1839 WOMEN'S PLIGHT. Andover Seminary Student on Right to Independent Thought and Education.

A fascinating 3.5pp ALS by Eden Burroughs Foster [1813-1882] graduated Andover [1839] and proceeded to the Seminary. He held a number of Congregational pastorates and published an influential work A North-Side View of Slavery in 1854, along with various other works and sermons. 

August 19, 1839, writing from Andover Theological Seminary, to Miss Catherine Pinner, Hanover, New Hampshire. 

The letter closes with an apparently original two stanza poem on friendship. It is signed by Eden and we do not trace it elsewhere.

Extracts:

I know that you have duties, labors, cares. I know that the few past weeks must have kept your attention constantly occupied. Men often talk of the comparative leisure & easy lot which females enjoy. Their toil is sometimes less severe, perhaps, as their strength is less, but is it less protracted? When I have seen women doing, doing, doing, by day light & candle light, often when her husband or brother was amusing himself with a newspaper or perhaps - nothing, I have been unable to avoid the reflection - surely the weaker sex have little favor shown in point of work. In most families I presume the father & son have three hours for uninterrupted study & reflection as often as the mother & daughter have one. Probably most are not aware how much of the females' time is employed in labor, so noiseless are their movements, so quiet are many of their occupations, so patient the tasks, about the house. Thanks to her diligent, uncomplaining disposition! She is an angel of peace, ever hovering near to tranquilize the excited mind - a ministering spirit ever ready to serve. How would stern man bear the restraint were he confined within so narrow a space, to almost unremitting effort, through all his waking hours? I fear with a fretful, angry mind. 

. . . 

Dear Catherine, I do not wish to urge your mind to incessant or excessive action. Think calmly without hurry or feverish anxiety. Yet, may I ask you to think - carefully, always - closely sometimes. Judge of books, events, of character, of opinions & express your judgment in language - as often as possible, in written language.