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History of the United States of America

The Cult of True Womanhood
First described by historian Barbara Welter in 1966, the “Cult of True Womanhood” is a name
given by historians to 19th century gender ideologies that describe woman’ s nature and proper
place as the moral protector of her home. The four values of “True Womanhood” were
domesticity, piety, purity and submissiveness. Society judged women based on their adherence
to these four virtues. Poor women and black women, particularly slave women, could not hope
to meet these gender standards, a fact that allowed society to categorize them as substandard
women. White middle-class and upper-class women might have subscribed to the ideologies,
though scholarship suggests there was considerable resistance from even those women who
could fulfill the ideas. According to Barbara Welter, “nineteenth century American man was a
builder of bridges and railroads, at work long hours in a materialistic society”. Barbara Welter
asserted:

The religious values of his forebears were neglected in practice if not in intent, and he
occasionally felt some guilt that he had turned this new land, this temple of the chosen
people, into one vast countinghouse, but he could salve his conscience by reflecting that
he had left behind a hostage, not only to fortune, but to all the values which he held so
dear and treated so lightly.

Woman, in the cult of “True Womanhood” presented by the women’s magazines, gift annuals
and religious literature of the 19th century, was “the hostage in the home”. In a society where
values changed frequently, where fortunes rose and fell with frightening rapidity, where social
and economic mobility provided instability as well as hope, one thing at least remained the same
– “a true woman was a true woman”, anywhere and everywhere. If anyone, male or female,
dared to tamper with the complex of virtues which made up “True Womanhood”, he/she was
damned immediately as an enemy of God, of civilization and of the Republic. It was a fearful
obligation, a solemn responsibility, which the 19th-century American woman had to uphold the
pillars of the temple with her frail white hand.

“True womanhood” focused on the idea that ‘womanliness’ was intricately connected
with domesticity, which included both housework and child-rearing related work. 19th-century
Americans believed that women were designed by nature and God to be domestic, and that un-
domestic woman were unnatural and an offense against God. Often called the “Cult of
Domesticity”, true women were supposed to be the creators of a stress-free home, where men
might retire from the rigors of waged labor in the public sphere. Women then were seen as
belonging in the domestic or private sphere.

Accordingly, 19th century gender ideology held that not only were women unsuited for
the public spheres of elected service, politics and waged labor, but that the public sphere could
corrupt and ruin women. 19th century Americans also believed that women were naturally more
pious or moral than men. Piety was said to supply the religious core of strength and dignity for a
woman. A True woman guided both her husband and her children in matters of morality.
Immorality in women was thus seen as worse than immorality in men. While piety might be
considered an ideology that constrained and controlled women (for indeed it was), women used
ideas of female moral superiority to make claims on public power. 19th century women joined
moral reform movements (like anti-slavery, temperance and women’s rights movements) in
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multitudes, using their claims to greater morality to justify the imposition of moral reform on the
larger society.

In 19th century, Americans spent a great deal of time worrying about and controlling
sex. "True Womanhood" held that a woman’ s purity was her greatest virtue. Before she was
married, she was to protect her virginity. After marriage women were supposed to tolerate their
husband’ s sexual demands in return for the promise of children. This ideology did not account
for female sexual pleasure anywhere. Instead, women were supposed to be passionless, either
disinterested in or actively repulsed by sexual contact. Women who broke the code of
“ passionlessness” were viewed as ruined or fallen women.

True women were also seen as submissive. Before a woman was married, she was
supposed to submit to her father on all decisions. Once a woman was married, she was to be
submissive to her husband’ s desires and needs; submissiveness was said to fulfill a woman by
making her the perfect dependent companion. Women were supposed to willingly and cheerfully
submit to the powerlessness of their lives. Indeed, ministers and other commentators claimed
that it was only in willing submission to a man could a woman find true happiness. Poor White
women, who had to work for wages to support themselves and their families, could not fulfill
the domestic component of true womanhood because they worked outside the home. Moreover,
many working-class women recognized that "True Womanhood" ideologies were designed to
valorize middle and elite-class women, whose husbands could afford to let their wives stay
home. As a result, many working-class women consciously rejected notions of submissiveness,
moral superiority and ‘passionlessness’.

Slave women were particularly oppressed by 19th century gender ideologies. They did
not have homes to take care of so little opportunity to enact domesticity. They had little or no
control over their own bodies and were routinely sexually assaulted by masters. Indeed, pro-
slavery advocates used the ideas of True Womanhood to “ prove” that slave women deserved
their bondage by promoting the notion that slave women were sexually licentious and
aggressive. These ideas, which fall under the “ Jezebel” stereotype proved powerful motivators
in continuing slavery and the abuse of slave women.

Even middle and elite class women could encounter difficulties in fulfilling the
strictures of True Womanhood. For example, not all women had stable, supportive or non-
violent husbands. Wives whose husbands drank away the family income or beat them had little
recourse in a society that often refused to recognize problems and often blamed on wives. Anti-
suffragettes Catherine Beecher’ s book Principle of Domestic Science provided 19th century
Americans with a supportive doctrine of patriarchy, mixed with the proper division of public and
private spheres. However, many women were quick to realize that achieving the goals of true
womanhood was impossible. Most women, regardless of class status, cooked, cleaned, did
laundry, grew gardens, and did all domestic tasks. All these works were (and are)
unwaged/unpaid labor. Complicating the unwaged/unpaid nature of women’ s work was the
reality that society began to see “ work” as waged and male, making women’ s domestic work
invisible as real work. By focusing on a woman's role in her home, some American women
could support the notion that a proper woman's sphere was taking care of her husband and
children. The Cult of Domesticity created women’ s commercial markets, such as Godey’ s
Lady’ s Book magazine. Civic domesticity and moral reform movements led to the women’ s
rights movement, which began in 1848 at Seneca Falls (New York).
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Women of the mid-19th century found themselves in a unique position brought on by

changing social and economic structures. Technological advances and changes created
opportunities for men to work outside of the home, earning enough money to support their
families without assistance from their wives. This led to a push for women to stay in the home,
as exemplars of four very important qualities: piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity.
These qualities were extolled through magazines and other writings of the time. There were
voices speaking up against this new ideal, but it lasted intact until the advent of the Civil War
when it began to change because of circumstances beyond the control of average Americans. In
some form, however, some of the ideals are still encouraged even now.

