In Dependence: Women and the Patriarchal State in Revolutionary America
Book Launch
Registration for this program is now closed.
Join Revolutionary Spaces on Friday, May 19 at the Old State House for a discussion with Dr. Jacqueline Beatty of York College to mark the publication of her groundbreaking new book, In Dependence: Women and the Patriarchal State in Revolutionary America. Dr. Beatty will be joined in conversation with Dr. Daniel Carpenter, the Allie S. Freed Professor of Government at Harvard University and the author of Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870.
Through a close review of thousands of legislative, judicial, and institutional pleas across 70 years of history in three urban centers, Dr. Beatty illustrates the ways in which women in the Revolutionary era asserted their status as dependents, demanding the protections owed to them as the assumed subordinates of men. In Dependence shows how women’s coming to consciousness as rights-bearing individuals laid the groundwork for the activism and collective petitioning efforts of later generations of American feminists.
Following the reading and discussion, guests will have the opportunity to purchase their own copy of the book. Dr. Beatty will be available to sign copies and answer questions.
This program is free and open to the public. Doors will open at 5:30 pm and the program will begin at 6:00 pm. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. Click here for more information about In Dependence: Women and the Patriarchal State in Revolutionary America.
This program is made possible by the generous support of The Lowell Institute, and co-sponsored by Mass NOW and The Royall House and Slave Quarters.
About the Participants
Jacqueline Beatty is Assistant Professor of History at York College of Pennsylvania where she teaches courses on early American, women's, and public history. Her book, In Dependence: Women and the Patriarchal State in Revolutionary America, was published with NYU Press in April, 2023. Her previously published work includes "Privileged in the Patriarchy: How Charleston Wives Negotiated Financial Freedom in the Early Republic" (South Carolina Historical Magazine, July 2018), "Complicated Allegiances: Women, Politics, and Property in Post- Occupation Charleston" in Holly Mayer, ed., and Women Waging War in the American Revolution. She received a BA from Boston College in 2010, an MA from Villanova University in 2012, and a Ph.D. from George Mason University in 2016.
Daniel Carpenter is the Allie S. Freed Professor of Government and Chair of the Department of Government in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Professor Carpenter's research on petitioning appears in his book Democracy by Petition: Popular Politics in Transformation, 1790-1870, which was awarded the J. David Greenstone Prize of the American Political Science Association, the Seymour Martin Lipset Prize of the American Political Science Association and the James P. Hanlan Book Award of the New England Historical Association. He graduated from Georgetown University in 1989 with distinction in Honors Government and received his doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago in 1996. He taught previously at Princeton University (1995-1998) and the University of Michigan (1998-2002).