“What If I Am A Woman?” “What if I Am a Woman?” was an address delivered to Franklin Hall by Maria W. Stewart in September of 1833. Stewart was 30 years old when she delivered this empowering speech to a group in her native Boston. Maria W. Stewart worked with many different abolitionist groups and gave three speeches prior, but Stewart decided to stop speaking publicly after this speech was delivered . This speech acted as Stewart’s fourth and final public address as well as a challenge of the ideals of the early 1800’s. It was a busy time in America. Early abolitionists were making themselves known, and the country was experiencing a resurgence of religion. Maria W. Stewart aimed to call upon the people to better themselves, as the Bible …show more content…
One can infer that it was at this point in her life, where Stewart developed and accepted her belief in the Black Jeremiad and the earliest form of Black Nationalism. In What if I am a Woman, the speaker never explicitly states her opinion of the Black Jeremiad, (although she has done so in prior works ) but still manages to incorporate its ideals into this speech centering on religion and womanhood. Stewart’s mention of the need for a return to the church can be related to both the religious reformation that was occurring, or even as a subtle allusion to the “chosen ” mindset of many freed and former slaves in the United …show more content…
Stewart provides insight similar to one of her mentors during this speech. David Walker was an African American shopkeeper, who lived in Boston at the same time as Maria Stewart. The man participated in abolitionist groups and was outspoken and known for being extreme. Maria Stewart became close with David Walker just before he was killed for his views in 1830, two years before this speech was delivered. Walker was an extremely impactful individual. While Walker was viewed as an extremist by many, several different aspects of his ideology continuously reappear within the work of other great abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois. Walker’s most popular work was titled the Appeal, in which he describes radical measures for slaves to be freed and calls for a violent rising. Within the chaos of the proposal, there are moments of value that stress the importance of self-responsibility. David Walker wrote, “Our sufferings will come to an end, in spite of all the Americans this side of eternity. Then we will want all the learning and talents, and perhaps more, to govern ourselves.” As a self-taught individual, Stewart stresses the need for her black constituents to “cultivate {their} own minds and morals” and to “turn {their} attention to industry” , which can be derived from the message of Walker’s
“The lord shall raise-up coloured historians in succeeding generations, to present the crimes of this nation to the then gazing world.” David Walker was born in the confines of white America, but his vision expanded far beyond those limits. His view reached deep into the future of black people. From 1829 until his death in 1830, David Walker was the most controversial, and most admired black person in America. Walker believed in all manner of social relations in that self-reliance was most preferable rather than dependence on others. He felt that it is essential to self-determination. Walker argued that freedom was the highest human right ordained by God, in that African people should raise their voice in defense of their own interest and assume responsibility for speaking on behalf of their freedom. Hence, David Walker’s Appeal was born in 1829 (Turner 3).
David Walker was a black man that aimed to inspire American blacks to achieve the freedom they deserve. He grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina and his early childhood biography has little detail. His dad was a slave and his mother was free. His date of birth was estimated to be around 1797. In North Carolina, the blacks greatly outnumbered the whites. Although there were more blacks, they only had a small amount of them that were free. Walker’s childhood definitely had a great impact on his mindsight to feel the need to speak up for the blacks. Wilmington taught him a lot about how slaves were treated poorly and the history of their suffering. Also, there were certain things happening in Charleston that led him to the rebellion. Charleston happened to be the center for free blacks that had major goals. These ambitious blacks started many foundations as a group such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Authorities discovered this church and tried to stop it, making the blacks more on-edge. Although these events were eventually put to a rest, it was
The compelling accounts of Boston King and David George certainly allow the reader to attain a higher degree of respect and sorrow for the slaves of the south during the time of the American Revolution. There is no question that these two slaves, in addition to countless others, suffered much more than any man should ever have to. The daily fear that amounted to chaos in their minds day in and day out are enough to send shivers down ones spine. The risks these men took for their family to acquire freedom certainly should not go unnoticed. One can read and immediately see many distinct similarities in these two accounts of dangerous decisions made by these men to overcome their slavery, but these similarities are, as mentioned, easily spotted.
When I mention the names Sarah Grimke and Frederick Douglass what comes to mind? Abolitionists? Equal rights activists? Of course, these two individuals are making great strives to fight for what they believe in. The sad thing about it is that we don’t have enough people with the likes of these two. England abolished slavery in 1834 so how long will we go on with this inhumane cruelty toward people. Our country is in a state of denial and if we don’t wake up soon, we will all pay the price. I’m going to discuss a little bit about these two abolitionist speakers, than compare and contrast their roles of rhetoric, morality, ideas, and backgrounds.
After suffering the overwhelming ferociousness and inhumanity of being a slave for over two decades, a black man by the name of Fredrick Douglass fled from enslavement and began to make a concerted effort to advance himself as a human being. Combating many obstacles and resisting numerous temptations, Douglass worked assiduously to develop into a knowledgeable gentleman rather than the involuntary alternative of being an unenlightened slave. In doing so, Douglass successfully emerged as one of the Civil War era’s most prominent antislavery orators. From his first major public speech at the age of 23, Douglass became widely renowned as a premier spokesperson for Black slaves and the movement for the abolition of slavery. In one of Douglass’ most distinguished speeches, “The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro,” he uses the intermittent occasion of speaking on behalf of African Americans to a multitude of White Americans to outline arguments against slavery.