In the beginning of the 19th century, America was changing at a faster pace than it ever
had before. The population was growing quickly and the physical landscape of the country had
more than doubled with Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase of 1803. The advent of the
industrial revolution was also creating many new jobs and opportunities for American families.
For a country less than 50 years old, these swift changes brought instability and uncertainty.
American society had to find balance and a center upon which to base itself. One center was
found in the roles women played in the lives of their families. A modified ideal of “True
Womanhood” developed as a response to a rapidly growing population, expanding frontiers and
industrial developments and the effects they all had on society and the family. The population
exploded during the first half of the 19th century. As the inset table shows, the census of 1820
reported an aggregate population of 10,086,015. By the census of 1850, the aggregated
population had doubled to 23,054,152. With such rapid growth in population size, established
structures like government bodies and industries had to adapt and expand to fit the growing
needs of the citizenry. Small businesses began to develop to meet the requirements of the newly
prosperous middle class and organizations like social and leisure clubs expanded to include new
members.

Growing industries brought many new jobs which meant that men no longer had the
time or the need to produce many of the things their families consumed. Since families still used
the same goods like food and clothing, new businesses which included factories, retail stores and
grocers began to develop with the sole purpose of providing these things. Though there had
always been a market for them, it had grown dramatically. With the addition of these jobs, a new
middle class began to emerge consisting of lawyers, teachers, factory managers, doctors and
others, along with their families, different from the middle-class that had been prevalent during
pre-industrial times. While the old middle class had been very small and consisted of doctors
and lawyers, this new middle class was much larger and included industrial employees, as well.
Socially, this affected the neighborhoods they lived in and the people they associated with.
Families were able to shift their focus, many for the first time, away from mere day-to-day
survival and could spend some time and money on things that were not absolutely essential to
life. With the changes in their occupations, many families were no longer completely self-reliant
and their lives became more enmeshed with the lives of their neighbors as they began to buy
necessities from the same stores and sometimes from each other. As industrialization improved
the standard of living for many families, the growing population began to move, in high
numbers, into industrial jobs. Census data from the period shows a marked increase in the
number of people working in manufacturing from 1820 through 1850. In 1820, there were
346,845 people working in manufacturing and by 1850, there were 943,305. People were
moving away from the country and their small farms into the city for manufacturing jobs that
were certain to improve their standard of living, health and family status.
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Also, women were told that they should devote themselves to morally uplifting
occupations that would help them to maintain their piety and purity. Godey’s Lady’s Book1
stated:
…there is more to be learned about pouring tea and coffee than most young ladies are
willing to believe.
Women were encouraged to do needlework and other crafts besides their daily house works and
childcare. In such a calm environment, men would naturally be attracted away from the world
outside of the home and the evils it held. If women asked for a greater scope to use their gifts or
talents, magazines of the time were critical, saying that such desires undermined the fabric of
civilization and the family. Women had Rights, but as Mrs. E. Little wrote in her article for
Ladies Wreath, they were limited to:
(i) The right to love whom others scorn;
(ii) The right to comfort and to mourn;
(iii)The right to shed new joy on each new day;
(iv) The right to feel the soul’s high worth;
(v) Such woman’s rights as God will bless and crown their champions with success.
The primary method of communication to women was in their magazines. Godey’s Lady’s Book,
Ladies’ Wreath, The Amaranth, Graham’s Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Putnam’s
Magazine, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, etc., were only some of the more popular journals
of the period. They provided the primary reading materials for the middle class, and were
published on a regular basis, some monthly and some less often. They contained short stories,
poetry and serialized (episodic/sequential) novellas (tales, fables, stories, etc.). There was the
potential in these magazines to reach a large audience with messages or ideas. Unfortunately,
this was the perfect medium through which the ideals of the “Cult of True Womanhood” were
promoted.
The country was growing very quickly geographically, as well. The Louisiana Purchase
of 1803 more than doubled the country’s size and provided vast new frontiers for the booming
population to explore. There was more land for growth of both farming and industry. Purchased
from Napoleon Bonaparte (Emperor of France), for about 15 million dollars, the new frontier
offered cheap lands and unlimited opportunities. As men went into the working world and
became better able to earn enough money to support their families, the families no longer
needed to make as many of the items they needed in order to survive. As a result, some
traditional gender roles changed or became unnecessary. Women, who had often formed cottage
industries and traded services, like cloth-making and sewing with their neighbors, were told that
they no longer needed to do so. However, some women continued to work, because unlike
women of the middle-class families (who lived in comfortable homes with gainfully employed
husbands) they had no other choice but to work outside of the home. Although “the urban
female labor force included self-supporting women (who worked to survive, like prostitutes,
vagabonds and widows”), they were not visible as a social group and were not distinct in their
own right. In the larger cities, working class women were considered to be beyond the pale of
the polite middle-class society as they were usually of poor, African-American or immigrant
descents.

1
Godey’s Lady’s Book, also known as Godey’s Magazine and Lady’s Book, was an American women's magazine
published in Philadelphia from 1830 to 1878. It was the most widely circulated magazine in the period before the
Civil War. Its circulation rose from 70,000 in the 1840s to 150,000 in 1860.
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As immigration increased during the mid-19th century, working women found more
competition for the jobs in their communities and some jobs were seen as only for women of
low social ranks. Female domestics began to be seen "as servants of inferior rank". As domestic
service became a major job channel for immigrants, it came to be seen as unacceptable
employment for “native-born women” between the stages of childhood and marriage. Class
distinctions grew more marked in the jobs available for women and among women who did
those jobs. So, working women were seen as deviants/abnormals. This re-enforced the
paternalistic ideology that demanded women to stay home.

The idea that the husband should be solely responsible for the family (financially) and
the wife should run the family and perform all the duties at home became more prevalent. This
attitude, in turn, gave birth to a new “ideal of womanhood”. Women became “home-makers”,
and they were expected to perform their domestic jobs in the best possible ways. Women were
seen as the "calming influence over their homes". They were to be the "religious compasses of
the home" and the "source of their families’ comfort and peace". There was nothing too great for
them to go if it would better serve their husbands and children. If a woman became distracted by
any activity outside of the home, whether educational or otherwise, she was damaging her
family. Ironically, one early edition of the Godey’s Lady’s Book vividly illustrated the jobs
meant for women.

