《女性天才:宪法初期的伊丽莎·哈里奥特和乔治·华盛顿》作者:玛丽·萨拉·比尔德(书评)

IF 0.8 2区 历史学 Q1 HISTORY JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC Pub Date : 2023-06-01 DOI:10.1353/jer.2023.a897988
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Washington pronounced the lecture \"tolerable.\" For years, this curious episode puzzled and enchanted Mary Sarah Bilder, whose book Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution reflects her efforts to understand the larger significance of what transpired that evening. Bilder aims to \"flip the outside in and the inside out\" by looking at the people excluded from the Constitutional Convention but whose lives nevertheless helped shape what was discussed within (4). A self-described \"constitutionalist,\" Bilder documents the world of possibilities that existed for women, and to a lesser extent for African Americans and people of color, during the tumultuous years in which the Constitution—a term that first meant a system of government—came instead to refer to a single document. According to Bilder, Eliza Harriot's lectures establish that many alternatives to white male rule existed within what ultimately became a document that enshrined it. The key to unlocking this alternative universe of female citizenship is the late-eighteenth-century debates about female intellect and [End Page 323] education because, all sides agreed, education provided the first step on the path to political representation and maybe even voting and officeholding. Eliza Harriot (Bilder refers to her by her first two names) lived and lectured during the heyday of discussions about \"female genius,\" a period that culminated in the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). A major contribution of Female Genius is the rich intellectual, transatlantic history of this potentially revolutionary ideal. Each of the book's six chapters present a lively intellectual history of the Age of the Constitution—from the brief vogue for female debating societies to Irish revolutionary societies. The book also contains terrific explanatory material, including 38 images, a helpful timeline, and supplementary notes on the research process. Another strength of the book is the three-dimensional world that Bilder constructs for Eliza Harriot, especially given the paucity of sources. Relying on genealogical sources, census records, digitized historical newspapers (especially the 140-plus advertisements that Eliza Harriot herself placed), and the papers of prominent others (most notably George Washington whose collection holds all five of the existing letters penned by Eliza Harriot), Bilder sketches a compelling biography of a woman whose life was both extraordinary and representative. Born to English merchants in Portugal, Eliza Harriot resided in many parts of the British Empire before settling in the U.S., with her Irish husband John O'Connor, in 1786. Within the new democracy, she moved frequently because of her husband's inability to keep a job. In each new city Eliza Harriot offered public lectures, which she then used as a platform to establish female academies from New York to Philadelphia to Charleston, and many cities in between. The bigger questions undergirding the book include: What did the Constitution mean for women? How did it come to be that women, along with people of color, were written out of the Constitution? The introduction and bibliographic essay are in conversation with historical works that offer various answers to these questions, including classics by Mary Beth Norton, Linda Kerber, Mary Kelley, and Rosemarie Zagarri. Bilder challenges the consensus that Republican Motherhood best describes the role of women in the early republic. Instead, she suggests that Republican Motherhood, along with its chief exponent Benjamin Rush, represents just one of many competing visions of the role of women in that tumultuous era. 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引用次数: 0

