Synopses & Reviews
Review
"William Wirt and Elizabeth Wirt should have been an ideal couple. They were attractive and comfortably situated; and when they married in 1802, they were inspired to do so, in part at least, by the sentimental vision of domestic happiness that defined the newly popular ideal of companionate marriage in the early 19th century. The marriage, however, was an unhappy one, characterized by growing resentment and disillusionment, much of which was occasioned by William's absences from home in pursuit of his legal career. Jabour adduces the difficulties of the marriage as proof that the promise of companionate marriage was betrayed by the persisting strength of patriarchy and inequality of gender relations in the early republic (or, in other words, it was all his fault). The author makes her case clearly enough, but one might wonder whether any single marriage can bear all the interpretive weight that Jabour wishes to place upon it. And
the possibility that the Wirts, all their hopes notwithstanding, were simply emotionally and temperamentally incompatible, never seems to occur to her." Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Synopsis
William Wirt practiced law in Virginia and Maryland in the early national period and served as attorney general under James Monroe and John Quincy Adams. Elizabeth Wirt managed the household and cared for the Wirts' large family during her husband's frequent work-related absences. For more than three decades, the couple struggled to reconcile different daily pursuits with a commitment to marriage as a partnership of equals. In Marriage in the Early Republic, Anya Jabour provides detailed analysis of a marital relationship so thoroughly documented that it illuminates gender relations in nineteenth-century America.
On one level, this is a story--a rich narrative full of the joys, sorrows, tensions, and the give-and-take of an American marriage. But because changing gender roles and expectations in this period caused discordance and forced adjustments, Jabour also provides a microhistorical analysis of a broad pattern. Placing the Wirts' marriage in a larger context, she shows how problematic marriage--and the balancing of domestic and childcare responsibilities--could be as well-to-do Americans developed their own cultural and social expectations. By examining patterns of love and marriage in a formative era, Marriage in the Early Republic offers insights into romance and relationships in our own time as well.