Moira Ferguson is James E. Ryan Chair in English and Women's Literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her recent publications include Subject to Others: British Women Writers and Colonial Slavery 1678-1834; Colonial and Gender Relations from Mary Wollstonecraft to Jamaica Kincaid; and Jamaica Kincaid: Where the Land Meets the Body.

"I most admire this book's combination of a learned understanding of eighteenth-century British culture with a keen political astuteness and a sensitivity to the literary historical problems presented by working with women writers in the period. Ferguson brings her subjects alive through a judicious use of biographical and cultural contexts." — Donna Landry, Wayne State University"It is a lively and engaging book which will be of crucial interest to both eighteenth-century scholars and students of women's literature. It is based on exemplary research, both bringing to light previously undocumented texts, and providing fresh contexts for other still relatively underdiscussed texts." — Adela Pinch, University of Michigan

• 1. Introduction 2. Mary Collier: Women's Labor, Gender/Class Identity, and National Building 3. Mary Scott: Historicizing Women, (En)Gendering Cultural History 4. Ann Yearsley, the Published Writings:Gender, Patriotism, and Resistance 5. Ann Yearsley, the Unpublished Poems:Confrontation Unmediated, Empathy Undisguised 6. Janet Little, the Ayrshire Dairywoman:Gender, Class, and Scottish National Identity 7. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

Moira Ferguson is James E. Ryan Chair in English and Women's Literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her recent publications include Subject to Others: British Women Writers and Colonial Slavery 1678-1834; Colonial and Gender Relations from Mary Wollstonecraft to Jamaica Kincaid; and Jamaica Kincaid: Where the Land Meets the Body.

"I most admire this book's combination of a learned understanding of eighteenth-century British culture with a keen political astuteness and a sensitivity to the literary historical problems presented by working with women writers in the period. Ferguson brings her subjects alive through a judicious use of biographical and cultural contexts." — Donna Landry, Wayne State University"It is a lively and engaging book which will be of crucial interest to both eighteenth-century scholars and students of women's literature. It is based on exemplary research, both bringing to light previously undocumented texts, and providing fresh contexts for other still relatively underdiscussed texts." — Adela Pinch, University of Michigan

• 1. Introduction 2. Mary Collier: Women's Labor, Gender/Class Identity, and National Building 3. Mary Scott: Historicizing Women, (En)Gendering Cultural History 4. Ann Yearsley, the Published Writings:Gender, Patriotism, and Resistance 5. Ann Yearsley, the Unpublished Poems:Confrontation Unmediated, Empathy Undisguised 6. Janet Little, the Ayrshire Dairywoman:Gender, Class, and Scottish National Identity 7. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index