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In 1824 publiseer Elizabeth Heyrick haar pamflet Onmiddellik nie geleidelike afskaffing nie. In haar pamflet het Heyrick hartstogtelik gepleit ten gunste van die onmiddellike emansipasie van die slawe in die Britse kolonies. Dit het verskil van die amptelike beleid van die Anti-Slavery Society wat geglo het in geleidelike afskaffing. Sy noem dit 'die einste meesterstuk van sataniese beleid' en pleit vir 'n boikot van die suiker wat op slawe -aanplantings geproduseer word. (1)
In die pamflet val Heyrick die 'stadige, versigtige, tegemoetkomende maatreëls' van die leiers aan. "Die voortbestaan van slawerny in ons kolonies in Wes -Indië is nie 'n abstrakte vraag wat tussen die regering en die planters besleg moet word nie; dit is een waarin ons almal betrokke is, ons is almal skuldig aan die ondersteuning en voortbestaan van slawerny. Die Wes -Indiese planter en die mense van hierdie land staan in dieselfde morele verhouding met mekaar as die dief en ontvanger van gesteelde goedere ". (2)
Die leierskap van die organisasie het probeer om inligting oor die bestaan van hierdie pamflet te onderdruk, en William Wilberforce het instruksies aan die leiers van die beweging gegee om nie by vroue teen slawernyverenigings te praat nie. Sy biograaf, William Hague, beweer dat Wilberforce nie in staat was om aan te pas by die idee dat vroue by die politiek betrokke sou raak nie "wat gebeur het amper 'n eeu voordat vroue in Brittanje sou stem". (3)
Alhoewel vroue toegelaat is om lid te wees, is hulle feitlik uitgesluit van die leierskap. Wilberforce hou nie van die strydlustigheid van die vroue nie en skryf aan Thomas Babington om te protesteer dat "vir dames om te ontmoet, te publiseer, om van huis tot huis te gaan en petisies op te wek - dit lyk vir my as 'n proses wat nie geskik is vir die vroulike karakter nie, soos in die Skrif omskryf". (4)
George Stephen was egter nie eens met Wilberforce oor hierdie kwessie nie en beweer dat hul energie van deurslaggewende belang was vir die sukses van die beweging: "Damesverenigings het alles gedoen ... Hulle het publikasies versprei; hulle het die geld bekom om te publiseer; hulle het gepraat, aangespoor en gedoseer: hulle het openbare vergaderings opgestaan en ons sale en platforms gevul toe die dag aanbreek; hulle het petisies rondgedra en die plig afgedwing om dit te onderteken ... Met 'n woord vorm hulle die sement van die hele gebou teen slawerny - sonder hul hulp het ons nooit moes bly staan het. ” (5)
Thomas Clarkson, nog 'n leier van die mier-slawernybeweging, was baie meer simpatiek teenoor vroue. Ongewoon vir 'n man van sy tyd, het hy geglo dat vroue 'n volledige opleiding en 'n rol in die openbare lewe verdien, en bewonder die manier waarop die Quakers vroue toelaat om tydens hul vergaderings te praat. Clarkson het aan Elizabeth Heyrick se vriend, Lucy Townsend, gesê dat hy beswaar maak teen die feit dat "vroue steeds op 'n ander skaal as mans geweeg word ... (6)
Rekords toon dat ongeveer tien persent van die finansiële ondersteuners van die organisasie vroue was. In sommige gebiede, soos Manchester, het vroue meer as 'n kwart van alle intekenare uitgemaak. Lucy Townsend het Thomas Clarkson gevra hoe sy 'n bydrae kan lewer in die stryd teen slawerny. Hy het geantwoord dat dit 'n goeie idee sou wees om 'n vroue-samelewing teen slawerny te stig. (7)
Op 8 April 1825 het Lucy Townsend 'n vergadering by haar huis gehou om die kwessie van die rol van vroue in die anti-slawernybeweging te bespreek. Townsend, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Sarah Wedgwood, Sophia Sturge en die ander vroue het tydens die vergadering besluit om die Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves te stig (later het die groep sy naam verander na die Female Society for Birmingham). (8) Die groep "het die suikerboikot bevorder, gemik op winkels sowel as op kopers, duisende huise besoek en pamflette versprei, vergaderings belê en petisies opgestel." (9)
Die samelewing wat van sy stigting af onafhanklik was van die nasionale anti-slawernyvereniging en van die plaaslike samelewing teen manslawerheid. Soos Clare Midgley opgemerk het: "Dit was die spilpunt van 'n ontwikkelende nasionale netwerk van vroulike anti-slawerny samelewings, eerder as 'n plaaslike hulpverlener. Dit het ook belangrike internasionale verbintenisse en publisiteit oor sy aktiwiteite in die afskaffingstydskrif van Benjamin Lundy. Die genie van universele emansipasie het die vorming van die eerste vroulike anti-slawerny-samelewings in Amerika beïnvloed. "(10)
Die vorming van ander onafhanklike vrouegroepe volg spoedig op die oprigting van die Female Society for Birmingham. Dit het groepe in Nottingham (Ann Taylor Gilbert), Sheffield (Mary Anne Rawson, Mary Roberts), Leicester (Elizabeth Heyrick, Susanna Watts), Glasgow (Jane Smeal), Norwich (Amelia Opie, Anna Gurney), Londen (Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck) ingesluit , Mary Foster), Darlington (Elizabeth Pease) en Chelmsford (Anne Knight). Teen 1831 was daar drie-en-sewentig van hierdie vroue-organisasies wat hulle teen slawerny beywer het. (11)
Die Female Society for Birmingham het 'n belangrike rol gespeel in die propaganda -veldtog teen slawerny. Lucy Townsend, het die pamflet teen slawerny To the Law and to the Testimony (1832) geskryf. 'Onder leiding van Lucy Townsend en Mary Lloyd het die samelewing die kenmerkende vorme van vroulike anti-slawerny-aktiwiteite ontwikkel, met die klem op die lyding van vroue onder slawerny, stelselmatige bevordering van onthouding van suiker wat deur slawe gegroei is deur middel van deur-tot-deur opgrawing, en die vervaardiging van innoverende vorme van propaganda, soos albums met traktate, gedigte en illustrasies, geborduurde werksakke teen slawerny. " (12)
