How Did Jonathan Edwards Change America

Back in the nineteenth century men and women were not treated equally as they are now. Women did not have as much freedom as the men did and that caused a national movement. Not only were the women segregated from the men, but the discrimination against the African American race was a huge ordeal as well. With both movements combined, it led to a controversial development at that time. Not only were women fighting for equality, they were also fighting for the prejudice to end amongst the different races. The beginning of the Women’s Rights Movement and the Abolitionist Movement was not only a historic development, but it changed the world forever.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is widely recognized as one of America’s most profound Theologians. Some might even consider him the master of Puritan revival, since he was the leader of the Great Awakening. During his time he was a devout Calvinist who had the power of single-handedly keeping the Puritan faith strong for over twenty-five years, by using vivid imagery to provoke his audience. Edward's dialect was exquisitely influential and yet wielded with class and ease. This essay argues that Edwards was a prestigious theologian in his time that helped shape modern religious culture.

Over the history of time women were not allowed to have prominent roles and rights in society. Through history and time women have fought for the right to vote, to work for equal pay, the women’s suffrage, gaining property rights, and much more. The first women’s right movement in the United States of America, which started in the 1830s, arose from the campaign too end slavery. Many things such as evangelical Christianity, the abolitionist critique to slavery, and debates about the place of women in the abolitionist movement played valuable roles in the development of the antebellum women’s right movement. These efforts and large steps that women took to destroy and tear down the walls that limited them from having a voice still resonates today.

After 1815, the female was viewed in a more respectful persona in society. Women’s rights were beginning to grow. They were helping more in religious growth, and helping in the abolition of slavery. “On every principle of natural justice, as well as by the nature of our institutions, she is as fully entitled as man to vote and to be eligible to office.” (Document F). Many females were involved in the growth of religion, including the Second Great Awakening. With the females being the ones who take the children to church, they were prone to having a deeper belief for their religion. And with that, they would try to inspire religious growth. The Second Great Awakening spurred reform, prison, church, temperance, abolition, women’s rights, and Christianizing Indians. With women fighting for what they believe in, the women were finding themselves to have a new found respect; from both themselves and men. Document E illustrates this by females walking down a street with a sense of confidence.

Women’s rights began due to the fact that the only big role a woman had was in the household. Their responsibility was to raise their children and to education them in religious matters. Because of such responsibilities women began arguing that they themselves had to be educated in order to educate their children. The fact that women only had a few rights went against religious beliefs of equality. According to the Bible, a man and woman are both equal in the eyes of God. The man is commanded to be the head of the household and the wife should be submissive to that authority. However, that does not mean the woman is any less important than a man, it just means the man and woman play different roles. In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention took place, led by Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott. At the Convention, women discussed religious and moral issues, as well as the role of women in society. These women insisted that they were held to the same standard as men and that they should be granted the same rights and privileges. Regardless of practicing Christianity, women were viewed in society as little more than slaves, with not much of a voice and with only slightly more rights. At the Convention they founded the Declaration of Sentiments, adding to the words of the Declaration of Independence saying “all men and women are created equal.” They put forth the ideas of allowing women to vote, to control their property

In a similar manner to the slaves, women were motivated by the beliefs preached in camp meetings and churches during the Second Great Awakening. Due to the amount of free time the women had, they attended these churches more often than men, allowing them to absorb the ideas from the sermons. These women not only became motivated to fight for the rights of slaves, but also for their own since human freedom was one of the essential ideas of the Second Great Awakening. During the international anti-slavery convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were denied the right to participate just because of their genders. With the ideas of the Second Great Awakening in their minds, they created the Women’s Right Convention in Seneca Falls, where they wrote the Declaration of Sentiments that listed all of the ways in which males have wronged them by denying equality to them. It marked the beginning of a long struggle to gain equality between men and women. Among the many things that they wanted to have equality in was divorce, inheritance, property, and children. Therefore, the concept of freedom for all Americans from the Second Great Awakening triggered a movement to give women freedom from the bonds of men by means of equality.

