Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Dissertations Department of History Spring 4-23-2013 Bible Translators, Educators, and Suffragists: The Smith Women, a Nineteenth-Century Case Study in America About Power, Agency, and Subordination Laurel Koontz Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss Recommended Citation Koontz, Laurel, "Bible Translators, Educators, and Suffragists: The Smith Women, a Nineteenth-Century Case Study in America About Power, Agency, and Subordination." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2013. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_diss/36 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BIBLE TRANSLATORS, EDUCATORS, AND SUFFRAGISTS: THE SMITH WOMEN, A NINETEENTH-CENTURY CASE STUDY IN AMERICA ABOUT POWER, AGENCY, AND SUBORDINATION by LAUREL KOONTZ Under the Direction of H. Robert Baker ABSTRACT The methodological approach used to tell the Smith sisters’ story is first and foremost a case study of women in the nineteenth century and the gendered categories that were constructed to define women. The story will be told through a biographical narrative, which will allow Hannah, Julia, and Abby Smith’s to tell their story in their own voice. Also, included within the biography is an examination of the nineteenth-century theories that defined women’s lives, and what effect, if any, these theories had on the Smiths. Each chapter is layered with three different narratives in an attempt to unravel the world that women lived in the nineteenth century. First, the chapter provides a description and analysis of the specific theories such as Republican Motherhood and cult of domesticity to ground the Smith women in the discursive world in which they lived. Then the chapter closely examines the practice or the way the Smith women lived their lives and what they thought about their world. Lastly, each chapter explores the secondary sources that have been written about each subject, such as the new female seminaries that opened in the nineteenth century. By combining these approaches, I hope to avoid some of the shortcomings that dominate the study of women today. First, the theoretical models and the study of real lives of women actually leave women out of their own stories. Second, historians tend to evaluate women’s lives from the past based upon their own political agendas and their own beliefs of what freedom and rights mean completely discarding what it might have meant to women in their own time period. INDEX WORDS: Gender, Coverture, Female seminary, Suffrage, Women’s rights, Republican Motherhood, Domesticity, Millerites BIBLE TRANSLATORS, EDUCATORS, AND SUFFRAGISTS: THE SMITH WOMEN, A NINETEENTH-CENTURY CASE STUDY IN AMERICA ABOUT POWER, AGENCY, AND SUBORDINATION by LAUREL KOONTZ A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2013 Copyright by Laurel Koontz 2013 BIBLE TRANSLATORS, EDUCATORS, AND SUFFRAGISTS: THE SMITH WOMEN, A NINETEENTH-CENTURY CASE STUDY IN AMERICA ABOUT POWER, AGENCY, AND SUBORDINATION by LAUREL KOONTZ Committee Chair: Dr. Robert Howard Baker II Committee: Dr. Wendy Venet Dr. Jake Selwood Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2013 iv Dedicated in Loving Memory to my Mother, Toni Loudon, and to my Beautiful Son, Tristan, for his Patience and Understanding v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I started down this journey over ten years ago, to try and reach my own level of excellence and to reach a new level of academic understanding of history. My journey began simply enough: I have always had a passion for and an absolute love of history. My interest began at the age of ten, when my sister and I traveled to Hong Kong. From that point on, I have wanted to know how people lived in other countries, and I wanted to know how and why they thought differently than we did here in America. Even though I have always believed that I traveled on my own journey of discovery and challenged myself to reach my own level of excellence, there have always been people behind the scenes that have made it possible for me to pursue my passion. So I must begin by thanking my father for taking my sister and I to many different countries, which introduced me to many different worlds and cultures. My father’s influence did not end there; he also helped me attend two great liberal arts Universities, which introduced me to the academic side of studying and learning about different cultures and peoples. Lastly, I inherited my love of and passion for history from my dad, so without him this dissertation would have never been written. In the academic world I would like to thank my first mentor, Dr. John McClung, who took a chance on me when he personally signed off on my acceptance letter, which allowed me to pursue my Masters Degree in History at Pepperdine University. I thank him for his compassion as a professor and as an administrator. He taught me how I could bring my love and compassion for others to the classroom. Whenever I am teaching, whether in a large college lecture hall or a small high school classroom, I always try to treat my students with the same respect, love, and compassion that Dr. McClung so effortlessly showed to all of his students. vi I am forever indebted to Dr. Robert Howard Baker II for stepping in as my dissertation director at the crucial moment when I needed not only encouragement, but also his indispensable suggestions and comments that have been incorporated into the final draft of my dissertation. Without the support, constructive criticism, and enthusiasm that Dr. Baker brought to this projected, this project may very well have never been completed. I also wish to thank Dr. Jake Selwood for his continued support of my project despite the many delays it took me to reach completion. His comments have assuredly made this a more polished work. Of my three dissertation readers, I feel the need to send a special “thank you” to Dr. Wendy Venet whose support and encouragement contributed significantly to my ability to complete this story of the Smith sisters. It was in her 19th century gender class that I initially encountered the Smith sisters and wrote my first paper that eventually turned into this dissertation. More than any other course that I completed at the doctoral level, it was Dr. Venet’s class that taught me how to suitably write a research paper that could be turned into a larger project. Dr. Venet also taught me how to be an absolute professional at all times, whether I was doing committee work, leading a class discussion, or defending my dissertation. Most importantly, I am appreciative of Dr. Venet’s construction criticism and suggestions that she has given me since the beginning of this project when it was just a seminar paper, until the very end when I made the final edits of my completed dissertation. I would like to give the people at the Glastonbury History Society my utmost gratitude for how helpful all the staff was with helping me find and go through all of the Smith’s documents. I would also like to thank the staff for their own stories about the Smith women and how excited they were to share their town’s local historical characters with me. Lastly, I would like to thank the Smith’s Women’s biographer and local historian, Kathleen Housely, for taking vii the time to meet me at the Glastonbury historical society to share her ideas and love for the Smith women, and for answering any questions that I had whenever I emailed her. I only hope I did justice to this amazing family of women, especially the matriarch, Hannah! I would like to thank my wonderful, kind, and patient friend, Dr. Julie Anderson, who has read and commented on chapters and paragraphs, looked at outlines, painstakingly gone over footnotes, and finally provided me with the encouragement and motivation I needed when I was ready to drop out of the Ph.D. program. It was her friendship and many hours of conversation that led to the completion of my dissertation. This project would have never been completed without her steadfast friendship. Lastly, I must thank my family for putting up with my extremely boring commentary running for almost ten years describing everything that I have learned as a graduate student. Also, for putting up with me always saying “I have to work on my dissertation,” on every family vacation and holiday. To my sister Cindy Lou for answering all of my late night phone calls and listening to me cry on the phone about how I could not finish my dissertation, how I had lost all of my motivation. Thank-you Cindy Lou for all of your wonderful advice and for just listening. And my poor son Tristan who had to hear “not now sweet pea, mommy working on her dissertation,” I am sorry for all the times I had to tell you I was busy and could not play. Thank- you so much for your patience Tristan, and mommy is sorry. Lastly, thanks to Leslie for being here at the end for me, especially for calming my nerves before the defense. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. v INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology and Sources ......................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER 1 HOUSEHOLD ECONOMIES AND MARRIAGE................................................ 29 CHAPTER 2 DOMESTICITY, SOCIAL WORLDS, AND MEMORY ....................................