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Catharine Sedgwick's Hope Leslie

952 Words4 Pages

Makenna Bonham
Ayres
4B
10/21/16

Catharine Sedgwick was an incredible author and inspirational woman for all people. She destroyed the limits that were set for women and was a precursor for the feminism movement as the ninth child of Judge Theodore Sedgwick and Pamela Dwight Sedgwick. Pamela who suffered from many periods of mental illness ,was not very close to Catharine however, she admired her father even though he was often absent for business pertaining to the House of Representatives. Catharine was very attached to her four brothers who grew up and were married and had many years of education to become a lawyer as their father was before them. Sedgwick as a young woman was as successful as many older men who were more respected . …show more content…

Sedgwick’s third novel Hope Leslie showed the conflict of English colonists and the Native Americans, her novels also accept many ideas such as the marriage of a Native American woman and a Caucasian man. The writings of Sedgwick constantly challenges the idea of women and what was expected of them during that time period. The women in the novels written by Sedgwick were seen as independent and capable of upholding the values of a republican motherhood which was often promoted in her works. A republican motherhood is the idea that children need to be raised to value patriotism and to choose the country over personal needs and the daughters of patriots are expected to portray the ideas of liberty and inalienable rights. Daughters were more educated in order to be able to portray the values that were expected while boys were heavily encouraged to go into government with the same amount of school that they were privileged to. The novels and periodicals of Sedgwick influenced Abigail Adams to support women’s education and includes the idea in many letters to her husband, President John Adams. All of Sedgwick’s novels and periodicals showed the idea of patriotism and independence which were complimented by her incredibly detailed descriptions of …show more content…

She used the sadness from her last brother’s death to be fueled to write this book. Sedgwick was an advocate of independence as a women and being single as she described marriages as a train wreck of happiness. Sedgwick refused more proposals of marriage then most of the women of her time. The novel was completely against young girls to dream of being married and in this time period marriage equaled giving up many rights. This novel also shows a heroine that was “a knight in shining armor” to her brother who is rescued from the New York tombs. The novel concluded to the marriage of the independent main

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