Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 6
Thomas Jefferson
1787
Americans, like other civilized peoples, recognize the equal rights of women; Indians do not.
Lectures on Law
James Wilson
1790-91
A statement of the legal condition of women and the family during the founding era. Wilson contrasts the position of American women with the tyrannical treatment of women in ancient Greece and Rome.
The Natural and Civil History of Vermont
Samuel Williams
1794
The superiority of the American family, in contrast with the European.
Inchiquin’s Letters
Charles Ingersoll
1810
Ingersoll wrote Inchiquin’s Letters as a defense of the American character against its foreign and domestic critics.