Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia
Marital status was a fundamental legal and cultural feature of women's identity in the eighteenth century. Free women who were not married could own property and make wills, contracts, and court appearances, rights that the law of coverture prevented their married sisters from enjoying. Karin Wulf explores the significance of marital status in this account of unmarried women in Philadelphia, the largest city in the British colonies.\ In a major act of historical reconstruction, Wulf draws...
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"A gracefully written, extensively researched account of unmarried women's experiences in colonial Philadelphia."—Reviews in American History
Introduction : "not all wives" : the problem of marriage in early America1Ch. 1Martha Cooper's choice : literature and mentality25Ch. 2Elizabeth Norris's reign : religion and self53Ch. 3Mary Sandwith's spouse : family and household85Ch. 4Rachel Draper's neighborhood : work and community119Ch. 5Ann Dunlap's "great want" : poverty and public policy153Ch. 6Lydia Hyde's petition : property and political culture181
\ From the Publisher"Wulf organizes her book around a series of elegantly intertwined essays, each centered on the experiences of a particular woman and touching on a different aspect of women's lives, from their attitudes towards marriage or their sense of self, to their commercial transactions or their political activities. This approach allows Wulf to create brief but vivid sketches of the lives of individual single women even as she discusses the broader implications of their experiences."—Journal of Social History\ "Karin Wulf has made an important contribution to early American women's history. Not All Wives is a gracefully written, extensively researched account of unmarried women's experiences in colonial Philadelphia."—Reviews in American History\ \ \
