Introduction

pp 1-16

Part I - Historical and theoretical background

pp 17-18

1 - The postcolonial culture of early American women's writing

pp 19-37

2 - Women in public

pp 38-68

3 - Antebellum politics and women's writing

pp 69-102

Part 2 - Genre, tradition, and innovation

pp 103-104

4 - Captivity and the literary imagination

pp 105-121

5 - Nineteenth-century American women's poetry

pp 122-142

6 - Women at war

pp 143-156

7 - Women, anti-Catholicism, and narrative in nineteenth-century America

pp 157-175

8 - Immigration and assimilation in nineteenth-century US women's writing

pp 176-200

Part 3 - Case studies

pp 201-202

9 - The uses of writing in Margaret Bayard Smith's new nation

pp 203-220

10 - The sentimental novel

pp 221-243

11 - African-American women's spiritual narratives

pp 244-261

12 - The postbellum reform writings of Rebecca Harding Davis and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

pp 262-283

13 - "Strenuous Artistry": Elizabeth Stoddard’s The Morgesons

pp 284-307

14 - Minnie's Sacrifice: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s narrative of citizenship

pp 308-319

Conclusion

pp 320-327

Index

pp 328-336