Table of Contents

Introduction: Gender Expectations Across Cultures ix

Chapter One Women In Colonial America to1763 1

Native American Women 2

Spanish–Heritage Women 6

Early Accounts of Native Peoples 8

White Colonial Women 12

African Women 35

Study Guide 47

Suggestions for Further Reading 48

Chapter Two Resistance, Revolution, and Early Nationhood, 1763 to 1812 52

Resistance to England, 1763–1776 53

The American Revolution, 1776–1783 58

Women after the Revolution 70

Republican Women in the Early Nation 77

Women on the Western Frontier 87

Study Guide 97

Suggestions for Further Reading 98

Chapter Three True Women in Industrial and Westward Expansion, 1812 to 1837 102

The South 103

The North 114

The West 135

Study Guide 147

Suggestions for Further Reading 148

Images and Realities (Photographs) follow page 152

Chapter Four Moral Women Reshaping American Life and Values, 1837 to 1861 153

Women in the South 153

Women in the North 161

Women in the West 191

Study Guide 199

Suggestions for Further Reading 200

Chapter Five Womanly Strength of the Nation : The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861 to 1877 207

Civil War, 1861–1865 208

Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back: Reconstruction, 1865–1877 219

Women in the West 242

Study Guide 252

Suggestions for Further Reading 253

Index xiii (follows page 260)

About the Author

Glenda Riley is Alexander M. Bracken Professor of HistoryEmeritus at Ball State University. Formerly, she was professor ofhistory and director of the Women s Studies Program at theUniversity of Northern Iowa. Professor Riley has also served asvisiting endowed professor at University College, Dublin; MarquetteUniversity; and Mesa State College, In addition to authoring foureditions of Inventing the American Women, Professor Riley haswritten The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley (1994), A Place toGrow: Women in the American West (1992), Divorce: An AmericanTradition (1991), The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Womenon the Prairie and Plains (1988), Women and Indians on theFrontier, 1825-1915 (1984), Frontierswomen: The Iowa Experience(1981; 2d ed., 1994), Women and Nature: Saving the Wild West (1999), Taking Land, Breaking Land: WomenColonizing the American West and Kenya, 1840-1940 (2003), andConfronting Race: Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815-1915(2004), as ell as numerous published articles, reviews, andchapters in edited volumes. Professor Riley now lives on a horseranch in historic Lincoln County, New Mexico, and is a member ofsuch organizations as the Lincoln County Historical Society and theLincoln County Sheriff s Posse.

Reviews

Praise for the 2nd edition:
"This is a wonderful set of two volumes on the history of American women, from the earliest colonial period to the 1990s. It is based on a wide variety of sources, and it is extensively documented. Anyone interested in the history of women in the United States should consult this important work." ( The Historical Journal of Massachusetts, Summer 1995)