Mercy Otis Warren Research Paper

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Mercy Otis Warren was one of sundry authors who expressed their opinions on the events and changes before, during, and after the American Revolution. However, she was an anomaly at the time as a prolific female writer who wrote for the public, and as a woman who expressed her opinions on politics. She wrote to be heard, even in a society where women were viewed as intellectually inferior and were scorned for speaking out. Several factors fed into how she could even conceive that people would seek her opinion and believe her to be a credible author. The stratification of society in the 1700s was based on several qualities, including, race, religion, culture, and native language. Gender was, and still is, one of the qualities that separated people's roles in society. Historically, women have been seen as a source of evil and temptation. In most societies in the 1700s, women were viewed as intellectually and physically inferior to men. The education of girls was secondary to their male counterparts ("Women's History") and women could not own or conduct business for themselves, since the public was the domain of men ("Gender Roles"). Any …show more content…
Otis, since he encouraged her studies and wrote to her as a confidant and intellectual equal (Richards 2). James was very active in challenging Britain's authority over their North American colonies. He argued the Writs of Assistance case in 1761 and actively opposed the Stamp Act. He is also accredited with writing the rallying cry of patriots, "Taxation without representation is tyranny" (Elmer). He was a model for Mercy and helped instill in her the principle of doing all one can for a cause, since he devoted much of his life opposing Britain's imposition on peoples' natural rights and for the "greater good" (Richards 4). His encouragement and activity in patriots’ cause inspired Mercy to help sway public opinion toward opposing Britain in any way she
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