Between the Lines: The Insights Early Modern Women Offer to Mainstream History

Anna Trapnel’s 1654 account of her travels to Cornwal and her religious and political implications sheds an interesting light on one woman’s involvement and the creation of her path in the larger English social sphere. As a literate, well-spoken woman, she confidently prophesied the end of the world and claims that God’s message flowed through her. Trapnel stressed the importance of following a set calling and not falling to “satan’s temptations” (Trapnel 4). Although her voice (gender, and background) eventually land her a place in Bridewell, Trapnel unapologetically details her visions and conversations with God, connecting them to vital parts of her body including her heart and mind. By connecting her spirituality to her own body, she seems to play on societal standards or maternal bodies and purity. Trapnel is an interesting example of the introduction of the body into the conversation about one’s credibility, as seen earlier in The Tragedie of Miriam’s chorus. By bringing her phy...

Elizabeth Cary, England, 1668 In her 1668 “closet tragedy,” Elizabeth Cary explores the absence and return of a short-sighted king, the power of revenge, the blame placed on women, and a mysterious interpretation of fate. She tells the classic story of jealousy and revenge, but not without communicating underlying themes of political and social unrest in England. With themes of extreme revenge, race craft, and dissensus with the patriarchy, Cary emulates a Shakespearean drama, although the source of inspiration becomes fuzzy when both were writing around the same period. The overarching voice of the chorus stands out as an interesting, supposedly unbiased opinion, as it reiterates the sentiments of the characters and the lessons they should be learning, from an outside (male) perspective. Cary writes the chorus to chant, “Tis not enough for one that is a wife To keep her spotles from an act of ill: When to their Husbands they themselves do bind, Do they not wholly give themselves away?...

Margaret Cavendish, England, 1668 In her 1668 commentary on the nature of nature itself, Grounds of Natural Philosophy , Margaret Cavendish identifies and connects the essential characteristics of the world around her, while responding to the increasingly popular natural scientists in England at the time, such as Robert Boyle and Francis Bacon. After attending many public displays put on by other natural philosophers, Cavendish saw various flaws in their logic. She acknowledges them through her writing, though gender expectations and restrictions keep her from gaining publicity in the space of the “official” scientists. First referencing Descartes’ dualism, she separates the material and the immaterial, the rational and the sensitive, and the regular and irregular. Through distinguishing the differences between manmade material and naturally occurring, unpredictable material, Cavendish comes to the conclusion that both are ever changing and ever intertwined. Perhaps out of true religio...

Saidiya Hartman, 2008 After reading many upper-class English women, one might be left questioning whether they are the only marginalized ones history advocates to be read. Though these women’s stories were typically recorded more extensively than lower class women, does this leave no hope for historians looking for another point of view? Saidiya Hartman’s 2008 historical essay, Venus in Two Acts addresses some of these gaps by exploring the problem of the archive. Hartman writes through the cracks of the narratives of white, higher class people to find diversity in the archive, though it is not traceable without extensive research into the fine lines and margins of pages. Referenced by Jennifer Morgan in her detailed talk about the archive and the black slave woman, Hartman starts to uncover Venus in the archive, but her journey reveals more about what was hidden and lost than what was found. The archive, described by a Google search as a collection that “records important events in h...

Jennifer Morgan, 2023 On October 19th, 2023, Jennifer Morgan presented a talk surrounding her recent book, Reckoning with Slavery: Gender, Kinship and Capitalism in the Early Black Atlantic . Not unlike Saidiya Hartman’s “Venus in Two Acts,” she explained the problem of the archive and the omission of thousands of women from modern history, but one would be wrong in saying that this is just a restatement of Hartman’s argument. Morgan’s dignified presentation of kinship and refusal is more of a continuation of where Saidiya left off, asking what’s next. Dr. Morgan is a historian and professor at NYU, which shines through her presentation of knowledge through constructive storytelling, writing, traditional history, and at times art history as well. She addresses her position as a historian in the talk, as well as her journey into the world of art history by researching the background of a certain clock depicted in the painting she used to show an example of a woman of color in luxury. At...

Aphra Behn, 1688 Aphra Behn’s late-1600s play, The Widdow Ranter explores and critiques the dynamics of the colony of Jamestown through a retelling of Nathanial Bacon’s relationship with the colonists and the indigenous people, but also through the scope of a mysterious widow whose motives support the colony under their nose. Apart from Widdow’s masterful sidestepping within the colony, the most interesting aspect of the play lies in the colonial economy. The acceptable and unacceptable in early Jamestown society can be seen in the background of the story, and one does not always pay in money. It is recorded that Behn herself traveled to the American colonies before or while writing The Widdow Ranter , adding an interesting layer to the underlying forces at work in her play (McInnis and Salzman). Her travels indicate a narrative paradox to readers who know of them. She introduces both an outside view as an English visitor, but also a bias toward her home country and the comparatively ...

Art Institute of Chicago Content Warning : Brief reference to sexual assault Upon entering the Art Institute of Chicago, one feels a sense of great smallness. However, moving through the museum, this mood gives way to a star awareness of one’s autonomy as a being moving through the acquired work of others. The art and its descriptions are at times enlightening and at times misleading, and looking at them in the semantic level can reveal information about the curator as well as the artist and their work. Funnily enough, walking up the “Woman’s Board Grand Staircase” one finds themself at a crossroads between early European art and impressionism. Further investigation into the European galleries reveals many interesting depictions of women in art.  Eustache Le Sueur’s “Meekness” from his series of the personified Beatitudes stands out both visually and symbolically. Le Seur painted her on an elaborate altarpiece he constructed from panels of his art for his patron’s Paris home. Meekn...