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HIST 150 Dr. Schaffer
Excerpt from the Memoirs of Abigail Abbot Bailey
Questions to think about:
1. Based on what you have learned in Through Women’s Eyes
and/or First Generations about women in colonial America in
the 1600s and 1700s, how representative is Abigail Abbot
Bailey of women in England’s American colonies during this
period?
2. Given the laws and customs of the era, did Abigail Abbot
bailey act as assertively as she could in dealing with her
husband’s transgressions?
3. What role did religion play in Bailey’s life, and how did it
influence the way she responded to her domestic situation?
4. What similarities or differences do you see between the
situation of the Bailey family and current examples of domestic
violence and abuse?
Excerpt and introduction as printed in Robert D. Marcus et al., America Firsthand,
Vol. 1, 8th
edn (Boston 2010), pp. 50‒57).
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