"Old Maids"
Sacrifice, stigma towards unmarried women, alternatives to marriage.
Two women are discussing the negative views of old maids, and one gives the sad account of an old maid who gave up her true love for the happiness of her sister, and the unintended consequences of that sacrifice for all of the parties involved.
Sedgwick, Catharine M.
Miss Sedgwick
“Old Maids,” <em>The Offering, </em> 17-46, Philadelphia, Thomas T. Ash, 1834.
1834
J. Robinson; D. Gussman
Annual reissued as <em>The Wreath of Friendship</em>, 1837.<br />Reprinted in <em>The Casket</em>, March 1834, 137-139 and<br /><em>Tales and Sketches </em>by Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Blanchard, 1835: 97-116.<br />Collected in <em>Old Maids: Short Stories by Nineteenth-Century U.S. Women Writers</em>, ed. Susan Koppelman, Boston: Pandora Press, 1984: 11-26.
English
Document
"Cacoethes Scribendi"
Women writers, love and marriage, village life.
A young woman is embarrassed when her writing is published by her family without her knowledge.
Sedgwick, Catharine M.
Miss Sedgwick
<em>The Atlantic Souvenir</em>. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Lea, 17-38.
1830
J. Robinson
D. Gussman
Also collected in: <em>Stories of American Life</em>, vol. 3, Ed. Mary Russell Mitford (London, 1830), pp. 162-186.<br /><em>Tales and Sketches</em>. By Miss Sedgwick. (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1835), pp. 165-181.<br /><em>Provisions: A Reader from 19th-Century American Women</em>. Ed. Judith Fetterley. Bloomington, (Indiana UP, 1985) pp. 49-59. <br /><em>The Norton Anthology of American Literature</em>, Vol. I, Ed. Nina Baym. (New York: Norton, 1998) pp.1007-1017.
English
Document
"Owasonook"
Deception, Marital Property
A widower is deceived by a Deacon into believing she has been left nothing. When she marries a man outside of the church she is threatened with excommunication.
Sedgwick, Catharine M.
Miss Sedgwick
Sartain’s Union Magazine [edited by Caroline M. Korkland] NY. Vol. VI: p. 399-407
Sartain's Magazine
June 1850
J. Robinson
English
Document
"The Patch-Work Quilt"
Servants and family history
An elderly Black woman's story of a patchwork quilt that was sewn during the thirty years she worked in the home of a White family.
Sedgwick, Catharine M.
Miss C. M. Sedgwick
The Columbian Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine [edited by John Inman and Robert A. West] p. 123-26.
Columbian Magazine
March 1846
J. Robinson
Also collected in:
Sedgwick, Catharine M. "The Patch Work Quilt." Love of Quilts: A Treasury of Classic Quilting Stories. Ed. Margaret Aldrich. Minneapolis: Voyageur, 2004. 24-33. Google Books. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
English
Document
"Might Versus Right"
Married women's property rights; temperance.
A young woman from a wealthy family marries and her husband legally gains rights to all of her property. The husband's poor business management and drinking cause him to lose the money, and the wife must work to support the family. When the husband claims his wife's wages without her knowledge, a sympathetic employer makes a kind gesture.
Sedgwick, Catharine M.
Miss C. M. Sedgwick
Sartain’s Union Magazine [edited by Caroline M. Kirkland], Vol. VI., 75-80.
Philadelphia: John Sartain & Co.
January - June 1850
J. Robinson; D. Gussman
English
Document
"Magnetism Among the Shakers"
Shakers, spiritual practices, magnetism
A sketch in which the speaker relates a conversation between an older male Shaker and his sister about Shaker beliefs and practices.
Sedgwick, Catharine M.
Miss C. M. Sedgwick
<em>Sartain’s Union Magazine</em>, Vol. IV: 337-38.
1849
D. Gussman
Also collected in <em>The Literary Gem</em>, Philadelphia: Van Court, 1854, 69-70.
Reprinted in <em>Female Prose Writers of America, </em>[edited by John S. Hart], Philadelphia, E.H. Butler & Co., 1864, 1866.
English
Document
"First Love"
Romance, English countryside, courtship
Story about a young woman's passionate first love, her parents' intervention, and her subsequent happy marriage to another man.
Sedgwick, Catharine Maria
Miss C. M. Sedgwick
<em>Sartain's Union Magazine</em>, Volume IV, No. 2, 81-82.
1849
D. Gussman
Reprinted in <em>The Dewdrop</em>, (Philadelphia, 1852) 43-45.
English
Document