Women of the middle-class were to find their joy and fulfillment in the home where
they were "all-important to their families". They provided religious guidance and provided for
all the family’s physical needs. This became even more important as American society was
dealing with massive changes at a rapid pace, because the American society needed a stable base
to rest upon. Ultimately, women were seen as the key to maintaining that base. This pressure on
women was specially strong, and it extended to many areas of life (including economic and
social arenas). This expectation was encouraged as "the ideal for all women", but it was realistic
only for free middle-class and upper-class women. Women of the poorer classes were unable to
fulfill the "ideals of true womanhood", because they were compelled by their families' poverty to
work outside of their homes. Moreover, unfortunately, women of the poorer classes were not
considered as being part of the cultured/polite society and their roles in society were
undermined.
The rapidly changing social and economic situations in America brought altered roles
for many women, but those roles would have been meaningless if they had not been
communicated to the women affected by them. The first step in communicating the “new ideal”
was to inform women about the traits that the new ideal embodied. According to Barbara
Welter,
The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman judged herself and was judged by her
husband, her neighbors and society could be divided into four cardinal virtues -- piety,
purity, submissiveness and domesticity. Put them all together and they spelled mother,
daughter, sister, wife. Without them, no matter whether there was fame, achievement or
wealth, all was ashes. With them she was promised happiness and power.
These characteristics/virtues (viz., piety/religiosity, purity, submissiveness and domesticity)
were thought to be necessary for all “good and proper women”. These characteristics/virtues laid
the foundation for the middle-class women and upper class women as well as their families
during the turbulent and rapidly changing times. These vital qualities were then communicated
to women through magazine and serialized novels.
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Religion or piety was considered to be the source of strength for women the and the
“core of a woman’s virtue”. Piety was regarded as "God's gift to women". Young men looking
for wives were cautioned to search first for piety, because it was believed that if a woman had
piety/religion, all others would follow. In other words, men were strongly encouraged to choose
a pious woman, because all other desirable qualities were bound to be with piety/religion.
Women were warned not to let literary interests or intellectual pursuits take them away from
God or ruin their relationship with God. Religion was “a salve (balm/ointment) for a potentially
restless mind, an occupation within woman's proper sphere - the home”. “Religion is just what
woman needs. Without it she is ever restless or unhappy...” This was the general understanding
of 19th century American women. As Barbara Welter put it, religion was valued so high, because
it did not take a woman away from her “proper sphere” (her home). And, 19th century
Americans believed that, unlike participation in other societies or movements, church work
would not make her less domestic or submissive or less a "True Woman".

Purity in women was highly revered, and was regarded as essential to a woman (as piety
was). It was generally held that "without sexual purity, a woman was "no woman", but "a lower
form of being" and "a fallen woman”. Women were expected to guard their virtue/purity from
the assaults of men. Purity was not only sexual. Any social change could be seen as a challenge
to a woman’s virtue. When new fashions (like shorter skirts) became popular, women's
magazines would quickly write about the "immodesty of the new costumes". According to a
dialogue printed in the Ladies Wreath, trousers were “only one of the many manifestations of
that wild spirit of socialism and agrarian radicalism which is at present so rife (widespread) in
our land”. The society in general felt that “the new styles were a danger to her purity and moral
fiber and were also a threat to the very foundation of the country”. In the mid-1860s, Fanny Fern
(a well-known female writer of the time), addressing the issue of women’s clothing, wrote that
while reading the newspaper, "she discovered that a woman had been arrested for wearing men’s
clothing". She wondered: “What is so offensive about that?” On a rainy day, Fanny Fern had a
dilemma as she had to go out with long flowing skirts (woman's standard clothing then). She
wondered how she would hold her umbrella and her skirts them both from the mud. So, Fanny
Fern put on one of her husband’s suits and went out for a walk with her husband. She wrote: Oh,
the delicious freedom of that walk...No skirts to hold up, or to draggle their wet folds against my
ankles. If anyone was shocked by her actions, they were welcome to be so. She was determined
not to change her ways because of them. Her health, both mental and physical, was worth more
than a little social custom. She claimed: I’ve as good a right to preserve the healthy body God
gave me, as if I were not a woman.
Even the thought of the "loss of purity" could reduce a woman to tears, because since if a
woman was guilty of losing her purity (even in magazines), it would inexorably lead her to
madness or death. According to the magazines, death was preferable to the "loss of innocence".
A “woman must preserve her virtue until marriage and marriage was necessary for her
happiness”. “Purity was indeed a dilemma” that would end at marriage, and women were told
“not to question this dilemma, but simply to accept it”.
Perhaps, the most feminine of the four characteristics/qualities was “submissiveness”.
Men were also expected to be religious and to be pure (though it was perceived to be harder for
them); but men were never supposed to be submissive. Men were expected to accomplish things,
while women were seen as passive by-standers. The order of authority was to flow from God to
men, and then to women (after men). Since women were at the bottom of the list, they were
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expected to honor those above them. In her book, Recollections of a Housekeeper, Caroline
Gilman’s advice to the bride aimed at establishing this proper order from the beginning of
marriage. Gilman wrote:
Oh, young and lovely bride, watch well the first moments when your will conflicts with his to
whom God and society have given the control. Reverence his wishes even when you do not
want his opinions.

The submission of women was ensured in several ways. One of the most obvious way to
prove women's submissiveness was their clothing. A 19th century woman was expected to wear
a corset (girdle, belt, sash, etc.), that minimized the size of her waist, and heavy petticoats and
other undergarments as well. This heavy set of clothing denied them physical mobility. It was
believed that a woman would be submissive when she was dressed in this manner as she was
physically unable to present any sort of challenge to her husband. Moreover, she was forced to
accept her husband’s dominance, because she was not able to perform many of the physical
tasks that man could, leaving her to depend upon him for many things.

As a woman’s place was believed to be the home, domesticity (the fourth and final
quality of ideal womanhood) was, perhaps, seen as the foundation of the other three ideals –
viz., piety/religiosity, purity and submissiveness. Since men were thought to be at risk of
becoming hard and amoral from the evils they dealt with in the world of work, women were
assigned the task of making their homes a "safe haven" where their husbands could shed the
harshness of the outside world and show their softer and more human quality. A woman’s own
health was thought to be delicate and important, but she was to be more concerned with the
health of her children and husband. With all the childhood illnesses that were taking children’s
lives, American women became experts in sickroom nursing. Many of their cookbooks
contained recipes which promised to remedy all kinds of diseases (Welter 1966). “Nursing the
sick, particularly sick males, not only made a woman feel useful and accomplished, but
increased her influence” was the generally accepted understanding of the society then.

The Cult of True Womanhood for Black Women: Historical Perspectives

From 1861 to the late 1910s, the conditions of freedom and the gendered and racial context
forced African American women to redefine "what it meant to be a woman". This was a complex
period when two distinctive sub-periods emerged: (i) 1861 to the 1880s, and (ii) 1890s to 1920.
During Reconstruction (1863-1877), African Americans (particularly men) obtained citizenship
rights and a brief period of political empowerment. This period of hope, however, was short-
lived. As W.E.B. Du Bois said:
The slaves went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward
slavery.
African Americans soon entered a period when their economic, social and political
circumstances were again increasingly threatened. So, according to historian Rayford Logan,
1877-1901 was the “ nadir” (lowest point) in American race relations, because it was
characterized by extreme tension between Black and White Americans. After the 1890s, the
United States experienced a period of exacerbated racism. In this period, African Americans lost
political rights and women’ s inferiority was re-affirmed at the turn of the century. In these
contexts, most Black women had to adopt "ways of being women and citizens" distinctive from
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those of White women and distinct from “Victorianism” (as defined in the early 19th century).2
As Glenda Gilmore argues,
…black women’ s concepts of woman’ s place were far from monolithic, but all were
marked by the experience of exclusion and the challenge of meeting adversity.
And, as Joyce Ladner also said,
…there was no monolithic concept of the Black woman in America, but there were many
models of Black womanhood.
The “many models” of Black womanhood can be understood by taking the writings of
some women, viz. Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818-1907),3 Rebecca Primus (1836-1932),4
Addie Brown (1841-1870),5 Mary Virginia Montgomery (1849-1902),6 Ida B. Wells-Barnett
(1862-1931),7 Elizabeth Johnson Harris (1867-1942),8 and an anonymous woman who was
“ born and reared in the South” . The anonymous woman was interviewed by a reporter from

