Morals, Manners, and the Republican Mother

ONE OF THE MOST PROVOCATIVE IDEAS TO EMERGE FROM THE RECENT historiography of Revolutionary era is concept of Mother. Originally articulated by contemporaries such as Benjamin Rush and Judith Sargent Murray, republican motherhood affirmed that women had a profound influence on political values of American Republic. As wives and mothers, women were seen to make an essential, though indirect, contribution to body politic. According to Linda Kerber, historian who coined term, the Republican Mother's life was dedicated to service of civic virtue: she educated her sons for it, she condemned and corrected her husband's lapses from it. 1 Republican motherhood preserved traditional gender roles at same time that it carved out a new, political role for women. Despite brilliance of Kerber's insight, no one has yet offered a completely satisfactory explanation for intellectual origins of republican motherhood. Mary Beth Norton, Jan Lewis, and Ruth Bloch have all examined aspects of women's experience in late eighteenthcentury America, but have given relatively little attention to question of intellectual antecedents. 2 Kerber has provided most extended analysis. In her book, Women of Republic, and in several articles,