In her early 20s, Anthony was a teacher. She showed an interest in social reform. At a state teachers convention, she was called to fight for better pay for women. She believed there was no difference in the minds of a man or a woman. She spoke publicly about this. But not just for gender, for different races, and different religions. And because of Anthony, women were admitted into university for the first time.

Women could not vote, and as stated earlier, were often victims of abuse from their husbands. Things needed to change. So, women began getting jobs at factories and taking on bigger roles. They also created the cult of domesticity. Also, women began talking and giving speeches to other women. Women would even sometimes adise their hus Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Document 7, advocates for the rights of women. She wants equality for women and that they not be frowned up and looked down on by society. While women’s rights did not come quickly, or even for a while, the SGA attempted at getting the equality. The SGA started a trend of an increase in women’s rights and society kept improving it as years went

They couldn’t have a public voice and once a man married a woman he got all her rights (legal concept of coverture). If a woman wasn’t married most of the time she had to give her earnings and control to legal affairs to male relatives. Woman started becoming abolitionists and even though they were part of the start of the anti-slavery movement, in 1830 the rise of an organized movement to abolish slavery in the United States. Women found they now couldn’t do anything to help. That led abolitionist women to begin to defend their right to speak in public and discuss thoroughly during petition drives. All throughout the 1850’s more and more people joined the women 's rights movement, and it was in the abolition movement that women first learned to organize, to hold public meetings, and to conduct petition campaigns. As time went on state legislatures began to act favorably to woman’s influence and petition efforts for reforms in property law. By 1860 fourteen states passed a form of women’s property laws, for example New York legislatures passed the Married Women’s Property Act. The law gave married New York women all economic rights they demanded, but still refused the women the right to vote. May 1866, the eleventh women’s rights convention was held. At the convention, they decided to create the American Equal Rights

courage they were. The women were willing to do anything for them to be heard and make a

The most important shift that Edwards created was served to be towards the ending of his sermon, he introduces Christ, “And now you have an extra ordinary opportunity, a day wherein

Women’s Rights was and still is a major issue throughout the entire world, but more specifically, in the United States of America. Women have been treated unjustly for awhile. From being beaten by their husbands, to not being able to own property if they were married, women have been through it all. Many of these situations started to change because of a group of women that decided to stand up for what they believe in. A few activists that helped improve the rights of women are Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Lucretia Mott.

Woman suffrage, a major issue woman had to fight against. Our world has always had segregation no matter who was getting discriminated against. Well in the 1800s it was women who were getting victimized, because of their gender. Any woman could get criticized and ridiculed by a man just for being a woman. Woman didn't have as many rights or as much freedom as men did, men thought women were only good for domestic duties. Little did men know, women can do much more than cooking and cleaning. Elizabeth Cady Stanton stood along with other women and help put an end to gender discrimination of the 1800s.

(Goldfield, 338) Since the cult of domesticity was making women inferior to men, women decided to do as the slaves did and fight for their own freedom. The women’s rights movement began in the mid-1800s. Female and male abolitionist found it necessary that women should be able to have the same rights as men. Just because biologically they are different, it does not mean they do not deserve the same rights. Women were denied the right to vote, property and a right to an education or job. (Goldfield, 338) At first the women’s movement was slow. Many women were afraid to speak out in fear of being shunned by their community. This was a brand new scary task that Women for the first time were going to deal with. A women speaking out against the norms of society was seen as a terrible thing to do. When you have many women speaking out for the same thing a change must be done. When the first national convention for women’s rights was called in Seneca Falls, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were able to successfully use the Declaration of Independence as a model for their own Declaration of Sentiments. (Goldfield, 339) In their Declaration they branded that “male patriarchy as the source of women’s oppression” (Goldfield, 339) Stanton and Mott called for full women’s rights and to become independent citizens. Although the fight for women’s rights was always an important issue, most abolitionists deemed it less important

Elizabeth Cady Stanton found power through gender solidarity. She was a true feminist concerned with not just suffrage but total equality for the sexes. Her Declaration of Sentiments brilliantly