As the American Revolution drew to a close, women increasingly found themselves at the center of debates about the direction and character of the emerging nation. According to many writers, the same women who had gone off to war or run family businesses during the Revolution needed to return to their homes and assume responsibility for molding their husbands and children into solid citizens. As John Adams had insisted in 1778, the "foundation of national morality must be laid in private families." Much of the literature published during the decades immediately following the Revolution addressed this concern by linking the future of the nation with women's behavior and influence in the home. Sentimental novels, in particular, centered on the issues of marriage and family and thus offered young women readers guidance about the sometimes contradictory expectations and assumptions they might later face as wives and mothers.

Sukey Vickery was...