User:Rcon1317/sandbox

Legacy
Hannah More is regarded as a strong abolitionist and advocate for the poor, where her works found readership among the middle and upper class. More did start off as a playwright but when she joined the Evangelical group the Clapham Sect, she started writing about the evils of slavery and voicing the harsh conditions of the poor. This involvement in the group then turned her writings into propaganda, specifically directed to women, given that most of her writings were stories about women. During the 18th century it would have viewed as scandalous for a person, let alone a woman to write about these sorts of topics, but More prevailed because she knew how to approach the matter. More was able to avert harsh criticism during her time because she played “within the rules of the game while taking on the substantive reorganization of the dominant male culture’s beliefs and values.” More also put in her writings, her strong belief in God and how religion played a part in her views, so therefore no one could tell her she is wrong As Cheryl Turner points out, “whatever degree of controversy attended her activities, More amongst others, provided proof of the unequivocal respectability of the woman writer, thus contributing to her emerging status as censor and guide of public morality."

Although More’s writings appealed to women, she in no way should be regarded today as a feminist. More opposed doctrines of equality, believing that God was the only person who assigned his creations to a certain place in the social hierarchy. More did believe in equality, only in that, it was the equality of the soul, who accepted their assigned roles, who ultimately was rewarded for it in heaven. More was set on to carefully delineate proper social roles and to encourage people to fulfill these roles appropriately. Despite More’s generosity and dedication to the poor, she has been “generally portrayed as an unbending conservative, who undertook to educate the lower class primarily, if not entirely, as means of indoctrinating them in the principles of social submission.”