The authors identify three phases in the changing relationship of women to civic and political activities. They first situate women as deferential domestics in a world of conservative gender expectations; then map out the development of an ideology that allowed women to leverage their familial roles into participation as companionate co-workers in movements of religion, reform, and social welfare; and finally trace the path of those who followed their causes into the world of politics as passionate partisans. The book includes a selection of primary documents that encompasses both well-known works and previously unpublished texts representing a variety of genres, making Antebellum Women a unique volume work that will introduce readers to the documentary record as well as to the vibrant body of historical work on gender in the early nineteenth century.