Leaves from a Diary.
“Not the woman in the case, but the case in the woman”
Campbell, Rachel. Leaves from a Diary of A. Crank. Grass Valley, California: Published, and for sale by Rachel Campbell, ca. 1880-1900.
Single leaf of light blue paper, folded to make four pages; creased. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
Only printing of this rare leaflet; OCLC locates only one copy at the Boston Athenaeum. It is noted on the first page that this is “No. 1,” of a series sold for three cents each and 18 cents per dozen, though this was the only issue published. Contains Campbell’s opinions on motherhood, property rights, and women’s place in society, combining to create a contradictory cocktail of progressive and reactionary thought.
Campbell begins Leaves with her opinion on social reforms regarding women, setting the tone for the rest of the leaflet:
There seems to be a very general agreement among social reformers on one point: that women must be pecuniarily independent before she can be sexually free. This is undoubtedly true, but, though I would most heartily rejoice to see all women free and independent I have little sympathy which such as seek through certain branches of industry to bring women into industrial competition with men, thus making her self-supporting by virtue of her own manual labor. That this might be an improvement on the practice of past ages I admit, but it will fail as a practical measure in as much as it lacks of being just.
Campbell explains that while she would “rejoice to see all women free and independent” (p. 1), she believes that women’s freedom and independence should manifest itself in the ability to raise children unfettered from housework or any other type of paid job; a woman’s “job” as a mother “entitles her to abundant provision for her maintenance and support without the necessity of labor” (p. 1). She elaborates that the goal of the race should be advancement toward a eugenic ideal – “smooth skin, silken hair and beard, the firm, yet elastic tissue” – the kind of qualities that could not be produced by an “Indian squaw” or in “barbaric times” (p. 1).
She praises a woman’s function as being “the chief factor in human evolution” (p. 2), and elaborates that this does not only mean the physical birthing of babies, but also the cultivation of children’s minds. She goes on to describe women’s bodily capabilities: “The perpetual demand made on women’s system by her maternal function, not only renders her physically weaker than man, but creates in her a peculiarly nervous condition that unfits her for hard labor, while on the other hand, hard labor unfits her for her mission of motherhood” (p. 1). She refers to a woman’s period as a “monthly tax,” and proclaims that “were the full magnitude of this sanguinary flood made visible, our men and brethren would stand aghast in horror and consternation” (p. 2).
Campbell continues to simultaneously laud womanhood, while shackling women exclusively to their reproductive functions; “All the improvement that can be attained through education and culture must first pass through this case in the woman, and there become incarnate in a new life, before it can possibly become fixed and organic. In this way, whatever of gain may come to the present age through experience, education or growth, is transmitted to the next generation as a permanent endowment of the race” (p. 2). She asks, “is it too much to ask in the name of Justice that woman’s material wants be supplied? that she be freed from the necessity of labor and relieved from the care and anxiety that comes from lack of dollars and cents” (p. 3). She explains that women’s role in improving the race is more vital than that of men’s; in fact, she relegates men to a secondary, subservient role: “Man cannot give to the race the service rendered by woman, but he can be to her a kind and faithful helpmeet, and in this capacity she has need of him” (p. 3).
Campbell has five suggestions that soci
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