In this essay, we will examine three documents to prove that they do indeed support the assertion that women’s social status in the United States during the antebellum period and beyond was as “domestic household slaves” to their husband and children. The documents we will be examining are: “From Antislavery to Women 's Rights” by Angelina Grimke in 1838, “A Fourierist Newspaper Criticizes the Nuclear Family” in 1844, and “Woman in the Nineteenth Century” by Margaret Fuller in 1845.
Both Mary Wollstonecraft and Sor Juana de la Cruz are writers of the Enlightenment period, but they each approach women’s rights in a different way. While De la Druz was a Catholic nun from Mexico ad preferred to study and be alone, Wollstonecraft asserted women’s rights for all through publications directed at the masses. During the Enlightenment, people began to question old authoritative models like the Church. Our texts states, “thinkers believed inreason as a dependable guide. Both sides insisted that one should not take any assertion of truth on faith, blindly following the authority of others; instead, one should think skeptically about causes and effects, subjecting all truth-claims to logic andrational inquiry” (Puchner 92). Indeed,
Mary Wollstonecraft lived with a violet and abusive father which led her to taking care of her mom and sister at an early age. Fanny Blood played an important role in her life to opening her to new ideas of how she actually sees things. Mary opened a school with her sister Eliza and their friend Fanny Blood. Back then for them being a teacher made them earn a living during that time, this made her determined to not rely on men again. Mary felt as if having a job where she gets paid for doing something that back then was considered respected than she wouldn’t need a man to be giving her money. She wasn’t only a women’s right activist but she was a scholar, educator and journalist which led her to writing books about women’s rights.
In 1836, Angelina wrote her Appeal to the Christian Women of the South imploring white southern women to embrace the antislavery cause. She wrote, “I know you do not make the laws, but I also know that you are the wives and mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do; and if you really suppose you can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly mistaken.” After the Appeal was published, Angelina’s mother was told that if her daughter came back home, she would be put in prison. Sarah did not do as well with pubic speaking as Angelina, but she made up for it in her writings. In July of 1837, Sarah’s “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes” appeared in the New England Spectator, with its simple but powerful demand: “All I ask our brethren is, that they will take their feet from our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy.” With the sisters great writing regarding women’s rights, it could be said that these women also started the proto-feminist revolution, as
In the 17th century, many Puritans emigrated to the New World, where they tried to create a brand new society. They moved to New World because they were being persecuted in England for their religious beliefs, and they were escaping to America. The women were immigrating to America to be the wives of the settlers this demonstrates that women were expected to live in the household for the rest of their lives. Women in Puritan society fulfilled a number of different roles. History has identified many women who have had different experiences when voicing their beliefs and making a step out of their echelon within society’s social sphere. Among these women are Anne Hutchinson, and Mary Rowlandson. And in this essay I will
Maria W. Stewart was viewed by her followers as a positive influence for her strong voice in the abolitionist movement. She declared that “It is not the color of the skin that makes the man, but it is the principle formed within the soul”. Those who attended her lectures followed her
In David Walker’s Appeal, David Walker is completely fed up with the treatment of Black men and women in America at the hands of White people. He is tired of the constant dehumanization, brutality, and utter lack of acknowledgment of all of the contributions Black people made to the building of this country. Walker was extremely skillful in his delivery of his Appeal. He used concrete history and the fact that he had “travelled over a considerable portion of these United States, and having, in the course of my travels, taken the most accurate observations of things as they exist” (Walker) to build his credibility. He used the very things that White Americans held so dear to their hearts to point out the sheer hypocrisy in their actions and way of thinking, mainly the Bible and their political documents.
Deborah Gray White’s Ar’n’t I a Woman? details the grueling experiences of the African American female slaves on Southern plantations. White resented the fact that African American women were nearly invisible throughout historical text, because many historians failed to see them as important contributors to America’s social, economic, or political development (3). Despite limited historical sources, she was determined to establish the African American woman as an intricate part of American history, and thus, White first published her novel in 1985. However, the novel has since been revised to include newly revealed sources that have been worked into the novel. Ar’n’t I a Woman? presents African American females’ struggle with race and gender through the years of slavery and Reconstruction. The novel also depicts the courage behind the female slave resistance to the sexual, racial, and psychological subjugation they faced at the hands of slave masters and their wives. The study argues that “slave women were not submissive, subordinate, or prudish and that they were not expected to be (22).” Essentially, White declares the unique and complex nature of the prejudices endured by African American females, and contends that the oppression of their community were unlike those of the black male or white female communities.
On June 6, 2015, Elinor Burkett wrote a piece about how the transgender movement is affecting feminist movements in “What Makes a Woman?”. The article specifically targeted Caitlyn Jenner in response to the interview by Diane Sawyer, “I’m a Woman”. In the interview, Caitlyn Jenner speaks of her newfound womanhood and how she sees herself as a woman both in body and mind. Elinor Burkett, though, disagrees. In “What Makes a Woman?”, the author declares transgenderism does not equate feminism making a claim of definition on what feminism is. Elinor Burkett makes a strong claim with the use of an ethos argument, kairos and exigency, different types of supports and fallacies, and rhetoric in the article.
To find out whether or not Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin is an example of feminist rhetoric or not, one must simply define what is meant by the term feminist. This is difficult to do when one puts into consideration that this book was written over one hundred and forty years ago, and that feminism has gone through many different stages since that time. In order to do this correctly, one must first define feminism within the historical context of the 1850's, when Uncle Tom's Cabin was published instead of the definition of feminism in today’s times.