In 1830 het die Female Society for Birmingham 'n resolusie voorgelê by die National Conference of the Anti-Slavery Society waarin die organisasie gevra word om 'n veldtog te beywer vir 'n onmiddellike einde aan slawerny in die Britse kolonies. Elizabeth Heyrick, wat tesourier van die organisasie was, het 'n nuwe strategie voorgestel om die manlike leierskap te oorreed om van plan te verander. In April 1830 besluit hulle dat die groep slegs hul jaarlikse skenking van £ 50 slegs aan die nasionale samelewing teen slawerny sal gee "as hulle bereid is om die woord 'geleidelik' in hul titel op te gee." Op die nasionale konferensie die volgende maand het die Anti-Slavery Society ingestem om die woorde 'geleidelike afskaffing' van die titel te laat val. Dit het ook ingestem om die vroulike vereniging se plan vir 'n nuwe veldtog om onmiddellike afskaffing te bewerkstellig, te ondersteun. (13)
Sarah Wedgwood was 'n aktiewe lid van die groep. Haar man, Josiah Wedgwood, het een van sy vakmanne gevra om 'n seël te ontwerp om die was te stamp wat gebruik is om koeverte te sluit. Dit het 'n knielende Afrikaner in kettings gewys, sy hande opgelig en die woorde bevat: "Is ek nie 'n man en 'n broer nie?" Hierdie beeld is "oral weergegee van boeke en pamflette tot snuifkassies en manchetknope". (14)
Thomas Clarkson het verduidelik: "Sommige het dit in goud op die deksel van hul snuifdose gelê. Van die dames het verskeie dit in armbande gedra, en ander het dit op 'n sierlike manier as penne vir hul hare laat aanbring. dit het algemeen geword, en hierdie manier, wat gewoonlik tot waardelose dinge beperk is, is een keer in die agbare amp gesien om die saak van geregtigheid, menslikheid en vryheid te bevorder. " (15)
Honderde van hierdie beelde is vervaardig. Benjamin Franklin het voorgestel dat die beeld 'gelyk is aan die van die beste geskrewe pamflet'. Mans het dit as hempspelde en jasknoppies vertoon. Terwyl vroue die beeld in armbande, borsspelde en ornamentele haarspelde gebruik het. Op hierdie manier kon vroue hul opinies teen slawerny toon in 'n tyd toe hulle die stemming geweier is. Sophia Sturge, 'n lid van die Female Society for Birmingham -groep, was verantwoordelik vir die ontwerp van hul eie medalje, "Is I Not a Slave And A Sister?" (16)
Richard Reddie het aangevoer dat vroue soos Lucy Townsend gedurende hierdie tydperk 'uit die skaduwee' gekom het na die uittrede van William Wilberforce, om 'n belangrike rol te speel in die veldtog teen slawerny. Hierdie vroue het 'duidelik geïdentifiseer met die toestand van Afrikaaners sonder 'n franchise' en beweer dat 'Afrika -vroue grootliks die swaarste van mishandeling gedra het tydens slawerny - verkragting en ander oortredings kom gereeld voor op slaweskepe en plantasies'. (17) Vron Ware, verduidelik in haar boek, Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History (1992), dat vroueliteratuur van vroue se afskaffing dikwels baie eksplisiet was oor die 'onsedelikhede' wat vroueslawe verduur het. (18)
Vroeg in 1833 het Anne Knight kragte saamgesnoer met die London Female Anti-Slavery Society om 'n nasionale petisie vir vroue teen slawerny te reël. Toe dit aan die parlement voorgelê is, is dit onderteken deur 298.785 vroue. Dit was die grootste petisie teen slawerny in die geskiedenis van die beweging. (19)
Die Wet op Afskaffing van Slawerny is op 28 Augustus 1833 aangeneem. Hierdie wet het alle slawe in die Britse Ryk hul vryheid gebied. Die Britse regering het £ 20 miljoen in vergoeding aan die slawe -eienaars betaal. Die bedrag wat die plantasie -eienaars ontvang het, hang af van die aantal slawe wat hulle gehad het. Henry Phillpotts, die biskop van Exeter, het byvoorbeeld £ 12 700 vir die 665 slawe wat hy besit, ontvang. (20)
Anne Knight het die Wêreldkonvensie teen slawerny wat in Exeter Hall in Londen gehou is, in Junie 1840 bygewoon, maar as vrou is toestemming geweier om te praat. Sy ontmoet wel twee Amerikaanse afgevaardigdes Elizabeth Cady Stanton en Lucretia Mott. Stanton onthou later: "Ons het besluit om 'n byeenkoms te hou sodra ons huis toe kom en 'n samelewing stig om die regte van vroue te bepleit." (21) Mott beskryf Knight as ''n uitsonderlike vrou - baie aangenaam en beleefd'. (22)
Sy het besef dat die kunstenaar, Benjamin Robert Haydon, 'n groepsportret begin het van diegene wat betrokke was by die stryd teen slawerny. Sy het 'n brief aan Lucy Townsend geskryf waarin sy kla oor die gebrek aan vroue in die skildery. "Ek is baie angstig dat die historiese prentjie wat nou in die hand van Haydon is, nie uitgevoer moet word sonder dat die hoofvrou van die geskiedenis daar was in die geregtigheid van die geskiedenis en die nageslag van die persoon wat (vroue-groepe teen slawerny) gestig het nie. U het soveel reg om daar te wees as Thomas Clarkson self, miskien meer, sy prestasie was in die slawehandel; uwe was slawerny self die deurdringende beweging. " (23)
Toe die skildery voltooi is, bevat dit nie Lucy Townsend of die meeste van die voorste vroulike kampvegters teen slawerny nie. Clare Midgley, die skrywer van Vroue teen slawerny (1995) wys daarop dat dit, sowel as Anne Knight en Lucretia Mott, ook Elizabeth Pease, Mary Anne Rawson, Amelia Opie en Annabella Byron bevat: "Haydon se groepsportret is uitsonderlik omdat dit wel die bestaan van vroue -veldtogte bevat. Die meeste ander Daar is geen openbare monumente vir vroue -aktiviste om dit aan William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson en ander manlike leiers van die beweging aan te vul nie ... In die geskrewe herinneringe van hierdie mans verskyn vroue geneig as hulpvaardige en inspirerende vroue, moeders en dogters eerder as as aktiviste uit eie reg. " (24)
Marion Reid gepubliseer 'N Pleidooi vir vroue in 1843. Knight was dankbaar dat sy die saak vir groter gelykheid gestel het, maar het gedink dat die skrywer die vermoëns van vroue onskat het. Knight het op haar eie eksemplaar van die boek geskryf dat dit 'uitstekend was met die uitsondering van die groot dwaasheid', waar sy gesê het dat vroue natuurlike hindernisse in die gesig staar. Knight het gekla dat vroue nie natuurlike hindernisse het nie "maar dié wat gelykop voor mans geplaas word". (25)
Die gedrag van die manlike leiers by die World Anti-Slavery Convention het Anne Knight geïnspireer om 'n veldtog te begin wat gelyke regte vir vroue beywer. (26) Dit het ingesluit dat gegomde etikette gedruk is met feministiese aanhalings wat sy aan die buitekant van haar briewe geheg het. In 1847 skryf sy 'n brief aan Matilda Ashurst Biggs oor geslagsgelykheid. Later dieselfde jaar is die brief gepubliseer en word dit beskou as die eerste pamflet oor stemreg vir vroue. (27)
