Essay And Opinion On The Way Of Duty A Woman And Her Family In Revolutionary America Essay, Research Paper
Notes on The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America,
By Joy Day Buel & Richard Buel Jr. :
In the Book the Way of Duty, the life and hardships of Mary Fish Silliman is described with remarkable detail and conveys an understanding of this woman, and other women, during the American Revolution. Many lives, not just those of women were immensely disturbed and changed during this period in time. Mary s experience touches upon several of the issues the people of this time went through in an intimate and detailed way so that those of us unfamiliar with life during these times of struggle can obtain a better understanding.
Understanding the past is indispensable in order to understand and assess the present. Though everyone who was exposed to the revolution was greatly impacted, women s societal roles were impacted the most in my humble opinion. In responding to the Linda K. Kerber statement I agree that the war was a traumatic nightmare for women as well as all Americans, but it was also a time for women to unmask their loyalty and patriotism for their country and their men like Kerber states. It was a time for women to step up and take charge of their families while their men were away; this meant assuming all duties of the family not just those patterned around the household.
Kerber s condensed statement is a general evaluation of how women were influenced during the revolution overall. And unknowingly it is practically an immediate parallel to Mary Fish s life at that time as well. Mary s capability to defeat a long span of severe depression due to being overwhelmed by a series of losses, such as the loss of her first child Rebecca, and many complications demonstrates strength that even innumerable people can not overcome at the present day. The strength that Mary had possessed, in my eyes, stems from her education. Her education can be viewed as an intensely prominent source for much of her accomplishments. With all of the men in her life, family and suitors except for her father, having attended Yale she set a high regard for education for herself as well as those around her. Her father s emphasis on education also played a significant role in the blossoming of her independence, with insisting that if she was educated early enough, her expectations of the men in her life would supply her with better judgement of them.
I m sure a great multitude of women during and after the War of Independence had the determination and the encouragement to become independent, strong, loyal matriarchs but many lacked the fundamental resources for this tremendous step up. Being able to break from the molds their men had set for them meant much more than assuming simple role reversals and performing duties other than motherhood and housework. It meant setting a new mold for themselves and insisting that other women follow the same path at one’s own discretion.
But this was not as easy as it seemed. These women lived during a time were they had no time for revolution. Most women were so busy tending to home management, husbandry and child rearing that an inconsiderable amount of them had the time or the energy for formal education. Few could read, and the number of those who could both read and write was next to none because women had no time for extra activities.
Mary s respect for education, learned wisdom, and independence awarded her with the honors of a matriarch that many strive for their whole lifetime. This respect earned her respect from her family members and other people that surrounded her. Her wisdom was saw as a source of Moral authority whose power derived not solely from her piety but also from her ability to translate piety in to action (213). She had displayed that conquering traumatic events, such as the war, produced confidence and hope to help her dominate loneliness and begin a new life again.
In response to the second statement made by the anonymous author regarding the opinions of equality held by men during in the beginning of the eighteenth century can be argued for and against in many ways. As a woman in the twentieth century approaching the millennium I would feel that it is not such a bold statement to say that men are still in many different ways failing to recognize the equality of the female gender compared to themselves. Although I believe they are more willing to abbreviate their pretences of superiority with much recognition that women are righteously extending and demonstrating their equality to males.
However, comparing this century to that of which Mary Fish hailed would by far belittle any experience I have had on a personal level. To live and survive through the American Revolution as a mother, a wife, a matriarch, and a loyal citizen is an outstanding accomplishment for any American. Especially a woman. During wartime, husbands of the lingering women were sent away, and as mentioned earlier women, such as Mary, assumed all household, financial, and economical duties that they previously had and those of their men. To view these women as unequal during a time of war is absurd.
Wartime allowed Mary to shape a very unique role for herself that could be used as a model or ideal role that many women found themselves rehearsing. Mary was always practicing childcare between households, undertaking educational tasks and religious teachings as well. Balancing these duties with financial responsibilities became a problem when her number one aspiration seemed to be that she wished to have all of her children attend Yale. So, Mary took this time and made it work for her in a positive method. This new situation heightened opportunity to serve god in both the active and contemplative life (226). Frequent religious practice, self-preservation, growing competence and sovereignty influenced Mary s leisure time and this powerful combination lead to the fabrication of life on a higher intellectual level for her.
