Feminism Transcendentalism Fuller Reconstruction Era Nineteenth Century
Abstract:
In the nineteenth century, the Transcendentalist and women’s movements combined to alter the discussion on the politics of womanhood, developing creative space for progressive individuals to actively make change in the expansion of human rights. I argue that Ednah Dow Cheney, a young widow and single mother in the mid-1850s, merged the spirit of Transcendentalism that she inherited from her family and friends and her burgeoning passion for social activism to become a dedicated public servant. In her early years, Cheney was a faithful attendee at the radical sermons of Transcendentalist and Unitarian minister Theodore Parker; at about the same time, she also sat in on the Conversations of Margaret Fuller, author of Woman in the Nineteenth Century and a pioneer in the field of feminist Transcendentalism. Later in life, Cheney would resourcefully combine Fuller’s and Parker’s bold ideas to translate them into a sustained life of social activism. Despite the crucial role that Cheney played in running prominent reform organizations, such as the New England Freedmen’s Aid Society (NEFAS) during the Reconstruction era, especially in an environment that was particularly restrictive for women, her story has been left largely overlooked by recent scholarship. Through archival research on the NEFAS and close readings of the texts of Cheney and Fuller, I work to recover Cheney’s sustained life of activism and intellectual growth from its present state of obscurity.
