Women in George Washington's World - by Charlene M Boyer Lewis & George W Boudreau (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This volume highlights some of the women Washington knew: women who admired and memorialized him; women who provided him love and solace; women who frustrated him; women who worked for or against him. The essays reveal the lives of a diverse group of women, from plantation mistresses to enslaved workers, loyalists and patriots, poets and socialites, as well as mothers, wives, and sisters. Figures discussed include Mary Ball Washington, Martha Washington, Margaret Arnold, Phillis Wheatley, Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Willing Powel, Moll Judge, Ona Judge, Ann Pamela Cunningham, as well as members of the Washington and Custis families and women workers enslaved by them"--

Book Synopsis

George Washington lived in an age of revolutions, during which he faced political upheaval, war, economic change, and social shifts. These revolutions affected American women in profound ways, and the women Washington knew--personally, professionally, and politically--lived lives that reveal these multifaceted transformations. Although Washington often operated in male-dominated arenas, he participated in complex and meaningful relationships with women from across society.

A lively and accessibly written volume, Women in George Washington's World highlights some of the women--Black and white, free and enslaved--whom Washington knew. Women who admired and memorialized him, women who provided him love and solace, women who frustrated him, and women who worked for or against him--all of these women are chronicled through their own experiences and identities. The essays, written by established and emerging historians of gender, reveal the lives of a diverse group of women, including plantation mistresses and enslaved workers, Loyalists and Patriots, poets and socialites, as well as mothers, wives, and sisters. Collectively, women emerge as strong actors during the American Revolution and its aftermath, not merely passive spectators or occasional participants. Although usually not on battlefields or in government offices, women made choices and acted in ways that affected their own, their families', and sometimes even the nation's future.

Contributors: James Basker, The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History * George W. Boudreau, The McNeil Center * Charlene M. Boyer Lewis, Kalamazoo College * Ann Bay Goddin, independent scholar * Sara Georgini, Massachusetts Historical Society * Kate Haulman, American University * Cynthia A. Kierner, George Mason University * Lynn Price Robbins, independent scholar * Samantha Snyder, George Washington's Mount Vernon * Mary V. Thompson, George Washington's Mount Vernon

Review Quotes

In this important, fresh collection, Charlene Boyer Lewis and George Boudreau bring together an exciting group of scholars researching a rich diversity of women connected to and influential on George Washington. The essays are crisply written and offer innovative historiographical interventions. The volume is a must-read for scholars studying women and gender in early America and for historians interested in cultivating a deeper and more diverse understanding of the American founding era.

--Lorri Glover, Saint Louis University

This stunning collection of essays is a valuable study of George Washington and the women who inhabited his world. Based on the best work of contemporary historians and sound archival research, the book is also engagingly written. A substantial contribution to the field.

--Barbara Oberg, Princeton University, author of Women in the American Revolution: Gender, Politics, and the Domestic World

Shows that writing women into the narrative of the early republic expands knowledge of the early nation, the development of the presidency, and the shaping of public memory about both. --Journal of the Early Republic

About the Author

Charlene M. Boyer Lewis, Professor of History at Kalamazoo College, is author of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte: An American Aristocrat in the Early Republic. George W. Boudreau, Senior Research Associate at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, is coeditor of A Material World: Culture, Society, and the Life of Things in Early Anglo-America and author of Independence: A Guide to Historic Philadelphia.