culture found the shortest and least-encumbered path to their goal, but that the goal will in time be reached by the easiest and best way does not admit of a doubt; in this case at least, though with some difference of application, may be quoted the old French proverb: _Ce que femme veut, Dieu veut_. That the future of our country depends, as its past has largely depended, upon its women is but a truism; it is something more, however, that we can look forward with calm confidence to that future as upheld by American womanhood. To-day the American woman stands but on the threshold of her career. Behind her are noble traditions, fraught with lesson, with admonition, and in some cases with warning; before her are the coming centuries, pregnant with possibility, to be made her own. Every step that she takes is a determination of her destined path; even though the step be temporarily in advance, if it leads to no worthy goal it is force wasted, and worse. She must needs face responsibility, without which she would be but the toy which she rightfully refuses to be considered; yet the responsibility which lies on her shoulders should make her thoughtful and grave to meet and outface many problems of existence, to the solution of which she must in largest part contribute by her dealings with them. She is free with the noblest of freedoms; she has the liberty to _be_ as well as to _do_, and the former is the greater thing. That which she does is but the reflex of that which she is, and the latter is the determining factor in the result of civilization. It is for her to direct the steps of progress, less in material matters than in spiritual direction; the legislation which is enacted in the halls of our legislatures is but the consequence of the influence and even the teachings of the home, and the face of the land is ever turned in the direction toward which its women set their countenances. There lies before us grave peril in questions of social nature, and it is our women who will determine whether the peril is to prove fatal to the best interests of civilization or but a "stepping-stone to higher things." The story of American womanhood in the past shows deep cause for pride in those who can boast kinship to that womanhood, and the future will not blur the blazon of the past. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I THE ABORIGINAL WOMAN II THE WOMEN OF MEXICO III THE WOMEN OF SOUTH AMERICA IV THE PERIOD OF SETTLEMENT V THE EARLY COLONIAL PERIOD VI THE LATER COLONIAL PERIOD VII REVOLUTIONARY DAYS VIII THE WOMEN OF CANADA IX THE YOUNG REPUBLIC X THE GROWTH OF THE NATION XI THE SECTIONAL DIVISION XII THE CIVIL WAR XIII FEMININE RECONSTRUCTION XIV THE CLOSE OF A CENTURY List of Illustrations