2
“Victorianism” may be defined as a period of profound economic, technological and societal changes and
advancements.
3
Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818-1907) was a southerner and was born a slave in Virginia to George Pleasant and
Agnes Hobbs. She grew up with her mother, who taught her how to sew at an early age. At some point, she was
given to her owners son. In 1839, as a victim of a White man's sexual assaults, she gave birth to a son, named
George. In 1852, she married James Keckley and experienced a short-lived marriage. By that time, she had become
a successful seamstress. In 1855, she purchased freedom for herself and her sixteen-year-old son George at a very
expensive cost of $1,200. In 1861, her son died in the Civil War. In the early 1860s, Mrs. Keckley became Mrs.
Mary Todd Lincoln's designer. At 49 years, she wrote her autobiographies, Behind the Scenes or Thirty Years a
Slave and Four Years in the White House.
4
Rebecca Primus (1836-1932) from Hartford (Connecticut) was born into an upper-middle-class Black family,
from 1864 to 1869, she served as a teacher to contraband slaves in Royal Oak (Maryland) for the Hartford
Freedmen’ s Aid Society, which funded her trip, before returning to Connecticut. Though successful in having a
school built in Royal Oak in the 1860s, she left the South when the “ Hartford Freedmen’ s Aid Society ceased
operation (in 1869)”. Sometime between 1872 and 1874, she married the southern-born Charles Thomas, whom she
had met in Maryland. She then “ kept home” and apparently never had children.
5
Addie Brown (1841-1870) was a young domestic servant and seamstress born in Hartford (Connecticut). Brown
died in 1870, two years after getting married to Joseph Tines, a domestic worker.
6
Mary Virginia Montgomery (1849-1902) was born in Davis Bend (Mississippi) into a successful Black family.
Her parents were former slaves who were offered to work on Davis Bend, the famous plantation owned by the Davis
family. Her father, Benjamin T. Montgomery, was a talented slave, an inventor and a machinist, while her mother
(Mary Lewis Montgomery) was a slave. After taking refuge in Cincinnati during the Civil War, the family leased
the Davis family’ s plantation. Mary was emancipated at 14 and subsequently worked as a bookkeeper’ s assistant.
As a learned and accomplished young lady, Montgomery played the piano and read extensively. In 1872, she went
to Oberlin College, Ohio (a renowned institution in Ohio, founded in 1833 by Presbyterian Ministers) where she
trained to become a teacher. She subsequently went back to teach in Mississippi in 1874 .
7
Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931, the famous journalist, clubwoman, lynching crusader and activist) was born in
Yellow Springs (Mississippi). Her parents (who had been slaves) both died during the Memphis yellow fever
epidemic of 1878 when she was a teenager. When she became the sole family provider, she worked as a school
teacher in Tennessee public schools. Dissatisfied with her lot, she did all she could to work as a journalist in the
mid-1880s, and later became a famous activist in the crusade against lynching. She moved to Chicago after she
married Ferdinand Barnett (a famous Black lawyer). She started writing her autobiography in 1928 (which was
edited and published in 1970 by her daughter Alfreda Duster).
8
Elizabeth Johnson Harris (1867-1942) was born to slave parents and was raised in Augusta (Georgia). At 15
years, she married Jacob Walker Harris in 1883 and gave birth to nine children (seven children survived to
adulthood). As a housewife, Elizabeth Johnson Harris penned her memoir "Life Story" in 1923 at the age of 55
years.
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The Independent9 (a white-owned weekly newspaper published in New York City between 1848
and 1921). Her life story, More Slavery at the South, was published in 1912. Her account sheds
light on the economic and living conditions of Black women domestics in the South from the
1890s to the early 1910s.
These women present a mixture of similarities and differences: five of them were
Southerners while two (Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus) were born and lived in the North.
Four belonged to the educated middle class; they were geographically mobile; and they traveled
outside their native region. Two of them came back home: Rebecca Primus returned to Hartford
(Connecticut) and Mary Virginia Montgomery returned to Mississippi after studying at Oberlin
College. Three of them stayed in their native region (Elizabeth Johnson Harris and the
anonymous child-nurse never left the South very long while Addie Brown remained in the
North). Two women (Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley and Mary Virginia Montgomery) were born
into slavery, while Ida Wells and Elizabeth Johnson Harris were daughters of former slaves
who had either been freed or who had bought their freedom. Two of them (Rebecca Primus and
Addie Brown) were born to free black families in the North before the Civil War. Lastly, three
of them (Rebecca Primus, Ida Wells, and Marry Montgomery) worked as teachers at some
point in their lives.
The accounts of these women testify to the diversity in African American womanhood
between 1861 and the early 1910s. Their personal testimonies are representative of distinct
individual trajectories that, when analyzed together, provide a collective history of African
American women in the post-Civil War era. The long historical period from Reconstruction to
the difficult 1910s and 1920s (which was marked by Jim Crow laws) was also an important
period for women. The year 1920 saw the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment that finally
gave voting right to American women after years of struggle. Between 1861 and 1920,
(i) with different understandings of womanhood, African American women tried to cope with
the contradictory demands of the dominant notions of womanhood; and
(ii) with different understandings of working lives, African American women approached
work in different ways.
African American women often viewed work as something that would support their families, and
indeed, their social circumstances impact their views of womanhood.

In the United States, Black and White women had historically distinct social functions and
qualities. As important economic contributors to the American economy (as productive
housewives), white American women gradually felt that they had been deprived of a sense of
usefulness in the world outside home. Their social functions were narrowed down during the
Industrial Revolution. Their role was reduced to "motherhood". Sara Evans terms this as
“ maternal commonwealth” (Evans 1989: 119-143). Yet, this role was seen as socially
meaningful, because women’ s influence on children was thought to be critically important for
the nation. Interestingly, the ideology of "Republican motherhood" allowed women to play "a
kind of public role as mothers of future citizens” (Foner 2012: 347). However, a change
occurred from the early 1820s when the ideology of ‘ Republican motherhood’ was
transformed into the "cult of domesticity". With industrialization, white American women
came to be exclusively viewed as "procreators". Their place was thus the home (the "private

9
The Independent was an important voice in support of abolitionism and woman’ s suffrage, and published articles
by renowned African American activists, like Fannie Barrier Williams and W.E.B. Du Bois in the early 20th century.
10 | P a g e

sphere"), while men captured the "public sphere".

