Voices without Votes: Women and Politics in Antebellum New England (Revisiting New England)

Based on meticulous and original archival research, this study definitively shows that despite contemporary “woman’s sphere” prescriptions advising them to stay out of public affairs, a number of New England women in the antebellum era amply demonstrated political consciousness and proffered partisan opinions with little social reprobation for having overstepped their “proper” role. Voices without Votes rescues the “voices” of these women who, though barred from voting, nevertheless thought and acted in a deeply political manner. This long-awaited volume offers a startling counter to the traditional view that antebellum politics was solely a man’s world.