Knight het geskryf: 'Ek wens dat die talentvolle filantrope in Engeland na vore kom in hierdie kritieke stadium van ons land se aangeleenthede en aandring op die stemreg vir alle mans en vroue sonder misdaad ... sodat almal 'n stem in die sake van hul land ... Nooit sal die nasies van die aarde goed bestuur word totdat beide geslagte, sowel as alle partye, ten volle verteenwoordig is en 'n invloed, 'n stem en 'n hand het in die uitwerking en administrasie van die wette . " (28)
Vroue soos Anne Knight, Sophia Sturge, Elizabeth Pease en Elizabeth Pease, wat almal by die veldtog teen die slawehandel betrokke was, het by die Chartist -beweging aangesluit. Sturge was aktief in Birmingham, wat 'n baie sterk groep vroue -kartiste in die laat 1830's gehad het. (29)
Anne Knight het bekommerd geraak oor die manier waarop vroue -kampvegters deur sommige van die manlike leiers in die organisasie behandel word. Sy het hulle gekritiseer omdat hulle beweer het 'dat die klassestryd voorrang geniet bo vroue -regte'. (30) Knight het geskryf "kan 'n man vry wees as 'n vrou 'n slaaf is." (31) In 'n brief wat in die Brighton Herald in 1850 het sy geëis dat die Chartiste hulle moet beywer vir wat sy as 'ware algemene stemreg' beskryf het. (32)
Knight het aangevoer: 'Die nasies van die aarde sal nooit regeer word nie, totdat beide geslagte, sowel as alle partye, ten volle verteenwoordig is en 'n invloed, 'n stem en 'n hand het in die uitwerking en administrasie van die wette'. (33) Tydens 'n konferensie oor wêreldvrede wat in 1849 gehou is, ontmoet Anne Knight twee van die hervormers van Brittanje, Henry Brougham en Richard Cobden. Sy was teleurgesteld oor hul gebrek aan entoesiasme vir vroueregte. Vir die volgende paar maande het sy 'n paar briewe aan hulle gestuur waarin hulle die saak vir vroulike stemreg aanvoer. In 'n brief aan Cobden het sy aangevoer dat die kiesers die politici slegs onder druk kon bring om wêreldvrede te bereik slegs toe vroue stem. (34)
Vir dames om te ontmoet, om te publiseer, om van huis tot huis te gaan en versoekings op te wek - dit lyk vir my 'n prosedure wat nie geskik is vir die vroulike karakter nie, soos omskryf in die Skrif. Ek is bevrees dat die neiging daarvan is om hulle te meng in al die veelvormige oorlogvoering van die politieke lewe.
In die groot kwessie van emansipasie word gesê dat die belange van twee partye betrokke is, die belang van die slaaf en die van die planter. Maar daar kan nie vir 'n oomblik gedink word dat hierdie twee belange 'n gelyke reg het om geraadpleeg te word nie, sonder om alle morele onderskeid, alle verskil tussen werklike en voorgegee, tussen wesenlike en veronderstelde aansprake te verwar. Met die belang van die planters het die kwessie van emansipasie (behoorlik gesproke) niks te doen nie. Die reg van die slaaf en die belang van die planter is duidelike vrae; hulle behoort aan afsonderlike departemente, in verskillende provinsies van oorweging. As die vryheid van die slaaf verseker kan word, nie net sonder besering nie, maar ook met voordeel vir die planter, des te beter, beslis; maar steeds moet die bevryding van die slaaf ooit as 'n onafhanklike voorwerp beskou word; en as dit uitgestel word totdat die planter genoeg lewe vir sy eie belang om saam te werk in die maatreël, kan ons vir ewig wanhoop oor die bereiking daarvan. Die oorsaak van emansipasie is lank en sterk bepleit. Rede en welsprekendheid, oortuiging en argument is kragtig uitgeoefen; eksperimente is redelik gedoen, feite in die breë verklaar as bewys van die onbeleefdheid sowel as die ongeregtigheid van slawerny, te min doel; selfs die hoop om uit te sterf, met die ineenstorting van die planter, of deur die inwerkingtreding van die koloniale of Britse wetgewer, word nog steeds in 'n baie afgeleë perspektief gesien, so afgeleë dat die hart siek word by die vrolike vooruitsig. Al wat ywer en talent in die argumentasie kon toon, is tevergeefs uitgeoefen. Alles wat 'n opgehoopte massa onwankelbare getuienis in die manier van skuldigbevinding kan bewerkstellig, is tot niet gebring.
Dit is dus hoog tyd om ander maatreëls te tref, meer maniere en resultate te vind. Daar is reeds te veel tyd verlore in deklamasie en argumentasie, in petisies en betogings teen Britse slawerny. Die oorsaak van emansipasie vereis iets meer beslissend, doeltreffender as woorde. Dit doen 'n beroep op die ware vriende van die arme afgebreekte en onderdrukte Afrikaner om hulself te verbind deur 'n plegtige verbintenis, 'n onherroeplike gelofte, om nie meer deel te neem aan die misdaad om hom in slawerny te hou nie ...
Die voortbestaan van slawerny in ons kolonies in Wes -Indië is nie 'n abstrakte vraag wat tussen die regering en die planters besleg moet word nie; dit is een waarin ons almal betrokke is; ons is almal skuldig aan die ondersteuning en voortbestaan van slawerny. Die Wes -Indiese planter en die mense van hierdie land staan in dieselfde morele verhouding met mekaar as die dief en ontvanger van gesteelde goedere.
Die Wes -Indiese planters het 'n te prominente plek beklee in die bespreking van hierdie groot vraag .... Die afskaffers het te veel beleefdheid en akkommodasie teenoor hierdie here betoon .... Waarom 'n versoek aan die parlement, om dit te doen vir ons, wat ... ons vinniger en doeltreffender vir onsself kan doen?
Slawerny is nie uitsluitlik 'n politieke nie, maar by uitstek 'n morele vraag; een dus, waarop die nederige leser van die Bybel, wat sy kothuisrak verryk, onmeetlik 'n beter politikus is as die staatsman wat die intriges van kabinette ken. Ons behoort God eerder as die mens te gehoorsaam.
Ek is baie angstig dat die historiese prentjie wat nou in die hand van Haydon is, nie uitgevoer moet word sonder dat die hoofvrou van die geskiedenis daar was in die geregtigheid van die geskiedenis en die nageslag van die persoon wat gestig het (vroue-slawerny-groepe). U het soveel reg om daar te wees as Thomas Clarkson self, nee miskien meer, sy prestasie was in die slawehandel; uwe was slawerny self die deurdringende beweging.
Haydon se groepsportret is uitsonderlik omdat dit die bestaan van vroue -kampvegters opteken. In die geskrewe memoires van hierdie mans verskyn vroue eerder as hulpvaardige en inspirerende vroue, moeders en dogters eerder as as aktiviste uit eie reg.
