African Americans and women, in the antebellum period of the United States, shared many similarities. All of the similarities are based on how they had little or no rights in their homes, their communities, and their country. Both groups were not given the right to vote and they were considered property, giving them a more demeaning position in society. Abolitionists and feminists both made movements to try to improve their positions in society. As white males continually gained suffrage in the United States’ “democratic” system, both African Americans and women were still denied the right to vote. The white males who could vote, were intensely against the two groups being able to have a say in the political processes. In the 1830s, many white males were now able to vote, either with or without property, while African Americans constantly lost this right as many states adopted laws that prevented the free black people from voting. Some states even went so far as to reinstate property laws that hadn’t been used in years. Women were seen as “inferior to the white race”, just as being African American was, so they, therefore, had an “incapacity to exercise political power”. This was seen as a natural position of women, just as they were supposed to be the home-makers, “cloistered in the private realm of the family”. In antithesis to this, women soon began to participate in reform movements, making themselves in the middle of the public eye. However, the ability to vote was soon seen as the right of the person who was the dominate figure, or head of the household, automatically striking out women from that position since they could only be a wife, daughter, or sister to that figure. Both women and African Americans were treated a... ... middle of paper ... ... together to try to stop them. Works Cited Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1998), 82. Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1998), 83. Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1998), 64. Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, and Waldo E. Martin Jr. Freedom On My Mind, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013), 267. Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, and Waldo E. Martin Jr. Freedom On My Mind, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013), 267. Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, and Waldo E. Martin Jr. Freedom On My Mind, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013), 186. Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1998), 71. Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1998), 72.
... Bobrick, Benson. Fight for Freedom: The American Revolutionary War. New York: Atheneum, 2004. Print.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Fourth ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 247-316. Print.
Mill, John Stuart, “On Liberty. ch. 1, 3,” from Project Gutenberg Web site: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34901, No. 01/10, Pp. 1-19, Public Domain, 2011
Morgan, Edmund S.. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. : George J. McLeod, 1975.
Russell B. Nye: Fettered Freedom: Civil Liberties and the Slavery Controversy, 1830-1860. East Lansing, Mich., 1949
Silko, Leslie Marmon. "Fences Against Freedom." Hungry Mind Review: An Independent Book Review (1999). 8 December 2000. <http://www.bookwire.com/hmr/Review/silko.html>.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2007.
4.de Toqueville, Alexis. Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty: An American History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008), 358.
The idea of freedom can be seen throughout Collection 2 in our textbook. Freedom can be seen in the short story “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela when it talks about the freedom of speech. Addition to that, an article “A People’s History Of The 1963 March On Washington” by Charles Euchner shows freedom in its article when it talks about the segregation occurring to colored men. Lastly, freedom is shown in the graphic novel “Persepolis 2: The Story Of A Return” by Marjane Satrapi as it shows high restriction.
In Eric Foner’s book, The Story of American Freedom, he writes a historical monograph about how liberty came to be. In the book, his argument does not focus on one fixed definition of freedom like others are tempted to do. Unlike others, Foner describes liberty as an ever changing entity; its definition is fluid and does not change in a linear progress. While others portray liberty as a pre-determined concept and gradually getting better, Foner argues the very history of liberty is constantly reshaping the definition of liberty, itself. Essentially, the multiple and conflicting views on liberty has always been a “terrain of conflict” and has changed in time (Foner xv).
Foner, Eric and John A. Garraty. The Reader’s Companion to American History. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991).
28.) Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. 4th ed. (W.W. Norton, 2012), 920.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty. 3rd ed. Vol. Two. New York: Norton &, 2011. Print.
Vesely, Milan G. "Ending the Nightmare." Toward Freedom. May 1998: 10-12. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 05 Nov 2013.
...ann, Fredrick (1999). The Most Powerful Freedom Strategy. How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, viewed 8 March, 2008.