[1] The critic Nancy Armstrong argues that conduct books "represented a specific configuration of sexual features as those of the only appropriate woman for men at all levels of society to want as a wife", while also providing "people from diverse social groups with a basis for imagining economic interests in common.
"[10] Popular 18th-century conduct books included Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son (1774), John Gregory's A Father's Legacy to His Daughters (1774), Hester Chapone's Letters on the Improvement of the Mind (1773), William Kenrick's The Whole Duty of Woman (1753), and the compendium The Lady's Pocket Library (1792), published by Mathew Carey, which included selections by Hannah More, Sarah, Lady Pennington, Anne-Thérèse de Marguenat de Courcelles and Jonathan Swift.
During the Great Migration of the early twentieth century, both physical and cultural movement of people changed the geography of social interaction within the United States, contributing to rising anxiety about national identity, socioeconomic stability, and girlhood among black and white families alike.
White supremacist literature such as The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) contributed to the fearmongering racist ideologies of the time by relying on the false narrative that criminality is inherent to black communities.
[11] The racial violence seen during slavery was continued through a legacy of brutality and systemic oppression, evidenced by the trend of lynching African Americans even into the twenty-first century.
In response to the violence of this period, conduct books and manuals published by black writers ushered in the era of the "New Negro," a model of moral integrity and behavioral codes that white democrats would recognize as genteel in nature.
[14] The codes published in turn-of-the-century manuals contained some information that was helpful to the health and wellbeing of young black girls; however, they also advocated for rigid rules that restricted their lives and silenced their feelings.
Respectability was often conflated with appearance, and conduct books instructed girls on how to present themselves both physically and socially into proper ladies, directing them towards a formulaic way of thinking that discouraged loud, uncaring, or reckless behavior in favor of quiet and thoughtful manners.
These changes, which transformed lower-class black girls into the embodiment of the ideal female New Negro, prepared women for political and social activism within their communities and the domestic roles of a wife and mother, suggesting that marriage is the ultimate reward for education and cultivation.
[16] Popular black conduct books of the early-20th century include: Floyd's Flowers, Morals and Manners, Working with Your Hands, Golden Thoughts on Chastity and Procreation, and Don't!
[20] While black conduct books were viewed as valuable in providing guidance to African Americans navigating the social challenges of integrating into white society post-war, they were also problematic in many ways.