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Phillis Wheatley And Judith Sargent Murray: Revolutionary Founders In Women’S Political Activism And Women’S American Literary Tradition, Rebecca L. Warwick

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

During the Revolutionary War the dominant belief, held by men and women alike, was that women did not possess the mental capacity or intelligence for politics. Many perceived that women were strictly domestic beings, and therefore could not participate nor contribute to the inherently political war effort. Nonetheless, a few brave women such as Phillis Wheatley and Judith Sargent Murray insisted on participating in the political dialogue of their new nation through their poetry.

Through the respective lenses of gender and race, Murray and Wheatley used their literary skills and intellectual abilities to engage with the themes of patriotism, freedom …