LITR 4232 American Renaissance

Sample Student Research Project 2012
Journal

Ashley Rhodes

4/26/12

I Am Woman Hear Me Roar!!!
History is Herstory too: The Rise of Popular Women’s Writings

          The rise of popular women’s writings during the American Renaissance is one of many movements during that time period that shape how we observe literature and life today. Female authorship was not as common as their opposite sex before the 1850’s. Statistics and research show that many women were publishing works more due to their leisure domesticity, meaning they had more time on their hands compared to the previous generation of women who were picking up the pieces after the Revolutionary War.  However, there is much more to say about women during this time period regardless of how much time they spent inside the home. My main goal is to reveal how women during this time period created a voice through literature that the whole world heard. Women strove to keep up with their male counterparts in literature and succeeded far beyond what they could have imagined. I hope in writing this research journal that readers will appreciate this era of women’s liberation and understand how their writings changed American culture and society. I want to primarily focus on women’s political writings that caused controversy and advocacy. My ultimate goal and hopes for this journal is to inform the reader on the history of the women’s literary movement and how it shaped first wave feminism.

          The American Renaissance was a time period for self-expression and democracy. Many people living in America were culturally aware that change was approaching fast and talk of the future was very popular. Accepting change was often communal but not for everyone, there was resistance on modifying the so called normalcy that Americans had grown to love. The excitement over American citizens’ possibilities intrigued many who immigrated wanting to start a new life. American identity was forming at a rapid rate and caused for a great amount of new literature. Writers like Emerson, Whitman, and Hawthorne, just to name a few were creating a political voice that sounded democracy and the new and improved America. Publishing companies became very well-known and popular which made literature available to a national audience instead of the lucky wealthy few. As the male dominated writing circuit became customary many women were reading and writing more, making America one of the most literate countries in the world. Two major events occurred during the American Renaissance period that evolved women’s rights and laid ground for female authorship. In 1848, the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York where 68 women and 32 men signed a Declaration of Sentiments, which defined oppression and set out the agenda for the women’s rights movement.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

          Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnstown, New York, November 12, 1815. She had a very privileged upbringing allowing for her to be well educated in law. By continuing her education, Stanton became a strong advocate of women’s rights and an active member of the American Anti-Slavery Society. When she was refused to speak at a convention, Stanton organized the Women’s Rights Convention with Lucretia Mott. Following the success of the convention Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. Stanton among many other women during the American Renaissance held strong and advocated women’s rights even though much of their propositions were denied or set aside. Even though their perseverance was overlooked during their time period it is admired today by students, scholars, and lay people alike.

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” (Stanton 1848)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the above for all women and for the first women’s convention held in New York. Stanton felt that women were ignored if not completely forgotten in the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The Declaration of Sentiments exhibited the female presence in America and gave feminism its first piece of literature that stated concrete and evident facts of oppression. Stanton’s powerful verbiage and compelling argument influenced many female writers to express their literary art and publish them for all to read. Shortly after Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments 12 resolutions were proposed calling for equal treatment under the law and also the right to vote. Two years after the first convention a second event made history when the first National Women’s Rights Convention took place in Worcester, Massachusetts. Both historical events gave hope to women that their voice could be publically demonstrated and more importantly heard through the literary form.

          This brief insight into history doesn’t answer the lingering question of how women were able to write if they didn’t even have the right to vote. Fortunately there was not a law in place that forced women to put away their feather pens and ink so today we are able to analyze their works with appreciation and criticism. One important factor to discuss during the American Renaissance period is slavery when observing the rise of popular women’s writings. This is imperative because many religious women during the Second Great Awakening gave rise to the abolition of slavery and socially advocated Anti-Slavery in America. The Anti-Slavery Movement gave women, especially those from the northern states, opportunities to organize and represent themselves as the oppressed gender. Equality for women as citizens of America became an issue sided with slave citizenship. Because both movements were advocated around the same time, they inclined to side with one another and act as one group that would force the white men to become humanitarians. Women’s rights advocate Margaret Fuller was a part of the American transcendentalism movement when she wrote her first novel that stands today as being one of the first feminist works in the United States. Woman in the Nineteenth Century or better known in segments as The Great Lawsuit was her first major work that expressed her activism and the “new awakening” that was approaching her time period. Fuller covers many issues in this coveted piece of work by reinforcing the idea that women are equal to men and need to be taught how to do so.

