Creating a New Ideal of Masculinity for American Men: The Achievement of Sentimental Women Writers in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

This work examines the male characters presented in each of the following works: Susan Warner's "The Wide, Wide World" (1850), Fanny Fern's "Ruth Hall" (1855), Harriet E. Wilson's "Our Nig" (1859), and Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" (1861). These sentimental women authors presented masculine ideals in their literature and have played an important role in the construction of gender in America.