Within this "Cult of True Womanhood” (premised on the theory of separate spheres)
only middle-class and upper class white women could qualify as respectable. 19th-century White
women were expected to possess feminine attributes (like modesty, docility, self-effacing
character, etc.). Yet, what was new was not the idea of true womanhood, but the fact that it was
placed upon a pedestal. Paula Giddings clearly explains this as follows (Giddings 1984: 43):
…the idea of the lady was not new of course. What had changed was the cult idea, its
elevation to a status symbol.

In antebellum America, enslaved black women were not regarded as human or as women,
but as chattel (personal property), and they were excluded from the definition of women (Carby
1987: 6; Perkins 1983: 183). In fact, even before 1865, the abolitionist and feminist movements
were closely intertwined and several famous black female abolitionists (like Harriet Tubman and
Sojourner Truth) were defenders of women’ s rights. Yet, from the very beginning of their life in
freedom, Black women were not permitted to live by the same standards as white women. In the
eyes of both northern and southern Whites, the four cardinal Victorian attributes (piety, purity,
submissiveness and domesticity) were not applicable to black women. Yet, contradictorily,
pressure was exerted on them as well. If black women failed “ to adhere to any of these tenets
(most black women could hardly fulfill them), they were considered as “ less than moral
women” and “less than ‘ true’ women” . This exclusion lasted well after the Civil War. In
fact, “the exclusion of black women from the dominant codes of morality continued throughout
the century” (Carby 1987: 39; Gilmore 1996: 36).

After 1865, all African American women could, for the first time, finally express their
womanhood in a context of "legal freedom". During Reconstruction, when southern states were
placed under the patronage of the federal government, African American women struggled to
find their positions as "women". The only freedom most African American women were given
was "legal freedom". Their "ideas of femininity" came after the "ideology of cleanliness"
was spread by schools, northern missionaries and educated black elite (who belonged to pre-war
free communities of northern and southern urban centers). Between 1865 and 1920, the
conservative Victorian definition of "Black womanhood" crafted by the African American elite
was tremendously transformed by black women. Most of them had to embrace both "domestic
sphere" and "work sphere" (outside the home). Depending on their social circumstances, they
could display at least two of the qualities of the “ Cult of True Womanhood” (viz., “ piety
and purity” ). They were also compelled to reject the other two demands of “ domesticity" and
"submissiveness” .

Toward the end of the 19th century, elite African American women developed a “ dual
womanhood” to “ fulfill both the European-American and the African-American cultural
expectations” (Carlson 1992: 70). They harmoniously displayed two apparently opposed types
of qualities, viz. "femininity" (defined by piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity) and
"dignity" (defined by working outside the home, boldness, etc.). This gave birth to “ black
Victorian womanhood" (whose ideals were often unattainable by "working-class women". At
the turn of the 20th century, a change occurred. American society was experiencing important
changes, and Victorianism gradually lost its position. Sara Evans calls this “ the breakdown of
Victorianism” . Black women had to continue building their identity in the midst of increasing
racism and sexism: the sexism they faced was fundamentally different from the sexism faced by
11 | P a g e

White women (Evans 1989). The rise of racism in early 20th century, the renewed theory of
women's inferiority, and the combination of racism and sexism, affected the way women viewed
"womanhood" (Perkins 1983). Women defended their integrity and prioritized education to
combat "negative notions about women".

Defense of Their Integrity

Under slavery, negative stereotypes of black women were created in the form of the sexually
impure and lascivious/lustful Jezebel. In the late 19th century, the figure of the "obsequious,
subservient and asexual Mammy" emerged in American popular fiction, and minstrel shows
developed dramatically (Boggle 1994; Cox 2011). These stereotypes circulated in both North
and South. As a result, black women (particularly southern black women) were concerned with
defending the "image of black women". From 1861 to the 1910s, women acted on several
levels in order to defend their image. The firsts were morality and purity. In the late 19th
century, women felt unprotected by men. Many elite African American women used "purity" to
refer to "virginity" and to imply the idea of maintaining "a good reputation" (Hackley 1916).
If black women's need to be economically self-reliant affected their "experience of
motherhood", sexual exploitation by white male employers also endangered their purity and
emphasized their vulnerable social position. In fact, as Carby explains, the "rape of black
women" in the South continued to be an "institutionalized weapon of oppression" (Carby
1987). As under slavery, black women who worked as domestic servants (after 1865) often
suffered attacks by white employers. Yet, they were unable to defend themselves. Through
different violent methods (through institutional racism, intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan,
threats of rape against women, etc.), black men were also often prevented from defending them.
Only few men could help them protect their sexual integrity. It was particularly true for working-
class women and orphans who had no immediate male relatives. For instance, Ida B. Wells had
to defend her respectability alone, because she had no brother and had lost her father. Even
northern white missionaries of the American Missionary Association (who came to educate
and moralize newly emancipated slaves) often prejudiced black women because of "Jezebel
stereotype" (McPherson 1976).
Both before and after the Civil War, African American women could be victims of sexual
abuse, and when unprotected by men, developed various strategies against it. One of the
strategies was working in community associations and getting involved in voluntary work for the
poor, aged, orphaned and the sick to help the community and to give “a truer image of African
American women”. According to Darlene Hine (1994), many women continued a tradition that
had begun under slavery and their “ benevolent actions had the added bonus of emphasizing the
moral and spiritual righteousness of African American women” at a time when it was under
attack.
This persisted into the 20th century. Black women had the perpetual feeling that men
(black or white) failed to protect women from sexual aggressions. Moreover, they faced the
difficulty of raising children due to economic and sexual domination by men. In the post-
emancipation period, men's inability to defend women because of Jim Crow laws forced many
black women to aspire to become self-reliant. By working outside their homes, many African
American women continued to be potentially exposed to sexual threats. So, they often felt that
they had to defend themselves. Moreover, the myth of the “Black rapist” in post-bellum
America not only made lynching socially acceptable to avenge White womanhood, but the crime
of raping black women was rendered even more invisible. The myth of the "Black rapist”
12 | P a g e

reveals the construction of "manhood" and "womanhood". The "Black rapist” was seen as
the sexual brute/visceral who was unable to resist "white womanhood" (always depicted as
pure women, ladies”). According to Matthew Guterel (2001), by propagating the idea of the
"Lost Cause", this myth was popularized in the film "The Birth of a Nation" (1915). More
generally, black men were construed as lacking sexual restraint, while black women were
portrayed as immoral and indecent. Both the myths functioned together (Davis 1983). In this
regard, Ida B. Wells pointed out that white men used "the myth of raping white women by
black men" was used as a tool for lynching black people and for depriving black males of their
political rights and their manhood. This affected black women, in that the "rape of black
women" became insignificant outside the black community, because:
(i) black women were relegated to a place outside the "ideological construction of
womanhood"; and
(ii) the term ‘womanhood’ “included only white women" (Carby 1986).
For example, in the 1910s, as the anonymous woman explained in her account, domestic
workers continued to be potential victims of white men's lust. She explained how she lost her
position after shoving away (pushing away) her white employer when he tried to sexually abuse
her. She wrote of being "assailed by white men, and by black men” (who should actually be
their natural protectors).

