Please answer two of the following questions in brief essays (about 2-3 pp. each). Be sure to answer the entire question, and to support your argument with evidence (examples, quotes from lectures or the readings) whereever possible.

Essays will be due in class on the 17th of October.

1) Drawing on readings and lectures, compare and contrast the rights of women in the Massachusetts Bay and the Chesapeake colonies before the Revolutionary War. Be sure to address marriage and divorce, as well as property rights. How did Puritanism shape the experiences of women in the Massachusetts Bay? How did slavery affect the experiences of women in the Chesapeake?

2) Drawing on readings, the film Mary Silliman's War, and/or lectures, explain the impact of the American Revolution on the status and image of women. Be sure to explain the origins of "Republican Motherhood." How did women use Republican Motherhood to argue for women's moral authority?

3) Drawing on readings and lectures, discuss the experience of slave women. How did the experiences of slave women differ from those of slave men? What were their patterns of labor and family life? What strategies for resistance did slave women use?

Last modified: Thursday 10 October 1996