Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - Department of History, Department of History, Politics, and International Politics, and International Studies Studies Summer 2002 Beyond Self-interest: The olitP ical Theory and Practice of Evangelical Women in Antebellum America Mark Hall George Fox University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/hist_fac Part of the Christianity Commons, and the Church History Commons Recommended Citation Originally published in Journal of Church and State, summer 2002, volume 44, pp. 477-499 http://jcs.oxfordjournals.org/content/ 44/3/477.full.pdf+html This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History, Politics, and International Studies at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - Department of History, Politics, and International Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. Beyond Self-interest: The Political Theory and Practice of Evangelical Women in Antebellum America MARK DAVID HALL JL rior to the publication of Gerda Lerner's study of the Grimke sisters in 1967, academic historians and students of political theory largely ignored antebellum women. Since that time many fine books and articles have been published about them. The vast majority of these works have focused on relatively innovative or progressive wo men, such as early religious radicals, abolitionists, and, especially, femi nists.1 In recent years, the number of works on conservative antebellum women has increased markedly, but most of these works ignore or underestimate the influence of evangelical Christianity in the lives of these women.2 Moreover, scholars who have looked seriously • MARK DAVID HALL (B.A., Wheaton College; M.A., Ph.D., The University of Virginia) is associate professor of history and political science at George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon.