Fairness for the Fairer Sex? Gender, Witchcraft, Abortion, and the Law
At best, early America considered women’s position different. Even by the 1840s, society denigrated women to a large degree, seeing them as more scorn-worthy in the eyes of the law. Thus, when Catherine Beecher writes, in 1841, “In America, alone, [women] are raised to an equality with the other sex,” she raises eyebrows. Here, she strikes an optimistic tone, one that describes a time far beyond her own. She claims in both “theory and practice,” women’s interests receive careful attention. But, as the cases of Sarah Grosvenor and Susannah Martin underscore, eighteenth and nineteenth century America’s hesitated to welcome women behind the full shield of constitutional protections.…show more content… When contemplating the public reaction to her abortion, Sarah Grosvenor felt compelled to act in her lover’s interest, not her own. In confidence, she expressed the weight of having to do “her utmost to protect her lover.” (Dayton, 32) Indeed, she remained “willing to take the sin and shame to her self,” brandishing her scarlet letter dutifully. (Dayton, 32) Indeed, she endures pain beyond imagination, reaching the “utmost distress”, “trembl[ing]” at the thought that “bone of the Child was broken.” (Dayton, 27) At no moment does she consider the toll these measures will take on her. She does not even resist how little say she has in her own abortion. She selflessly strides forward. Indeed, supposed witches of Salem had the odds stacked against them too; Cotton Mather declared that either confessions or mere accusations were grounds for execution. Both justifications reflect a problematic position in which women were placed. No degree of denial could free them from the accusation. Susannah Martin’s renunciation proved futile. The fact that women accused one another of witchcraft does not necessarily weaken the argument of sexism. Instead, it shows just how far the strain of thought ran: the thought of women’s impunity began sprouting naturally. Rather sadly, women waged war among themselves, shaming one other to assert their own virtue. And at times, with accusations hurled their…show more content… This shallow, parochial worldview hurt women like Sarah Grosvenor throughout the eighteenth century and well into the nineteenth. It also manifested in an uglier, more crass outcry in the Salem Witch Trials of the late seventeenth century. The law did not prevent or protect women in either of these instances—it betrayed and abandoned them. So, though Catherine Beecher’s vision of America seems inspirational, it peers through rose-colored glasses. Only at the exact moment when Beecher writes in 1841 had the tide actually begun to turn. But as the Second Great Awakening reached its height, broadly advocating for women’s education and recognition under the law, it still lacked major provisions. Beecher herself reinforced certain social norms alongside her early feminist inklings. While affirming that women claim “an equal interest in all social and civil concerns “ she wrote “American women take no interest or concern [in civil and political affairs].” (Beecher, 167). Though heartbreaking, both Sarah Grosvenor and Susannah Martin surrender—they yield their lives and autonomy before the law. So, surely, America showed visible scars of misogyny at the writing of the Treatise on Domestic Economy, and had much time left before the wounds healed
