Read the following primary source- “We will not speak of the…
Read the following primary source- “We will not speak of the innumerable instances in which profligate and idle men live upon the earnings of industrious wives; or if the wives leave them, and take with them the children, to perform the double duty of mother and father, follow from place to place, and threaten to rob them of the children, if deprived of the rights of a husband, as they call them, planting themselves in their poor lodgings, frightening them into paying tribute by taking from them the children, running into debt at the expense of these otherwise so overtasked helots [serfs/peasants]… . I have seen the husband who had stained himself by a long course of low vice, till his wife was wearied from her heroic forgiveness, by finding that his treachery made it useless, and that if she would provide bread for herself and her children, she must be separate from his ill fame—I have known this man come to install himself in the chamber of a woman who loathed him, and say she should never take food without his company. I have known these men steal their children, whom they knew they had no means to maintain, take them into dissolute company, expose them to bodily danger, to frighten the poor woman, to whom, it seems, the fact that she alone had borne the pangs of their birth, and nourished their infancy, does not give an equal right to them… ” -Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845) In a clear and detailed response, address the following- What is the historical context of this source at the time this piece was written? Describe the author’s view of life in America and one opposing viewpoint held regarding this issue at the time this piece was written. No outside sources permitted. You must refer to the text above in clear and specific language. You must demonstrate an understanding of this text. Only the portions of the selected text above should be analyzed.
Read Details