The Indomitable Elizabeth Fries Ellet - Feminist, Defining The Historical Truth of the Nineteenth Century

Author Vicki Pellar Price

Prologue-

???? Ellet and her literary female contemporaries began reordering the 19th-century social stature of women, a story of females striving for their independence that cannot be contained within a set of interpretive signs on a trail at the Richard T. Anderson Conservation Area, adjacent to the Minnesota River. In not-so-subtle ways for a 19th century woman, Ellet, like female authors of the 18th and 19th century, rebelled against strict gender roles of females and female writers. The reality is that 21st-century women still share in some of Ellet’s travails in claiming their own freedoms. In not-so-subtle ways for a 19th century woman, Ellet, like female authors of the 18th and 19th century, rebelled against strict gender roles of females and female writers. The reality is that 21st-century women still share in some of Ellet’s travails in claiming their own freedoms.

In memory and admiration... Elizabeth Fries Ellet 1812,1818-1877

My contention is that Ellet was certainly straddling spheres in her own life. Not in Ellet’s era, but today, depending on your personal and political views, you could aspire to be whatever you choose depending on your own beliefs and independence: feminine, domestic, bearer of life or not, soldier, politician, truck driver. But with existing political drawbacks today, the 19th Century is being reinserted back into women’s lives.

Women, particularly women in publishing, writing, the literary arts were given notice that their literary and intellectual pursuits would remove them from God. The publisher of Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sara Josepha Hale, chastised those who she believed had thrown away the “One True Book.” Hale referred to Margaret Fuller as evidence, “intellectualism risked wandering from the salvation of Christ.” Margaret Fuller was a Unitarian and did not give up her belief in Jesus Christ as her savior. Every possible source refutes Hale’s denouncements of the Literary Ladies who didn’t exactly conform to her religious views. What’s also mentioned in another chapter is that when Ellet’s husband was dying, she cared for him, prayed with him, they had a shared belief in faith and God, the comfort of their Christian friends, which made Dr Ellet’s passing easier for him.

Ellet, A Career Path of Popularity and Notoriety

My insights Into Ellet's motivations and concerns go beyond what she wrote, and are best portrayed by what she didn't write, those ongoing private alliances and communications with women's rights leaders of the era to carry on her less public awareness of separate spheres and its impact on women's lives, and likely to remain a woman who could still make a living.

Wisdom Editions

Copyright (C) 2024 by Vicki Pellar Price

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Cover Art by Vicki Pellar Price

Cover and Book Design by Gary Lindberg