Was Edgar Allan Poe for or against Women's Rights in the 1800's?

Edgar Allan Poe born January 19, 1809, was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic.  He was considered part of the American Romantic Movement and best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre.  His mother was a prominent actress which was considered a disreputable career.  His father deserted the family when Edgar was 1 year old.  His mother died when he was 2 years old.  He was taken into the family of John and Frances Allan.  Edgar's brother and sister were sent to different foster parents.  He was renamed Edgar Allan but was never legally adopted.  Allan lost interest in supporting Poe financially and provided only minimal funds to Poe for studying at the University of Virginia in 1826.  Poe ran into debt and began to drink and gamble.  He had to leave the university before his first year was completed.  After a quarrel with Allan in 1827, Poe was ordered out of the house at the age of 18 years old.  Poe lived in poverty and moved in with his Aunt Maria Poe Clemm and her daughter, Virginia [http://www.eapoe.org/papers/psbbooks/pb19871c.htm].

Edgar Allan Poe never knew his natural mother and that important affection between mother and child.  Poe had a persistent need to be closely associated with some woman who could play the role of mother to him.  In looking at Poe's tempestuous life, it has been said that the women with whom he was on intimate terms, either by birth, "adoption," and marriage or by ties of friendship and love, was most unfortunate.  He was extremely chivalrous to women and normally polite and courteous to all. Probably due to his Southern breeding.  Women usually found him fascinating, but there were those that found it easy to take advantage of him [http://www.eapoe.org/papers/psbbooks/pb19871c.htm].

The relationships between Edgar Allan Poe and the many women in his life, were tenuous and disastrous, and provided inspiration for some of the finest darkly romantic poems and short stores of the early 19th century.  Poe's idealized views of everlasting love were clouded by the real life pain and trials that kept him from experiencing spiritual and romantic love.  His ideal, as told through his poems and stories, is not an attainable Eden, but rather an unattainable, nightmarish vision that echoed his real-life tagedies with calculated skill [http://www.helpfulresearch.com/edgar.html].

Poe's favorite topic was lost love, the most haunting and melancholic kind of love.  Poe saw love, politics, and death as three sides of the same coin.  None could exist without the others.  Like other men during his time, Edgar Allan Poe appears to have very sexist views in the early 19th century.  Poe's writings contain sexist views, although they are subliminal [http://www.helpfulresearch.com/edgar.html]
[http://www.blogger.com/goog_1897074963
kcollins/].

During the 1800's, America was still considered a new nation.  The United States was at war with Great Britain from 1812-1814.  The U.S. Army was persecuting Native American tribes which included the Creeks, Seminoles, Sioux, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, and the Apache.  Four policies ran the country during this time period:  Manifest Destiny, war, slavery and gender inequality.  White women climbed a little more on society's ladder, but they wanted more.  In 1839, Mississippi granted women the right to hold property, but they had to have their husbands' permission first.  In 1848, 300 women and men signed a "Declaration of Sentiments."  This was a plea to end gender discrimination in all phases of society.  Before, women's roles in American society were only inside the family home.  In 1869, the Wyoming territory passed the first women's suffrage law.  Territories and Northern states offered more for women than Southern states.  In 1889, Wyoming granted women the right to vote in all elections.  The rest of the country granted that right in 1920.  America in the 1800's was about war, slavery, corruption and Indian extermination.  Black women suffered through years of slavery, racism and discrimination.  White women took their concessions and moved slowly forward [http://www.helium.com/items/1165568-sojourner-truth-1869-1870-fraticide].

Women in the early 1800's were not supposed to be involved in politics.  Men felt that women were too emotional and they couldn't handle the extra stress.  Around the 1820's, women stood up and took part in politics.  They fought against slavery, abortions, women suffrage, and governmental issues.  They spoke out using the media and at public gatherings.  At first no one listened and were thought to be foolish.  They continued to speak until finally someone listened.  Women joined the American Society for the promotion of the Temperance in 1826 to wage a battle against alcohol.  They wanted to reduce the high consumption of alcohol in men, women, and children [http://www.angelfire.com/ca/HistoryGals/Linda.html].

Despite his unconventional ways in his writings, in his personal life Edgar Allan Poe held the most conventional early 19th century views about the subordinate place of women in a man's world.  Poe routinely mocked the successful, professional woman.  Poe considered female writers in America to be mediocre.  In his own poetry and fiction, Poe often depicted the suppression or annihilation of women who because of overpowering beauty, intellect, or wealth departed from the conventional and threatened man's superior position.  Poe and his avatars such as Dupin work to punish and silence womankind in the world that threatened a masculine society [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7008/is_2_20/ai_n28363536/].

                                             Virtual reading of Annabel Lee