| Suffering Childhood in Early America: Violence, Race, and the Making of the Child Victim Subjects: Children -- United States -- Social conditions; Violence -- United States -- History; Victims -- United States -- History; Suffering -- Political aspects -- United States -- History; Political culture -- United States -- History; Ethnicity -- United State; Nothing tugs on American heartstrings more than an image of a suffering child. Anna Mae Duane goes back to the nation's violent beginnings to examine how the ideal of childhood in early America was fundamental to forging concepts of ethnicity, race, and gender. Duane argues that children had long been used to symbolize subservience, but in the New World those old associations took on more meaning. Drawing on a wide range of early American writing, she explores how the figure of a suffering child accrued political weight as the work of infantilization connected the child to Native Americans, slaves, and women. ANNA MAE DUANE is an associate professor of English and director of the American Studies Program at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of Suffering Childhood in Early America: Violence, Race, and the Making of the Child Victim (Georgia) and Educated for Freedom: The Incredible Story of Two Fugitive Schoolboys Who Grew Up to Change a Nation. |