Kinderarbeidsimulasie (onderwyseraantekeninge)
Richard Arkwright en die fabrieksstelsel (antwoordkommentaar)
Robert Owen en New Lanark (antwoordkommentaar)
James Watt en Steam Power (antwoordkommentaar)
Die binnelandse stelsel (antwoordkommentaar)
The Luddites: 1775-1825 (Antwoordkommentaar)
The Plight of the Handloom Weavers (Antwoordkommentaar)
Padvervoer en die industriële rewolusie (antwoordkommentaar)
Vroeë ontwikkeling van die spoorweë (antwoordkommentaar)
(1) Stephen Tomkins, William Wilberforce (2007) bladsy 206
(2) Elizabeth Heyrick, Onmiddellik nie geleidelike afskaffing nie (1824)
(3) William Hague, William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner (2008) bladsy 487
(4) William Wilberforce, brief aan Thomas Babington (31 Januarie 1826)
(5) George Stephen, brief aan Anne Knight (14 November 1834)
(6) Ellen Gibson Wilson, Thomas Clarkson: 'n Biografie (1989) bladsy 91
(7) Thomas Clarkson, brief aan Lucy Townsend (3 Augustus 1825)
(8) Adam Hochschild, Begrawe die kettings: die Britse stryd om slawerny af te skaf (2005) bladsy 326
(9) Stephen Tomkins, William Wilberforce (2007) bladsy 208
(10) Clare Midgley, Lucy Townsend: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(11) Richard Reddie, Afskaffing! Die stryd om slawerny in die Britse kolonies af te skaf (2007) bladsy 214
(12) Clare Midgley, Lucy Townsend: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(13) Female Society for Birmingham, resolusie aangeneem op die nasionale konferensie (8 April 1830)
(14) Adam Hochschild, Begrawe die kettings: die Britse stryd om slawerny af te skaf (2005) bladsy 128
(15) Thomas Clarkson, Geskiedenis van die afskaffing van die Afrikaanse slawehandel (1807) bladsy 191
(16) Jenny Uglow, Die maanmanne (2002) bladsy 412
(17) Richard Reddie, Afskaffing! Die stryd om slawerny in die Britse kolonies af te skaf (2007) bladsy 213
(18) Vron Ware, Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism and History (1992) bladsy 61
(19) Clare Midgley, Vroue teen slawerny (1995) bladsy 58
(20) Jack Gratus, Die Groot Wit Leuen (1973) bladsy 240
(21) Crista Deluzio, Vroueregte: mense en perspektiewe (2009) bladsy 58
(22) Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 (2000) bladsy 327
(23) Anne Knight, brief aan Lucy Townsend (20 September 1840)
(24) Clare Midgley, Vroue teen slawerny (1995) bladsy 2
(25) Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 (2000) bladsy 327
(26) Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 (2000) bladsy 327
(27) Elizabeth J. Clapp, Vroue, verskil en anti-slawerny in Brittanje en Amerika, 1790-1865 (2015) bladsy 67
(28) Dale Spender, Vroue van idees (1982) bladsy 398
(29) Anne Knight, brief aan Matilda Ashurst Biggs (April 1847)
(30) Edward H. Milligan, Anne Knight: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(31) Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928 (2000) bladsy 327
(32) Anne Knight, brief gepubliseer in die Brighton Herald (9 Februarie 1850)
(33) Edward H. Milligan, Anne Knight: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)
(34) Ray Strachey, Die oorsaak (1928) bladsy 43
Geheime geskiedenis: die vegtervroue wat hul slawe beveg het
Rebecca Hall, wat in die sewentigerjare in New York opgestaan het, was lus vir helde met wie sy kon skakel - kragtige vroue wat vir hulself kon sorg en ander kon beskerm. Maar die pluk was skraal. Die beroemde feministe van destyds, Charlie's Angels en The Bionic Woman, het dit nie vir haar gesny nie.
Maar elke aand as sy gaan slaap, vertel haar pa stories van haar ouma se lewe. Harriet Thorpe is 100 jaar tevore, in 1860, in slawerny gebore en was die 'eiendom', volgens haar, van een Squire Sweeney in Howard County, Missouri.
Rebecca Hall. Foto: Cat Palmer
'Hy het my vertel van haar stryd en hoe sy nog steeds gedy het - sy het 'n rolmodel vir my geword,' sê Hall. 'Ek wens ek kon teruggaan in die tyd en haar ontmoet.'
Sy kon dit nie, maar Hall was so geïnspireer deur Thorpe se dapperheid dat sy jare later in die tyd teruggesak het, vasbeslote om die onvertelde verhale van verslaafde Afrikaanse vroue te ontbloot, net soos Harriet, wat hul onderdrukkers op slaweskepe beveg het, in plantasies en regoor die Amerikas. Die vrouekrygers, noem sy hulle, wat uit die geskiedenis geskryf is. Wat as 'n persoonlike navorsingsprojek begin het, het uitgeloop op 'n boek, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts, wat volgende maand ongewoon in die vorm van 'n grafiese memoir verskyn.
Rebecca Hall se ouma, Harriet Thorpe, agterry, links, saam met haar susters. Sy is in 1860 in slawerny gebore.
'Dit is nie soos om af te dompel nie. Jy kyk na die prentjie, die kuns, en jy kan sien wat gebeur, ”sê Hall.
Die karakters-insluitend haarself as verteller-word in die strokiesprent lewendig gemaak met swart en wit illustrasies en spraakborrels in die werk van die kunstenaar Hugo Martínez in New Orleans. 'Die kombinasie bied 'n manier om byna gelyktydig na die verlede en die hede te kyk, wat van kardinale belang was vir hierdie verhaal omdat dit handel oor spook en die verhouding tussen slawerny, die Verenigde State en die huidige kwessies wat ons vandag het.
'Dit gaan ook oor grootword in die nasleep van slawerny - wat traumaties is,' sê sy.
Vandaar die titel van die boek - Word wakker - wat Hall sê bedoel is om te speel oor die betekenis van 'n wek by 'n begrafnis, of die nasleep van 'n slaweskip.
Voordat hy 'n historikus word, sê Hall dat haar lewe soos in die nasleep was. Nou 58 jaar oud, werk sy as huurderegte -prokureur in Berkeley, Kalifornië. Maar teen die einde van die negentigerjare het sy ontnugter geraak. Rassisme en seksisme was oral in die regstelsel, sê sy.
Soms het sy by 'n hofsaal ingestap en na die beskuldigde se stoel gestuur. 'Ek is nie die verweerder nie. Ek is die prokureur van die eiser, ”het sy gesê.
Sy het die behoefte gevoel om die wortel te vind van wat sy beskou as die rassekwessies wat die wêreld “verdraai”-en het die lewensveranderende besluit geneem om haar werk te staak en haar toe te wy aan die bestudering van slawerny. So het ek teruggekeer na die universiteit en Hall behaal 'n PhD in 2004. 'Dit was iets wat ek moes doen - om my ervaring as 'n swart vrou in Amerika vandag te verstaan', sê sy.
Meer as enigiets, nadat sy die verhaal van haar ouma gehoor het, wou Hall leer oor vroulike weerstand teen slawerny - omdat so min ooit daaroor op skool geleer is.
