The Footprint of Margaret Full

The role of women in the nineteenth century was no different from what it had been for centuries before. In America as well as most Western cultures abroad, women’s place in society was valued little above the livestock, slaves or other property that men owned. Few were educated due to the prevalent belief that women didn’t have the capacity to learn and that women were predestined to lives of domestic servitude. Women universally agreed to this inferior status with a commitment to achieve, preserve and insure domesticity and harmony for all.

In nineteenth century America, small groups of Americans were involved in great con

Fuller, Margaret. “The Great Lawsuit: Man Versus Men; Women Versus Women.” McQuade 1311-1346.

Hampton, Thomas. “Margaret Fuller.” I Hear America Singing. IHAS: Poet 1998. page 1 10 Oct 1998.

During this time, Margaret Fuller began to hold private “Conversation” groups. She would have small informal lecture sessions in the homes of friends and invite the women in the Boston community to participate. Fuller had the grand scheme that these conversations “could help aspiring women to free themselves from their traditional subservience” (Wade 69). Although Margaret Fuller herself had no “like-minded or female role models upon which to craft her ideas” (Hampson 1), her hopes were that women would develop their own opinions on matters outside their established area of knowledge and learn how to articulate these new opinions (Huxman 2). These “Conversations” became so popular in Boston that she attracted not just wives of prominent citizens, but also some sympathetic reformers (Hampson 1). Fuller believed that she could “emancipate her sex by sharing with them the fruits of the masculine education she had received from Timothy Fuller” (Wade 70).

flicts and arguments in regards to the inhumane treatment of many of their brethren. With the inhumane treatment of slaves and the relocation of Native Americans to reservations, rhetorical battles were being fought and movements were emerging to champion the establishment of equal rights for all humanity. The Transcendentalist movement was evolving into an influential iconoclast to the well-established Protestant ethic. American literature was entering its renaissance era and “struggling for recognition and credibility (McQuade 1305).

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