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Celestia Rice Colby, born in Ohio in 1827, had lifestyle options that were relatively straightforward for the typical white female child born in the first half of the nineteenth century: she married in 1848, had five children, spent much of her life working as a dairy farmer and housewife, and died in 1900. Her rich legacy, however, extended beyond her children and grandchildren and survived in the form of detailed and reflective diaries and writings. Her private and published writings show that despite the appearances of the quintessential normal life, Colby struggled to reconcile her personal hopes and ambitions with the expectations and obligations placed on her by society. Author Tina Stewart Brakebill has woven original research with secondary material to form the fabric of Colby's life - from her days as the daughter of an Ohio dairy farmer to her relationship with her daughter, a pioneering university professor.
Facets of Barbara Egger Lennon's life depict an ordinary white Midwestern woman of her time: teacher, wife, mother. Her work as a union organizer and political activist, however, complicate that picture. The way in which Egger Lennon balanced these roles illustrates how many women of her time shaped their lives in the face of three significant forces: work, family, and politics. Enriched by years of her detailed diary entries, Barbara Egger Lennon: Teacher, Mother, Activist deepens our understanding of the ways in which work and political activism existed alongside the traditional role of women in the early 20th century. About the Lives of American Women series: Selected and edited by renown...
For all that has been written about the Civil War's impact on the urban northeast and southern home fronts, we have until now lacked a detailed picture of how it affected specific communities in the Union's Midwestern heartland. Nicole Etcheson offers a deeply researched microhistory of one such community--Putnam County, Indiana, from the Compromise of 1850 to the end of Reconstruction-and shows how its citizens responded to and were affected by the war. Delving into the everyday life of a small town in one of the nineteenth century's bellwether states, A Generation at War considers the Civil War within a much broader chronological context than other accounts. It ranges across three decades ...
John Brown was fiercely committed to the militant abolitionist cause, a crusade that culminated in Brown's raid on the Federal armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859 and his subsequent execution. Less well known is his devotion to his family, and they to him. Two of Brown’s sons were killed at Harpers Ferry, but the commitment of his wife and daughters often goes unacknowledged. In The Tie That Bound Us, Bonnie Laughlin-Schultz reveals for the first time the depth of the Brown women’s involvement in his cause and their crucial roles in preserving and transforming his legacy after his death.As detailed by Laughlin-Schultz, Brown’s second wife Mary Ann Day Brown and his daughters Ruth Brown Tho...
This first full length study of Quakers Charity and Thomas Rotch, early New England settlers to northeast Ohio (1811–1824) explores their role in the transformation of the frontier environment from wilderness to a prosperous market town. The book utilizes a wide selection of archival sources to provide insights into early community building in Ohio. The letters of Charity Rotch suggest that Quaker women forged particular sorts of relationships that encouraged their interconnections and interdependence. Women also recognized the significance of gender in their lives as they defined themselves collectively as women. The vocabulary and the cultural grammar that women used to reinforce kinship ties were crucial to building and maintain their faith communities over extended geographic distances. This book will be of interest to scholars of early Ohio economic history and development, Quaker history and settlement in Ohio, gender, and the household in 19th century American history.
Challenging traditional histories of abolition, this book shifts the focus away from the East to show how the women of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin helped build a vibrant antislavery movement in the Old Northwest. Stacey Robertson argues that the environment of the Old Northwest--with its own complicated history of slavery and racism--created a uniquely collaborative and flexible approach to abolitionism. Western women helped build this local focus through their unusual and occasionally transgressive activities. They plunged into Liberty Party politics, vociferously supported a Quaker-led boycott of slave goods, and tirelessly aided fugitives and free blacks in their comm...
This engaging history of one of the largest ethnic groups in Illinois explores the influence and experiences of German immigrants and their descendants from their arrival in the middle of the nineteenth century to their heritage identity today. Coauthors Miranda E. Wilkerson and Heather Richmond examine the primary reasons that Germans came to Illinois and describe how they adapted to life and distinguished themselves through a variety of occupations and community roles. The promise of cheap land and fertile soil in rural areas and emerging industries in cities attracted three major waves of German-speaking immigrants to Illinois in search of freedom and economic opportunities. Before long t...
The Civil War has historically been viewed somewhat simplistically as a battle between the North and the South. Southern historians have broadened this viewpoint by revealing the “many Souths” that made up the Confederacy, but the “North” has remained largely undifferentiated as a geopolitical term. In this welcome collection, seven Civil War scholars offer a unique regional perspective on the Civil War by examining how a specific group of Northerners—Midwesterners, known as Westerners and Middle Westerners during the 1860s—experienced the war on the home front. Much of the intensifying political and ideological turmoil of the 1850s played out in the Midwest and instilled in its ...