'N Slawe -gesin wat katoen pluk naby Savannah, Georgia, omstreeks 1860. Na raming is 16 miljoen Afrikane as slawe na Amerika gebring. Foto: Bettmann -argief
"As jy 'n swart kind is, leer jy oor slawerny, maar leer jy nie oor slaweweerstand of slaweopstand in Amerika nie," sê Hall.
'Maar as u die geskiedenis van verset geleer het, dat ons mense elke stap gestry het, is dit 'n herstel wat van kardinale belang is vir ons trots op ons menswees en ons krag en stryd. Die kwessie van slaweweerstand is iets waarvan ek dink almal moet weet. ”
Sy teken egter 'n leë. Elke boek oor slawe -opstande het min of meer dieselfde gesê, dat mans die verset gelei het terwyl slawe vroue agterop sit. 'Ek het gesê: wat aan die gang is, ek glo nie dat dit waar is nie,' sê Hall.
Sy begin dus met die noukeurige proses om deur die kapteinsblokke van slaweskepe, ou hofrekords in Londen en New York, briewe tussen koloniale goewerneurs en die Britse monargie, koerantknipsels, selfs forensiese ondersoeke van die bene van slawe -vroue wat in Manhattan ontbloot is, te sif.
Baie daarvan het moeilik gelees - mense beskryf keer op keer in dokumente en versekeringsboeke as 'vrag' met voetnote wat 'vroueslaaf nommer een en vroueslaaf nommer twee' beskryf. 'Sien hulle skryf my mense as voorwerpe - Dit was aaklig, ”sê sy.
Sy het verneem dat Lloyd's van Londen destyds in die middel van die versekeringsmark was, wat dekking bied aan slaweskepe, 'n 'skandelike' nalatenskap waarvoor dit verlede jaar om verskoning gevra het. 'Hulle het verseker teen die opstand van vrag - ek dink dit som dit heeltemal op. Hoe kan vrag opstaan? ” vra Hall.
Hoe moeilik dit ook al was om te verteer, dit het nuwe vensters in die verlede begin oopmaak - en toe Hall die inligting saamvoeg, het sy oral vroue -krygers begin vind, nie net hul slawe verset nie, maar ook slawe -opstandings beplan en gelei.
In een voorbeeld het Hall ontdek dat vier vroue betrokke was by die opstand van 1712 in New York, 'n opstand deur verslaafde Afrikane wat nege van hul gevangenes vermoor het voordat hulle in sommige gevalle op die brandstapel verbrand is. Een swanger vrou is aan die lewe gehou totdat sy geboorte gegee het en daarna doodgemaak (die teregstelling is vertraag, lui die berig, want die baba was "iemand se eiendom"). Tot dusver is aanvaar dat slegs mans aan hierdie opstand deelgeneem het.
Besonderhede is yl - en baie van die vroulike rebelle is naamloos in die verslae, of daar word na hulle verwys met neerhalende terme soos "Negro Wench" of "Negro Fiend" - dus moes Hall die spasies invul vir haar boek en die tonele herwerk twee van die hoofstukke met behulp van wat sy noem "metodiese gebruik van historiese verbeelding".
Sy het name geskep vir sommige van die karakters, soos Adobo en Alele - wat geveg het vir vryheid in die middelste gang, die skrikwekkende reis van Afrika -slawehawe na die slawemarkte in die nuwe wêreld.
'Dit was 'n groot uitdaging vir my, want al my skryfwerk voorheen was akademies,' sê sy. 'Om 'n visuele teks vir 'n grafiese roman te skryf, was so 'n skerp leerkurwe, maar dit is nie soos om 'n storie op te stel nie. Dit is alles histories gegrond. ”
Kunswerke uit die boek van Rebecca Hall illustreer die koue manier waarop mense in die slaweskepe as 'vrag' gestoor is. Foto: Simon & Schuster
Hall het ontdek dat uit die 35 000 slaweskipreise wat gedokumenteer is, daar opstand was by 'n tiende daarvan. En toe sy die verskil ontleed tussen skepe met opstande en dié wat nie het nie, ontdek sy dat daar meer vroue op die skepe is met opstande.
"Geskiedkundiges sê letterlik dat dit 'n toeval moet wees, aangesien ons weet dat vroue nie in opstand gekom het nie," sê sy.
Maar nader ondersoek van slaweskiprekords het belangrike nuwe feite getoon.
Daar was prosedures vir die bestuur van hierdie skepe, verduidelik Hall - en bo -op was die instruksie om almal onder die dek en vasgeketting te hou terwyl u aan die kus van Afrika was.
'Maar toe u in die Atlantiese Oseaan kom, het u die vroue en kinders losgemaak en hulle op die dek gebring,' sê sy.
Dit is toe dat Hall stories begin vind het oor vroue wat toegang tot die wapenkiste kry en maniere gevind het om die mans hieronder te ontkoppel. 'Hulle het hul mobiliteit en toegang gebruik,' sê sy.
Grafiese kunstenaar Hugo Martínez.
Die konserwatiewe skatting is dat 16 miljoen Afrikane as slawe na Amerika gebring is, en hoewel ons nie presies weet hoeveel vroue dit was nie, weet ons dat daar groot getalle was, sê Hall.
Sy hoop nou dat mense sal begin besef hoe belangrik hierdie vroue vir verset was.
Vir die grafiese kunstenaar Martínez - wat spesialiseer in kwessies van stryd en verset - was die illustrasie van die verhale besonder pynlik.
Hy beklemtoon die beeld van die Brookes -slaweskip as die mees "emosioneel gelaaide" wat hy moes teken. Dit is 'n skets wat uitbeeld hoe slawe van Afrikaners na die Amerikas vervoer is - met 454 mense wat in die ruim gestamp is. 'Daar is baie oomblikke wat intens is, maar daar is iets aan die prentjie waarin u die gewig kan voel van 'n mens wat in vrag verander is,' sê hy. “Dit was vir my uiters moeilik om te teken”
Konvensies
Konvensies teen slawerny is al jare voor die eerste vrouekonvensie gehou. Hierdie byeenkomste, hoewel dit nie noodwendig net deur mans bygewoon is nie, is vir en deur mans gehou. In 1837 is die Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in New York gehou. Hierdie byeenkoms was baanbrekend omdat dit een van die eerste keer was dat vroue op hierdie skaal in die openbaar ontmoet en gepraat het. Daar was verteenwoordigers van New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maine, Connecticut, Ohio en South Carolina (1). Die byeenkoms het wit en Afro -Amerikaanse vroue ingesluit. Net soos met ander konvensies teen slawerny, is afgevaardigdes gekies en spesiaal uitgenooi om dit by te woon. Die onderwerp van ras was weereens 'n kwessie onder die afskaffers. Baie, spesifiek Angelina Grimke, wou verseker dat Afro -Amerikaanse vroue dit bywoon. Grimke sê: "Dit is belangrik dat ons reg begin, en ek weet nie hoe ek die wrede vooroordele wat daar bestaan, kan vernietig as om ons susters in aanraking te bring met diegene wat van so 'n omgang wegkom nie" (2).
