Marriage in the Early Republic: Elizabeth and William Wirt and the Companionate Ideal
William Wirt practiced law in Virginia and Maryland in the early national period and served as attorney general under James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Elizabeth Wirt managed the household and cared for the Wirts' large family during her husband's frequent work-related absences. For more than three decades, the couple struggled to reconcile different daily pursuits with a commitment to marriage as a partnership of equals. In Marriage in the Early Republic, Anya Jabour provides detailed...
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Jabour's book has the advantage of giving us a microhistorical look at a single, well-documented marrriage, allowing her to trace the evolving tensions between ideals and realities over the course of their entire marriage and parenting experience. Booknews Through the lens of the extensive correspondence between a prominent Southern couple (William Wirt was appointed US Attorney General in 1817), the author (no affiliation noted) analyzes the disconnect between the idealized portrayal of that marriage by a 19th century novelist and the reality contingent upon evolving gender roles and tensions between Old South and urban North lifestyles. Portions of several chapters appeared in recent issues of Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Journal of the Early Republic, and Journal of Southern History. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Beau Ideal1Ch. 1Forming a Life Partnership: Courtship in Richmond, 1799-18028Ch. 2Going to Housekeeping: Early Years in Williamsburg and Norfolk, 1803-180623Ch. 3Betwixt Duty and Love: Conflicts in Richmond, 1806-181759Ch. 4An Almost Complete Divorce: Living Apart in Washington, 1817-1829100Ch. 5Building Castles in the Air: Planning for the Future in Baltimore, 1829-1834140Epilogue: A Contested Legacy163Notes171Essay on Sources199Index211
\ Pennsylvania Magazine of History and BiographyThis book has much to offer students and scholars of the early republic, and of gender relations in the nineteenth century.\ — Karin Wulf\ \ \ \ \ \ Journal of Southern HistoryClearly written and interpretively convincing. Jabour's singular contribution lies in the wealth of richly textured detail through which the reader comes to understand marriage both as a social institution and as the lived experience of real people.\ — Anne M. Boylan\ \ \ \ Journal of American HistoryJabour's book has the advantage of giving us a microhistorical look at a single, well-documented marrriage, allowing her to trace the evolving tensions between ideals and realities over the course of their entire marriage and parenting experience. The result is engaging but sobering, as the reader is forced to confront the frustrations produced by the tensions in a marriage that was regarded as a model, loving union by the couple and their contemporaries.\ — C. Dallett Hemphill\ \ \ \ \ \ American Historical ReviewA fascinating portrait of an intense, if sometimes rocky, relationship.\ — Glenna Matthews\ \ \ \ \ \ American Historical ReviewA fascinating portrait of an intense, if sometimes rocky, relationship.\ — Glenna Matthews\ \ \ \ \ \ Journal of American HistoryJabour's book has the advantage of giving us a microhistorical look at a single, well-documented marrriage, allowing her to trace the evolving tensions between ideals and realities over the course of their entire marriage and parenting experience. The result is engaging but sobering, as the reader is forced to confront the frustrations produced by the tensions in a marriage that was regarded as a model, loving union by the couple and their contemporaries.\ — C. Dallett Hemphill\ \ \ \ \ \ Journal of Southern HistoryClearly written and interpretively convincing. Jabour's singular contribution lies in the wealth of richly textured detail through which the reader comes to understand marriage both as a social institution and as the lived experience of real people.\ — Anne M. Boylan\ \ \ \ \ \ Pennsylvania Magazine of History and BiographyThis book has much to offer students and scholars of the early republic, and of gender relations in the nineteenth century.\ — Karin Wulf\ \ \ \ \ \ BooknewsThrough the lens of the extensive correspondence between a prominent Southern couple (William Wirt was appointed US Attorney General in 1817), the author (no affiliation noted) analyzes the disconnect between the idealized portrayal of that marriage by a 19th century novelist and the reality contingent upon evolving gender roles and tensions between Old South and urban North lifestyles. Portions of several chapters appeared in recent issues of Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Journal of the Early Republic, and Journal of Southern History. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.\ \
