'A man must ask our sex if he shall be free:' Women and Political Culture
in the 1790s
Susan Branson,
University of Texas at Dallas
My paper explores the extent and nature of women's contribution to American
popular political culture in the 1790s. With a focus on events and circumstances
in the capital city of Philadelphia, I discuss female participation in
the public parades, celebrations and protests which were part of the American
response to the French Revolution between 1789 and 1798. The political,
economic and social implications of the revolution in France influenced
the thinking and activities of American women and challenged them to articulate
and actively demonstrate their ideas concerning the Revolution and its
implications for both American politics and American women's political
roles. Women's public political activities were an integral part of American
domestic politics, especially as theFed eralists helped shaped it. Federalists
scathingly criticized female Jeffersonian Republicans for their public
support of the Revolution, and branded them with the names of prominent
Jacobin women. Yet these same men subsequently lauded the American women
of a more Federalist bent who, through their public activities, urged the
defense of America's shores against an expected French invasion in 1798.
All these activities touched off political animosities, but more importantly,
they contributed to the ongoing discussion of gender roles in this era.
Women used the events and controversies s sparked by the French Revolution
to expand their place in the public sphere. Politicians in turn used women,
either by condemning them or encouraging them, to further specific political
agendas. Though with very different motivations, the endeavors of both
groups fostered change in women's roles in the early American Republic.
Women attained a visible presence in the streets and on the parade grounds
of the capital city. They drew on a trans-Atlantic political ideology,
articulated in both France and Britain, to construct a political identity
that was uniquely American.