None of the other six women testified about such sexual behavior among Black men in
their writings. This utter silence was probably due to "self-censorship" or "community
censorship". Interestingly, she used the term "natural protectors" for black men (implying that
"black men were to protect black women"). She was also countering the "false belief" that
"all African American women were immoral". Moreover, white men often went unpunished for
raping black women. Whereas, when black women’s husbands tried to speak with the employers,
police were often called in to punish them for “lying”.
Denouncing the injustice of the situation, the anonymous woman also reveals that black
women had to construe "black womanhood" very differently from "White womanhood",
especially after the 1890s, when the “myth of the Black rapist” was created and when the
"Jezebel stereotype" became very popular. In 1912, at the height of the Jim Crow Era, black
men who defended their wives or daughters from sexual aggressions often, with reason, feared
retaliation by southern Whites, as lynching was used as a threat to place the black people in a
subordinate position. Consequently, black women directly and indirectly suffered from this
situation. Therefore, institutional racial and gender subordination forced them to strive for
becoming more self-reliant (sometimes at the risk of losing their jobs or enduring financial
penalties).
Either before and after 1900, sexual exploitation of black women by white male employers
endangered their integrity and perpetually placed them in vulnerable social position. So, African
American women (leaders, in particular) continued to fight against such situations by defending
the image of black women. According to Darlene Clark Hine (1994), Black women leaders
believed that part of the overall struggle for true racial advancement depended upon the extent to
which women obliterated/erased all negative sexual images of women. The role of defending the
"image of black women" was played by elite black female activists and journalists (like
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Mary Church Terrell and Fannie Barrier Williams) in the early
1890s. This self-defense also played an important role in developing a sense of their self-worth.
13 | P a g e

Girls’ Strict Upbringing

Throughout the period, whenever possible, black women adopted strategies to contradict the
stereotypes, but class often influenced their realities. Women from humble backgrounds had a
harder time maintaining “ purity” in their workplace, and sometimes in their private sphere as
well. Members of the middle-class and upper-class could more easily protect their daughters.
Yet, very often African American women did everything they could to raise their daughters
strictly to instill in them a sense of responsibility, respectability, purity and morality (Shaw 1996;
McPherson 1976). Between 1861 and 1900, middle-class and upper-class black women were
often urged to comply with the Victorian code of conduct, and they reared up their daughters to
become future leaders of the black community. So, they were prepared “not just for work but for
professional positions, activism and leadership roles” (Shaw 1996). They were expected to
become teachers, nurses and educated mothers, or activists and journalists. Though women were
denied civil rights, education was seen as the key to become leaders. With the opportunity to be
educated in schools founded by northern missionaries during Reconstruction, members of the
black middle class also intended to educate less privileged members of the black community. To
instill in their daughters a sense of self-worth and respectability, black middle-class families
viewed Victorian ideals as complementary with race-based works or works in the public sphere.
For example, when black women involved in the Temperance Movement, they promoted their
own public image and fought for men’ s rights as well.
Young women themselves emphasized Victorian ideals due to their education at school. It
is clear that the southern-born Ida B. Wells’ ideals of femininity were influenced by
Victorianism. As a middle-class woman, Wells had been sensitized to Victorian ideals at a very
early age. At Rust University, her schoolfellow Annie was the Professor’ s favorite because she
had an obedient and “ docile disposition” (passive nature/temperament), and therefore, because
she was “easily controlled” (Wells 1995). Many of the women’ s writings reveal that they were
grappling/struggling with “being docile” and “being assertive” at the same time. Wells often
wrote about her failing to live up to the standards of Victorian perfection. For instance, she
claimed that she was “ tempestuous, rebellious”, “ temperamental” (unpredictable)…and she
admired Miss Atkinson for possessing the Victorian ideals – she was “ so fair and pure, so
divinely good, so thoroughly pleasant, so bubbling (sparkling) over with an effervescence of
youth, health, high spirits, cheerfulness that everyone is charmed without knowing why” (Wells
1995). The pressure of Victorian expectations both at school or at home was indeed strong for
middle-class and upper-class girls. Interestingly, Wells was later regarded as the perfect
embodiment of this dual noble “black womanhood”. She was “ commended both for traditional
‘ feminine’ qualities and for her intellect and service to the Black community” (Carlson 1962).
Wells had, therefore, managed to conform superficially to Victorian norms while remaining
faithful to her personality, needs and aspirations.
According to Stephanie Shaw (1996), Black girls of the middle-class and upper-class
South had to possess certain qualities like “ cleanliness, politeness, respectability and
thriftiness” . They were expected to know how to “ shop economically, eat sensibly, dress
tastefully, keep their good reputation clean, show good character, control oneself, display self-
reliance and maturity” (Shaw 1996). Possessing these qualities would ensure their social
success (that is, the would be able to help less-privileged members of the community as a
teacher or as a nurse or as a pastor’ s wife). According to Gilmore, “ the prevailing image of
middle and upper class White southern womanhood in the post-bellum period devalued
scholarship and outspokenness among young women” . In contrast, African Americans valued
14 | P a g e

strength, initiative and practicality among women (Gilmore 1996). Parents or teachers of
African American girls deployed a lot of energy in molding girls’ character, because upliftment
of the black race was thought to be at stake; and because African American girls of “ the better
class” were thought to be representing their families and “ the Black race” (Shaw 1996). By
extension, women of all classes were also trained to be living examples for the entire African
American community.
Being Exemplars of Virtue and Morality: Preventing Teen Sex and Early Pregnancies
Some women wrote of constantly proving their self-worth, their morality and “ purity” to both
black and white America. Many were conscious of this social pressure when growing up.
Stephanie Shaw claimed that “ family standards of respectable behavior also included Victorian
ideals of restraint regarding female sexuality” . Girls were expected to restraint from sexual
relations before marriage or from getting out of wedlock, because these could endanger their
careers by preventing them from entering educational institutions (Shaw 1996). In the 1860s,
Black women were conscious of the social stigma of any embarrassing or tactless act/remark.
For middle-class or upper-class women, pregnancy before marriage also meant risking one’ s
future career. Though this was also true for White southern women, the consequences were more
tragic for Blacks, because career prospects for black women were more limited.

