When historians think about America’s first great “age of reform” in the 1830s and 1840s, they often locate its seedbed in that region of upstate New York where the fires of evangelical revivalism earned the area the name “the burnt-over district.” And it is true that many of the leaders of the antislavery movement, the women’s movement, temperance, and reforms long forgotten by modern Americans—just like the Grahamite diet and phrenology—grew up or made their homes in this region. Yet, as Stacey Robertson shows us in her compelling account of the life of Betsy Cowles, American midwesterners embraced the spirit of reform as deeply and with as much energy as these easterners.
Cowles’s life spanned an era fraught with tensions and fears that existed side by side with an equally powerful optimism that American society could be perfected. In her life, we can see the impact of a rapidly changing society, as a national market began to link the regions of the nation, as factories and industries began to change traditional work patterns, as education and the opportunities for careers began to be a possibility for single women, and as the nation confronted the morality of slavery and the possibility of disunion. In this critical moment, Betsy Cowles chose to be an agent of change and improvement, not a passive observer of the history happening around her.
Cowles was touched by and helped to shape many of the ideals and goals of the era’s reform enterprises. Her commitment to racial and gender equality was rooted in her family’s values. Her parents imparted a belief in religious observance, education, devotion to family, and loyalty to friends. Neither Betsy nor two of her sisters chose to marry; instead they devoted their energies and talents to creating reform societies and recruiting women to the causes they espoused. Betsy’s success as a reformer rested on her many advantages: a sustaining circle of friends and family, a solid education, a successful and satisfying career as a teacher and academic administrator, an independence that her choice not to marry provided, and, perhaps most importantly, an intelligence and character that made her an expert negotiator, policy maker, organizer, and mentor to other women. Cowles did not crave the limelight, and thus her name is rarely included in the list of “notable” women reformers, but, as Robertson shows us, her contributions were in fact noteworthy. She deserves to be remembered as one of the first women to graduate from Oberlin College and as the organizer of the largest female antislavery society in the nation. She also deserves our attention because she illustrates the impact a determined woman can have on the world around her.
In examining and narrating the lives of women both famous and obscure, Westview Press’s Lives of American Women series populates our national past more fully and more richly. Each story told is the story not simply of an individual but of the era in which she lived, the events in which she participated, and the experiences she shared with her contemporaries. Some of these women will be familiar to the reader; others may not appear at all in the history books that focus on the powerful, the brilliant, or the privileged. But each of these women is worth knowing. Their personal odysseys bring American history to life.
Carol Berkin