|       The fields of antebellum (pre-Civil 
             War) political history and women’s his- 
             tory use separate sources and focus 
 Line     on separate issues.   olitical 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 significance 
 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. 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Q4:       
 The primary purpose of the passage as a whole is to 
                          
 
 examine the tactics of antebellum political parties with regard to women
 trace the effect of politics on the emergence of the woman’s rights movement
 point out a deficiency in the study of a particular historical period
 discuss the ideologies of opposing antebellum political parties
 contrast the methodologies in two differing fields (P.h. and W.H.) of historical inquiry
 |