Page 310 - American Stories, A History of the United States

poor or “fallen” women. Their aim was not economic and political equality with men
but the elevation of all women to true womanhood. 12.1
For some women, the domestic ideal even sanctioned efforts to extend their sphere
until it conquered the masculine world outside the home. This domestic feminism was
reflected in crusades to stamp out such masculine sins as intemperance, gambling, and 12.2
sexual vice.
In the benevolent societies and reform movements of the Jacksonian era, especially
those designated as women’s organizations, women handled money, organized meetings 12.3
and public appeals, made contracts, and even gave orders to male subordinates. The desire
to extend the feminine sphere motivated Catharine Beecher’s campaign to make school
teaching a woman’s occupation. A prolific and influential writer on the theory and prac-
tice of domesticity, this unmarried daughter of Lyman Beecher saw the spinster-teacher
as equivalent to a mother. By instilling in young males the virtues that only women could
teach, the schoolmarm could help liberate America from corruption and materialism.
But the main focus of Beecher and other domestic feminists remained the role of
married women who stayed home and did their part simply by being wives and moth-
ers. Reforming husbands was difficult: They were away much of the time and tended to
be preoccupied with business. But this very fact gave women primary responsibility for
rearing children—to which nineteenth-century Americans attached almost cosmic sig- Quick Check
nificance. Since women were considered particularly well qualified to transmit piety and how did women extend the reach of
morality to future citizens of the republic, the Cult of Domesticity exalted motherhood the domestic sphere to encompass
and encouraged a new concern with childhood as the time when “character” was formed. activities of public concern?

The Discovery of Childhood

The nineteenth century has been called “the century of the child.” More than ever,
childhood was seen as a distinct stage of life requiring the special and sustained atten-
tion of adults at least until the age of 13 or 14. The middle-class family now became
“child-centered”: The care, nurture, and rearing of children was viewed as the family’s
main function. Earlier, adults had treated children more casually, often sending them
away from home for education or for apprenticeship at a young age. Among the well-
to-do, children spent more time with servants or tutors than with their parents.
By the early nineteenth century, however, children were staying at home longer
and receiving more attention from parents, especially mothers. The colonial custom
of naming a child after a sibling who had died in infancy became much less common.
Each child was now seen as a unique, irreplaceable individual.
New customs and fashions heralded the “discovery” of childhood. Books were
published specifically for juveniles. Parents became more self-conscious about their
responsibilities and sought help from experts on child rearing.
The new concern for children resulted in more intimate relations between parents
and children. In advice manuals and sentimental literature, affection, not authority,
bound the ideal family together. Discipline remained at the core of “family govern-
ment,” but the preferred method of enforcing good behavior changed. Shaming or
withholding affection partially displaced corporal punishment. Disobedient middle-
class children were now more likely to be confined to their rooms to reflect on their
sins than to receive a thrashing. Discipline could no longer be justified as the constant
application of physical force over naturally wayward beings. In an age of moral perfec-
tionism, the role of discipline was to induce repentance and change basic attitudes. The
goal was often described as “self-government”; to achieve it, parents used guilt, rather
than fear, as their main source of leverage. A mother’s sorrow or a father’s stern silence
was deemed more effective in forming character than blows or angry words.
Shared realities of childhood cut across class and ethnic lines. For example, mortal-
ity for infants and young children was high throughout the nineteenth century. Even
wealthy families could expect to lose one child out of five or six before age five. But
class and region made a big difference in children’s lives. Farm children tended live-
stock, milked cows, churned butter, scrubbed laundry, harvested crops, and hauled water;
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