Democratic women in the second party system: 1824-1856

Abstract

Newly enfranchised voters, rowdy political campaigns, and the emergence of two major national political parties characterized American politics from 1824 to 1856, an era known as the Second Party System. During this same time, however, women remained disenfranchised, and they were increasingly subject to gender prescriptions that told them that their place was in the home. As the nation’s political culture became its popular culture, then, how did women respond? Political histories and women’s histories alike long overlooked this question. When historians finally began to study women’s political history, many still minimized women’s roles in partisan politics, arguing that women were involved only in benevolent reform associations or that they were much more involved with the Whigs than with the Democrats. I challenge this view. This thesis argues that women were indeed Democrats, and that they played an important and continuous role in the Democratic Party throughout the Second Party System. To do so, women had to negotiate between gender prescriptions, which varied wildly, and local Democratic leaders, who allowed or denied access to party events based on their own beliefs about women’s place in politics. Though these conditions certainly discouraged many Democratic women from participating in politics, many others sewed banners, baked cakes, marched in parades, wrote, and even spoke on behalf of the Democrats, despite this complex social and political landscape. This speaks to the depth of Democratic women’s partisan loyalties and their continuous role in politics throughout the Second Party System.