A seminal work exploring the daily life and status of southern women in colonial America, describes the domestic occupation, social life, education, and role in government of women of varied classes.

It was during the colonial years that the matrix of our nation was formed. Scholars have studied many aspects of colonial political organization and religious thought, but as of 1920, relatively few had examined the day-to-day life of the colonists themselves, and fewer, if any, had focused on the role of women. Carl Holliday did just that. His highly informative volume on the ways of colonial women is a fascinating source of information on the life of women during this period--how they lived, their work and play, what and how they thought and felt, their strength and their everyday existence. Through extensive use of diaries. letters and other contemporary sources the author succeeded in creating an absorbing and faithful portrayal of the women of early America in both the northern and southern colonies. His work is still considered a highly readable, convenient source of reliable data on this period.--From publisher description.

Ranging from Georgia's founding in the 1730s until the American Revolution in the 1770s, Georgia's Frontier Women explores women's changing roles amid the developing demographic, economic, and social circumstances of the colony's settling. Georgia was launched as a unique experiment on the borderlands of the British Atlantic world. Its female population was far more diverse than any in nearby colonies at comparable times in their formation. Ben Marsh tells a complex story of narrowing opportunities for Georgia's women as the colony evolved from uncertainty toward stability in the face of sporadic warfare, changes in government, land speculation, and the arrival of slaves and immigrants in growing numbers. Marsh looks at the experiences of white, black, and Native American women-old and young, married and single, working in and out of the home. Mary Musgrove, who played a crucial role in mediating colonist-Creek relations, and Marie Camuse, a leading figure in Georgia's early silk industry, are among the figures whose life stories Marsh draws on to illustrate how some frontier women broke down economic barriers and wielded authority in exceptional ways. Marsh also looks at how basic assumptions about courtship, marriage, and family varied over time. To early settlers, for example, the search for stability could take them across race, class, or community lines in search of a suitable partner. This would change as emerging elites enforced the regulation of traditional social norms and as white relationships with blacks and Native Americans became more exploitive and adversarial. Many of the qualities that earlier had distinguished Georgia from other southern colonies faded away.

Indian, European, and African women of seventeenth and eighteenth-century America were defenders of their native land, pioneers on the frontier, willing immigrants, and courageous slaves. They were also - as traditional scholarship tends to omit - as important as men in shaping American culture and history. This remarkable work is a gripping portrait that gives early-American women their proper place in history.

What does American history look like with women at the center of the story? From Pocahantas to military women serving in the Iraqi war, this Very Short Introduction chronicles the contributions that women have made to the American experience from a multicultural perspective that emphasizes how gender shapes women's--and men's--lives.

A highly readable survey of women's experiences in Latin America from the late fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries.