Progress in the Antebellum Era Progress: a word some consider hope, and others consider a vile and laughable goal. During the antebellum period, two movements gained momentum: abolition and women’s rights. In a period in which the United States began to embrace transcendentalist and more Unitarian ideals, the focus shifted more to social reform and the improvement of life for those who were disenfranchised. Among a variety of movements, including temperance, religious morality, and education, women’s rights and abolition came to the front of the pictures as the era went on. Although both abolition and women’s rights ultimately made progress on the basis of changing societal principles, one can see the abolition movement ultimately had a greater …show more content…
Due to the education reform efforts across the United States, a greater number of women were enabled to go to school, allowing women, such as Elizabeth Blackwell, to enter colleges and recieve beneficial degrees for the first time in American history. Around the same time, in part because of the desire for success, many successful orators and writers stepped into the spotlight to advocate for women’s rights. The formation of women’s suffrage groups, the Seneca Falls Convention, and female voice in matters such as divorce law, temperance, and abolition showed that society was ultimately impacted by the voices of the women’s rights …show more content…
The divide that abolitionists helped to catalyze created congressional action, political compromises, and bloody consequences that swept the nation. The voices of the abolitionists ultimately added to the fire between the North and South, helping bring the nation to its breaking point. Many of the influential speeches that abolitionists gave helped to influence the politics at the time, proving to produce a multitude of bloody reactions such as the burning and death of Reverend Lovejoy and his printing press. It even caused for a gag order to be passed in the House of Representatives, and then later challenged. A prominent example of how extensive the divide became between the abolition movement can best be demonstrated in the passage of personal liberty laws in resistance to the Fugitive Slave Acts, as well as the consensus that slavery should not be spread any further in the United States. This ultimately drove America to civil war, a far greater consequence in terms of national impact than the consequences of the women’s rights
2) Was there any degree of autonomy in the lives of enslaved women in the revolutionary or antebellum America? Use the documents to address the question of whether or not an enslaved woman could protect the humanity and if so, explore how this might be achieved. Also include how the specific era (revolutionary or antebellum) affected her autonomy.
“The connection between the revivals of the Second Great Awakening and abolition was so strong that it would hardly be an overstatement to say that the revivals were responsible for antislavery becoming a radical national movement.” During the time period, evangelical religion underlay the culture of America to such an extent that the revivals of the 1830s resulted in “tangible” structures for social reform — the revivals touched many aspects of political and social life. The revivals implicitly created political obligations and led to a demand for an activist
However, the writers of the Constitution had omitted women in that pivotal statement which left women to be denied these “unalienable” rights given to every countryman. Gaining the support of many, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the leader of the Women’s Rights Movement declared at Seneca Falls that women had the same rights as men including the right to vote and be a part of government. The Women’s Rights movement gained support due to the years of abuse women endured. For years, men had “the power to chastise and imprison his wife…” and they were tired of suffering (Doc I). The new concept of the cult of domesticity supported women’s roles in society but created greater divisions between men and women.
The Antebellum period was a time of reform and improvement. After the War of 1812, America went through a period of westward expansion, patriotism and an economic emergence as a world power. Their new found power as a country inspired reformation. Abolitionists worked to end the institution of slavery through protests, rallies, and the formation of societies; women’s rights activists advocated in a similar way. Simultaneously, many Americans supported the government’s efforts to remove Native Americans from their own land. Americans during the Antebellum period were ambitious, but contradictory in their activism; while many activists fought for the rights of slaves and women, others sought to curtail rights of Native Americans.
...intolerance over the immorality of slavery. A movement to treat the insane humanely was taken up by reformer Dorothea Dix. She believed the insane deserved better treatment as they were not criminals, they were simply ill. Other reformers, such as Horace Mann sought to equalize the social classes by providing free and better education for the poor (a public education system). This cause was instrumental in sparking the flame of education which would spread though the Untied States like wildfire. Desiring equality with men, women took advantage of this spirit of reform and proceeded with the Seneca Fall Convention in New York, 1848. Drafting a document similar to the Declaration of Independence, women sought equality in all aspects of life. These and other reforms in the 1840s were a direct result of the Jacksonian ideal which “celebrated the era of the common man”.
During America's early history, women were denied some of the rights to well-being by men. For example, married women couldn't own property and had no legal claim to any money that they might earn, and women hadn't the right to vote. They were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, and didn't have to join politics. On the contrary, they didn't have to be interested in them. Then, in order to ratify this amendment they were prompted to a long and hard fight; victory took decades of agitation and protest. Beginning in the 19th century, some generations of women's suffrage supporters lobbied to achieve what a lot of Americans needed: a radical change of the Constitution. The movement for women's rights began to organize after 1848 at the national level. In July of that year, reformers Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), along with Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and other activists organized the first convention for women's rights at Seneca Falls, New York. More than 300 people, mostly women but also some men, attended it. Then, they raised public awar...
Near the end of the Antebellum Era, tensions and sectionalism increased as the states argued over what was constitutional. The South had later seceded from the United States and had become the Confederacy of America while the North had remained as the Union. The South had fully supported states’ rights while the north had strongly disapproved it. However, westward expansion, southern anger with the abolitionists, and the secession of the South that had destroyed the feeling of unity in the country because of the disagreement over slavery had been the main factors to the cause of the Civil War. Therefore, since slavery was the primary reason for the discontent in the country, it had been the primary cause of the Civil War.
Women had a role in the forming of our country that many historians overlook. In the years leading to the revolution and after women were political activists. During the war, women took care of the home front. Some poor women followed the army and assisted to the troops. They acted as cooks, laundresses and nurses. There were even soldiers and spies that were women. After the revolution, women advocated for higher education. In the early 1800’s women aided in the increase of factories, and the changing of American society. Women in America were an important and active part of achieving independence and the framing of American life over the years.
The Americans of African and European Ancestry did not have a very good relationship during the Civil war. They were a major cause of the Civil War. But, did they fix or rebuild that relationship after the war from the years 1865 to 1900? My opinion would be no. I do not believe that the Americans of African and European ancestry successfully rebuilt their relationship right after the Civil war. Even though slavery was finally slowly getting abolished, there was still much discrimination against the African Americans. The Jim Crow laws and the black codes discriminated against black people. The Ku Klux Klan in particular discriminated against black people. Even though the United States government tried to put laws into the Constitution to protect black people, the African Americans were discriminated in every aspect of life from housing, working, educating, and even going to public restrooms!
The role of women in the Early Republic is a topic mostly overlooked by historians when dealing with this era of American history. The triumphs of the Revolution and the early events of the new nation were done solely by men. However, women had their own political societies and even participated in the Revolution. Women's roles began to take a major turn after the war with Great Britain. This was due in part to their involvement in the war and female patriotism. Others believed it was due to the easier access to formal education for young women. Whatever the reason, it inspired women to challenge the social structure of the Early Republic. The roles of women were changing in the Early Republic. However, progress was slow and little change followed after the Revolution. This change in social structure elicited two questions. What caused this social change and what was the major setback for the progression of women's rights? These were the questions Linda Kreber's Women In The Republic: Intellect And Ideology In Revolutionary America, Caroline Robbins' review of Mary Norton's Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, and Sheila Skemp's review of Lucia McMahon's Mere Equals: The Paradox of Educated Women in the Early American Republic attempted to answer. Each of the pieces of literature agreed that the social equality of women was changing, but each offer a unique aspect of what changed it, and what slowed progression of equality.
Women had limited rights during the 19th Century. The Seneca Falls convention was a woman’s rights convention located in Seneca Falls in what is today known as Finger Lakes District (Page 3). This convention paved the road to help women gain rights and to stop being so dependent on men. At this time period women were not allowed to vote, own land, have a professional career, they only received minor education, etc. In an interesting book, Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women’s Rights Movement, by Sally G. McMillen she explains the widespread significance of the convention that changed women’s history. From 1840 to 1890, over the course of 50 years. Four astonishing women; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B Anthony and Lucy
The nineteenth century encountered some of most revolutionary movements in the history of our nation, and of the world – the movements to abolish slavery and the movement for women’s rights. Many women participated alongside men in the movement to abolish slavery, and “their experience inspired feminist social reformers to seek equality with men” (Bentley, Ziegler, and Streets-Salter 2015, pg. 654). Their involvement in the abolition movement revealed that women suffered many of the same legal disadvantages as slaves, most noticeably their inability to access the right to vote. Up until this time, women had little success in mobilizing their efforts to gain the right to vote. However, the start of the women’s rights movement in the mid-1800s, involving leaders such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, paved the path for the expansion of women’s rights into the modern century.
Sixty- nine years after the Declaration of Independence, one group of women gathered together and formed the Seneca Falls Convention. Prior and subsequent to the convention, women were not allowed to vote because they were not considered equal to men. During the convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton delivered the “Declaration of Sentiments.” It intentionally resembles the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal…” (Stanton, 466). She replaced the “men” with “men and women” to represent that women and men should be treated equally. Stanton and the other women in the convention tried to fight for voting rights. Dismally, when the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced to the Congress, the act failed to be passed. Even though women voiced their opinions out and urged for justice, they could not get 2/3 of the states to agree to pass the amendment. Women wanted to tackle on the voting inequalities, but was resulted with more inequalities because people failed to listen to them. One reason why women did not achieve their goals was because the image of the traditional roles of women was difficult to break through. During this time period, many people believed that women should remain as traditional housewives.
Between 1830 and the Civil War, slavery was a major political and religious issue, many influential people spoke out against slavery. For instance, abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, all wrote and spoke out against slavery in hopes of influencing others to abolish slavery. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery and wrote about his experiences. William Lloyd Garrison supported the immediate emancipation of slaves and started his own newspaper, the Liberator, to express his opinions. Writer, Harriet Beecher Stowe revealed the conditions of slavery to the world.
The entire Women’s Movement in the United States has been quite extensive. It can be traced back to 1848, when the first women’s rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York. After two days of discussions, 100 men and women signed the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, this document called for equal treatment of women and men under the law and voting rights for women. This gathering set the agenda for the rest of the Women’s Movement long ago (Imbornoni). Over the next 100 years, many women played a part in supporting equal treatment for women, most notably leading to the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed women the right to vote.