Abolition and Women s Suffrage

Transcription

1 Abolition and Women s Suffrage Combined Struggles for Civil Rights 2 1 The movement to abolish slavery was closely related to the early women s rights movement. Abolitionist leaders such as Frederick Douglass publicly supported women s rights, working alongside prominent organizers such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Likewise, these women made significant contributions to the abolitionist movement. Women s rights activists thus gained political organizing skills that would later prove essential to the success of the battle for women s suffrage (Hewitt). After the Civil War, the 14 th and 15 th Amendments were introduced extending citizenship and suffrage to African-American men. Abolitionist allies now divided; Anthony and Stanton were joined by former slaves such as Sojourner Truth in rejecting the Amendments because they specifically excluded women (Hewitt). Many abolitionists, Douglass included, who had previously advocated for women s suffrage now claimed that citizenship and voting rights should first be extended to African-American men. After the passage of the 14 th and 15 th Amendments, Douglass returned to support women s suffrage. Women did not earn the right to vote until 1920, when the 19 th Amendment was passed. 1 Frederick Douglass, circa Elizabeth Cady Stanton (left) and Susan B. Anthony (right), circa Sojourner Truth,

2 Credits: Barry, Kathleen. Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist. New York: New York University Press, Douglass, Frederick. Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings. Ed. Philip Sheldon Foner and Yuval Taylor. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, Hewitt, Nancy A. Abolition and Suffrage. Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. PBS, n.d. Web. 23 May Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage, History of Women s Suffrage, Volume II: Susan B. Anthony: Rochester, N.Y., Michigan Grade Level Content Expectations 8-U Describe the formation and development of the abolitionist movement by considering the roles of key abolitionist leaders, and the response of southerners and northerners to the abolitionist movement. Questions: 1. What were the common goals of the abolitionist and women s rights movements? 2. How did the abolitionist movement influence the women s rights movement? 3. What caused the division between the two movements and what were its consequences? 4. Review the quotations associated with the photographs of Douglass and Truth. What are the main points of their arguments? Links to Internet Websites 2

3 Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery in After this, he became a prominent leader of the abolitionist movement, and was particularly well-known for his writing and oratory skills. After attending the 1848 Women s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, Frederick Douglass wrote in favor of women s suffrage in his newspaper The North Star: standing as we do upon the watch-tower of human freedom, we cannot be deterred from an expression of our approbation of any movement, however humble, to improve and elevate the character of any members of the human family we go farther, and express our conviction that all political rights that it is expedient for man to exercise, it is equally so for women (Douglass 102). Later, in an 1869 convention, Douglass expressed his opinion that rights should be extended first to African American men: When women, because they are women, are hunted down through the cities of New York and New Orleans; when they are dragged from their houses and hung upon lamp-posts; when their children are torn from their arms, and their brains dashed out upon the pavement; when they are objects of insult and outrage at every turn; when they are in danger of having their homes burnt down over their heads; when their children are not allowed to enter schools; then they will have an urgency to obtain the ballot equal to our own (quoted in Stanton et al. 382). 3

4 Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ Susan B. Anthony was born into an anti-slavery, activist Quaker household. From her parents and other Quaker abolitionists she was exposed to activism at an early age. In her twenties, Anthony helped runaway slaves as they passed through Rochester, NY, and served as the New York agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society (Barry 63). Together, Anthony and Stanton organized the Women s National Loyal League in The first national women's political organization in the United States, the League sponsored a highly successful national anti-slavery petition, which gained approximately 400,000 signatures and largely influenced the passage of the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery in Following the end of the war until her death in Rochester, New York in 1906, Anthony devoted her life to the Women s Suffrage Movement. 4

5 Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ An unschooled and formerly enslaved African-American woman, Sojourner Truth earned a permanent place in American history due to her involvement with the abolitionist, women s rights, and temperance movements. Truth (born Isabella Bomefree) walked away from slavery in 1826, and in 1843 reinvented herself as a preacher and social activist, travelling throughout New England, the Midwest, and Washington D.C. She finally settled in Michigan, where she worked with Michigan s Anti-Slavery Society and the Detroit Underground Railroad. Truth s speeches testify to her belief of the interconnectedness of race and gender in the quest for equality. In the 1869 convention at which Douglass reversed his opinion regarding women s suffrage, Truth stated: I am glad to see that men are getting their rights, but I want women to get theirs, and while the water is stirring I will step into the pool. Now that there is a great stir about colored men s getting their rights is the time for women to step in and have theirs (quoted in Stanton et al. 222). The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) restricts photocopying or reproduction of copyright mat erial for anything other than fair use. Fair Use includes private study, scholarship, research and non-profit educational purposes. If you wish to use an image from this website for a purpose other than fair use it is your responsibility to obtain permissio n from the copyright ho lder. While many images on this website are in the public domain, some are not. Please consult the credit lines provided for each image. 5