"As to your extra-ordinary Code of Laws, I cannot but laugh. We have been told that our Struggle has loosened the bands of Government everywhere. That Children and Apprentices were disobedient-that schools and Colleges were grown turbulent-that In-dians slighted their Guardians and Ne-groes grew insolent to their Masters. But your Letter was the first Intimation that another Tribe more numerous and powerful than all the rest were grown discon-tented" [2, 906].

This remarkable exchange between two remarkable people is perhaps the best-known exchange of the era and a written evi-dence available to us about the extent to which people in non-dominant social and legal circumstances- particularly women, African-Americans, and Native Ameri-cans in Anglo-America-willingly spoke about and thus openly confronted the boundaries set for them by the white, elite, group of men.

The cultural norms were politically conservative and white-dominant. During the 1780s and 1790s white women, African-Americans, and Native

Americans were finding voice for their positions, as never before, they learned how to use the word to influence masses of people. The Enlightenment attitudes about rebellious agitation emerged in women's writing about human nature, liberty, law. The changes in the life of Americans in the 18th century provided unusual opportunities for women writers. A great number of increasingly educated readers would require reading materials. Like the legal and social institutions that were fostered during the era, literature was considered a means by which American cultural norms could be reinforced.

As women read novels, women began to write novels. This was the case in the late 18th century when the first American novels were published and this remains the case in the 21st century. Perhaps because the novel is such a loose and flexible literary form women have written every conceivable kind of novel, using various styles and conventions, and have addressed them to a variety of social causes, political issues, personal aspirations and group identities. There are reasons for the close relationship between the early American novel and women in this period. First, the novel was an accessible form. It did not require advanced learning in the classical tradition as did many forms of 18th century. Because women were barred from higher education at that time and received primary education, the novel could be read by middle class women and even by women from the working classes. In a number of novels, classical allusions are actually defined in the text, again making the books accessible to readers. Second, the establishment of lending libraries in even the smallest frontier communities made novels available at prices that women could afford (a fee $4-6 a year).

The American novel began in the early national period, the era following the signing of the US constitution. The two best-selling novels of the time were Susanna Haswell Rowson's "Charlotte, a Tale of Truth" (1791), later and popularly known as "Charlotte Temple" and Hannah Webster Foster's "The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton" (1797). Both were about women and explicitly addressed to women. Even the novel now regarded as the first American novel William Hill Brown's "The Power of Sympathy" 1789, was published anonymously and was long thought to have been written by a woman.

In early America, women had few rights: they couldn't vote, serve on juries, make wills or sign contracts. Ignored by law and politics in the new nation, women found themselves the centre of the world represented in novels. The plots of many early novels often revealed around everyday life situations of concern of women. Susanna Haswell Rowson's "Charlotte Temple" became the first American bestselling novel when published in 1794. Its subtitle "A Tale of Truth" may account for its immense popularity in a puritan society. The novel was important in portraying standards of morality prevalent in eighteenth-century America. Rowson's depiction of the Revolutionary War as the background of her romance was also seen as having significance in American literary history. Patricia Parker in her book on Rowson states that Rowson lived during a crucial period of nation's history, as it turned from provincial colony to pre- industrial nation. She herself strongly identified with the political objectives of the new republic and came to consider herself American despite her British birth, as she lived most of her life in this country [Parker, 1986].

Like most writers of the era who have promoted the values held by government leaders Susanne Rowson in the "Preface" to her novel states, that her book was designed for perusal of the young and thoughtless of the