Letters of Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake
The correspondence between
Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake illuminate the doctrine of "Woman's
Sphere" in nineteenth-century America. Akin to the rest
of the nation, Middlebury was a patriarchical society with men
as heads of the families. Men's real domain was now in the world
- a world of business, professions, politics, and money making.
Yet, as men ventured forth into the world, women at home gained
an independent domain of their own. Uninhibited by male domination,
domestic life that included house-keeping, child rearing, and
moral and religious life was now under female control. As Nancy
Woloch contends in her piece Women and the American Experience,
'Within [their] own domestic space, however, [they] gained both
a new degree of autonomy and a new degree of authority over
others.'
Nineteenth-century ministers
provided strong reinforcement to the doctrine of Woman's Sphere.
Opposing those forces that conflicted with women's interests,
such as materialism, immorality, and intemperance, they helped
to formulate a new definition of female character. Christian
virtues like humility, submission, piety, and charity were now
primarily female virtues. Ministers essentially confirmed female
moral superiority. Girded with this support, women became deeply
involved in their local churches. Thus, religion was one of
the few activities beyond the home in which women might participate
without abdicating their sphere. And while ministers accorded
women a new degree of influence, religious commitment offered
other advantages. It also provided a community of peers outside
the home, among like-minded women in church related associations,
allowing for free expression of religious zeal.
With the development of the
Woman's Sphere, the middle-class home came to be viewed as an
emotional space, a refuge from the competitive world, and a
source of stability and order in a turbulent society. Yet while
celebrations of Woman's Sphere stressed the significance of
domestic roles and maternal influence, they also suggested a
new and positive consciousness of gender. Since women shared
a common vocation and values, completely isolated from the male
sphere, they had more in common with one another than with men.
In this way women profited from long-term, intense relationships
with other women. These relationships continued for decades,
despite marriage and geographical separation, and often involved
lengthy visits and correspondence. Historian Caroll Smith Rosenberg
asserts that such correspondence reveals how Women's Sphere
'had an essential dignity and integrity that grew out of women's
shared experiences and mutual affection.' The letters of Charity
Bryant and Sylvia Drake show how these middle-class women assumed
centrality in one another's lives, depended emotionally on one
another, and appreciated their same-sex connections and friendships.
Ref.: Nancy Woloch, Women
and the American Experience. The McGraw-Hill Companies,
Inc. New York. 1996.
