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Women in the American Society During the history of American society women had very insignificant role in the community. They openly were discriminated and very usually harassed and this attitude was defended by law. The development of the society influenced the development and change of womens consciousness and education. Women re-evaluated their position in the society and feminism movement started the fight for liberation of womens rights. This work discusses two works that portray the gradual change of womens consciousness in America between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. In the narrative The Sovereignty and Goodness of God Mary Rowlandson described her experience after being captured by Indians in February 1676.
Mary Rowlandson was a ministers wife and she strongly believed in God and his dispensation. When Mary Rowlandson got into captivity she was the only person who remained alive. Her friend and her kin were dead and Mary Rowlandson relies on God's mercy as she says in her narrative, "I my self in the midst, and no Christian soul near me, and yet how hath the Lord preserved me in safety! Oh the experience that I have had of the goodness of God, to me and mine!" (Rowlandson, 1997, p. 80). She had a bible, prayed during her captivity and insisted that all the afflictions were sent by God to show her the vanity of the world.
In her narrative Mary Rowlandson portrays that Indians and Protestants were different in all aspects of their lives: religion, society and morality. Puritan religion is monotheistic and God is believed to be a strict father who teaches their children and punishes them. Indians believed in multiple gods and they worshiped differently. Mary described such beliefs barbaric and insisted that Puritans had to show them civilization. In Puritan society the status of a woman was determined by her husbands social status. Before being captured by Indians Mary Rowlandson was a ministers wife and had a significant position in the community.
Mary Rowlandson strongly supported the traditional role of woman in the society as mother and wife. Mary Rowlandson's importance in the society was determined only by being married to the minister. In Indian Tribes woman possessed more social freedom and their status could be higher then husbands. Weetamoo, Rowlandson's "mistress" held a position higher than her husband because her father was a chief and she had the position of a powerful sachem. Another essential difference lied in morality. In Puritan society woman had to preserve her modesty and it was the important element of social morality and religious obedience.
The Indian society did not hold such restriction and fidelity was not important. All the differences between Puritan and Indian societies confirmed Mary Rowlandson's beliefs that Indians were barbarians and had to be Christianized. The whole social and moral structure of Indian society contradicted Mary Rowlandson's views and beliefs. Being the true daughter of her time she defended the traditional moral values and believed that her allegiance to morale and God saved her life and freed her from captivity.
Mary Rowlandson in her narrative described her experience in captivity for prominence of religion and morality over the reality of everyday life. At the end of her narrative she said: I have learned to look beyond present and smaller troubles, and to be quieted under them. As Moses said, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord" (Exodus 14. 13). (Rowlandson, 1997, p. 119). This phrase resumes her work. She insists that all human ambitions and aspirations are futile because only God decides the persons destiny and the responsibility of people lies in following the God. All the afflictions are sent by God and only the righteous followers would overcome them.
Mary Rowlandson denies herself the right of conscious choice and it becomes the vivid reflection of seventeenth century society. The book The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York by the historian Amy Gilman Srebnick contrasts with The Sovereignty and Goodness of God by Mary Rowlandson. In The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York the author gives the detailed analysis of Mary Rogers death and its influence on the city of nineteenth century. Mary Cecilia Rogers was found dead in the river Hudson on July 28, 1841. Mary Rogers left home on July 28 and never returned home. Her mother and fiance gave a small notice to the local newspaper, but they believed that Mary would return, because several years prior to this event she had also disappeared for several days.
When the dead woman was recognized as Mary Rogers, there appeared many theories and guesses concerning the circumstances of her death but until today her death remains a mystery. The murder of Mary Rogers appeared to be the most important news for several months and moved even the international news from the front page. Same as today back in the nineteenth century it was a rare possibility that the murder of a common person would shook the society, but Mary Rogers was the exception. She worked as the cigar clerk at John Anderson's tobacco store.
The tobacco store on the Liberty Street was very popular among the popular writers and journalists. Mary Rogers was knows to such haunters of the tobacco store as Washington Irving and Fenimore Cooper. Mary Rogers occupation determined that her death would not pass unnoticed. Police had not single evidence concerning Marys death and her fiance had a very strong alibi. The journalists unmistakably saw the fruitful theme. First, many notorious people were familiar with the victim, which add importance to otherwise plain girl.
Second, the journalists themselves were familiar with the girl; they could offer many truthful details about her life and appearance which added authenticity and reality to the story. Third, Mary was the plain girl who moved to New York from Connecticut as many other people and people felt close to her; she was one of them and they could be on her place. Fourth, the absence of evidences made the case a mystery, and mysteries and detectives draw public as no any other genre. And fifth, Mary Rogers was single and her work at the tobacco store gave her a degree of financial independence, which put her in opposition to the contemporary concept of womans role on the society. Such attractive theme could not be left unattended and journalists threw themselves on it like vultures.
They quickly turned Mary's death into a media spectacle such as New York City had never seen, as every aspect of the case was proclaimed in bold headlines. It became a perfect timing for development of the penny press and the first aspect of the phenomenon which today is known as yellow press. The story's lurid details sold countless papers, and Srebnick says that the editors eagerly reported and most of the time even invented clues and suspects. The feminism movement played a vital role in the notoriety of Mary Rogers death. The story of Mary Rogers vividly describes the influence of a big city on lives of plain people but it also shows the influence of a small person on this city and its society. In the first half of the nineteenth century the New York City was only beginning its transformation in the urban society we know it today.
But it was already attracting with its possibilities people from small towns and from the country, but besides various possibilities there lurked dangers and crimes that were not resident in slow and quiet country. Mary Rogers death became the symbol of all the horrors and the various clues of her death were the reflection of fears: the statement of murder by city gang reflected the fear of inner city life with its multiple inhabitants; the statement of death from abortion reflected the fear of economic independence of single women which could lead to their sexual freedom. At that time women were oppressed and discriminated in America and Mary Rogers were the example of the woman who tried to shake off the moral and social constraints and to escape from this stereotypical lifestyle and experience what the urban life had to offer. Marys death fomented the struggle between the feminism movement and the supporter of oppressive traditions. The former accused the society for its cruelty toward women, while the latter pointed Mary Rogers death as punishment for moral reform, demanded by feminists.
Mary Rogers death was surrounded by mystery which is not solved until today. But primary her death became notorious due to her life stile. Mary Rogers life became the example of womans struggle against the constricting social reality and imminent collapse. Mary Rogers death is the example of a plain persons influence on the society.
The book The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York shows the tentative changes that concerned the role of the woman in masculine society and serves as the example of contemporary reaction on feminism movement. Bibliography Srebnick, Amy. The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in Nineteenth-Century New York. Oxford University Press, 1997. 2. Salisbury, Neal and Rowlandson, Mary.
Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together With the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs Mary Rowlandson. Bedford/St. Martin's. February, 1997.
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