摘要

关键词:乔治·华盛顿,伊丽莎·哈里奥特,美国宪法,教育,女性天才女性天才:伊丽莎·哈里奥特和乔治·华盛顿在宪法的黎明。玛丽·萨拉·比尔德著。(夏洛茨维尔:弗吉尼亚大学出版社,2022年。360页。布,29.50美元)。1787年5月,一位名叫伊丽莎·哈里奥特·奥康纳的英国妇女在费城做了一次关于“口才的力量”的演讲。这一场合可能标志着美国第一次有女性公开发言。参加这次活动的有未来的总统乔治·华盛顿,很可能还有其他几位来镇上参加制宪会议的知名人士。华盛顿称这次演讲“可以忍受”。多年来,这一奇特的事件让玛丽·萨拉·比尔德感到困惑和着迷,她的书《女性天才:伊丽莎·哈里奥特和乔治·华盛顿在宪法的黎明》反映了她为理解那天晚上发生的事情的更大意义所做的努力。Bilder的目标是通过观察那些被排除在制宪会议之外,但他们的生活却帮助塑造了会议内部讨论的内容的人,来“从外到外翻转”(4)。Bilder记录了在动荡的岁月里,女性,以及非裔美国人和有色人种存在的各种可能性,在较小程度上,宪法这个术语最初意味着一种政府体系,而不是指单一的文件。根据Bilder的说法,Eliza Harriot的讲座证明了白人男性统治的许多替代方案存在于最终成文的文件中。打开女性公民身份这一另类世界的关键是18世纪晚期关于女性智力和教育的辩论,因为各方都同意,教育为女性走向政治代表权,甚至可能是投票和担任公职迈出了第一步。伊丽莎·哈里奥特(Bilder用她的前两个名字来称呼她)生活和演讲的时期,是关于“女性天才”讨论的全盛时期,这一时期的高潮是玛丽·沃斯通克拉夫特的《女权辩护》(1792年)的出版。《女性天才》一书的一个主要贡献在于,它讲述了这一潜在的革命性理想的丰富知识和跨大西洋历史。这本书的六章每一章都生动地呈现了宪法时代的思想史——从女性辩论社团的短暂流行到爱尔兰革命社团。这本书还包含了很棒的解释性材料,包括38张图片,一个有用的时间表,以及对研究过程的补充说明。这本书的另一个优势是Bilder为Eliza Harriot构建的三维世界,特别是在资源匮乏的情况下。比尔德依靠家谱资料、人口普查记录、数字化的历史报纸(尤其是伊丽莎·哈里奥特自己发布的140多条广告),以及其他知名人士的论文(最著名的是乔治·华盛顿,他的收藏中保存了伊丽莎·哈里奥特所写的全部五封现存信件),勾勒出了一个引人入胜的女人的传记,她的一生既非凡又具有代表性。伊丽莎·哈里奥特(Eliza Harriot)出生于葡萄牙的英国商人家庭,在1786年与她的爱尔兰丈夫约翰·奥康纳(John O'Connor)定居美国之前,她曾在大英帝国的许多地方居住过。在新民主主义时期,她经常搬家,因为她的丈夫无法保住工作。在每一个新城市,伊丽莎·哈里奥特都提供公开讲座,然后她以此为平台,从纽约到费城到查尔斯顿,以及其间的许多城市,建立了女性学院。支撑这本书的更大的问题包括:宪法对女性意味着什么?妇女和有色人种是如何被从宪法中剔除的呢?引言和参考书目文章与历史著作对话,这些著作为这些问题提供了各种答案,包括玛丽·贝思·诺顿、琳达·克尔伯、玛丽·凯利和罗斯玛丽·扎格里的经典著作。Bilder对共和母性最能描述共和早期女性角色的共识提出了挑战。相反,她认为,共和党的母性,以及其主要倡导者本杰明·拉什(Benjamin Rush),只是那个动荡时代关于女性角色的许多相互矛盾的观点之一。伊莱扎哈里奥特……
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Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution by Mary Sarah Bilder (review)
Reviewed by: Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution by Mary Sarah Bilder Kimberly A. Hamlin (bio) Keywords George Washington, Eliza Harriot, U.S. Constitution, Education, Female genius Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution. By Mary Sarah Bilder. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022. Pp. 360. Cloth, $29.50.) In May of 1787, a British woman named Eliza Harriot O'Connor delivered a lecture on "the Power of Eloquence" in Philadelphia. This occasion likely marked the first time a woman spoke publicly in the United States. The event was attended by future president George Washington and, quite possibly, several other prominent men who were in town to attend the Constitutional Convention. Washington pronounced the lecture "tolerable." For years, this curious episode puzzled and enchanted Mary Sarah Bilder, whose book Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution reflects her efforts to understand the larger significance of what transpired that evening. Bilder aims to "flip the outside in and the inside out" by looking at the people excluded from the Constitutional Convention but whose lives nevertheless helped shape what was discussed within (4). A self-described "constitutionalist," Bilder documents the world of possibilities that existed for women, and to a lesser extent for African Americans and people of color, during the tumultuous years in which the Constitution—a term that first meant a system of government—came instead to refer to a single document. According to Bilder, Eliza Harriot's lectures establish that many alternatives to white male rule existed within what ultimately became a document that enshrined it. The key to unlocking this alternative universe of female citizenship is the late-eighteenth-century debates about female intellect and [End Page 323] education because, all sides agreed, education provided the first step on the path to political representation and maybe even voting and officeholding. Eliza Harriot (Bilder refers to her by her first two names) lived and lectured during the heyday of discussions about "female genius," a period that culminated in the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). A major contribution of Female Genius is the rich intellectual, transatlantic history of this potentially revolutionary ideal. Each of the book's six chapters present a lively intellectual history of the Age of the Constitution—from the brief vogue for female debating societies to Irish revolutionary societies. The book also contains terrific explanatory material, including 38 images, a helpful timeline, and supplementary notes on the research process. Another strength of the book is the three-dimensional world that Bilder constructs for Eliza Harriot, especially given the paucity of sources. Relying on genealogical sources, census records, digitized historical newspapers (especially the 140-plus advertisements that Eliza Harriot herself placed), and the papers of prominent others (most notably George Washington whose collection holds all five of the existing letters penned by Eliza Harriot), Bilder sketches a compelling biography of a woman whose life was both extraordinary and representative. Born to English merchants in Portugal, Eliza Harriot resided in many parts of the British Empire before settling in the U.S., with her Irish husband John O'Connor, in 1786. Within the new democracy, she moved frequently because of her husband's inability to keep a job. In each new city Eliza Harriot offered public lectures, which she then used as a platform to establish female academies from New York to Philadelphia to Charleston, and many cities in between. The bigger questions undergirding the book include: What did the Constitution mean for women? How did it come to be that women, along with people of color, were written out of the Constitution? The introduction and bibliographic essay are in conversation with historical works that offer various answers to these questions, including classics by Mary Beth Norton, Linda Kerber, Mary Kelley, and Rosemarie Zagarri. Bilder challenges the consensus that Republican Motherhood best describes the role of women in the early republic. Instead, she suggests that Republican Motherhood, along with its chief exponent Benjamin Rush, represents just one of many competing visions of the role of women in that tumultuous era. Eliza Harriot...
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.30
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0.00%
发文量
70
期刊介绍: The Journal of the Early Republic is a quarterly journal committed to publishing the best scholarship on the history and culture of the United States in the years of the early republic (1776–1861). JER is published for the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. SHEAR membership includes an annual subscription to the journal.
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