Frontiers of Refinement: Border Crossings in the Early Republic Travel Narrative of Sally Hastings
Open Access
- Author:
- Rohrer, Sheila Ann
- Graduate Program:
- American Studies
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 09, 2016
- Committee Members:
- John Haddad, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
John Haddad, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Anne A. Verplanck, Committee Member
Michael L. Barton, Committee Member
Mary Napoli, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Early Republic
Women's studies
American Literature
Travel
Travel Narrative
American history
American West
Frontier
Early American history
Gender Studies - Abstract:
- Westward expansion and frontier mythology figure prominently in the formation of early national identity and citizenship. The role of genteel women travelers in this story, however, remains an understudied area of scholarship. This study seeks to fill this gap by focusing on a little-known but fascinating early-nineteenth century woman travel writer, Sally Anderson Hastings (1773-1812). Hastings chronicled her 1800 trans-Allegheny journey from her hometown in eastern Pennsylvania to a backcountry settlement near Pittsburgh in a book Poems on Different Subjects, to which is Added a Descriptive Account of a Family Tour to the West (1808). This dissertation uses Hastings’ life and writings as a case study to explore early westward settlement from the perspective of a genteel woman traveler. Hastings was concerned with critiquing backcountry culture and society as she looked for refinement in the more rustic conditions. Her writings therefore reflect the larger ideologies and beliefs that shaped her life and illustrate how women acted as cultural transmitters in settling the West. This study examines Hastings’ travel account as both a lived experience and a literary expression. In the early chapters, I explore the physical challenges and social encounters Hastings described in her writings. Hastings inventively used her narrative to create new identities for herself as a courageous adventurer, explorer, and survivalist that sometimes conflicted with idealized notions of early republican womanhood. Then, in the later chapters, I look at Hastings’ role as an author in context with women’s literary and intellectual worlds. As a published travel writer, Hastings entered traditionally masculine territory. As such, I argue she used literary conventions in subversive ways to contribute to the cultural discourses of the time. Hastings thus carved out a public space for a woman’s viewpoint on various topics, including women’s education, literature, philosophy, and landscape aesthetics, despite her marginalized status. In returning Hastings’ voice to the historical record, this dissertation helps to complete the story of early national westward settlement and adds to our knowledge of women’s intellectual lives in the Early Republic.