Women and the Work of Benevolence: Morality, Politics, and Class in the Nineteenth-Century United States

Nineteenth-century middle-class Protestant women were fervent in their efforts to "do good." Rhetoric—especially in the antebellum years—proclaimed that virtue was more pronounced in women than in men and praised women for their benevolent influence, moral excellence, and religious faith. In this book, Lori D. Ginzberg examines a broad spectrum of benevolent work performed by middle- and upper-middle-class women from the 1820s to 185 and offers a new interpretation of the shifting political...