



Produced by Renald Levesque








WOMAN

VOLUME X



WOMEN OF AMERICA

BY

JOHN ROUSE LARUS


[Illustration 1: HUEMAC II. MEETS XOCHITL.
After the painting by L. Obregon.
Huemac II. began to reign in Mexico about 995, in what is called the
Toltec period. Xochitl, accompanied by her father, a nobleman, went to
the court of Huemac, carrying with her as an offering to the king a
beverage which she had invented. The king tasted the wine, and desired
to have more. Later, Xochitl returned to the court, and Huemac, who
already was fascinated with the girl, caused her to be retained, and
sent a message to her father that he had placed her in the care of his
court ladies and would complete her education. Shortly afterward his
queen died, and Huemac immediately made Xochitl his queen.]



Woman

In all ages and in all countries



VOLUME X



WOMEN OF AMERICA

BY

JOHN ROUSE LARUS



ILLUSTRATED



PHILADELPHIA
GEORGE BARRIE & SONS, PUBLISHERS




INTRODUCTION


The present volume completes the story of woman as told in the series of
which it forms part. The history of nations is, in its ultimate
analysis, largely that of woman. Therefore this series in its wide
inclusiveness forms a more than ordinarily interesting history. The
present study of the women of America is innocent of theorizing or
philosophy and from the nature of the subject the narrative takes the
reader into paths generally unfamiliar in historic studies.

Of the North American aboriginal woman the knowledge possessed admits of
but broad generalities as to her status and condition. The author of
this volume has, however, happily extracted from the available sources
what is informing as to the position of the woman so that a better
conception of her will be the part of his readers. It will be seen that
she has not always been the neglected and unconsidered creature that the
popular mind has accepted. Instead, she has held among many tribes a
higher place of power than man, and that by custom and in fact she was
held in high consideration. The condition of the aboriginal woman before
the advent of the white race was not that to which she fell as the
consequence of that advent. In the present work notable instances in
support of this view will be found. In considering the moral status and
the customs of the aborigines it should be borne in mind that morality
is standardized by nations or peoples for themselves, and the morality
of individuals must be measured by its relation to convention to this
respect. In this connection the author concludes that the morality of
the Indian woman is of at least average excellence. That contact with
the white man arrested--or as the author maintains "degraded"--the
progress of civilization, slow as that progress may have been among the
aborigines, cannot be doubted, nor that there was "a reversion to a more
barbarous type than had before been prevalent."

As we consider the principles of government among the North American
tribes we find that the matriarchal system prevailed. The Salic Law,
whether in its general or its restricted meaning, was little favored
among them. If in the history of these people a Queen Esther stands
forth as a cruel monster, did not proud Rome produce a Messalina? Or
need we go beyond the records of a later date of the people of one of
the most cultured nations of Europe? And yet Esther was among the foes,
the despoilers of her people, while Messalina found her victims among
her own people. It may not be amiss to recall the incident of Frances
Slocum as an evidence that the life of woman among the Indians was not
necessarily distasteful. Altogether, the author of this volume writes
sympathetically of the vanishing Amerinds,--which in no way lessens the
value of his study,--and furnishes many little known or hardly
remembered anecdotes of their women, while his succinct descriptions of
their polity and of the lot and place of woman among them is both highly
entertaining and instructive.

The women of Mexico and South America furnish scanty material for the
study of woman. Nevertheless, from the records of the Aztec civilization
the author has abstracted the salient features of the life of their
women. It will be seen that the Aztec woman enjoyed a higher status than
was attained by the woman of any other native American race. Her legal
rights were carefully protected; the marriage tie was severely
safeguarded; the education of girls was committed to the care of
priestesses; and in social functions woman was the equal of man.
Domestic life presented a very pleasing aspect and even slaves--slavery
was generally confined to those taken in war--enjoyed greater privileges
than among any other people. The period of the conquest furnishes a
Marina to exemplify the fidelity and devotion of which the native woman
was capable. That of the Spanish occupation offers little of interest
concerning the womanhood of Mexico, and not until the republic had
acquired a distinct nationality, in fact as well as in name, do we find
a Mexican type. This period the author regards as the best, but soon the
adoption of European and North American fashions and customs destroyed
the characteristic Mexican type. This resultant he claims is further
deteriorated by the later "veneer" or hybrid culture borrowed from the
same sources. The leading characteristics of the native civilization of
South America are traced and the salient features of the life and status
of its women are presented. Among the Incas equality with men and a
condition for woman as favorable as among the Aztecs is shown to have
prevailed.