As sexual relations out of wedlock were looked down upon by both men and women,
middle-class Black parents were very much concerned about their daughters' reputations. In the
early 1880s, when young Elizabeth Johnson was courted by the man who became her husband,
her grand-parents were very much concerned about respecting decency and protecting their
grand-daughter’ s respectability. In her autobiography Life Story, 1867-1923, Elizabeth Johnson
Harris confessed that her grandparents kept watchful supervision over her and her lover. The
lovers were never left alone. Moreover, when they corresponded Elizabeth’ s grandparents
insisted upon reading all letters exchanged. To northern and urbanized readers of The
Independent newspaper, such supervision was too drastic. Harris attributed this strictness to the
generational gap between her and her grand-parents. At the time she penned her Life Story
(1923), Elizabeth Johnson Harris was visibly trying to defend these rules; she willingly abided
by her grand-parents’ strict rules, because those strict rules aimed at protecting her reputation
and respectability. Though White women too were chaperoned (supervised), protection of a
Black girl’ s reputation was all the more vital.

After the 1890s, an early pregnancy still endangered the reputation of women of all social
classes and very often complicated a working-class woman’ s life. When she became a mother,
Elizabeth Johnson Harris believed that it was her duty to advise them and warn them about the
risk of making ill choices. She thought “ there is always room for advice from the parents” .
Interestingly, Elizabeth Johnson Harris provided her daughters with additional and specific
recommendations. In addition to being dutiful representatives of the black race and being
exemplars of respectability, young African American women were expected to get an education
whenever necessary. Their parents viewed education as the most important lever for their
daughters and for the race.

Strategies: Education and Race “Uplift”

All the women in this study highly valued education.10 In the 1890s, white middle-class women

10
Addie Brown's letters defy the stereotypes of black domestics (Griffin 79). Similarly, Mary Virginia Montgomerys diary shows
15 | P a g e

approached education differently from the way black women approached education. Women had
different purposes in getting an education. For White women, going to university was a means to
get an education, to reinforce their homemakers’ skills and to find a husband. For black women,
going to university was mainly to obtain a position as an educator (Perkins 1983; Gilmore 1996;
Carlson 1992). White people held that too much education for women would “ unsex” women.
On the contrary, such fears did not affect black women, because they were denied attributes of
Victorian femininity and respectability, especially through the "Sapphire stereotype". Black
and white women’ s higher education experience in the 1890s also differed. White women
mostly went to "only girls institutions". Whereas black women tended to attend historically black
colleges and universities, which were co-educational institutions (Gilmore 36). White women
often married late because of this single-sex rule. Whereas black women often met their future
husbands in the course of their studies.
Most black men supported women's/girls' education, even before the war. African
American men felt that, if educated, black women could help the whole community. Moreover,
in a context of disenfranchisement, black men felt that women had a role to play, not only in race
upliftment but also in re-enfranchising African Americans. For instance, black historian William
T. Alexander (like Du Bois) strongly believed that women should be offered the same
opportunity to be educated as men. Yet, in the late 19th century, some black men began to
perceive intelligent women as potential threats. So, they became more hesitant about women's
education. In the 1870s and 1880s, as black men sought to obtain education and positions similar
to those of white men, many of them adopted the prevailing notion of white society, especially
the belief in the "natural subordination of women" (Perkins 1983: 187). At the same time, many
middle-class and upper-class fathers promoted their daughters' education. They sent their
daughters to colleges and normal schools so that they would be able to obtain professional jobs
other than domestic works (where women suffered from sexual exploitation).
After the 1890s, many black men still had expectations for black women that were
different from those white men had for white women. As Gilmore explains, black men did not
advocate the "cult of southern ladyhood"; they instead advocated "an evangelically driven ethos
of usefulness". The pursuit of usefulness gave women a middle space between men's sphere and
women's sphere (Gilmore 1996). In other words, proving themselves as useful to the black race
became the main purpose of black women's education. This idea did not contradict "Victorian
codes of conduct", and so, black men chose to emphasize "usefulness" of black women rather
than emphasizing their "ladylike behavior". At the turn of the 19th century, driven by their
aspirations to serve in the Army and to be re-enfranchised, many black men supported women's
emancipation.
African American women of all classes had a legacy of community work. In fact, they
were the forerunners of female community work in the United States. Black women became race
workers, because they were strong Christian believers or because they believed that education
could solve African Americans’ problems. In general, the role of a teacher and helping in
uplifting the black race was expected of women. Black women were seen as the “ nurturers and
guardians of the black race” and “ most black women educators accepted that

that she aspired to become a teacher, and that she read a lot. She wanted to complete her studies at Oberlin College and her
parents gave consent to her wish (Sterling 468). Ida Wells also strongly valued her education and education of her siblings as
well. So, Wells took courses in 1887 in order to complete her education. Valuing education more than anything else, Elizabeth
Johnson Harris also prized professional achievements. Additionally, Elizabeth Johnson Harris wrote in her Life Story that she
wanted her children (regardless of gender) to study as much as they could.
16 | P a g e

charge/responsibility” (Perkins 1983: 187).11 Moreover, African American women believed

that being active in religious associations or working as teachers was compatible with Victorian
ideals. Even before slavery was outlawed, black families often did not view Victorian ideals as
incompatible with "race works" or "public sphere works". So, many black women used their
education and their family’ s values (hard work and selflessness) to be economically
independent and to serve the community. In addition, the racial and economic climate forced
many women to keep working outside of home. For humble women, working was essential.

Economically Independent Women

After 1865, African American women’ s economic circumstances were influenced by the
heritage of the “ peculiar institution” (slavery). African American women (whether they had
been enslaved or not) had to deal with the legacy of servitude. The negative legacy of bondage
shaped the contours of post-war African American womanhood. Even after emancipation, “ the
basic economic inequities and racial discrimination in all walks of life prevented the majority of
the black population from entering the mainstream and competing in an open society” (Ladner
1981: 284). Both in the North and in the South, racial discrimination barred black women’ s
access to most occupations, and thus, reduced their economic and social opportunities.
With emancipation, freedwomen were able to experience their womanhood in a new
fashion. They had to find their own definition of womanhood in a predominantly white society.
Agents of the Freedmen’ s Bureau encouraged black women to adopt feminine attitudes and
attributes. They even attempted to force freedmen and freedwomen to adhere to the social mores
of the larger American (Christian) society. After the Civil War, the Freedmen’ s Bureau agents
encouraged marriage among black people to ensure that freed women lived in legal Christian
matrimony. They also pressed women to be obedient to their husbands (Kaiser-Farmer 2010:
12). In the South, black men also insisted their wives to abide by Victorian rules and to withdraw
from the fields. Yet, because of their low incomes, most men could not become their families’
sole providers. So, women were compelled to work as well. Consequently, freedwomen had to
simultaneously fulfil double responsibilities: viz., (i) taking care of their homes and children, and
(ii) working outside.
However, the attempts by the Freedmen’ s Bureau at instilling black women with
Victorian codes of behavior failed. Despite black men's or white men’ s insistence on women
keeping their “ proper place” , their economic situation did not allow them to conform to it.
Moreover, many black women resisted Victorian gendered values, because they were not ready
to accept "a new form of domination" in their "new life in freedom". Some changes occurred in
the decades after 1890. Many black women were either: (i) the only bread-winners of their
households; or (ii) contributors to family income (alongside their husbands). Proportionately,

