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Toolbox Library, primary resources thematically organized with notes and discussion questionsOnline Seminars, professional development seminars for history and literature teachersLiving the Revolution: America, 1789-1820
Living the Revolution: America, 1789-1820
Topic: Predicaments of Early Republican LifeTopic: ReligionTopic: PoliticsTopic: ExpansionTopic: Equality
Topic: Equality
Overview of Living the Revolution
Resource Menu: Equality
Text 1. Founding Fathers on Equality
Text 2. Founding Fathers on Slavery
Text 3. African Americans on Slavery
Text 4. Woman's Role
•  Reading Guide
» Link


Text 5. Women on Equality
Text 6. Summing Up
RESOURCE MENU Reading Guide » Link

Link Page
4.  Woman's Role in the Republic
- Abigail Adams, Letters to/from John Adams and John Quincy Adams, 1776, 1780, 1783, excerpts
- Dr. Samuel Jennings, The Married Lady's Companion, 1808, excerpt

   Woman's Role, Keep within Compass
"Keep within Compass"
ca. 1795 (detail)

Links
Abigail Adams to/from John Adams
  31 March 1776:
  https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s9.html
  14 April 1776:
  https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s10.html
  7 May 1776:
  https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s12.html

Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 20 March 1780 /
26 Dec. 1783: PDF file*
https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/livingrev/equality/text4/
aadamstojqadams.pdf


Jennings: PDF file*
https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/livingrev/equality/text4/jennings.pdf


Online
Sources


Abigail/John Adams letters: The Founders' Constitution, University of Chicago Press

Abigail/John Quincy Adams letters: National Humanities Center

Jennings: National Humanities Center


Printing

If you choose to print these texts:
-   Print directly from the sites (printer-friendly versions when
    available).
-   Length: 10 pages (PDF files*).

Supplemental
sites


Overview, "The American Woman of the Early Nineteenth Century," from the Connor Prairie Museum, Indiana

Brief biography of Abigail Adams, from the Massachusetts Historical Society

Biography of Abigail Adams, from the Unitarian-Universalist Historical Society

Online exhibition: One President's Adolescence, on the youth and education of John Quincy Adams

Illustration, "Keep within Compass," ca. 1785-1805, from CUNY-College of Staten Island

Hannah Foster, The Coquette, 1797 [novel]

The Diary of Martha Ballard (diary: 1785-1812), from DoHistory.org, Film Study Center, Harvard University

Benjamin Rush, "Thoughts upon Female Education," 1787, from the University of Chicago ClassWeb

Jennifer Manion, "The Young Ladies' Academy of Philadelphia: Attitudes toward the Formal Education of Women in America, 1790-1800," Penn History Review, Spring 1997



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*PDF file - You will need software on your computer that allows you to read and print Portable Document Format (PDF) files, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have this software, you may download it FREE from Adobe's Web site.





Toolbox: Living the Revolution: America, 1789-1820
Predicaments | Religion | Politics | Expansion | Equality


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Toolbox Library: Primary Resources in U.S. History and Literature
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