Examining the preeminent women’s magazines, gift books and religious writings between 1820 and 1860, Barbara Welter notes that in 19th-century US-America, marriage was considered as a cultural imperative that was deemed necessary for women’s happiness (“Cult of True Womanhood” 158). Yet marriage not only meant the end of female chastity and innocence, but also of entering into a life of dependence upon her husband – who by law became her owner and she, the wife, his property. In contrast, slave women were denied the legal right to matrimony and commitment to their husbands since both were considered the slaveowner’s property all along. This seemingly straightforward social order regarding the marriage of Black and White women and the ways in which it determined their legal and socioeconomic status, however, was heavily contested, not least by women themselves. In fact, numerous women called for a critical reassessment of the cultural imperative of White matrimony, whereas enslaved Blacks fought for their emancipation, including the right to choose a husband and wife and enter into a legally sanctioned union. Accordingly, some women writers envisioned different ways of married and unmarried life; others insisted on their separate, sovereign selves and bodies within marriage; yet others called for racial commitment in marriage. This course concerns itself with the various contributions of nineteenth-century American women’s literature – Black and White – to the dynamic discourse about the institution of marriage.

Please read the following novels:
Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Married or Single? (1857).
I highly recommend Deborah Gussmann’s 2015 edition with University of Nebraska Press (https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9780803271920/married-or-single/).
You can also download both volumes of the novel here:
Vol. 1: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510021218687&seq=1
Vol. 2: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951p00386684w&seq=7

Louisa May Alcott’s unfinished novel Diana & Persis (first edition 1978):
https://archive.org/details/dianapersis00alco/page/n139/mode/2up (you might have to sign up to archive.org first).

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, Hagar’s Daughter (1901–1902): any affordable version will work. You can also read it online at: https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hopkins/hagar/hagar.html.