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 The fields of antebellum (pre-Civil

                War) political history and women’s his-

                tory use separate sources and focus

Line         on separate issues.  Political histori-

  (5)         ans, examining sources such as voting

records, newspapers, and politicians’

writings, focus on the emergence in the

1840’s of a new “American political

nation,” and since women were neither

 (10)        voters nor politicians, they receive little

discussion.  Women’s historians, mean-

while, have shown little interest in the

subject of party politics, instead draw-

ing on personal papers, legal  records

 (15)        such as wills, and records of  female

associations to illuminate women’s

domestic lives, their moral reform

activities, and the emergence of the

woman’s rights movement.

 (20)              However, most historians have

underestimated the extent and signifi-

cance of women’s political allegiance

in the antebellum period.  For example,

                in the presidential election campaigns

 (25)        of the 1840’s, the Virginia Whig party

strove to win the allegiance of Virginia’s

women by inviting them to rallies and

speeches.  According to Whig propa-

ganda, women who turned out at the

 (30)        party’s rallies gathered information

that enabled them to mold party-loyal

families, reminded men of moral values

                that transcended party loyalty, and con-

ferred moral standing on the party.

 (35)        Virginia Democrats, in response,

                began to make similar appeals to

women as well.  By the mid-1850’s

the inclusion of women in the rituals of

party politics had become common-

 (40)        place, and the ideology that justified

such inclusion had been assimilated

by the Democrats.

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