Both Charlotte Temple and Slave Girl were works written with driving moral messages. In the case of Rowson's work, it behooved her to add such morality to her writing to temper a number of less favorably looked upon aspects of her stories. There are points throughout her work which beg to be considered feminist, points which border on tawdry, and overall the work could easily have been seen as somewhat salacious. In order to not appear out of line, she included in all parts, but most of all in the events which concluded it, an element of the characters being punished for the acts which they had committed. Fiction was a highly suspect form of writing in the late 18th century America, and Rowson was accused on many occasions of doing more harm than good to those, especially the young, who read her works. Martin writes, “According to Mrs. Rowson, [salacious incidents in Temple] were composed with the intention of instructing her readers, "especially her young readers," in sound moral principles” (2). Narratives on the other hand, had a moral message to it which was less intentional - that is, it was an intrinsic aspect of the subject matter which Jacobs wrote about, not an additional function. In seeing the wrongs acted upon this slave and her family, one can but only see the immorality of the situation. Nudelman writes of Lydia Maria Child that “Child hopes that by exposing the "monstrous features" of slavery this narrative will "arouse conscientious and reflecting women at the North to a sense of their duty in the exertion of moral influence on the question of Slavery on all possible occasions (4)"”(944).
These two female writers, as different as could be in race, homeland, struggle, and purpose for writing, still utilized many of the same devices of plot advancement and appeal. All of these devices are similar to the style of this period in American history, and would form the framework for writers to come. Beyond what was mentioned here, there were shared between the two countless other similar aspects of appeal as writers. This writer also took note of the sentimental aspects of both works, including the everywoman, the romantic aspect, the defined protagonists, and the heart-pulling conclusion. If everything were to be addressed here, however, my head (and yours) may very well explode. As it is, I may need to have minor surgery after this one.