Soos met elke besluit, was die byeenkoms omstrede. Baie het geglo dat vroue hulle daarop moet toespits om aktief lid te word van mansgeselskappe en -konvensies. Dit sal vroue toegang gee tot reeds gevestigde konvensies en die vermoë om daadwerklike verandering aan te bring. Others felt that a convention of their own would give them more opprotunities to speak and actually be involved in decision making(3). The number of African American women in attentence continued to decrease. They faced difficulties making the trip due to discrimination and economic difficulties. White women also face extreme difficulties with their travel to the conventions, thanks to the ever prevalent Panic of 1837 and ongoing harassment(4). This convention would go on to be a yearly event until 1840, taking place in different cities each year(5.) Below is an article from the abolistionist newspaper The Liberator on the 1838 convention that was to be held in Philadelphia. While conventions were a means to meet face-to-face and share ideas, they were not only positive events. Backlash from the communities they were held led to lower and lower attendence.
[1]Salerno, Beth A. 2005. Sister societies: women's antislavery organizations in antebellum America. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. pg.54-55.
Women and the Anti-Slavery Movement - History
Lucretia Coffin Mott was an early feminist activist and strong advocate for ending slavery. A powerful orator, she dedicated her life to speaking out against racial and gender injustice.
Born on January 3, 1793 on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, Mott was the second of Thomas Coffin Jr.’s and Anna Folger Mott’s five children. Her father’s work as a ship’s captain kept him away from his family for long stretches and could be hazardous — so much so that he moved his family to Boston and became a merchant when Lucretia was 10 years old.
Mott was raised a Quaker, a religion that stressed equality of all people under God, and attended a Quaker boarding school in upstate New York. In 1809, the family moved to Philadelphia, and two years later, Mott married her father’s business partner, James Mott, with whom she would have six children. In 1815, her father died, saddling her mother with a mountain of debt, and Mott, her husband, and her mother joined forces to become solvent again. Mott taught school, her mother went back to running a shop, and her husband operated a textile business.
Mott, along with her supportive husband, argued ardently for the abolitionist cause as members of William Lloyd Garrison’s American Anti-Slavery Society in the 1830s. Garrison, who encouraged women’s participation as writers and speakers in the anti-slavery movement embraced Mott’s commitment. Mott was one of the founders of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. Not everyone supported women’s public speaking. In fact, Mott was constantly criticized for behaving in ways not acceptable for women of her sex, but it did not deter her.
Mott’s stymied participation at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 brought her into contact with Elizabeth Cady Stanton with whom she formed a long and prolific collaboration. It also led Mott into the cause of women’s rights. As women, the pair were blocked from participating in the proceedings, which not only angered them, but led them to promise to hold a women’s rights convention when they returned to the United States. Eight years later, in 1848, they organized the Seneca Fall Convention, attended by hundreds of people including noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Stanton presented a “Declaration of Sentiments” at the meeting, which demanded rights for women by inserting the word “woman” into the language of the Declaration of Independence and included a list of 18 woman-specific demands. These included divorce, property and custody rights, as well as the right to vote. The latter fueled the launching of the woman suffrage movement. Mott explained that she grew up “so thoroughly imbued with women’s rights that it was the most important question” of her life. Following the convention Mott continued her crusade for women’s equality by speaking at ensuing annual women’s rights conventions and publishing Discourse on Women, a reasoned account of the history of women’s repression.
Her devotion to women’s rights did not deter her from fighting for an end to slavery. She and her husband protested the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and helped an enslaved person escape bondage a few years later. In 1866, Mott became the first president of the American Equal Rights Association. Mott joined with Stanton and Anthony in decrying the 14 th and 15 th amendments to the Constitution for granting the vote to black men but not to women. Mott was also involved with efforts to establish Swarthmore College and was instrumental in ensuring it was coeducational. Dedicated to all forms of human freedom, Mott argued as ardently for women’s rights as for black rights, including suffrage, education, and economic aid. Mott played a major role in the woman suffrage movement through her life.
NAWSA
By 1890, national leaders, united in a large suffrage organization called the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), realized that to achieve all this they would have to “bring in the South.” They were all too aware, however, that this might be hard to do. Many white southerners were hostile to the movement because it was an outgrowth of the antebellum movement to end slavery. They opposed it also because of regional pride in women remaining in their traditional role as “southern ladies” — which meant staying outside of politics except to encourage men to rule wisely for their sakes. Yet, a growing number of women in the South were eager to have the vote, both to improve the legal, educational, and employment opportunities for women and to promote reforms — especially those that would benefit women and children. But they were getting nowhere.
Then Mississippi attracted the attention of the nation and accidentally affected the course of America's woman suffrage movement when delegates to the 1890 Mississippi Constitutional Convention seriously considered giving the vote to women. They were responding to the suggestion of suffrage advocate and former anti-slavery activist Henry Blackwell of Massachusetts. Blackwell suggested that through giving the vote to women, white southerners might regain control of southern politics without taking the vote away from black men and therefore getting into trouble with Congress. The proposal died in committee by just one vote. National suffrage leaders concluded that since one of the most conservative states in the nation had given serious consideration to enfranchising women in order to restore white supremacy in politics, suffrage leaders might use the race issue to persuade the South to lead the way for woman suffrage. White suffrage leaders seemed desperate to find an argument to persuade politicians to adopt woman suffrage, and therefore were willing to “play the race card” to get the vote for themselves in a time when most southerners wanted neither black men nor black women to vote.
RELATED PEOPLE
RELATED RESOURCES
While individuals expressed their dissatisfaction with the social role of women during the early years of the United States, a more widespread effort in support of women’s rights began to emerge in the 1830s. Women and men joined the antislavery movement in order to free enslaved Africans. While men led antislavery organizations and lectured, women were not allowed to hold these positions. When women defied these rules and spoke out against slavery in public, they were mocked.
For example, in 1829 British-born reformer Frances Wright toured the United States and lectured against slavery. The same year, an artist published this cartoon making fun of Wright. The cartoon depicts Wright standing near a table and giving a lecture, but she has the head of a goose. The title says Wright “deserves to be hissed.” According to this artist and many others, women should not speak in public, and the public should not care what she has to say.
Frances Wright was one of many women—including sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimké (who were from a slave-owning Southern family) and Lucretia Mott—who lectured against slavery. Even as women became more active in the cause, many of their fellow antislavery activists continued to disapprove of these female speakers. In 1840, for instance, the World Anti-Slavery Convention refused to seat female delegates.
In contrast, in the late 1830s, abolitionists (who called for an immediate end to slavery rather than a gradual one) began to advocate for women’s rights as well. Women gained experience as leaders, organizers, writers, and lecturers as part of this radical wing of the movement. The discrimination they continued to face eventually prompted them to band together to promote a new, separate women’s rights movement.
