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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2011 Louisa S. Mccord and the "Feminist" Debate Cindy A. McLeod Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES LOUISA S. MCCORD AND THE “FEMINIST” DEBATE By CINDY A. McLEOD A Dissertation submitted to the Program of Interdisciplinary Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2011 The members of the committee approve the dissertation of Cindy A. McLeod defended on June 8, 2011 Maxine D. Jones Professor Directing Dissertation Maxine Montgomery University Representative Jennifer Koslow Committee Member Charles Upchurch Committee Member Approved: John Kelsay, Chair, Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities Joseph Travis, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii I dedicate this to my best friend and understanding husband, Lee Henderson. You’ll be in my heart, forever. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the professors whose influence this work illustrates: Dr. Maxine Jones, Dr. Jennifer Koslow, Dr. Charles Upchurch, Dr. Maxine Montgomery, Dr. Bill Cloonan, Dr. Ray Fleming, Dr. Leon Golden, Dr. Jean Bryant, Dr. Elna Green, Dr. Eugene Crook, Dr. David Johnson, Dr. Jim Crooks, Dr. Dale Clifford, Dr. Daniel Schaefer, Prof. Joe Sasser and Dr. Maricarmen Martinez. Thank you for training my mind that I might become a critical thinker. Sapere Aude! (Dare to Know!) iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... vii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... viii INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 ASPECTS OF THE EARLY WOMAN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT RELATED TO MCCORD’S LIFE ..................................................................................9 Revolutionary Woman’s Rights ....................................................................................10 Education of Women in America ..................................................................................18 Stretching Society’s Boundaries ...................................................................................24 The Late Nineteenth-Century Women’s Movement .....................................................31 Radicals Get the Vote ...................................................................................................35 Chapter 1 Summary.......................................................................................................37 CHAPTER 2 DERIVATION OF THE WORD “FEMINIST” ..................................39 Early Feminist History ..................................................................................................39 The New Migration of “Feminist” ................................................................................42 The Problem of Using the Oxford English Dictionary as a Historical Source .............44 Earlier American Citations for Woman’s Rights Words ..............................................49 Chapter 2 Summary.......................................................................................................53 CHAPTER 3 DUMAS & THE DUBOURG AFFAIR .................................................56 A Literary and Colorful Lineage ...................................................................................57 Dumas Fils Takes up the Pen ........................................................................................61 The Dubourg Affair ......................................................................................................64 The Aftermath of L’Homme-Femme .............................................................................71 An About-Face ..............................................................................................................75 Chapter 3 Summary.......................................................................................................77 v CHAPTER 4 “FEMINIST” FROM AN ANTI-FEMINIST .......................................79 Biography of Louisa S. McCord ...................................................................................80 McCord’s Publications ..................................................................................................92 McCord, the Anti-Feminist Feminist ..........................................................................100 McCord’s Anti-Feminist Essays .................................................................................103 “Feminist” from an Anti-Feminist ..............................................................................112 The Remainder of McCord’s Writing Career .............................................................117 Chapter 4 Summary.....................................................................................................121 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................125 Future Research ...........................................................................................................131 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................................134 I. Primary Sources .......................................................................................................134 A. Writings of Louisa Sussana McCord ............................................................................ 134 B. Newspaper Articles ....................................................................................................... 134 C. Periodicals and Book Chapters ..................................................................................... 136 D. Books ............................................................................................................................ 138 II. Secondary Sources..................................................................................................140 A. Newspaper Articles ...................................................................................................... 140 B. Periodicals and Book Chapters ..................................................................................... 140 C. Books ............................................................................................................................ 143 D. Online Sources ............................................................................................................. 147 E. Unpublished Sources .................................................................................................... 149 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ........................................................................................150 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Earlier American Citations ............................................................................................ 54 Table 2: Earlier Use of Terms in America ................................................................................... 55 Table 3: Earlier American Citations .......................................................................................... 126 vii ABSTRACT Who was Louisa S. McCord as a writer and polemicist on women’s rights in the antebellum South? Why did she, a conservative intellectual, use the term “feminist” in 1852? Historians of the nineteenth century Woman’s Rights Movement have paid McCord little attention because of her geographic location–she lived in South Carolina–and her conservative opinions. Her attitudes, which were conventional for her era, put her outside the interest of women’s studies until recently. This dissertation provides a new analysis of Louisa S. McCord’s work and argues the historical significance of her ideas about the Woman’s Rights Movement of the nineteenth century. Furthermore, this dissertation is particularly interested in McCord’s use of the word “feminist.” In the course of critiquing female reformer Elizabeth Oakes Smith, McCord may have been the first person to use the term “feminist” in print. This study adds to the collective knowledge of women’s history by shining a light on the impact of McCord’s ideas. This study is an interdisciplinary one, utilizing both sociology and women’s history in studying the social system of the antebellum South. This dissertation examines the gendered aspects of the South’s social class structure by analyzing McCord’s published essays on women’s rights. An analysis of non-fiction nineteenth-century periodical literature provided the foundational sources for this work. In addition, letters and legal documents gave insight into the personal life of this intriguing woman. viii INTRODUCTION In the mid-1980s, the combined work of historians Steven Hause, Karen Offen and Nancy Cott led to an understanding that the words “feminism” and “feminist” originated in France in the 1880s, spread to England in the 1890s, and arrived in America in the 1900s (France England America). However, research into periodicals from the 1890s to 1920s has since revealed the terms in American magazine articles from the 1890s. By researching the word “feminist” in ProQuest’s American
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