Now, think of Mary s ideal role as strong woman during the American revolution and apply towards the hundreds of thousands of women that lacked the opportunity and the time to record their lives and have it passed down from generation to generation. If those women were given the identical opportunities as Mary Fish, woman s spheres in early would have been much different.
However, taking into perspective the times again, political issues were focused more around the Republic instead of human equality. Women would still have to wait their turn in line for equal rights anyhow, because in front of them where the Native Americans we pushed off the land and the African Americans we were using as servants and slaves. Right between Mary and all of her ambitions for her family and the women she represented was a lurking variable that is nearly undetectable. Awareness.
These brave women were supporting unaware men. The men failed to acknowledge an equality founded in nature. The women failed to inform the men of the inconveniences of the war and how they were fighting a different war on the same front. The responsibilities of each were equal on both sides. The men fought physically for freedom and the republic. The woman fought the side effects of war at home. They were all fighting to make this a better country for everyone living there.
Nevertheless, it is in some way easy to comprehend why men may have disregarded women as equal for the most part. This was a time and age where it was unheard of for a woman to fight in a war or take on hardly any physical labor activities. Tradition had to be transgressed, not forgotten, at some point in order to break the stereotype of these unequal preconceptions about women.
I think the war unquestionably had an enormous impact on the women of that era. It gave them a chance to prove themselves. Much like Mary Fish, except she was not given the chance, she took the chance. She took her time and managed it wisely to establish successful relationships with the men in her life and relatively all of those men had a renowned respect for Mary and what she did. Though, even then, no woman should have ever had to authenticate the equality of herself to any man, but it was nearly unavoidable in order to constitute any type of stable relationship or respect between a woman and a man.
Mary s ability to build these types of relationships with men gave her the ability to generate change without letting go of her femininity. The kind of change she produced was the kind it takes to establish equality between two genders of the same species. Which in turn yields the change needed to produce the influential force used to carry values across the times and throughout the ages. This force is something that women and men of all races today have yet to master. And it seems that since we know of people like Mary Fish, her achievements, and the impact she had on the people around her, we might learn something. How many Mary Fish s will it take for us to realize that women are a large part of society and that role we play is as large as any man.
*****
Mary s experiences are here to be shared by all of us now and to come. The thing she went through instilled values in all the people around her. Though the age she lived through was strenuous, yet rewarding, her story also illustrates and represents numerous amounts of people that lived through an inconceivable time of growth and development for our people and our country.
In a world were there is constant evolution, there is constant longing for revolution. Women are still learning to be women. Men are still learning to be men. We are still learning from our mistakes. And during a great time of conflict Mary Fish Silliman was woman enough to shed her gender and her prejudice to share with us what she had learned.
*****
Notes on The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America,
By Joy Day Buel & Richard Buel Jr. :
In the Book the Way of Duty, the life and hardships of Mary Fish Silliman is described with remarkable detail and conveys an understanding of this woman, and other women, during the American Revolution. Many lives, not just those of women were immensely disturbed and changed during this period in time. Mary s experience touches upon several of the issues the people of this time went through in an intimate and detailed way so that those of us unfamiliar with life during these times of struggle can obtain a better understanding.
Understanding the past is indispensable in order to understand and assess the present. Though everyone who was exposed to the revolution was greatly impacted, women s societal roles were impacted the most in my humble opinion. In responding to the Linda K. Kerber statement I agree that the war was a traumatic nightmare for women as well as all Americans, but it was also a time for women to unmask their loyalty and patriotism for their country and their men like Kerber states. It was a time for women to step up and take charge of their families while their men were away; this meant assuming all duties of the family not just those patterned around the household.
Kerber s condensed statement is a general evaluation of how women were influenced during the revolution overall. And unknowingly it is practically an immediate parallel to Mary Fish s life at that time as well. Mary s capability to defeat a long span of severe depression due to being overwhelmed by a series of losses, such as the loss of her first child Rebecca, and many complications demonstrates strength that even innumerable people can not overcome at the present day. The strength that Mary had possessed, in my eyes, stems from her education. Her education can be viewed as an intensely prominent source for much of her accomplishments. With all of the men in her life, family and suitors except for her father, having attended Yale she set a high regard for education for herself as well as those around her. Her father s emphasis on education also played a significant role in the blossoming of her independence, with insisting that if she was educated early enough, her expectations of the men in her life would supply her with better judgement of them.