Women's rights emerges within the anti-slavery movement, 1830-1870 : a brief history with documents
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&ldquoThe Book That Made This Great War&rdquo
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Mighty Pen
Harriet Beecher Stowe is best remembered as the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, her first novel, published as a serial in 1851 and then in book form in 1852. This book infuriated Southerners. It focused on the cruelties of slavery&mdashparticularly the separation of family members&mdashand brought instant acclaim to Stowe. After its publication, Stowe traveled throughout the United States and Europe speaking against slavery. She reported that upon meeting President Lincoln, he remarked, &ldquoSo you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war.&rdquo
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Copyprint. Published by Johnson, Fry & Co., 1872, after Alonzo Chappel. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-10476 (3&ndash18)
Bookmark this item: //www.loc.gov/exhibits/african-american-odyssey/abolition.html#obj20
Uncle Tom's Cabin&mdashTheatrical Productions
This poster for a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin features the Garden City Quartette under the direction of Tom Dailey and George W. Goodhart. Many stage productions of Harriet Beecher Stowe's famous novel have been performed in various parts of the country since Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published as a serial in 1851. Although the major actors were usually white, people of color were sometimes part of the cast. African American performers were often allowed only stereotypical roles&mdashif any&mdashin productions by major companies.
The Connection Between Women’s Rights and Abolition
In “Chapter 20: War, Slavery, and the American 1848” of The Rise of American Democracy, Wilentz briefly discusses the roots of the women’s rights movement and its connection to abolitionism. The Seneca Convention, which was held in July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, was the first major American convention devoted to women’s suffrage. Led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Stanton, the Seneca Convention issued a declaration that affirmed that “all men and women are created equal”—an alteration to the original United States’ Declaration of Independence. Wilentz argues that the Seneca Convention was not merely concerned with women’s suffrage, but was an extension of the growing anti-slavery contingency. According to Wilentz, the Seneca Convention was “a logical extension of the fight for liberty, equality, and independence being waged by the antislavery forces” (334). While I agree with Wilentz’s assessment that a definitive relationship existed between the struggle for women’s rights and abolition, he failed to acknowledge how this association negatively impacted the short-term successes of the women’s rights movement.
When the Civil War erupted, the leading women’s rights’ activists decided to put the anti-slavery movement to the forefront, in hopes that the abolition of slavery would pave the way for women’s suffrage to occur shortly thereafter. The women believed that dedication to the Northern, anti-slavery cause would draw attention to the necessity for constitutional equality on the basis of race and gender. Unfortunately, the end of the Civil War did not introduce increased attention to women’s rights—the 14 th Amendment uses the word “male” three times in its definition of citizenship, thus exemplifying Congress’s dedication to a male-dominated social and political hierarchy in America.
While my classmates have not yet commented on chapters 17-20 of Wilentz, Kurt noted in his blog post from last Thursday that Wilentz does an effective job identifying the roots behind the loss of Democratic support in the South. In regard to the foundations of the women’s rights movement, I agree with Kurt that Wilentz introduces the subject to his readers in an effective way, as he links different historical issues into the greater context of American history. Similar to Kurt’s critique that Wilentz left out necessary details to strengthen his argument concerning the leadership dynamics within the Whig party, I wish he had discussed the implications of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery on women’s rights. Specifically, I think it is very interesting that the leaders of the women’s rights movement split into two separate factions during Reconstruction. Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National Suffrage Association, and racist references dominated the rhetoric of their cause. In contrast, Lucy Stone’s American Suffrage Association supported the 15 th Amendment and did not consider black suffrage a threat to the eventual success of gender equality. While I recognize that the women’s rights movement was not central to Wilentz’s argument, I believe that the interesting dynamics between the two movements should have been addressed in greater detail.
Women and the Anti-Slavery Movement - History
The Visionaries
A new group of women reformers emerged in nineteenth-century America. These educated women set out to solve social and economic problems caused by injustice and inequity. They discovered that without political power, they could not effect the changes necessary to fulfill the American promise. Gradually these women from different perspectives arrived at the same conclusion: in order to solve problems. women needed a political identity. They needed the vote.
Lucretia Mott (January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880)
United States | National Women's History Museum
Lucretia Mott, who was a Quaker, believed slavery was evil, and she traveled the country to preach against it. Her transition into a women's rights advocate was complete after she was refused a seat at the 1840 World's Anti-Slavery Convention because of her gender. Undaunted by injustice, she and Elizabeth Cady Stanton formed a decades-long collaboration that established a direction and tone for the the fight for women's suffrage.
Manuscript, Lucretia Mott
United States | National Women's History Museum
As a young teacher, Mott was struck by the unfairness of women receiving half the pay of male teachers. In this manuscript, Mott argues for women’s equality within the family and society.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 - October 26, 1902)
United States | National Women's History Museum
Elizabeth Cady Stanton formulated an agenda for the women’s rights movement that continues to be relevant today. Her “Declaration of Sentiments” demanded a complete revision of women's status in society, including access to education, legal standing, political power, and economic autonomy. Women’s right to vote was fundamental to her vision. Her intellectual and organizational partnership with Susan B. Anthony dominated the women’s movement for over half a century.
Letter, Lucy Stone to Payson E. Tucker Esq. (Mar. 15)
Lucy Stone | Boston, MA | National Women's History Museum
The Voices
Lucy Stone learned as child that women’s opportunities were different than those of men. She grew up in a large family that enforced rigid gender roles and discouraged her from an education. Challenging conformity, Stone worked part-time to support herself as a student at Oberlin College, the first co-educational institution in the country. In spite of its progressive ideals, Oberlin did not allow female students to participate in the debating society. Stone and her fellow female students formed a secret society, meeting at night to practice oration. Shortly after graduation, Stone secured a paid position as a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Association. She became nationally known as a powerful speaker for African American and women’s rights. In 1850, Stone led the way in convening the first National Women’s Rights Convention. She and her husband, Henry Blackwell, founded The Woman’s Journal newspaper in 1869, which gained the reputation as the “voice of the woman’s movement.”
“We ask only for justice and equal rights—the right to vote, the right to our own earnings, equality before the law”
- Lucy Stone
For Lucy Stone, the path to suffrage was enactment by state legislatures. In this letter, Stone appeals to Payson E. Tucker, of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, to support women’s suffrage.
Sojourner Truth c1864 (1797-1883)
Library of Congress | National Women's History Museum
Abolitionist, women’s rights activist, and former slave Sojourner Truth (born Isabella) joined the religious revivals occurring in New York State in the early 19th century and became a powerful and charismatic speaker. In 1843, she had a spiritual breakthrough and declared that the Spirit called on her to preach the truth and gave her a new name, Sojourner Truth. Truth’s journey brought her in contact with abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglas, and she gained exposure to women’s rights activists like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In 1851, Truth went on a nation-wide lecture tour and gave her most famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” at a woman’s rights conference in Akron, Ohio, where all of the other speakers were men. In her speech, she criticized the idea of women being the “weaker sex” and urged men not to fear rights for women. It became a classic speech of the women's rights movement.
