Slavery Vs Women's Suffrage

For my unit plan I decided to teach Women Suffrage and examine the 19th Amendment. Throughout the unit I want to explore what occurred from the first National Women’s Convention in 1848 until 1919 when women received the right to vote. By the end of the lesson I hope that my students will be able to identify the important leaders of the movement and understand the important events that led up to the amendment being passed.

“Enslaved African Americans had almost no rights or even hope for liberty. After being brought to America in chains”(DN-Life in the Colonies). This quote alone

Analyze the similarities and differences between the Abolitionist Movements and the Suffrage Movements during the mid-1800s.

In regards to U.S. history, Lerner recognizes how American women transitioned from enjoying certain freedoms in the colonial period to having to fight for equal rights between the sexes in the 1800s. Beginning with the colonial period, she observed that there was a shortage of women in the colonies who were encouraged to work in maintaining the community. Single women and widows were required to be self-supporting while married women had to help out their husbands in their occupations. Although they can only depend on men to partake in their place in society and were excluded from politics and education, colonial women managed to participate in occupations that would rarely be [or not at all} available to them in nineteenth-century.

Over the past five hundred years or so in america as the overall majority in Mankind, women comprise of the largest group in the world, but they are a vital asset in every aspect of our society. Woman and women's rights are tied hand in hand with american culture, which entails in these rights that they're dependent of social status, race, and geography in america like civil rights in the south. There were different types of economic changes for the different types of ethiniticities in America in which there were different of turning point that women won over their sufferage through their racial discrimination, these included the native american women, hispanic american, african americans and the chinese american women of the united states.

During the 19th century, the dawn of social reform was unearthed. The Abolitionist Movement and the Women’s Suffrage Movement joined forces to advocate for social justice. Generally speaking, they sought freedom, but as you look closer into these movements you see where these movements parallel and where they diverge. With the potential promise of a more inclusive America, accepting people for who they are and not because of their gender or color, these groups worked together. While the Women’s Suffrage Movement focused on the pending promise of individual sovereignty, the abolitionist movement sought to end the precedent of buying and treating people as property and as a tangible object that can be replaced. Both movements were after the larger goal of eliminating discrimination and segregation by shredding the weight of oppression.

1b. ​C= A major breakthrough in the struggle for the vote came in 1890, when Wyoming entered

With Seneca Falls, 1848, the movement began in earnest. Early suffragists often had ties to the abolitionist movement. (Lecture 18) With the Civil War era, suffragists split over voting rights for black men. There was a need for regrouping and rethinking in the face of a reconstructed nation because there was a push for black men to get the right to vote. There were Women’s Rights conventions every year up until the Civil War, and in 1851, a resolution that “resolved, the proper sphere, for all human beings is the largest and highest for which they are able to obtain”. (Lecture 24) This captures the true essence of both the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the Abolitionist Movement. Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were Abolitionists and a majority of suffragettes were as well as well as involvement with the temperance movement. (Ibid) The question was raised, should women keep advocating for women’s rights or do they need to support the war? This resulted in the pause between 1861-1865 when there was not a women’s convention for the first time. Women were deeply involved with the Union cause and were vital to upholding society and keeping stores in business by serving as “deputy husbands”. (Ibid) Women also had a direct role serving in the war, some served as nurses in addition to some fighting for the cause. Sarah Edmunds Seelye was one of the few who fought under a man’s name, she served under Franklin Thompson for the 2nd Michigan Infantry until she deserted due to

In the 1860’s tensions were running high. Slavery was finally abolished, and one very important amendment passed in favor of African American men across America. The 15th amendment passed and many African American men were thrilled by the new freedom they had; the right to vote. However, many women were perturbed by the decision congress made on February 26, 1869. Which divulged, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude --” (US Const., amend. XV). Thus, no matter what race, any man can vote in any election they want. Unfortunately, it would be another fifty – one years until women would be granted to vote alongside their male counterparts. Therefore, the National Woman Suffrage Association found itself on the wrong side of the fifteenth amendment, while the American Woman Suffrage Association was on the appropriate side of history.

During the late 19th century, women were in a society where man was dominant. Women did not have natural born rights, such as the right to vote, to speak in public, access to equal education, and so forth, did not stop them to fight for their rights. Women's lives soon changed when Lucy Stone, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony played a prominent role to help bring about change.

2. There were multiple factors which linked the women’s rights movements and the abolitionist movements. Many women joined abolitionist movement as a way to enter public life and have the opportunity to talk about controversial topics. They faced criticism for addressing these controversial issues which prompted them to attempt gain freedom for women as well as those who were enslaved. They tried to use the abolitionist movement as a way to also gain equal rights for a women as there seemed to be a common idea shared between the two.

Still, raping the mother, wife or daughter of a black male, sent a strong message to him that in reality he was far less than a man, and that the women being raped were not ladies worthy of protection. A year after the war ended, a couple of Black men grew angry and wrote a petition to demand the termination of sexual assault upon black women. They were mad that they were mistakenly accused of raping white women when white men were totally free from sexually abusing black women, “ All we ask of the white man is to let our ladies alone, and they need not fear us.” (34) One does not have freedom at all without having freedom over their bodies. Black women struggled also in a sexual manner as they were placed in a situation that caused them mental pain.

In the antebellum period, came the movement of transcendentalism which emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and self-discipline. It transcended people to choose morality over prosperity. Looking at the idea of transcendentalism, communities began to stand up for their rights, thus started the reform movements of abolitionism and equality for women in the society. The abolition movement started in 1820’s in the upper south, its goal was end slavery in the United States (Abolitionist Movement). The women’s rights reform began in 1848 and fought for gender equality, such as the idea of equal property rights, and the right of women to vote(“Women’s Rights). Although the abolitionist and the women rights movement were different as both had different ways to express their opposition towards societal norms, they had more similarities because they both impacted the society by emphasizing the meaning of idealism and both portrayed social reform that included right to liberty and equality of education.

Numerous groups throughout history have wrestled for equal rights and engaged in combat against oppressors. Both the American women’s suffrage movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s and the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s were examples of an oppressed group grappling with those above them for equality. Each group had to press for legislation that would protect them against inequality. Although the time periods of the women’s suffragette struggle and the African American Civil Rights endeavor were separate in history, the goals and methods of each were immensely similar.

In order to talk about the abolition of slavery it is necessary to know the meaning of slavery and abolition. According to Dictionary.com the word “Slave means: a person entirely under the domination of some influence or person and abolition means: “the legal prohibition and ending of slavery, especially of slavery of blacks in the U.S.” Now that both words were defined we can begin. “It is said that the first African slaves were brought to the United States near the English Colony back in 1619 to Jamestown, Virginia by some Dutch traders. If we were to discuss the origins of slavery we would have to start not in the United States, but we would have to shift gears to Brazil were they were the biggest slaves traders of all times” according to History.net