Frances Wright attempted to reform America between 1825 and 1839. Her activities were unlike any other for a woman of her time. In public lectures to audiences of men and women throughout the East and Midwest, she spoke on the evils of orthodox religion and advocated abolition, equal rights, and universal education for all people regardless of gender or class. In both action and thought, she challenged all notions of nineteenth-century womanhood. Wright's public career helps illuminate the history of antebellum American reform because it reflects the ferment and range of such activity.This study will demonstrate that ideology as a category of study is useful when examining nineteenth-century women in several interrelated contexts. Unlike previous studies examining her as a women's rights advocate, however, this is not a feminist interpretation. Wright's significance as a humanitarian is much larger than any emphasis she gave to women in her rhetoric. Part of her motivation, like her sisters in benevolence reform, involved Christianity and orthodox religion. But unlike most women of her time, Wright believed religion prevented the realization of republican values -- in particular, equality -- because the clergy perpetuated elements of theology scientific methods could not prove true. Intellectual development and social improvement could not occur, she boldly asserted, until Americans threw off religion's blanket of ignorance. Most Americans rejected Wright's denunciations of religion and calls for equality, but to some her message rang true. Her rhetoric planted in progressive women concepts about religious constraints on females and the possibilities of egalitarianism. These individuals would become leaders in the women's rights movement during the final decades of the century. / Department of History
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/186266 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Kuntz, Katherine |
| Contributors | Ball State University. Dept. of History., Glen, John M. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | iv, 92 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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