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American culture has long had a conflicted relationship with assistance to the poor. Cotton Mather and John Winthrop were staunch proponents of Christian charity as fundamental to colonial American society, while transcendentalists harbored deep skepticism towards benevolence in favor of Emersonian self-reliance and Thoreau’s insistence on an ascetic life. Women in the 19th century, as these essays show, approached issues of benevolence far differently than their male counterparts, consistently promoting assistance to the impoverished, in both their acts and their writings. These essays address a wide range of subjects: images of the sentimental seamstress figure in women’s fiction; Rebecca Harding Davis’s rewriting of the “industrial” novel; Sarah Orne Jewett’s place in the transcendental tradition of skepticism toward charity, and her subversion of it; the genre of the poorhouse narrative; and the philanthropic work and writings of Hull House founder Jane Addams. As the editors of Our Sisters’ Keepers argue, the vulnerable and marginal positions occupied by many women in the 19th century fostered an empathetic sensitivity in them to the plight of the poor, and their ability to act and write in advocacy of the impoverished offered a form of empowerment not otherwise available to them. The result was the reformulation of the concept of the American individual. Contributors include: Jill Bergman, Debra Bernardi, Sarah E. Chinn, Monika Elbert, Lori Merish, Terry D. Novak, James Salazar, Mary Templin, Karen Tracey, Whitney A. Womack
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Our Sisters’ Keepers
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Studies in American Literary Realism and Naturalism series editor Gary Scharnhorst editorial board Louis J. Budd Donna Campbell John Crowley Robert E. Fleming Eric Haralson Katherine Kearns Joseph McElrath George Monteiro Brenda Murphy James Nagel Alice Hall Petry Donald Pizer Tom Quirk Jeanne Campbell Reesman Ken Roemer Susan Rosowski
You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press.
Our Sisters’ Keepers Nineteenth-Century Benevolence Literature by American Women
Edited by Jill Bergman and Debra Bernardi
The Universit y of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa
You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press.
Copyright © 2005 The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Typeface: Minion ∞ The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Our sisters’ keepers : nineteenth-century benevolence literature by American women / edited by Jill Bergman and Debra Bernardi. p. cm. — (Studies in American literary realism and naturalism) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8173-1467-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8173-5193-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American literature—19th century—History and criticism. 2. Benevolen