Susan Gore

Publication Date

12-1991

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Carol Crowe-Carraco, Charles Bussey, Marion Lucas

Comments

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After an extensive unsuccessful search for the author, this thesis is considered an orphan work, which may be protected by copyright. The inclusion of this orphan work on TopScholar does not guarantee that that orphan work may be used for any purpose and any use of the orphan work may subject the user to a claim of copyright infringement. The reproduction of this work is made by WKU without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and is made for purposes of preservation and research.

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Degree Program

Department of History

Degree Type

Master of Arts

Abstract

Elizabeth Threlkeld Cox Underwood was born in Georgetown, District of Columbia, in 1818 into a changing America. Hers is the story of a remarkable woman who possessed a cosmopolitan background and, for nineteenth-century women, an extensive education. She was transported, as the new wife of Joseph Rogers Underwood in 1839, to rural Bowling Green, Kentucky, when the entire Comnonwealth was little past the frontier experience.

Examined through her letters, her husband's journal, the writings of close friends, documents, and secondary material, Elizabeth's life provides an invaluable picture of an uncommon life-style as well area and the times. Elizabeth raised Joseph’s children and her own, served as a political and business advisor to her husband, and conducted business in her own name. In addition, while involved in overseeing the planning and construction of her home, Elizabeth, a supporter of the Liberia movement, prepared a slave family for emigration.

Elizabeth transcended Victorian stereotypes. She was a remarkable Kentucky woman who lived an interesting life during a fascinating period of America's history. Hers is a life worthy of preservation, yet despite extensive surviving documents, her biography, like that of most nineteenth-century women, has never before been written.

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | History | Social History | Women's History | Women's Studies

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