How Were Women Treated in Early America?
The Rights and Value of Women in Colonial America
According to many historians, early American society devalued women and caused them great hardship and suffering. They argue that American law oppressed women and that the Founders held women in fairly low esteem. Needless to say, this view has left many American women with a rather sour view of their nation's history. There is, however, an alternative view that deserves a closer look.
The Declaration of Independence and Women
In its sweeping opening paragraphs, the Declaration of Independence proclaims that "all men are created equal" and "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." When Jefferson penned the words "all men," did he contemplate slaves, free blacks, Indians, and women? Or was Jefferson referring exclusively to white men?
A majority of historians argue that Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration, as well as the Congress that adopted it had only white men in their conception of human equality. Indicative of this view is James MacGregor Burns, author of Government by the People, 15th ed. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1993), who writes: "The Declaration…refers to 'men' or 'him,' not to women."
Likewise, Lorna C. Burns, writing in History of the United States, vol. 1: Beginnings to 1877 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1992): "When Jefferson spoke [in the Declaration of Independence] of 'the people'...he meant only free white men."
Taking a stand against the anti-Founder view, historian Thomas G. West, author of Vindicating The Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), convincingly argues that "all men" in the Declaration was understood by the Founders to mean "mankind, the human race." According to West, the Founders "wrote at length about 'rights of mankind,' 'rights of humanity,' and 'human rights.' They believed — and they said — that the natural rights described in the Declaration applied to all people at all times."
Women in Colonial America
How were Colonial America women treated? There is today a fairly pervasive view that women in colonial times were consigned to lives of drudgery and despair. With few rights and opportunities, many women were trapped in loveless marriages. Those without families were outcasts. At least, that's the image many Americans today have of Colonial American women.
Historian Carol Berkin echoes this view, writing that a woman was considered "a legal incompetent" in the same category as "children, idiots, and criminals under English law."
If colonial women were oppressed, many of the leading Founders were apparently unaware of it or in serious denial. Thomas Jefferson, in his famous Notes on Virginia, criticized the Indian tribes for their treatment of women and held up Colonial American society as an example. Jefferson wrote:
The women are submitted to unjust drudgery. This I believe is the case with every barbarous people. With such, force is law. The stronger sex therefore imposes on the weaker. It is civilization alone which replaces women in the enjoyment of their natural equality. That first teaches us to subdue the selfish passions, and to respect those rights in others which we value in ourselves. Were we in equal barbarism, our females would be equal drudges.
Was Jefferson being clueless and insensitive? Or is there perhaps another possibility? Might Jefferson have honestly believed, and with good reason, that women in Colonial America were treated better than in many other societies?
Why Women Couldn't Vote or Hold Property in Early America
It's true that the Founders didn't give women a national right to vote, but it's also true that the United States was the first republican government of its kind. The whole idea of popular voting was fairly revolutionary in and of itself, and the nation was developing, experimenting with and adjusting its system of government all during the founding era. Not to mention that the women themselves were not demanding the right to vote until a generation or two after the founding era. It seems appropriate to cut the Founders some slack in this area.
The same is true with respect to property rights. Early American laws were deeply influenced and shaped by medieval English laws. Accordingly, property was held by households, with the husband serving as the legal authority and representative of the family.
In spite of this, however, unique strides were made in America to extend more legal protections and options to women. Larry Schweikart, author of 48 Liberal Lies About American History (New York: Penguin Group, 2008) offers prenuptial agreements and the concept of "power of attorney" as but two examples. Schweikart, a defender of the Founding Fathers, explains: "Americans invented the first prenuptial agreements and trusts, which established property rights for women within marriages via contracts."
The Legacy of America's Founding Fathers
How one assesses the legacy of America's revolutionary era and the Founders is based in large part on the vantage point one takes. If a person today compares Colonial America with 21st century America at face value, then it stands to reason that any assessment will be somewhat negative.
If, however, one takes the time to appreciate the founding era in its historical context, the view is much different. Looking at early America in the sweep of world history, progress was being made.
None of this is, of course, to suggest that women in early America had it made. And, in the case of women caught up in slavery, the situation was indeed rather bleak. But the Founding Fathers got the United States off to a great start in one day achieving gender (and, for that matter, racial) equality. And they should be remembered positively for their legacy.
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