Susan B. Anthony (February 15,1820 - March 13, 1906)
Photograph | United States | National Women's History Museum
Susan B. Anthony campaigned for all-encompassing social change. Her first cause was temperance, but because of her gender, she was not allowed to speak at rallies. Her experiences convinced her that the only way for women to influence public affairs was through the vote. Her strengths were discipline, energy, and organization, and she traveled the U.S. to persuade people to support her causes. Her radical approach included courting arrest for illegally casting a ballot. In 1869 she founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, the radical wing of the suffrage movement that pushed for a constitutional amendment. She remained active in the woman's movement until her death in 1906, fourteen years before the 19th Amendment’s passage.
Mary Livermore (December 19, 1820 - May 23, 1905)
Photography Mary Livermore | United States | National Women's History Museum
Journalist, abolitionist, and women’s rights activist Mary Livermore became a member of the early abolitionist movement after a first-hand experience as a governess on a slave-holding, Virginia plantation. When the Civil War began, Livermore volunteered with the Chicago Sanitary Commission, raising funds to support medical care and services for Union soldiers. Livermore organized the Sanitary Fair of October 1863, which raised an astonishing $70,000 in a few weeks. Livermore’s female volunteers saved the lives of thousands of men who would have died without their vital supplies. Convinced of the need for women's suffrage as a prerequisite for important social reforms, Livermore became the founding president of the Illinois Suffrage Association in 1868, and in 1869, she helped to form the American Woman Suffrage Association.
Letter, Mary Livermore to Miss Field. Recto 1883
Melrose, MA | National Women's History Museum
A talented and persuasive orator, Mary Livermore made an excellent living on the 19th-century lyceum circuit for more than 20 years. Livermore often couched her appeals in terms of women’s special responsibilities as caregivers at home and to the nation. In the speech “The Boy of To-Day” Livermore argues that mothers are crucial to shaping men of character:
“If the ranks of manly men can be increased among us, and then be supplemented by large numbers of womanly women. . . we need not fear for the future of the nation.”
The Writers
Lydia Maria Child
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Julia Ward Howe
Engraving, Lydia Maria Child (February 11, 1802 - October 20, 1880)
Melrose, MA | National Women's History Museum
Lydia Maria Child advocated for the rights of marginalized groups. Influenced by her friend and fellow abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison, Child’s popular novels challenged social and cultural paradigms of male dominance and white supremacy, something that often drew controversy and damaged her literary career. Her acclaimed anti-slavery tract, “Correspondence between Lydia Maria Child and Gov. Wise and Mrs. Mason of Virginia”, argued that compromise over the slavery issue was not possible between the North and South. Child eventually broke from the women’s movement over the question of the 15th Amendment, which granted black male suffrage with no mention of the same for women. She believed that women’s suffrage would follow African American men’s.
Letter from Lydia Maria Child to unknown recipient
United States | National Women's History Museum
Lydia Maria Child calls for a more civil society and discourse in this sentiment.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (June 14,1811 - July 1, 1896)
United States | National Women's History Museum
Harriet Beecher Stowe made her living by writing on a range of subjects from homemaking to religion, and she staunchly opposed slavery. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, which required that runaway slaves to be returned to their masters upon capture, she took a public stand against the institution when she published her famous anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in 1852. The novel realistically portrayed slavery and helped to galvanize the abolitionist cause in the 1850s, intensifying the conflict between the North and the South, which led to the Civil War.
Scenes from Uncle Tom's Cabin, No.2, First Meeting of.
Thomas W. Strong | National Women's History Museum
First Meeting of Uncle Tom and Eva from “Uncle Tom's Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Julia Ward Howe (May 27,1819 - October 17, 1910)
United States | National Women's History Museum
Though best known today for writing the Civil War anthem, “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Julia Ward Howe was a well-known literary figure in her time. Ward Howe envisioned a literary career from youth, and struggled within the confines of a difficult marriage to accomplish her goals. Her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, objected to his wife’s publishing, adding tension to their relationship. The couple shared a strong abolitionist point-of-view, and they co-edited a short-lived anti-slavery newspaper. Though they both advocated for abolitionist causes, they grew progressively distant. Ward Howe became increasingly active in the women’s suffrage movement as her national reputation grew, joining Lucy Stone’s The Woman’s Journal as an editor and co-founding the American Woman Suffrage Association.
The Reformers
Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Clara Barton
Jane Addams
Ida B. Wells 1891
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washionton, DC | National Women's History Museum
Ida B. Wells-Barnett challenged racial and gender discrimination through the power of the pen. In 1887, she bought part-ownership in a newspaper and later was the sole proprietor of “Memphis Free Speech,” where she created an editorial voice of resistance that railed against racial discrimination of African Americans. Using the pen name “Iola,” she led a crusade against lynching and other horrific injustices. Her work in the women’s rights movement included founding the first black woman suffrage organization – the Alpha Suffrage Club of Chicago in 1913. The organization worked exclusively to gain suffrage for women.
Clara Barton (December 25, 1821 - April 12, 1912)
Copyright Underwood & Underwood | Meadville, PA | National Women's History Museum
Clara Barton began her lifelong commitment to aiding the ill and wounded as a young girl. Throughout her life, Barton viewed social reform as a necessity and her service during the Civil War provided a public space to herald women’s rights, rights for African Americans, and later, women's suffrage. Following her time as a Civil War nurse aiding wounded soldiers on both sides of the conflict, Barton saw a need for disaster relief response in the U.S. and founded the American Red Cross in 1881.
Letter, Clara Barton to Dr. Wayland 1882
Clara Barton | Washington DC | National Women's History Museum
Following the Civil War, Barton worked with the International Red Cross to provide aid during the Franco-Prussian War. Exhausted by her experience, Barton recuperated at Dr. Jackson’s health institute in Dansville, New York. Barton repeatedly returned to Dansville for rest and relaxation over the next decade. Dansville citizens chartered the first local chapter of the American Red Cross on August 22, 1881, a year before this letter was written.
Hull House in the early 20th century
V.O. Hammon Publishing Company | National Women's History Museum
Jane Addams was one of the most prominent reformers during the Progressive Era of American history. In 1889, she co-founded Chicago's Hull-House, a home and gathering place for reformers who “settled” in the neighborhoods they served, and provided social services to immigrants and the urban poor. A suffrage supporter, Addams became Vice President of the NAWSA in 1911, and wrote and spoke widely about the importance of suffrage, including her paper “Why Women Should Vote.” The legacy of Addam’s work continues to influence social, political and economic reform in the U.S.
Letter, Jane Addams to unknown recipient Jan 15
Jane Addams | Chicago, IL | National Women's History Museum
Jane Addams, with her friend Ellen Gates Starr, founded Hull-House Settlement as a place for impoverished, recent immigrants to gather for education and fellowship with the goal of integrating them into American society. The Miss Culver referenced in this letter is Helen Culver, Hull-House’s original and on-going benefactor. Culver managed and later inherited her cousin’s, Charles Hull, real estate investment firm. She granted Hull-House the original lease and facilitated its expansion into what became a 13-building complex.
