Hal, please read: "The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between Women in Nineteenth-Century America" by Carroll Smith-Rosenberg in the anthology Scott, Joan Wallach. FEMINISM AND HISTORY. Oxford Readings in Feminism. New York: Oxford UP, 1996, 366-397. Wes is right about reading 19thC language through a 20thC lens. There may be more recent scholarship than this article, I've been out of the loop for a little while. Kathy Farretta Flagstaff, AZ 86001