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Grimke, Angelina. Letter XII Human Rights Not Founded on Sex. October 2, 1837, and Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women, 1838.
Grimke, Sarah Moor. Letter 1: The Original Equality of Woman. July 11,1837.
Sarah Moor Grimke, and her sister, Angelina were Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Activists. Angelina’s Epistle to William Lloyd Garrison was published in The Liberator, and the writings and speeches of both sisters regarding their personal interpretations of the divine order and how it related to equality for all people. Their writings illustrate the cognitive dissonance that prevailed in that time regarding the moral beliefs expressed by the founders and men of faith at that time, and rights that they claimed the Bible were extended to all human beings. Specifically, Sarah spoke out about how the religious views expressed in the Bible and by those professing to follow its tenants prohibited the enslavement of humans. Regarding the reasons behind white women working toward abolition of slavery, these letters support there was a religious moral authority of that day did not support precluding women or people of color from being treated as equals that motivated these women to act. Their writing supports the claims that white men saw white women and people of color essentially as tools for their won use and not as complete or competent individuals.
Advertisement, Seneca County Courier, July 14, 1848.
Seneca Falls Convention, July 14, 1848.
This is a description of what happened when women delegates from the U.S. to an anti-slavery convention were not allowed to participate. It shows the that these women were considered by the men at that time as basically lesser human beings with ironically no right to speak at a convention about slavery—a condition under which people had no right to speak. It illustrated the cognitive dissonance that prevailed among men of that era in that they were able to both hold a convention dedicated to putting an end to slavery and at the same time refuse to seat women, or to even allow them to speak—a basic right of free people, who had been on the frontline of this movement. It raises the question of women’s motivation to fight for freedom and wither they were interested only in putting a stop to slavery or in equality for themselves as well. It also connects abolition of slavery and the right for women to vote to the fact that initially, some women did have the right to vote in a number of states prior to 1776 and how this may have affect their support of abolition. This supports the idea that initially women were allowed to be more involved in politics, and how upon having this right rescinded, they believed they had a vested interest in reclaiming that right. They began to see the similarities between themselves and people of color. This in turn led to their involvement in gaining or regaining political recognition and power as well as equality. It shows that women, once they discovered that did not have be only placed on earth to serve others, rebelled.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Seneca Falls Convention Speech, July 19,1848.
The writer is a suffragist, women rights activist, and abolitionist. She addressed the inequality of the convention saying, “Man’s intellectual superiority cannot be a question until woman’s has had a fair trial. When we shall have had our freedom to find our own sphere, when we shall have our colleges, our professions, our trades, for a century, a comparison then may be justly instituted” and “In consideration of man’s claim to moral superiority, . . . he is infinitely woman’s inferior in every moral quality, not by nature, but made so by false education . . .” Her speech supports the fact that women understood, clearly, that they, like slaves, were not being treated fairly based on the tenants of the moral authority acquired from their society’s professed faith, but were just being used for the purposes and benefits of others. These women were also pointing out the cognitive dissonance, which once expressed and seen for what it is, becomes hard to undo.
Frederick Douglass, 1845. Frederick Douglass: A Biography.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass. 1845.
Douglass was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, and freed slave. He focused on ending slavery and gaining equal rights for African-Americans and also collaborated on women’s suffrage and equal rights for all. His writing supports the fact that white women, like slave, were not being treated as fully human in that their rights to express themselves and to vote, which kept them in a position of powerlessness politically. He shows that white women and people of color were treated as tools of white men, and that they were given very little to no respect beyond those roles.
Hedrick, Joan. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. Oxford University Press, 1994.
This is a biography about a woman immersed in the women’s rights and anti- slavery movements. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in narrative form, was able to make the case against slavery, highlighting the immorality and inhumanity of using humans as tools of a system of profit. Her book, although fiction, captures the cognitive dissonance of the time in a story that is a parable for, not only anti-slave, but also any unequal treatment of any human.
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Signed by President Millard Fillmore on September 18, 1850.
This Act returned slaves to owners as private property. The Act was part of the compromise between Southern enslavers and Northern Free-Soilers.
Adams, Abigail. The Abigail Epistle to her husband John. Remember the Ladies. March 1776.