Traveling women : narrative visions of early America

Women’s travel narratives recording journeys north and south along the eastern seaboard and west onto the Ohio frontier enhance our historical understanding of early America. Drawing extensively from primary sources, Traveling Women documents women’s role in westward settlement and emphasizes travel as a culture-building event. Susan Clair Imbarrato closely examines women’s accounts of their journeys from 1700 to 1830, including Sarah Kemble Knight’s well-known journal of her trip from Boston to New York in 1704 and many lesser-known accounts, such as Sarah Beavis’s 1779 journal of her travel to Ohio via Kentucky and Susan Edwards Johnson’s account or her 1801–2 journey from Connecticut to North Carolina. In the women’s keen observations and entertaining wit, readers will find bravado mixed with hesitation, as women set forth on business, to relocate, and for pleasure. These travelers wrote compellingly of crossing rivers and mountains, facing hunger, encountering native Americans, sleeping in taverns, and confronting slavery, expressing themselves in voices that differed in sensibility from male explorers and travelers. These accounts, as Imbarrato shows, challenge assumptions that such travel was predominately a male enterprise. In addition, Traveling Women provides a more balanced portrait of westward settlement by affirming women’s importance in the settling of early America. Women's Travel Narratives Of Early America Recorded Journeys North And South Along The Eastern Seaboard And West Onto The Ohio Frontier. In The Women's Keen Observations And Entertaining Wit, Readers Will Find Bravado Mixed With Hesitation As Women Set Forth On Business, To Relocate, And For Pleasure. These Travelers Wrote Compellingly Of Crossing Rivers And Mountains, Facing Hunger, Encountering Native Americans, Sleeping In Taverns, And Confronting Slavery, Expressing Themselves In Voices That Differed In Sensibility From Those Of Male Explorers And Travelers.--jacket. The Language Of Travel : The Practical And The Picturesque -- Ordinary Travel : Public Houses And Travel Conditions -- Writing Into The Ohio Frontier : Genteel Expectations And Rustic Realities -- Literary Crossroads : Travel Narrative, Poetry, And Novel -- Capturing Experience : Travel Narrative And Letter, A Comparative View. Susan Clair Imbarrato. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 231-245) And Index. "Women's travel narratives of early America recorded journeys north and south along the eastern seaboard and west onto the Ohio frontier. In the women's keen observations and entertaining wit, readers will find bravado mixed with hesitation as women set forth on business, to relocate, and for pleasure. These travelers wrote compellingly of crossing rivers and mountains, facing hunger, encountering native Americans, sleeping in taverns, and confronting slavery, expressing themselves in voices that differed in sensibility from those of male explorers and travelers."--BOOK JACKET A study, with the actual accounts, of early American women's travel writings. Together these records and the editor's analysis, challenge assumptions about the westward settlement of the US and women's role in that enterprise.