Habitually writing: nuns in the American West, 1727-1877

Abstract

This study's focus is the writing of an important yet little-explored group of frontier women: Catholic nuns. Nuns were often sent to a new territory as a sign of stability, as missionaries for the Catholic Church, and often as bait for those with monetary interests in developing territories. Nuns, and the letters they wrote from the frontier, combine uniquely to allow for a revealing and unexplored perspective of the West. Nuns are a frequently ignored group of writers. They are uniquely positioned in terms of independence versus subordination to masculine authority on the frontier. They were educated and literate. They performed work that shaped generations of women, and they produced letters. The letters were preserved through church venues and are a recoverable genre from women who did not publish formally. The letters distinctively reveal the relative status of the correspondents who lived and worked on the frontier---a highly complex contact zone. The letters were akin to political tools, a disruptive force in some cases, and cathartic expression in others. Negotiating relationships with superiors was a constant in the nuns' lives, as was negotiating the boundary of subordination or obedience. The degree to which these women pushed this boundary fluctuated in direct relation to how much power the nuns held, individually and collectively. Control issues were manifested and handled in differing ways depending on the order, its location, and the time in history. I examine the letters from the Ursulines of New Orleans and Galveston, and the Sisters of Loretto of New Mexico. This study's contribution to the field of early American literature will consist of recovery of long-ignored voices in the story of the American West. These letters also invite examination of our thoughts on frontier women's writing for what they reveal about discursive strategies used by these eighteenth-and nineteenth-century frontier religious women as they sought to fulfill their calling. The letters allow us to advance our current knowledge about the key players in American westward expansion.