What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to understand how young women used writing to assert their intellectual agency amidst societal expectations.

March 26, 2026

“With My Whole Heart”: Emotion and Aspiration in Antebellum Young Women’s Educational Writings

Key Points

The aim is to understand how young women used writing to assert their intellectual agency amidst societal expectations.
Examined writings from seven students (three Black, four White) in Northern schools before the Civil War.
Analyzed compositions, letters, and diaries to explore expressions of identity and critique of domesticity.
Applied frameworks from Saidiya Hartman and William Reddy to understand affective writing's role.
Both Black and White students critiqued domestic ideals through their writings.
White students challenged the notion that their futures were limited to domestic roles.
Black students expressed visions of liberation and civic engagement as a counter to racism and sexism.

Abstract

Abstract Drawing on a sample of seven students (three Black, four White) from schools in the North before the Civil War, this article examines how schooltime writing—compositions, letters, and diaries—helped young women navigate social expectations and assert intellectual agency. While Black and White students’ expressions reflected different positionalities, both critiqued confining ideals of domesticity. White students challenged assumptions that their futures lay only in the home as wives and mothers, while Black students reimagined their place in intellectual and civic life, articulating visions of liberation and belonging that confronted racism and sexism. Building on Saidiya Hartman’s framework of everyday negotiations of power and William Reddy’s concept of emotives, the article shows how affective writing worked as a subtle mode of social critique. In doing so, it contributes to scholarship on women’s education and the history of emotions.

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