The Oppression Of Women In The Specimens Of American Poetry

As policy makers realized women’s political significance, they increased women’s educational opportunities. In 1833 Oberlin College, first US institution of higher education to admit women and men on equal standing, was founded. In 1855 University of Iowa admits women, the first state college or university to do so. Women were taught reading and writing, both penmanship and composition. “By 1800, 80 to 90 per cent of all New England women could read; nearly half of all southern white women could do so. The percentages grew steadily thereafter. By 1850, women’s literacy rate throughout the United States approached that of men” (23). Although women produced their literature, it “was immodest to print the female authors’ name on a book” (Wolosky

Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices, (1829) was the first comprehensive anthology of American poetry; including 189 poets, a historical introduction and chronological listing of American poetry. “A democratizing impulse shaped the selections. More than a dozen women appeared in the compilation, among them Morton, Warren, Bleecker, and younger voices, like Lydia Sigourney and Sarah Hale” (Gilmore 616). Social norms prohibiting “women to speak in public did not apply to print. Women could freely – even anonymously – express their opinions as well as inculcate virtue, reform social evils, and cultivate society’s manners. Women could change the world with their words” (Zagarri 20). Women became social activists; many joined abolition and women's rights movements. They could establish women’s associations including NEWA, LFLRA, AERA, NWSA, AWSA and NAWSA. “Besides the many verses addressed to social concerns, including care of children (which can itself be seen as a social and not merely private commitment), a good deal of verse explicitly concerns public issues and political disputes” (Wolosky 149). Moving from domestic issues to more social ones could be observed both in women poetry and women

“The emergence of the novel as a distinct literary genre offered unparalleled possibilities for women” (30). In 1850, Susan Warner's (1819-1885) The Wide, Wide World went through 14 editions in two years and became the first novel to reach the one million mark in sales. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Stowe sold over 50,000 copies within the first two months. It became “the most influential book ever written by an American” (Tompskin122). In the nineteenth century, the book attained a popularity surpassed only by the Bible. As on reviewer put it: “No literary work of any character or merit, whether of poetry or prose, or imagination or observation, fancy or fact, truth or fiction, that has ever been written since there have been writers or readers, has ever commanded so great a popular success” (qtd. in Baym 772). This novel indicated that women writers could be economically successful and highly influential in social and political changes. “The entry of women into the literary public sphere challenged the hegemony of separate spheres ideology” (Zagarri 30). Therefore, they became integral part of social life outside home. Helen Hunt Jackson used the novel form for a political purpose. She was concerned about the terrible situation of Native Americans. She wrote a work of nonfiction, A Century of Dishonor (1881), and sent a copy to every United States senator. After it came to no result, she wrote a novel, Ramona (1884). This love story of a