Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society [Paperback]

Mary Beth Norton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0679749772 | ISBN-13: 978-0679749776 | Publication Date: July 29, 1997

In this pioneering study of the ways in which the first settlers defined the power, prerogatives, and responsibilities of the sexes, one of our most incisive historians opens a window onto the world of Colonial America. Drawing on a wealth of contemporary documents, Mary Beth Norton tells the story of the Pinion clan, whose two-generation record of theft, adultery, and infanticide may have made them our first dysfunctional family. She reopens the case of Mistress Ann Hibbens, whose church excommunicated her for arguing that God had told husbands to listen to their wives. And here is the enigma of Thomas, or Thomasine Hall, who lived comfortably as both a man and a woman in 17th century Virginia. Wonderfully erudite and vastly readable, Founding Mothers & Fathers reveals both the philosophical assumptions and intimate domestic arrangements of our colonial ancestors in all their rigor, strangeness, and unruly passion.



"An important, imaginative book. Norton destroys our nostalgic image of a 'golden age' of family life and re-creates a more complex past whose assumptions and anxieties are still with us."--Raleigh News and Observer

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Founding Mothers & Fathers is a scholarly study of the responsibilities and rewards New World colonists assigned to adults solely on the basis of gender. Historian Mary Beth Norton asserts that a changing world-view caused the limited power wielded by a handful of early colonial women to trickle away by the time the American Constitution was framed. Since nearly every moment of daily life was subject to intense scrutiny by the entire community, the court records and other public documents Norton diligently combed to make her case are anything but dull, and the offenses and punishments meted out speak loudly to the issues of gendered power.

Crystallizing the inflexibility of gender roles in the American colonies is the tale of a servant known as Thomasine or Thomas Hall, alternately. Raised for two decades as a girl, Hall later switched several times between the clothes and roles of a man and those of a woman. Although outraged townswomen repeatedly assured colonial authorities that Hall was physically male, his feminine mannerisms and skill with a needle and thread so unnerved one regional commander that he demanded Hall "be putt in weomans apparell." Other stories include that of the ne'er-do-well Pinion family, who brawled through two generations of theft, adultery, and domestic squabbles in New England, and a man and woman brought up before a Virginia tribunal accused of "a great bussleling and juggling of the bed" judged unseemly in an unmarried couple. Founding Mothers & Fathers offers a full-bellied, incisive view of a developing social hierarchy and the slim margin of power that women held and lost within it. --Francesca Coltrera

From Publishers Weekly

Defying an Anglo-American worldview that drew analogies between the family and the state as male-run, hierarchical institutions, women played important roles in colonial American society between 1620 and 1670. In her lively study, Cornell historian Norton highlights religious dissenter and health-care expert Anne Hutchinson, who held all-female religious meetings in her home, dispensed advice at births and preached God's free gift of salvation-activities that led to her excommunication from Boston's church in 1645. Another intrepid colonial woman, lawyer Margaret Brent, appointed in 1648 as the representative of Lord Baltimore, proprietor of Maryland, fought unsuccessfully for a vote and speaking privileges in the Maryland Assembly. We also meet a gossip group consisting of four women (including excommunicated heretic Anne Eaton, wife of Connecticut's governor) whose regular meetings elicited criminal prosecution on charges of slander and sacrilege in 1646. This erudite study is full of intriguing lore on colonial neighbors, sexual gossip and men's political squabbles.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (July 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679749772
• ISBN-13: 978-0679749776
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #71 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > History

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12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mary Beth Does Again!, November 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society (Paperback)

Cornell University professor Mary Beth Norton has once again turned the world of colonial American history scholarship on its head with her incisive review of gendered power structures in the 17th century mainland English colonies. For the first time she exposes the world to Filmerian thought and its implications for women (and men!) in society, both in New England and the Chesapeake. The book is dense, and at times boring and repetitive, but freshly informative too. Multiple stories about sex, sexual deviancy and scandal lighten up otherwise dry scholarly analysis. This is a valuable addition to the literature of colonial American history which has ignored feminist analysis for so long. She's a tough grader, but also a great scholar and a fabulous teacher. Even a dead white male worshipper like me can enjoy and learn from her brilliance! Good luck on your next project Mary Beth, I eagerly await it.

13 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Founding Mothers & Fathers, May 4, 2000

By 

ggcon (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society (Paperback)

Norton argues that during the mid to late 17th century, colonial American political authority was based on biblical interpretations which encouraged a unified, gender-power based authoritarian system centered on the role of the father as undisputed ruler of his household. The founders were operating in a "Filmerian system" in which the sources of authority in the state and family were identical.

However, this Filmerian system did create opportunities for women to wield some power. High-ranking widows were the rulers of their households and were deferred to by both males and females of lower ranks. Problems arose when these high-ranking widows failed to fall in with the male consensus, such as Anne Hutchinson.

In the Chesapeake region, the Filmerian system was much less successful than in New England because the Chesapeake settlers were predominantly single men. The family-based power system failed in this region because it had very few traditional family households. Although power remained gender-based in the Chesapeake region, it became more like a "Lockian system" in which power in the family was differentiated from political power.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book Review by Charles Michael Farley, April 22, 2002

By 

Charles Michael Farley (2215 Lake Meade Rd. East Berlin, PA. 17316) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society (Paperback)

By Mary Beth Norton. Founding Mothers and Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996, hardcover 1996. Pp. ix, 496, appendix, abbreviations, notes, index....hardcover.)

From the time of the Pilgrims to present day, women have played more of a substantial role than they are commonly accredited for. In Founding Mothers and Fathers: Gendered Power and the forming of American Society, Mary Beth Norton parlays her idea that although woman did not have an independent role in the political arena of early American society there were many woman and groups of woman who knew the undisclosed sins of the community. This they used in the assumption of leadership roles among the communities.
Norton goes on to explain power inside the household as well as in the community. She connected Sir Robert Filmers' (The Filmerian view) and John Lockes' philosophies (the Lockean view) to both domestic life and the political structure and formation of early American society.
As you probably know, the practice of bearing children was most likely the primary focus of 17th century colonial woman. Lacking in birth control, a woman would go through a constant cycle of becoming pregnant and giving birth. Norton points out that these regular childbearing sessions excluded men from attending. It is very important to understand the role of the midwife. She could be the necessary one in keeping the woman and child alive during birth. She could, as well, expose any form of bastardization, premarital sex, adultery, and infanticide. The power of the midwives and the ignorance of men on the subject of childbearing gave way to many cases in which women could bend around the "man-made" laws.
It is probably demeaning these days to say that woman "gossip." Well, according to Norton, this did indeed go on during colonial times. The reader will discover the "gossip networks." Due to the fact that woman were separated from men in many social aspects led to these networks. Rumors of criminal activities would travel this way to the Colonial Magistrate and would very often result in punishment for the crime.
I found the two different philosophies on gender power to be very interesting. Should the most power come from the parent most represented, whichever that may be? This idea would bring more power to widows and present them with a greater role in the community. However, the people of this enlightened area would demand that the power of a woman's authority was inexistent outside the home.
Mary Beth Norton is a very accredited historian. This book gives remarkable incite to the power of woman in colonial times. Anyone interested in the social history of our country would enjoy this book and feel enriched after reading it. Many of the woman's roles discussed were unknown to me. Norton puts them across in a very intelligent and unquestionable way using many actual cases of the times to back up her theories.
This book, although written by a scholarly author, is not a difficult reading. Since it deals with many aspects of colonial life unknown to many people the readers interest should withstand through its entirety. Indeed, woman played an immense, although not formal or independent, role in the formation of our country as it is today.
-Charles Michael Farley-