An interesting account is given of the culture of the Araucanians, the
desperate warriors who resisted the Spanish invaders long after the rest
of the tribes of Chile had submitted to the conquerors. The status of
the women of this tribe, and of the peculiar marriage customs is
especially interesting; so is the account of the women of the Gauchos
whose preeminent claim to notice in a history of woman is that they are
"the most unmoral women on the face of the earth." There is also a brief
but none the less informing account of the women of the greatest of
South American countries, Brazil, which better than any other southern
republic exhibits the advance made in the position and influence of
woman in national progress and well-being.

The record of individual women in this section is scanty; but the
general outline of the growth of feminine influence in recent times is
noted. Woman in politics, in revolutionary movements, and, still more
notably, woman in the social and educational progress that is now making
the best history of South America the author discriminatingly presents
to the reader, with individual mention of foremost leaders of thought.

Of the American woman proper, the author follows the steps from
settlement days when the principles were to be tested which moved the
Pilgrims to self-exile. Her influence and her initiative, illustrated by
characteristic story and narrative of environment, are presented with
precision and clearness so that the reader can grasp the subtle power
exercised by woman during the formative period. Similarly are the women
of the great colony to the South considered, and the points of
divergence and their causes and results noted as compared with the
northern colony.

The typical American woman is remarkable among women not merely as a
type, but also because she is the evolution of only a few generations.
She is without a traditional culture, but, as the author asserts, she
inherited the cultures of all the nations. Beginning with the basic
culture of the mother country she has grafted thereon the native
branches which have sprung from her environment and has absorbed such
mental and temperamental characteristics of introduced nationalities as
have best suited her conditions, and from all together she has created
the American type of womanhood, whose particular characteristic is to
_do_.

In the women of these two mother settlements are found the "foundations
and matrices of American femininity." So the causes and growth of the
American type of womanhood are shown in its evolutionary processes
therein along lines mainly parallel until the need of resistance to the
mother country brings about a near approach to a national type. The
spread of woman's influence to the constantly extending frontier and the
new settlements is broadly but clearly sketched and the potency of the
foreign settlers considered.

A very interesting part of the volume traces the development of society
at the capital, the growth of an aristocracy, the unification of type
that followed the establishment of the republic and marked the early
growth of the nation. Still more interesting is the history of the
dissolution of the courtly influence at Washington when the great strife
reft the national womanhood and twin hatred ruled where unity was so
lately waxing in strength. The author's presentation of this period is
lucid and convincing, while fearlessly just to the woman of both
sections. His emphasis of the causal misunderstanding as regards the
women cannot fail to be appreciated, though it places upon our womanhood
a heavy responsibility for the sorrows which befell the nation and
struck down the South exhausted and almost destroyed.

A chapter on the Women of Canada affords chief interest for the account
of the _habitantes_, the only distinct Canadian type of womanhood,
though the author recognizes the advanced position occupied by the woman
of British North America.

Of the recent developments of the American woman's activities, the
sphere of which is ever enlarging, the author admirably projects on his
page all the salient movements. Many phases of activity are of course
tentative and their permanency and value are yet undetermined, while
others mark the appreciation of the obligations associated with wealth
or the need of diversion attending the enjoyment of leisure; all,
however, are characteristic of the unresting energy of the American
woman. If this characteristic is responsible for some illogical and
occasionally harmful manifestations, the fact remains that the sum of
the results is vastly preponderant for the good of the nation and the
advancement, morally, intellectually, and physically of humanity.

The author is to be congratulated for his boldness in undertaking to set
forth the broad picture of woman's part in the movements of the last
quarter of a century. The task is perplexing, almost terrifying to mere
man; conditions are in a state of flux or, more properly speaking,
bubbling activity, but a wise discrimination has been shown in the
present case. Much of the American woman's history that is unfamiliar
will be found in this volume, which is sympathetic throughout, and
expresses admiration for the noble and the good in all the stages of
that subtle evolution which we now recognize as the American woman.

                                                    JOHN A. BURGAN.
_Hammonton, New Jersey_.




CHAPTER I

THE ABORIGINAL WOMAN


THE attempt to crystallize within the space of a single chapter even the
most salient facts concerning the aboriginal woman of America is one
foredoomed to failure. It is true that even in the present advanced
state of ethnology there is comparatively little knowledge of the
conditions which have obtained, and even of those which do obtain, among
the red people of our continent; we can indeed see and record the outer
results, but the inner causes are still in great measure hidden from us.
The American Indian is a peculiar people in the strictest sense of the
words; and is not to be judged by the standards that we apply to those
races with whose history we are more familiar, nor is he to be measured
by their heights or depths. In many ways he is