Sarah Wimberley

March 28, 2009

Women in Early America

               As a woman living in modern day America I am well aware of the conveniences and privileges allotted to me in terms of educational and occupational opportunities.  Throughout my education I have learned through history and literature courses that a woman’s right for these privileges had to be fought for and is not to be taken for granted.  I am grateful for the women of early America who struggled to gain the rights for women of today to pursue various educational goals.  In Early American literature various topics have been addressed as far as the early settlers are concerned, but we have yet to discuss the literacy rates, available literature, and feminist theories of these Early American women.  This has sparked my interest to investigate these matters further in an effort to discover these details about the women among the early American settlers.

               Historians interested in literacy rates, particularly literacy rates among New England women during the time from 1731 to 1800, found that over half of the women in that area could read and write.  Various historians and researches used many different types of documents to determine their findings such as deeds to real estate, court probate documents, and an assortment of other historical records.  One of the more interesting findings is in relation to the race of the literate women.  In Rhode Island historians used the census records to determine the literacy rates of women as they contained records from all walks of life.  Using signatures from the census records researchers were able to determine literacy rates in the town of Rhode Island as follows  (Herndan):

21.7% = All Women (n=258)

28.5% = White Females (Females not designated as non-white n=179)

6.3% = Non-White Females (Indian, black, mulatto, mustee n=79)

               Women in early American colonies did not have a lot of educational opportunities.  Due to the harsh conditions of the early colonies, women had to do work in the household in order to maintain the home and essentially survival.  Women were expected and needed to clean, cook, take care of animals, and various other duties essential to survival.  According to Henry Sage, women were much more valued in early American colonies than they were back in England due to the shortage of women among settlers.  Men went to extreme measures to nab a wife due to the shortage.  There was not enough laborers to fulfill the requirements for colonization and there certainly were not enough women to cover all of the work needed.  Women were denied the right to vote, they could not participate in any law process, and they were considered to be inept to their male counterparts.  However, men were expected to defend their women even if it meant risking their own lives.  At this time in American history, the idea was to survive more so than to educate.

               Literacy rates and feminist writings are far and few between with regard to early American colonial women.  I found that education was not as valued to these women because of their more immediate and pressing needs such as day to day survival.  As the colonies became more settled women’s issues starting to reveal themselves, but in the early days priorities were much different as their circumstances were much more dangerous and primitive.  Women in colonial America were denied basic rights that we enjoy today.  They could not vote or participate in legal proceedings, but they were valued to some degree by the men who depended upon them for survival.