Margaret Fuller

Margaret Fuller’s legacy began on May 23, 1810 in Cambridge port, Massachusetts. She was brought up by wealthy parents that taught her valuable knowledge at a very young age. Fuller attended several schools and by 1840 she was writing articles and reviews on literature alongside the remarkable Ralph Emerson. Her horrific drowning death traveling back from Europe served as the last memory of Fuller for her peers, but her writings and beliefs are still read today continuing her legacy. To describe what Fuller did in her short 40 years would be challenging because she did so much for women’s liberation during the American Renaissance period and beyond. Charlene Avallone stated in her article; “What American Renaissance? The Gendered Genealogy of a Critical Discourse” that Fuller contributed to much of the new ideas and progression of literature during the American Renaissance.

“Margaret Fuller argued that until American writings stopped performing as English cultural “colonists” and until they were informed by the “birth” of new ideas derived from material factors in the new country including the “fusion of races,” any “attempts to construct a national literature must end in abortions like the monster of Frankenstein” (Avallone 1104)

Avallone’s article represents how much women’s writings during the American Renaissance was forgotten compared to the idolized men’s. She argues that the critical discourse associated with the American Renaissance denies the literary value that women contributed. Avallone’s argument is very legible and right in some ways; however there are significant indicators that women’s writings during the American Renaissance created the first wave of feminism which led into the second and possibly third waves. Fuller’s work The Great Lawsuit justifies this conviction due to the language and style in which it is written. 

“The other form, of intellectual companionship, has become more and more frequent. Men engaged in public life, literary men, and artists have often found in their wives companions and confidants in thought no less than in feeling. And, as in the course of things the intellectual development of woman has spread wider and risen higher, they have, not unfrequently, shared the same employment.” (Fuller 1843)

Throughout this Bible for the modern day feminist, Fuller expresses her need and wants for equality. She doesn’t necessarily bash men throughout her work but instead suggest ways that women can change themselves in order to progress. Since Fuller’s work was published in The Dial, a transcendentalist journal, there are assumptions that men most likely read this more if not equal to women during the American Renaissance period. Both Fuller and Stanton were abolitionists who believed women could help in the efforts to end slavery in America. Fuller and Stanton’s literature compelled and influenced many writers after them to fictionally portray situations that advocated human rights in their produced literature.

Harriet Beecher Stowe

          Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of many women during the American Renaissance to envelope human rights within literature. Stowe was born June 14, 1811 in Litchfield, Connecticut. Stowe was the last born of seven children to her parents Roxana and Lyman Beecher. Many members of Stowe’s family were leaders and advocates for the Abolitionist Movement and women’s liberation. She was educated at the Hartford Female Academy that was founded by her older sister Catharine Beecher in 1823.

Over the course of her long fulfilled life, Stowe wrote many poems, travel books, biographical sketches, children’s books, and adult novels. Her first novel published in 1852 was Uncle Tom’s Cabin and was featured in the National Era. This novel was extremely controversial due to its sentimentality towards African-American slaves especially in the character of Uncle Tom. Stowe drew on much her personal experiences growing up around slaves and hearing about the Underground Railroad System. Stowe’s anti-slavery writings made her very popular among the male dominated literary field at the time.

Today Stowe’s writings are criticized for their Christian sentimentality and sensibility. Modern day readers often critique her work by stating the obvious racial context woven throughout her literature. However the time period is specific and worth noting when reading Stowe because of the changes that have occurred over the past 160 years. Whichever side of the fence you are on about Stowe can be ignored for now because my concern is focused on Stowe’s intended audience or readers at the time. Stowe was aware that her home state was surrounded by slave states which mostly ruled out southern states for her audience. Stowe knew her audience was going to be the 3 W’s, Wealthy White Women, and they were most populated in the northern states. Stowe also took into account the literature that the 3 W’s were interested in reading. The 3 W’s loved the domesticity, sentimental, and romance narratives that were popular at the time so Stowe knew that Uncle Tom’s Cabin must comply with these terms in order for her point to get across. The last requirement that Stowe strategically placed in her novel was the 3 W’s compassion for the family unit. By humanizing Tom into a father figure and making Little Eva need him, Stowe creates a visual for the 3 W’s, therefore making them grasp the notion of slaves having families just like they do. Stowe’s Tom was also repeatedly justified as a Christian slave to attract the 3 W’s.

