Description: "This work plumbs two centuries of androcentric culture to disclose the females who breached convention to earn a living by pursuing a career. The one hundred forty-six subjects in this book acknowledge female entrepreneurs during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. Personal details place women in a wide range of commercial endeavors, from sorting fish, vending brooms and baskets, and marketing plum cake and West Indian fruit, to publishing poetry and surveying the shells, fishbones, birds, and seaweed of the Atlantic coast. Guides to professional women organized by career and by place are also included"--Provided by publisher.
Brief description: Mary Ellen Snodgrass is an award-winning author of English and Latin textbooks and reference works for 40 years. She taught at Hickory High School and Lenoir Rhyne University in North Carolina for 23 years. Her writing focuses on women's and world literature and history and general research topics, including epidemics, the history of money, clothing, food, and dance. She lives in Hickory, North Carolina.
Review Quotes: "This is a handy collection of 146 biographical sketches of early American women, from the famous to the obscure. Subjects range from a Native leader who negotiated with Plymouth Colony to ranchers in early-19th-century Florida. Snodgrass, the author of several award-winning reference titles, has a refreshingly expansive conception of women's economic activities, including more traditional occupations (such as millinery and midwifery) alongside acting and slave dealing. ...a valuable book. ... This reviewer is unaware of another volume that brings together biographies of Colonial and revolutionary women from such a wide range of socioeconomic, racial, and geographic backgrounds. Students of American women's history will benefit from this book in the early stages of their research. Recommended"--Choice.