This fascinating collection presents a rare look at women writers' first-hand perspectives on early American history. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries many women authors began to write historical analysis, thereby taking on an essential role in defining the new American Republicanism. Like their male counterparts, these writers worried over the definition and practice of both public and private virtue, human equality, and the principles of rationalism. In contrast to male authors, however, female writers inevitably addressed the issue of inequality of the sexes. This collection includes writings that employ a wide range of approaches, from straightforward reportage to poetical historical narratives, from travel writing to historical drama, and even accounts in textbook format, designed to provide women with exercises in critical thinking-training they rarely received through their traditional education.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Sharon M. Harris

Women's Early American Historical Narratives Introduction
Suggested Further Reading
Note on the Text
Ann Eliza Bleecker, "The History of Maria Kittle" (1790-1)
Margaretta V. Bleecker Faugeres, "The Hudson" (1793)
Judith Sargent Murray, "Observations on Female Abilities" (1798)
Hannah Adams, A Summary History of New England (1799)
Mercy Otis Warren, History... of the American Revolution (1805)
Sarah Pogson, The Female Enthusiast: A Tragedy in Five Acts (1807)
Sarah Pierce, Sketches of Universal History... (1811)
Hannah Mather Crocker, Observations on the Real Rights of Women (1818)
Anne Newport Royall, Sketches of History, Life, and Manners, in the United States (1826)
Emma Willard, History of the United States, or Republic of America (1829; 2nd rev. ed)
Explanatory Notes