Revolutionary Conceptions

Revolutionary Conceptions
Author :
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Total Pages : 329
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780807838716
ISBN-13 : 0807838713
Rating : 4/5 (713 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Revolutionary Conceptions by : Susan E. Klepp

Download or read book Revolutionary Conceptions written by Susan E. Klepp and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Age of Revolution, how did American women conceive their lives and marital obligations? By examining the attitudes and behaviors surrounding the contentious issues of family, contraception, abortion, sexuality, beauty, and identity, Susan E. Klepp demonstrates that many women--rural and urban, free and enslaved--began to radically redefine motherhood. They asserted, or attempted to assert, control over their bodies, their marriages, and their daughters' opportunities. Late-eighteenth-century American women were among the first in the world to disavow the continual childbearing and large families that had long been considered ideal. Liberty, equality, and heartfelt religion led to new conceptions of virtuous, rational womanhood and responsible parenthood. These changes can be seen in falling birthrates, in advice to friends and kin, in portraits, and in a gradual, even reluctant, shift in men's opinions. Revolutionary-era women redefined femininity, fertility, family, and their futures by limiting births. Women might not have won the vote in the new Republic, they might not have gained formal rights in other spheres, but, Klepp argues, there was a women's revolution nonetheless.


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