Elizabeth (Smyth) Nichols

The role of women as a moral authority expands in the following decades. Unlike her mother, Elizabeth (Smyth) Nichols is shown taking an active role in guiding her family in embracing virtuous and moral qualities. At a young age, her father (whom she had just met for the first time at sixteen years old) requested that she help him evaluate his character and identify his faults and flaws. Although she was reluctant to take on this task at first, she obliged and used religious teachings as the basis of her reply.

After marrying Gideon Nichols in 1802 and starting her own family, this responsibility extended to her children. Her attempts to guide their behavior and help them establish good habits are seen in her letters to her son Walter Nichols and daughter Louisa Adelia Nichols. She advised her son to be amiable to attract friends and supporters while having the fortitude to avoid untrustworthy individuals, and pushed her daughter to learn as much as she could to strengthen her intellect and ability to make decisions as to what is right and wrong.

Elizabeth’s correspondence with Ruth (Hall) Hart adds a new dimension to the role occupied by women in the early nineteenth century. In this letter, she describes her reactions and disagreement with views on education that suggested sons would be disadvantaged if they were educated by their mothers. This demonstrates not only the role of mothers as educators but introduces the possibility of using relationships with other women to expand their social circles and engage with prominent issues in society.