Observations on the Real Rights of Women and Other WritingsFollowing in the path of her distinguished Puritan forebears, Hannah Mather Crocker used her skills as a writer primarily to persuade. Unlike those forebears, however, she did not begin her career as a published writer until well into middle age, after the death of her husband, Joseph Crocker, and after having raised ten children. The works collected here include previously unpublished poetry, drama, memoirs, sermons, and essays on American identity, education, and history, as well as the three texts published in her lifetime. This volume is named for her most famous work, Observations on the Real Rights of Women. Originally published in 1818, it is widely considered the first published treatise on women?s rights written by an American woman and serves as a rare example of women?s views of their own roles within the early American republic. This collection also mirrors the many changes that occurred in the United States during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, highlighting the shift in attitude toward women?s rights, education, and other reform movements as well as the American Revolution. Crocker?s writing provides a rare and valuable window into the concerns of women who embodied Enlightenment ideals during the years of the early republic. |
Contents
Preface | ix |
A Note on the Text | li |
Fast Sermon | 3 |
Thanksgiving Sermon | 11 |
An Humble Address to the Reason and Wisdom | 19 |
Antiquarian Researches Pleasant and Easy | 27 |
A Series of Letters on Free Masonry | 39 |
The School of Reform or Seamans Safe Pilot to the Cape | 61 |
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Adams American Antiquarian Society ancient Antiquarian researches appears Beauties of History benevolence blessing Boston character Christian church Cotton Mather divine England equal essay federal band female Folder Freemasonry Friend of Women friendship governor Hannah Adams Hannah Mather Crocker happiness heart heaven History of Women honour human Hutchinson Increase Mather Increase Mather Jun inner Temple John Judith Sargent Murray Lady Letters on Free living lodge Lord Madam Mary Wollstonecraft Masonic Masonry Mather Family Mercy Otis Warren Midnight Beau mind minister moral mutual nation Observations passage peace Philanthropus Phillis Wheatley poem political praise Prudencia prudent Real Rights reason reference religion religious respecting Revolutionary Rights of Women Russell Sacred Biography Samuel Sarah Kemble Knight sentiments Series of Letters shew soul Spelled Thanksgiving Thomas Thomas Hutchinson tion Villemert virtue wife wisdom wise Wollstonecraft woman women writers women’s rights Worcester ma writings wrote