Natural Allies: Women's Associations in American HistoryAmerica's female benevolent societies took root in the 1790s. Initially founded on notions of Christian duty and hope of heavenly reward, these groups produced volunteers dedicated to providing aid to unfortunates in general and women and children in particular. Anne Frior Scott explores the history of these aid societies and how they allowed women to influence America's social agenda and make inroads into politics long before they could vote. Scott reveals how women from all corners of society took part; examines their changing role in the midst of tumultuous times and during the rise of the welfare state; assesses the overlooked accomplishment of black women's organizations from the early days of the republic; and looks at the kinds of enduring community institutions women's organizations founded and maintained. |
Contents
To Cast Our Mite on the Altar of Benevolence Women Begin to Organize | 11 |
To Overleap the Modesty of Nature The Emergence of Female Activism | 37 |
We Are Now Very Busy Women and War | 58 |
A New Worldto Some Extent | 79 |
Onward Christian Women | 85 |
SelfImprovement Community Improvement | 111 |
Inventing Progressivism Municipal Housekeeping | 141 |
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active aid societies American Women Anne Firor Scott Anti-Slavery Society antislavery began benevolent societies black women Boston called Cambridge century charity Chicago Woman's Club Christian church Civil Cleveland clubwomen committee Congress convention developed early effort established example experience Female Florence Kelley Fragment Society Frances Willard girls historian History Home Mission Hull House improvement industrial Jane Addams joined labor Ladies leaders League Lucretia Mott Lucy Stone male Mary meeting Methodist middle-class missionary societies Moral Reform Society mothers movement municipal housekeeping nineteenth Papers political poor president problems Progressivism Radcliffe College records Sanitary Commission Schlesinger Library schools sewing social gospel social justice soldiers South southern suffragists temperance temperance movement thousand tion took town Union voluntary associations wages WCTU white women woman suffrage Woman's Club women's associations women's clubs women's organizations women's rights wrote York YWCA