Name: 19世紀的女性。美國曆史速成班#16 (Women in the 19th Century: Crash Course US History #16)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T05:22:48.000Z
Duration: 13 min 11 s
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Hi, I’m John Green; this is CrashCourse U.S. history and today we’re going to talk

情態副詞

about wonder women. Mr. Green, Mr. Green, finally we get to the

history of the United States as seen through the lens of Marvel comic superheroes.

Oh, Me from the Past, you sniveling little idiot. Wonder Woman is from the DC Universe.

Also this is the study of history, which means a constant reexamination and redefinition

of what it means to be a hero, and in the case of this episode, it’s about taking

the first steps towards acknowledging that not all heroes worthy of historical recognition

are men. So we’re going to talk about how women transformed

pre-Civil War America as they fought to improve prisons, schools, decrease public drunkenness,

and end slavery. And while fighting for change and justice for others, American women discovered

that the prisoners, children, and slaves they were fighting for weren’t the only people

being oppressed and marginalized in the American democracy.

Intro So in the colonial era, most American women

of European descent lived lives much like those of their European counterparts: They

were legally and socially subservient to men and trapped within a patriarchal structure.

Lower and working class women were actually more equal to men of their own classes, but

only because they were, like, equally poor. As usual, it all comes back to economics.

In general, throughout world history, the higher the social class, the greater the restrictions

on women—although high class women have traditionally had the lowest mortality rates,

which is one of the benefits of you know doors and extra lifeboats and whatnot. So at least

you get to enjoy that oppression for many years.

As previously noted, American women did participate in the American Revolution, but they were

still expected to marry and have kids rather than, like, pursue a career. Under the legal

principle of “coverture” actually husbands held authority over the person, property and

choices of their wives. Also since women weren’t permitted to own

property and property ownership was a precondition for voting, they were totally shut out of

the political process. Citizens of the new Republic were therefore

definitionally male, but women did still improve their status via the ideology of “Republican

Motherhood.” Women were important to the new Republic because

they were raising children—ESPECIALLY MALE CHILDREN—who would become the future voters,

legislators, and honorary doctors of America. So women couldn’t themselves participate

in the political process, but they needed to be educated some because they were going

to potty train those who would later participate in the political process. What’s that? There

were no potties? Really? Apparently instead of potties they had typhoid.

Actually it was a result of not having potties. So even living without rights in a pottyless

nation, the Republican Mother idea allowed women access to education, so that they could

teach their children. Also women—provided they weren’t slaves--were counted in determining

the population of a state for representation purposes, so that was at least an acknowledgement

that they were at, like, five fifths human. And then the market revolution had profound

effects on American women, too, because as production shifted from homes to factories,

it shifted away from women doing the producing. This led to the so-called “cult of domesticity,”

which like most cults, I am opposed to. That’s right, Stan, I’m opposed to the

Blue Oyster Cult, The Cult, The Cult of Personality by In Living Color, and the three remaining

Shakers. Sorry, Shakers. But who are we kidding? You’re

not watching. You’re too busy dancing. The cult of domesticity decreed that a woman’s

place was in the home, so rather than making stuff, the job of women was to enable their

husbands to make stuff, by providing food and a clean living space, but also by providing

what our favorite historian Eric Foner called “non-market values like love, friendship,

and mutual obligation,” which is the way we talk about puppies these days.

And indeed that’s in line with actual story titles from early 19th century American women’s

magazines, like “Woman, a Being to Come Home To” and “Woman: Man’s Best Friend.”

Oh, it’s time for the Mystery Document? I hope it’s from “Woman --- Man’s Best

Friend.” The rules here are simple. I either get the

author of the Mystery Document right...oh, hey there, eagle...or I get shocked.

Let’s see what we’ve got. “Woman is to win everything by peace and

love; by making herself so much respected, esteemed and loved, that to yield to her opinions

and to gratify her wishes, will be the free-will offering of the heart. … But the moment

woman begins to feel the promptings of ambition, or the thirst for power, her aegis of defense

is gone. All the sacred protection of religion, all the generous promptings of chivalry, all

the poetry of romantic gallantry, depend upon woman’s retaining her place as dependent

and defenseless, and making no claims, and maintaining no right but what are the gifts

of honor, rectitude and love.” Well it was definitely a dude and I have no

idea which dude, so I’m just going to guess John C. Calhoun because he’s a bad person.

No? Well, what can you do? It wasn’t a dude? It was apparently Harriet Beecher Stowe’s

sister Catharine who was an education reformer and yet held all of those opinions, so aaaaAAAAH.

So I assume Stan brought up Harriet Beecher Stowe’s sister to point out that it wasn’t

just men who bought into the Cult of Domesticity. The idea of true equality between men and

women was so radical that almost no one embraced it. Like, despite the economic growth associated

with the market economy, women’s opportunities for work were very limited.

Only very low paying work was available to them and in most states they couldn’t control

their own wages if they were married. But, still poor women did find work in factories

or as domestic servants or seamstresses. Some middle class women found work in that

most disreputable of fields, teaching, but the cult of domesticity held that a respectable

middle class woman should stay at home. The truth is, most American women had no chance

to work for profit outside their houses, so many women found work outside traditional

spheres in reform movements. Okay, let’s go to the Thought Bubble.

Reform movements were open to women partly because if women were supposed to be the moral

center of the home, they could also claim to be the moral conscience of the nation.

Thus it didn’t seem out of the ordinary for women to become active in the movement

to build asylums for the mentally ill, for instance, as Dorothea Dix was, or to take

the lead in sobering the men of America. Many of the most famous advocates for legally prohibiting

the sale of alcohol in the US were women, like Carry Nation attacked bars with a hatchet

and not because she’d had a few too many. The somewhat less radical Frances Willard

founded the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1874, which would be one of the most

powerful lobbying groups in the United States by the end of the 19th century. And women

gave many temperance lectures featuring horror stories of men who, rather than seeking refuge

from the harsh competition of the market economy and the loving embrace of their homes, found

solace at the bottom of a glass or at the end of a beer hose. And by the way, yes, there

were bars that allowed you to drink as much beer as you could, from a hose, for a nickel.

Today, these establishments are known as frat houses. These temperance lectures would tell

of men spending all their hard earned money on drink, leaving wives and children—there

were always children—starving and freezing, because in the world of the temperance lecture,

it was always winter. Now don’t get me wrong: Prohibition was a disaster, because 1. Freedom,

and 2. It’s the only time we had to amend the constitution to be like, “Just kidding

about that other amendment,” but it’s worth remembering that back then people drank

WAY more than we do now, and also that alcohol is probably a greater public health issue

than some recreational drugs that remain illegal. But regardless, the temperance movement made

a huge difference in American life because eventually, male and female supporters of

temperance realized that women would be a more powerful ally against alcohol if they