“Tom was standing just under her on the lower deck, as she fell. He saw her strike the water, and sink, and was after her in a moment. A broad-chested, strong-armed fellow, it was nothing for him to keep afloat in the water, till, in a moment or two the child rose to the surface, and he caught her in his arms, and, swimming with her to the boat-side, handed her up, all dripping, to the grasp of hundreds of hands, which, as if they had all belonged to one man, were stretched eagerly out to receive her. A few moments more, and her father bore her, dripping and senseless, to the ladies' cabin, where, as is usual in cases of the kind, there ensued a very well-meaning and kind-hearted strife among the female occupants generally, as to who should do the most things to make a disturbance, and to hinder her recovery in every way possible.” (Stowe 1852)

The passage above proves that Stowe wanted nothing more than to make slaves more likeable and relatable to readers. Women reading this would admire the courage and compassion Tom represents but were Stowe’s efforts of portrayal recognized? Fortunately it seems they were perceived well by most women of the 3 W’s as well as religious humanitarians like the Quakers. Stowe’s efforts in the Anti-Slavery Movement certainly transferred over to the Women’s Rights Movement; even though she was not fully committed to feminism like her intellectual peers were she still stands as one of the most popular female writers in her time period.

Helpful Websites for Journal Research

Unlike Stowe’s time period where human experience and interaction was essential in doing academic research, we today have the internet where we can read scholarly articles in the comfort of our homes. The internet can be deceiving however on continuity and reliability. Finding a great source for research can be easy, especially if it’s provided by your educator. Thanks to Dr. White’s marvelous website his students are able to navigate themselves through very credible resources for further readings and research journals such as this. One website found on Dr. White’s page that I found very useful was:

http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/intro.htm

This site has an abundance amount of material for researching Harriet Beecher Stowe and her family lineage. As one of our web-reviewers stated in class, “You can get lost in here”, this statement summarizes how much information is available on the site. My favorite aspect of this site is the pictures and audio available. You really feel like you are back in the time period of Stowe whilst scanning through each picture. For this research journal in particular this site was very helpful. Stowe’s entire biography is presented along with her literary works and in-depth scholarly critiques and criticisms. 

          Another very helpful website for this research journal was:

http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/wmhp.html

This website furthered what I had previously known about the female advocates presented in this journal. When searching for websites about Margaret Fuller and Elizabeth Stanton I came up short on credibility, but upon finding this site I felt they really endorsed themselves on verbiage and in the overall navigation of the site.

          Overall what I have learned and hope you have learned from this research journal is that women had a significant role in the American Renaissance period. The authors analyzed in this journal are just a few compared to how many women contributed to the literary movement in America. We have to recognize that Americans were searching for their individual voice and practice the first constitutional amendment that states:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” (U.S. Constitution)

As we confirmed in Stanton’s Declaration of Sentiments women had every right to practice the above amendment just as men did. It amazes me how much literature can impact culture especially in a society where equal rights were fictional.  I plan to continue this research and read more from each of these authors. In doing so I hope to learn more about the movements and what it must have been like to be in their situations. I would also like to prove Stowe’s good intentions with more evidence and try to convince naysayers of Stowe that she wasn’t a racist 3 W from Connecticut. I admit some of her descriptions are offensive in today’s terms but taking the time period into consideration does change what we should take from it. The rise of popular women’s literature during the American Renaissance should be researched more and held unto the same standards as their male contemporaries. I hope in reading this research journal you have considered studying the first wave of feminism that most say started during the American Renaissance period. This course has defiantly opened my eyes to all of the wonderful literature that came out of this time period and influenced authors around the world.

Works Cited

Avallone, Charlene. “What American Renaissance? The Gendered Genealogy of a Critical Discourse”, Vol. 112, No. 5 (Oct., 1997), pp. 1102-1120 Published by: Modern Language Association Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/463486

http://newman.baruch.cuny.edu/digital/2001/beecher/intro.htm

(Harriet Beecher Stowe)

http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/wmhp.html

(Elizabeth Stanton & Margaret Fuller)