Martha Laurens Ramsay and the Predicament of Female Enlightenment in South Carolina, 1759-1811

Moreover, as a wife, she was subservient to her husband. At home, she nurtured her children with religious and enlightened books. She hoped to educate her children with the doctrines of Christianity and enlightened ideas. To support her husband, she copied materials and helped Ramsay to publish his historical, political and medical works. In Ramsay’s view, she idealized a competent woman whose principles “led her to make all her conduct subservient to her husband’s happiness.” Martha could manage her house and arrange everything so well that we can see she was a model of female excellence at that time. Although Martha was an enlightened Christian, she was not thoroughly enlightened. From the second half of the 18th century to the early 19th century, as a typical woman, she represented the limit of female enlightenment in South Carolina.