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The official report of the 1848 Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, New York, states that during the first day's session, "LUCRETIA MOTT read a humorous article from a newspaper, written by MARTHA C. WRIGHT."(1) The identity of this "humorous article" remained unknown to modern scholars until we began our research into the life of Martha Coffin Wright, a younger sister of Lucretia Mott. Her article was originally published in 1846, and reveals a picture of marriage very different from the view presented in most literature of the time. Although written in a humorous style, its message is very serious, and its spirit is consistent with the historic Declaration of Sentiments and revolutionary resolutions signed at Seneca Falls, which challenged traditional gender roles in society.
Wright's article first appeared on 23 September 1846 in the United States Gazette and appeared again on 11 August 1848 in Frederick Douglass's North Star.(2) Douglass was in attendance that July at the Seneca Falls Convention, presumably enjoyed hearing the article read by his friend Lucretia Mott, and asked for permission to republish it. Like many of Martha Wright's published writings, it was written in response to something she had read that angered her. She specialized in counter-punches. In this case, she responded to a published article that advised wives that "obedience is a very small part of conjugal duty," and that to please her husband much more was required, including "unremitting kindness" and "a cheerful smile." Her response to such injunctions was engendered by two decades of personal marital experience with the demands and drudgeries of maintaining a household and raising six children on a limited income. Wright sets the stage by quoting some of the advice from the offending article, advice that was typical of the time. She then turns the advice on its head with her hints for husbands, and ends with a devastating description of the typical days (and nights) of a nineteenth-century husband and his wife. We repeat below the complete text of Wright's "Hints for Wives" as it appeared, under a pseudonym, in Douglass's North Star three weeks after the Seneca Falls Convention:
Obedience is a very small part of conjugal duty, and in most cases, easily performed. Much of the comfort of a...