By examining maternal figures in the works of diverse authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Sarah Piatt, this book exposes the contentious but fruitful negotiations that took place in the heart of the American sentimental era - negotiations about the cultural meanings of family, womanhood, and motherhood.

By examining maternal figures in the works of diverse authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Sarah Piatt, this book exposes the contentious but negotiations that took place in the American sentimental era - negotiations about the cultural meanings of family, womanhood, and motherhood.

"Wearn succeeds in complicating the ways in which we think about sentimental literature and the expectations of motherhood... the text makes a solid contribution to considerations of gender and culture in nineteenth-century America." - Roxanne Harde, Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering