Difference between revisions of "Week 12 Questions/Comments-327 11"
From McClurken Wiki
(→Letter to Liberator from Andover Female Antislavery Society, 1836) |
Lsmith0805 (Talk | contribs) (→The Advocate of Moral Reform, 1838) |
||
| Line 6: | Line 6: | ||
This pamphlet embodies so much of how I've been taught to conceptualize nineteenth-century moral societies; the image of a "respectable" girl from an established family who, in her naivety, trusted someone who turned out to be untrustworthy, and was led unknowingly into a brothel. This story is so reminiscent of all of the ones we've talked about and studied in history classes that I felt I practically could have written it myself. That fact begs the question -- was this a real girl? The number of vague references (she's from "[a] delightful western village;" where she ends up is never stated, nor is her age, name, or any particulars at all) makes me think that this story is almost certainly just that -- a story. Whether or not this was a real societal issue (young women lured into cities and then into prostitution), these overly-generic stories make the entire thing seem fabricated, like lurid stories to keep daughters in line. -- Nicole | This pamphlet embodies so much of how I've been taught to conceptualize nineteenth-century moral societies; the image of a "respectable" girl from an established family who, in her naivety, trusted someone who turned out to be untrustworthy, and was led unknowingly into a brothel. This story is so reminiscent of all of the ones we've talked about and studied in history classes that I felt I practically could have written it myself. That fact begs the question -- was this a real girl? The number of vague references (she's from "[a] delightful western village;" where she ends up is never stated, nor is her age, name, or any particulars at all) makes me think that this story is almost certainly just that -- a story. Whether or not this was a real societal issue (young women lured into cities and then into prostitution), these overly-generic stories make the entire thing seem fabricated, like lurid stories to keep daughters in line. -- Nicole | ||
| + | |||
| + | I agree with Nicole's point of view of this letter. Was this actually a true occurence that happened to a real girl or was it merely a form of propaganda utilized by the Moral Reform Society to help purify the population and persuade young women to remain devout and true to their "respectable" families? It doesn't suprise me that these situations may have possibly happened, but I would expect that a woman who was led into prostitution would have been one of the group of single women that immigrated to the United States, not one who would have a "respectable" family living with her. --Lindsey S. | ||
== Maria Stewart, 1831, “O, Ye Daughters of Africa, Awake!” in the Liberator. == | == Maria Stewart, 1831, “O, Ye Daughters of Africa, Awake!” in the Liberator. == | ||
