoes and stockings from the little boy that belonged to the woman who was taken with us, and put moccasins on his feet, as they had done before on mine. I was crying. An Indian took ...
... him, and fed him, and clothed him, and welcomed him there! Oh friends, he is happy; then dry up your tears! His spirit has seen our distress, and sent us a helper whom with pleasure we greet. Dickewamis 58 mary jemison.
Contents
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37 | |
3 The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee1836 | 124 |
4 Selections from Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 18381839 1863 | 147 |
5 Transcription of Speech Given at the Akron Womens Rights Convention from the AntiSlavery BugleJune 21 1851 | 177 |
6 Selections from Youth from Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli 1852 | 180 |
7 Testimony Given in Canada 1855 | 202 |
The School Days of an Indian Girl 1900 | 315 |
An Indian Teacher among Indians 1900 | 328 |
Why I am a Pagan 1902 | 336 |
16 Nurslings of the Sky from The Land of Little Rain 1903 | 340 |
17 Mary MacLane Meets the Vampire on the Isle of Treacherous Delights 1910 | 347 |
18 The Promised Land from The Promised Land 1912 | 356 |
19 Lives in The Independent and the Question of Rac | 375 |
A Southern Woman | 376 |
8 A Brief Narrative of the Life of Mrs Adele M Jewel1869 Adele | 205 |
9 Selections from Her Journals 187478 | 219 |
Their Wrongs and Claims 1883 | 232 |
11 An Old Woman and Her Recollections as recorded by Thomas Savage 1877 | 243 |
12 Beginning to Work from A New England Girlhood1889 | 254 |
13 Looking Back on Girlhood 1892 | 270 |
14 The Club Movement among Colored Womenof America 1900 | 279 |
15 Sketches from The Atlantic Monthly | 298 |
Impressions of an Indian Childhood 1900 | 300 |
A northern woman | 382 |
A negro nurse | 390 |
My Flight Across the English Channel 1912 | 398 |
21 Autobiographical Essays | 405 |
Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian 1909 | 406 |
Sui Sin Far the Half Chinese Writer Tells of Her Career | 419 |
An Autobiography 1919 | 427 |
Bibliography | 447 |