Liberty, a Better Husband: Single Women in America, the Generations of 1780-1840

Liberty, a Better Husband: Single Women in America, the Generations of 1780-1840 by Chambers-Schiller, Lee Virginia. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780300039221.

This sensitive account focuses on the women who chose to remain single in antebellum America. Based on a study of the lives and writings of over one hundred Northeastern women it describes the reasons why they rejected marriage and the joys and frustrations they encountered in adhering to the tenets of the cult of "Single Blessedness." By demonstrating how these women asserted themselves as individuals Chambers-Schiller presents them as among the first to articulate the value of female autonomy and as pioneers in expanding the boundaries of womens progress toward equality.