FRANCIS NOBLE, at his CirculatingLibrary, opposite Gray's-Inn Gate, Holbourn; AND JOHN NOBLE,

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reverenceRespect - [UOStudStaff],

though-a-woman though-a-woman Source: Image from Thomas Heywood's 'The exemplary lives and memorable acts of nine the most worthy women of the world' (1640). Folger Shakespeare Library, CC-0 license. The phrase "though a woman" serves as a brief but significant acknowledgment of gendered restrictions on knowledge in eighteenth-century England. Although Unca Eliza is depicted as a strong and smart individual who challenges traditional gender roles, she establishes her credibility by referencing foundational male philosophers, indicating her awareness of cultural expectations regarding women's intellectual ability. Scholar Jill Conway asserts that "European women intellectuals were either declasse, or else they lived a contemplative life in a religious community." Unca Eliza's isolation on the island literalizes the social exile faced by intellectual women at the time. See Conway, "Perspectives on the History of Women's Education in the United States." History of Education Quarterly 14.1 (1974): 1–12. DOI: 10.2307/367602. - [UOStudStaff],

y aristotle aristotle This moment reflects the complex changing attitudes towards the capabilities of women during the Enlightenment. Unca Eliza both establishes her womanhood as something inferior to male intellectuals and simultaneously places herself above classical scholars. While women at the time were becoming increasingly established in intellectual fields they were still seen as inferior to men. In Women and Enlightenment in Eighteenth Century Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Karen O'Brien writes that, while the progress of women in eighteenth-century Britain cannot be likened to feminism as we know it, the Enlightenment "created a framework and a language for understanding the gendered structures of society without which nineteenth-century feminism would not have been possible" (2). - [UOStudStaff], w

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kind extraordinary extraordinary Source: Helmingham Herbal and Bestiary (1500), Yale Center for British Art. Reused under Yale Library's Open Access Policy. The absurd nature of the fictious animal described in this passage implies a metaphorical meaning. The animal's only means of survival is deceiving its prey, pretending to sleep in order to capture it. Anna Brickhouse connects this description to Unca Eliza's own deception of the island's Indigenous people, claiming that "Unca Eliza is both transfixed and patently disturbed by the greed and violence of this strange colonial animal. A nightmarish embodiment of her own predicament." Brickhouse, "The Indian Slave Trade in Unca Eliza Winkfield's The Female American." The Yearbook of English Studies46 (2016): 115-126. DOI: 10.1353/yes.2016.0008. - [UOStudStaff]

Aristotleor a Pliny

though-a-woman though-a-woman Source: Image from Thomas Heywood's 'The exemplary lives and memorable acts of nine the most worthy women of the world' (1640). Folger Shakespeare Library, CC-0 license. The phrase "though a woman" serves as a brief but significant acknowledgment of gendered restrictions on knowledge in eighteenth-century England. Although Unca Eliza is depicted as a strong and smart individual who challenges traditional gender roles, she establishes her credibility by referencing foundational male philosophers, indicating her awareness of cultural expectations regarding women's intellectual ability. Scholar Jill Conway asserts that "European women intellectuals were either declasse, or else they lived a contemplative life in a religious community." Unca Eliza's isolation on the island literalizes the social exile faced by intellectual women at the time. See Conway, "Perspectives on the History of Women's Education in the United States." History of Education Quarterly 14.1 (1974): 1–12. DOI: 10.2307/367602. - [UOStudStaff] ,

n American ;

ence providence providence God's divine plan - [UOStudStaff] ,

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