Includes bibliographical references and indexes

1. Rahab. Sarah Ewing Hall: a sanitized Rahab -- Susanna Haswell Rowson: is lying always wrong? -- Sarah Hale: redeeming Rahab -- Cecil Frances (Fanny) Alexander: from scarlet thread to blood drops -- Charlotte Maria Tucker: the sign of the cord -- Etty Woosnam: true conversion -- Leigh Norval: daring to be different -- Josephine Elizabeth Butler: the saving shelter of the home --
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: the question of motives -- 2. Achsah, Caleb's daughter. Lydia: Aschsah spiritually considered -- Grace Aguilar: Achsah and the age of chivalry -- Charlotte Maria Tucker: the Hebrew daughter's prayer -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton: assertiveness training - - Marianne Farningham: giving good gifts -- 3. Deborah. Grace Aguilar: superwoman -- Clara Balfour: redefining femininity -- Barbara Kellison: helpmeet and head -- Julia McNair Wright: knowledge is power -- Harriet Beecher Stowe : an inspired poet -- Elizabeth Baxter: an imperfect, but useful woman -- Clara B. Neyman: genius knows no sex -- 4. Jael. Sarah Ewing Hall: Jael's masculine resolution and cruelty -- Mary Cornwallis: using the only means in her power -- Eliza R. Stansbury Steele a mother's love -- Eliza Smith: the worst woman ever -- Emily Owen: Jael: a heroine? -- Constance de Rothschild and Annie de Rothschild: a true Hebrew woman at heart -- Harriet Beecher Stowe: the tiger, tracked, snared, and caught -- Elizabeth Jane Whately: God's executioner -- Etty Woosnam: unsexing Jael and fighting demon drink -- Anne Mercier: Deborah was wrong about Jael -- M.G.: nailing sin to the cross -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton: cold-blooded fiend

Jephthah's daughter. Caroline Howard Gilman: obedient unto death -- Sarah Ewing Hall: a child protests: a mother listens -- Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck: it's all about translation -- Susanna Rowson: the American dream sacrificed -- Eliza R. Stansbury Steele: maid of Gilead, fare thee well -- Adelia C. Graves: her life bought our freedom -- Rose Terry Cooke: cursed above all women -- Cecil Frances Alexander: saintly sacrifice -- Leigh Norval : like father, like daughter -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton: a woman in the "no-name series" -- Louisa Southworth: only a girl -- 6. Manoah's wife. Grace Aguilar: conceling your superiority -- Mary Elizabeth Beck: drink milk not beer -- Edith M. Dewhurst: nameless but known -- M.G.: saintly mothers -- Clara B. Neyman: demythologizing the angel -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Mrs. Manoah Doe -- 7. Delilah. Mary Cornwallis: a cautionary tale -- Sarah Hale: Samson the traitor -- Harriet Beecher Stowe: Delilah the destroyer -- Ella Wheeler Wilcox: the road to sweet hell - - Clara B. Neyman: the double standard -- 8. The Levite's concubine. Mary Cornwallis: abused to death -- Josephine Butler: the weak and prostrate figure lying at our door -- Josephine Butler: cold dead hands upon our threshold