This book is a study of the women of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts from the seventeenth century through the nineteenth century and the factors that allowed them to live a life that their counterparts in the rest of America did not necessarily enjoy. Divided into two sections, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the time before the idea of woman's sphere fully developed, and the nineteenth century when the predominant belief in American society was that there were two separate spheres for women and men, this book details the factors that allowed women on Nantucket to lead a life of independence and freedom and compares their world to that of other maritime communities, as well as Quaker communities. Well-known and lesser-known island women are discussed, as well as how their experiences had wider influences off the island into the late nineteenth century and beyond.