Summary

Rebecca Harding grew up on the Ohio in Wheeling, Virginia. Rebecca's father was English and believed the last good writer was Shakespeare. The oldest of five children, Rebecca was not close to her father as a child. Rebecca was not well educated; she was not allowed to attend college because there was only one college open to women at the time. Rebecca did teach herself, however, when her brother attended college and would bring his college textbooks home. Rebecca attended finishing school in Pennsylvania where she met Francis LeMoyne, a social activist who would influence some of Rebecca's early writings. In fact, those years after finishing school were exciting years of social change, the years of Dred Scot and women's rights, years that would both influence Rebecca and cause stress in her household because of her father's...