living conditions found in rural settlements between Boston and New York.

Knight's diary has also been important in the field of women's history and literary recovery, both of which are movements that seek to recover narratives often forgotten or neglected in favor of more mainstream, canonized works. As a woman's diary, The Journal of Madam Knight represents a deviation from the traditional masculine canon. While her status as a feminist figure remains open for debate, Knight's diary has merited study for its record of an unusual situation