I m sure a great multitude of women during and after the War of Independence had the determination and the encouragement to become independent, strong, loyal matriarchs but many lacked the fundamental resources for this tremendous step up. Being able to break from the molds their men had set for them meant much more than assuming simple role reversals and performing duties other than motherhood and housework. It meant setting a new mold for themselves and insisting that other women follow the same path at one’s own discretion.
But this was not as easy as it seemed. These women lived during a time were they had no time for revolution. Most women were so busy tending to home management, husbandry and child rearing that an inconsiderable amount of them had the time or the energy for formal education. Few could read, and the number of those who could both read and write was next to none because women had no time for extra activities.
Mary s respect for education, learned wisdom, and independence awarded her with the honors of a matriarch that many strive for their whole lifetime. This respect earned her respect from her family members and other people that surrounded her. Her wisdom was saw as a source of Moral authority whose power derived not solely from her piety but also from her ability to translate piety in to action (213). She had displayed that conquering traumatic events, such as the war, produced confidence and hope to help her dominate loneliness and begin a new life again.
In response to the second statement made by the anonymous author regarding the opinions of equality held by men during in the beginning of the eighteenth century can be argued for and against in many ways. As a woman in the twentieth century approaching the millennium I would feel that it is not such a bold statement to say that men are still in many different ways failing to recognize the equality of the female gender compared to themselves. Although I believe they are more willing to abbreviate their pretences of superiority with much recognition that women are righteously extending and demonstrating their equality to males.
However, comparing this century to that of which Mary Fish hailed would by far belittle any experience I have had on a personal level. To live and survive through the American Revolution as a mother, a wife, a matriarch, and a loyal citizen is an outstanding accomplishment for any American. Especially a woman. During wartime, husbands of the lingering women were sent away, and as mentioned earlier women, such as Mary, assumed all household, financial, and economical duties that they previously had and those of their men. To view these women as unequal during a time of war is absurd.
Wartime allowed Mary to shape a very unique role for herself that could be used as a model or ideal role that many women found themselves rehearsing. Mary was always practicing childcare between households, undertaking educational tasks and religious teachings as well. Balancing these duties with financial responsibilities became a problem when her number one aspiration seemed to be that she wished to have all of her children attend Yale. So, Mary took this time and made it work for her in a positive method. This new situation heightened opportunity to serve god in both the active and contemplative life (226). Frequent religious practice, self-preservation, growing competence and sovereignty influenced Mary s leisure time and this powerful combination lead to the fabrication of life on a higher intellectual level for her.
Now, think of Mary s ideal role as strong woman during the American revolution and apply towards the hundreds of thousands of women that lacked the opportunity and the time to record their lives and have it passed down from generation to generation. If those women were given the identical opportunities as Mary Fish, woman s spheres in early would have been much different.
However, taking into perspective the times again, political issues were focused more around the Republic instead of human equality. Women would still have to wait their turn in line for equal rights anyhow, because in front of them where the Native Americans we pushed off the land and the African Americans we were using as servants and slaves. Right between Mary and all of her ambitions for her family and the women she represented was a lurking variable that is nearly undetectable. Awareness.
These brave women were supporting unaware men. The men failed to acknowledge an equality founded in nature. The women failed to inform the men of the inconveniences of the war and how they were fighting a different war on the same front. The responsibilities of each were equal on both sides. The men fought physically for freedom and the republic. The woman fought the side effects of war at home. They were all fighting to make this a better country for everyone living there.
Nevertheless, it is in some way easy to comprehend why men may have disregarded women as equal for the most part. This was a time and age where it was unheard of for a woman to fight in a war or take on hardly any physical labor activities. Tradition had to be transgressed, not forgotten, at some point in order to break the stereotype of these unequal preconceptions about women.