11
The women of this sample embraced this tradition of uplifting the black race. For example, Elizabeth Hobbs
Keckleys deep awareness of her belonging to the race prompted her will to create the Contraband Relief
Association of Washington in 1862. Northern upper-middle-class Rebecca Primus strongly wished to accomplish
race work in the South because she felt it was her duty to help the wider African American community and since
teaching was an acceptable position for a woman of her section and class, her family agreed to send her to
Maryland (Griffin 1999: 10). Similarly, Mary Virginia Montgomery returned to Mound Bayou as a teacher in 1874
and taught in a black school in Mississippi most of her life. Moreover, Rebecca Primus, after accomplishing her
work as a teacher to the newly emancipated slaves of Maryland between 1866 and 1869, she remained constantly
involved with her church and local Sunday school (Griffin 1999: 9, 283). Driven by a desire to express her political
voice, ida Wells wanted to become a journalist to defend the rights of black community.
17 | P a g e

more black women (in comparison to white women) were involved in paid works. This
disproportionate ratio is considered as a reflection of the economic necessity of black women to
their families.

Conclusion
Although African American women were often raised in conservative ways and, when possible,
in keeping with Victorian ideals, many of their written testimonies stress the need for self-
reliance and independence:
(i) to cope with their lack of political and economic power; and
(ii) to counter institutional racism and sexism.
After emancipation in 1865, they continued to display agency. Black women kept working
outside the home and continued their struggle for dignity. A the same time, they developed
strategies to enhance their protection through education and community work. African American
women believed in self-help and resorted to their own energy to better their situations. They
considered it their duty to prove that, through fighting against discrimination and injustice, they
had an essential role to play for their community and country. As the century drew to an end,
black American women and white American women had to find solutions to cope with growing
sexism. Black women neither completely contradicted Victorianism nor fully espoused it. They
continued to shape their own definition of womanhood. Constrained in their efforts by racism
and sexism, most African American women openly challenged the social codes of Victorianism.
Most of them rejected notions of domesticity and submissiveness. Some of them chose to do so,
while some of them were compelled to do so by their economic circumstances. Their struggle
and their definition of womanhood in the 19th and early 20th century dramatically influenced
"American womanhood".

Readings
Primary sources
ALEXANDER, William T. History of the Colored Race in America. New Orleans, 1888.
DU BOIS, W.E.B., ed. The College-bred Negro: Report of a Social Study Made Under the
Direction of Atlanta University; together with the Proceedings of the Fifth Conference for
the Study of the Negro Problems, Held at Atlanta University, May 29-30, 1900. Atlanta,
Georgia: Atlanta University Press, 1900.
---. Black Reconstruction in America. 1900. Piscataway: Transaction Publishers, 2013.
DU BOIS, W.E.B., and Augustus GRANVILLE DILL, eds. The College-bred Negro American:
Report of a Social Study made by Atlanta University under the patronage of the Trustees
of the John F. Slater Fund; with the Proceedings of the 1 5th Annual Conference for the
Study of the Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University, on Tuesday, May 24th, 1910.
Atlanta: Atlanta University Press, 1910.
GRIFFIN, Farah Jasmine, ed. Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends: Letters from Rebecca Primus
of Royal Oak, Maryland and Addie Brown of Hartford, Connecticut, 1854-1868. New
York: Knopf, 1999.
HACKLEY, E. Azalia. The Colored Girl Beautiful. Kansas City: Burton Publishing, 1916.
HARRIS, Elizabeth Johnson. Life Story, 1867-1923. On-line Archival Collection, Special
Collections Library at Duke University.
HUNTER, Jane Edna Harris. A Nickel and A Prayer. 1940. Morgantown: West University Press,
18 | P a g e

2011.
KECKLEY, Elizabeth. Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White
House. 1868. Call number CB K25B, North Carolina Collection, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. Online edition 1999.
MONTGOMERY, Mary Virginia. Diary (microfilm). Davis Library, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. Call number 1-5789. Available in: We Are Your Sisters: Black
Women in the Nineteenth Century (Ed. Dorothy Sterling). New York: Norton, 1984, p.
462-472.
“ ‘ More Slavery at the South,’ by a Negro Nurse” . The Independent. New York: published for
the proprietors, 1848-1921, vol. 72, January 25, 1912, p. 196-200.
STERLING, Dorothy. We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the Nineteenth Century. New York:
Norton, 1984.
WELLS, Ida B. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells (Ed. Alfreda Duster).
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
---. The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells: An Intimate Portrait of the Activist as a Young Woman
(Ed. Miriam DeCosta-Willis). Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.
Secondary sources
BOGGLE, Donald. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of
Blacks in American Films. New York: Continuum, 1994.
BUTCHART, Ronald. Schooling the Freedpeople: Teaching, Learning, and the Struggle for
Black Freedom, 1861-1876. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
CARBY, Hazel V. “ On the Threshold of Woman’ s Era: Lynching, Empire, and Sexuality in
Black Feminist Theory” , in “ Race,” Writing, and Difference (Ed. Henry Louis Gates).
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986, p. 301-316.
---. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
CARLSON, Shirley. “ Black Ideals of Womanhood in the Late Victorian Era.” Journal of
Negro History, vol. 77, no. 2, 1992, p. 61-73.
COTT, Nancy. The Bonds of Womanhood: “ Woman’ s Sphere” in New England, 1780-1835.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977.
COX, Karen L. Dreaming of Dixie: How the South was Created in American Popular Culture.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011.
CULLEY, Margo. A Day at a Time: The Diary Literature of American Women from 1764 to the
Present. New York: Feminist Press, 1985.
DAVIS, Angela. Femmes, race et classe. 1983. Translated from the American by Dominique
Taffin. Paris: Des Femmes, Antoinette Fouque, 2013.
EVANS, Sara M. Born for Liberty: A History of Women in America. New York: Free Press,
1989.
FAULKNER, Carol. Women’ s Radical Reconstruction: The Freedmen’ s Aid Movement.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
FONER, Eric. Give me Liberty! An American History. New York: Norton, 2012.
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