Revolutionary Conceptions: Women, Fertility, and Family Limitation in America, 1760-1820 (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American ... and the University of North Carolina Press) - Softcover

Klepp, Susan E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807859923 ISBN 13: 9780807859926

Publisher: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press, 2009

Synopsis

In the Age of Revolution, how did American women conceive their lives and marital obligations? By examining the attitudes and behaviors surrounding the contentious issues of family, contraception, abortion, sexuality, beauty, and identity, Susan E. Klepp demonstrates that many women--rural and urban, free and enslaved--began to radically redefine motherhood. They asserted, or attempted to assert, control over their bodies, their marriages, and their daughters' opportunities.

Late-eighteenth-century American women were among the first in the world to disavow the continual childbearing and large families that had long been considered ideal. Liberty, equality, and heartfelt religion led to new conceptions of virtuous, rational womanhood and responsible parenthood. These changes can be seen in falling birthrates, in advice to friends and kin, in portraits, and in a gradual, even reluctant, shift in men's opinions. Revolutionary-era women redefined femininity, fertility, family, and their futures by limiting births. Women might not have won the vote in the new Republic, they might not have gained formal rights in other spheres, but, Klepp argues, there was a women's revolution nonetheless.

About this title

Book Description:

"Klepp's adept use of quantitative data and visual imagery makes the fertility transition real in cultural as well as demographic terms. We see the transformation in the representations of women's bodies and calculate the shift in numbers of births. Her knowledge of the evidence is unsurpassed, and she presents her finding with clarity and insight."--Kathleen M. Brown, University of Pennsylvania

From the Inside Flap:

By examining the attitudes and behaviors surrounding the contentious issues of family, contraception, abortion, sexuality, beauty, and identity, Klepp demonstrates that many American women--rural and urban, free and enslaved--began to radically redefine motherhood during the Age of Revolution as they asserted, or attempted to assert, control over their bodies, their marriages, and their daughters' opportunities.

About this edition

• Publisher: Omohundro Institute and University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0807859923
• ISBN 13: 9780807859926
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312