Motherhood and power in New England, from the Puritans to the Revolution.

Abstract

Women in Colonial New England were empowered by a female community operating under masculine authority but also outside it. Although women seem to have first been politicized by the American Revolution, the power inherent in colonial motherhood suggests that New England women were both powerful and empowered, that they were prominent in the community, and that they were already responsible for producing productive citizens. Republican motherhood, which has been described as an important new way for women to engage in politics, can also be explained as a feminine reinterpretation of the maternal identity that, no longer defined solely by spirituality, transformed to encompass individuality, humanism, and democratic politics.