The Daring Daughters of Nantucket Island: How Island Women from the Seventeenth through the Nineteenth Centuries Lived a Life Contrary to Other Americ - Paperback

by Jascin Nolan Leonardo Finger (Author)

This book is a study of the women of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts from the seventeenth century through the nineteenth century and the factors that allowed them to live a life that their counterparts in the rest of America did not necessarily enjoy. Divided into two sections, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the time before the idea of woman's sphere fully developed, and the nineteenth century when the predominant belief in American society was that there were two separate spheres for women and men, this book details the factors that allowed women on Nantucket to lead a life of independence and freedom and compares their world to that of other maritime communities, as well as Quaker communities. Well-known and lesser-known island women are discussed, as well as how their experiences had wider influences off the island into the late nineteenth century and beyond.

Author Biography

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger has worked for the Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) since the late 1980s, becoming curator of the Mitchell House, Archives and Special Collections in 1999. She has taught at the Nantucket New School and for three years, the MMA and the Egan Maritime Foundation shared her as curator in a unique job-share. The author holds an undergraduate degree in history with a minor in art history from Mount Holyoke College and a master's degree in history with a focus on women and gender studies from Lesley University.