I think the war unquestionably had an enormous impact on the women of that era. It gave them a chance to prove themselves. Much like Mary Fish, except she was not given the chance, she took the chance. She took her time and managed it wisely to establish successful relationships with the men in her life and relatively all of those men had a renowned respect for Mary and what she did. Though, even then, no woman should have ever had to authenticate the equality of herself to any man, but it was nearly unavoidable in order to constitute any type of stable relationship or respect between a woman and a man.
Mary s ability to build these types of relationships with men gave her the ability to generate change without letting go of her femininity. The kind of change she produced was the kind it takes to establish equality between two genders of the same species. Which in turn yields the change needed to produce the influential force used to carry values across the times and throughout the ages. This force is something that women and men of all races today have yet to master. And it seems that since we know of people like Mary Fish, her achievements, and the impact she had on the people around her, we might learn something. How many Mary Fish s will it take for us to realize that women are a large part of society and that role we play is as large as any man.
*****
Mary s experiences are here to be shared by all of us now and to come. The thing she went through instilled values in all the people around her. Though the age she lived through was strenuous, yet rewarding, her story also illustrates and represents numerous amounts of people that lived through an inconceivable time of growth and development for our people and our country.
In a world were there is constant evolution, there is constant longing for revolution. Women are still learning to be women. Men are still learning to be men. We are still learning from our mistakes. And during a great time of conflict Mary Fish Silliman was woman enough to shed her gender and her prejudice to share with us what she had learned.
*****
Notes on The Way of Duty: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America,
By Joy Day Buel & Richard Buel Jr. :
In the Book the Way of Duty, the life and hardships of Mary Fish Silliman is described with remarkable detail and conveys an understanding of this woman, and other women, during the American Revolution. Many lives, not just those of women were immensely disturbed and changed during this period in time. Mary s experience touches upon several of the issues the people of this time went through in an intimate and detailed way so that those of us unfamiliar with life during these times of struggle can obtain a better understanding.
Understanding the past is indispensable in order to understand and assess the present. Though everyone who was exposed to the revolution was greatly impacted, women s societal roles were impacted the most in my humble opinion. In responding to the Linda K. Kerber statement I agree that the war was a traumatic nightmare for women as well as all Americans, but it was also a time for women to unmask their loyalty and patriotism for their country and their men like Kerber states. It was a time for women to step up and take charge of their families while their men were away; this meant assuming all duties of the family not just those patterned around the household.
Kerber s condensed statement is a general evaluation of how women were influenced during the revolution overall. And unknowingly it is practically an immediate parallel to Mary Fish s life at that time as well. Mary s capability to defeat a long span of severe depression due to being overwhelmed by a series of losses, such as the loss of her first child Rebecca, and many complications demonstrates strength that even innumerable people can not overcome at the present day. The strength that Mary had possessed, in my eyes, stems from her education. Her education can be viewed as an intensely prominent source for much of her accomplishments. With all of the men in her life, family and suitors except for her father, having attended Yale she set a high regard for education for herself as well as those around her. Her father s emphasis on education also played a significant role in the blossoming of her independence, with insisting that if she was educated early enough, her expectations of the men in her life would supply her with better judgement of them.
I m sure a great multitude of women during and after the War of Independence had the determination and the encouragement to become independent, strong, loyal matriarchs but many lacked the fundamental resources for this tremendous step up. Being able to break from the molds their men had set for them meant much more than assuming simple role reversals and performing duties other than motherhood and housework. It meant setting a new mold for themselves and insisting that other women follow the same path at one’s own discretion.
But this was not as easy as it seemed. These women lived during a time were they had no time for revolution. Most women were so busy tending to home management, husbandry and child rearing that an inconsiderable amount of them had the time or the energy for formal education. Few could read, and the number of those who could both read and write was next to none because women had no time for extra activities.
Mary s respect for education, learned wisdom, and independence awarded her with the honors of a matriarch that many strive for their whole lifetime. This respect earned her respect from her family members and other people that surrounded her. Her wisdom was saw as a source of Moral authority whose power derived not solely from her piety but also from her ability to translate piety in to action (213). She had displayed that conquering traumatic events, such as the war, produced confidence and hope to help her dominate loneliness and begin a new life again.
