Women, education, and the republic: a view of post-revolution Philadelphia

Historians have long debated the nature of womanhood in the early Republic, chiefly focusing on adult women, whom they have labeled as republican wives and mothers. By intricately examining the ideas conveyed by students and trustees of the Young Ladies' Academy of Philadelphia, which was founded in 1787, this study demonstrates that young women too actively engaged with the rhetoric of republicanism and the meaning of womanhood in the early national period. As adolescent girls attending an educational institution in an era in which the issue of female learning gained national attention, the students of the Young Ladies' Academy were uniquely poised to contribute to a broader discussion of the political and social implications of their education. At the same time, they experienced and pointed out the implicit