In response to the second statement made by the anonymous author regarding the opinions of equality held by men during in the beginning of the eighteenth century can be argued for and against in many ways. As a woman in the twentieth century approaching the millennium I would feel that it is not such a bold statement to say that men are still in many different ways failing to recognize the equality of the female gender compared to themselves. Although I believe they are more willing to abbreviate their pretences of superiority with much recognition that women are righteously extending and demonstrating their equality to males.
However, comparing this century to that of which Mary Fish hailed would by far belittle any experience I have had on a personal level. To live and survive through the American Revolution as a mother, a wife, a matriarch, and a loyal citizen is an outstanding accomplishment for any American. Especially a woman. During wartime, husbands of the lingering women were sent away, and as mentioned earlier women, such as Mary, assumed all household, financial, and economical duties that they previously had and those of their men. To view these women as unequal during a time of war is absurd.
Wartime allowed Mary to shape a very unique role for herself that could be used as a model or ideal role that many women found themselves rehearsing. Mary was always practicing childcare between households, undertaking educational tasks and religious teachings as well. Balancing these duties with financial responsibilities became a problem when her number one aspiration seemed to be that she wished to have all of her children attend Yale. So, Mary took this time and made it work for her in a positive method. This new situation heightened opportunity to serve god in both the active and contemplative life (226). Frequent religious practice, self-preservation, growing competence and sovereignty influenced Mary s leisure time and this powerful combination lead to the fabrication of life on a higher intellectual level for her.
Now, think of Mary s ideal role as strong woman during the American revolution and apply towards the hundreds of thousands of women that lacked the opportunity and the time to record their lives and have it passed down from generation to generation. If those women were given the identical opportunities as Mary Fish, woman s spheres in early would have been much different.
However, taking into perspective the times again, political issues were focused more around the Republic instead of human equality. Women would still have to wait their turn in line for equal rights anyhow, because in front of them where the Native Americans we pushed off the land and the African Americans we were using as servants and slaves. Right between Mary and all of her ambitions for her family and the women she represented was a lurking variable that is nearly undetectable. Awareness.
These brave women were supporting unaware men. The men failed to acknowledge an equality founded in nature. The women failed to inform the men of the inconveniences of the war and how they were fighting a different war on the same front. The responsibilities of each were equal on both sides. The men fought physically for freedom and the republic. The woman fought the side effects of war at home. They were all fighting to make this a better country for everyone living there.
Nevertheless, it is in some way easy to comprehend why men may have disregarded women as equal for the most part. This was a time and age where it was unheard of for a woman to fight in a war or take on hardly any physical labor activities. Tradition had to be transgressed, not forgotten, at some point in order to break the stereotype of these unequal preconceptions about women.
I think the war unquestionably had an enormous impact on the women of that era. It gave them a chance to prove themselves. Much like Mary Fish, except she was not given the chance, she took the chance. She took her time and managed it wisely to establish successful relationships with the men in her life and relatively all of those men had a renowned respect for Mary and what she did. Though, even then, no woman should have ever had to authenticate the equality of herself to any man, but it was nearly unavoidable in order to constitute any type of stable relationship or respect between a woman and a man.
Mary s ability to build these types of relationships with men gave her the ability to generate change without letting go of her femininity. The kind of change she produced was the kind it takes to establish equality between two genders of the same species. Which in turn yields the change needed to produce the influential force used to carry values across the times and throughout the ages. This force is something that women and men of all races today have yet to master. And it seems that since we know of people like Mary Fish, her achievements, and the impact she had on the people around her, we might learn something. How many Mary Fish s will it take for us to realize that women are a large part of society and that role we play is as large as any man.
*****
Mary s experiences are here to be shared by all of us now and to come. The thing she went through instilled values in all the people around her. Though the age she lived through was strenuous, yet rewarding, her story also illustrates and represents numerous amounts of people that lived through an inconceivable time of growth and development for our people and our country.
In a world were there is constant evolution, there is constant longing for revolution. Women are still learning to be women. Men are still learning to be men. We are still learning from our mistakes. And during a great time of conflict Mary Fish Silliman was woman enough to shed her gender and her prejudice to share with us what she had learned.
*****