Sample Student Research Project 2013
Journal
LITR
4232 American Renaissance
Sample Student Research Project 2013
Journal
Stephanie Starkey
22 November 2013
Research Journal: Antebellum Women
Finding Their Voices and Making Changes.
The Antebellum Period and Women.
The Antebellum period in
America is often referenced as being the period of time between the War of 1812
and the Civil War.
It was a time of change in America because
civilization was becoming less rural and more urbanized because of the increase
of people moving into cities.
Industrialization was also becoming a prominent
part of American society.
This time era is also considered the period of the
American Renaissance from the years 1820 to 1860.
This time period began with people becoming more
interested in Romanticism ideas and principles.
Some authors called for society to return back to
nature and rejected the move of modernization and women authors began to emerge
as domestic romantic writers. The women of the time period who had once been
domestic in the home were now starting to work outside the home because of
industrialization. With these changes the women of the antebellum period started
to see the problems and injustices in society and the harms industrialization or
modernization were creating for the family.
Women began to express themselves about social
issues and became vocal against the injustices that were being created by the
changes in society. (Ginzberg).
The issues in society that
were specifically a concern to antebellum women were the inequalities of the
races, gender rights inequalities and the problems associated with alcohol
usage.
Women saw these things as the problems that were
destroying American families and society in general.
Women started to pursue their rights to be able to
vote, eliminating alcohol in society, and putting an end to slavery.
They strongly felt that the moral and virtues of
the changing nation should not be solely decided by men but needed women because
of their maternal influences and compassion.
The movement that a woman chose to become
associated with could usually be tied to their society affiliations, religion,
and marital status therefore during this time period there were many ways to
participate in the things that they felt were most important to society.
Antebellum women reformists were able to reach out to other women and grew the
numbers for their causes significantly. The Suffrage Movement, Temperance
Movement, and Abolitionist Movement were among the movements that supported the
social concerns that appealed to the sympathies and nurturing qualities of
women.
Antebellum women activists felt they had a moral
obligation to fulfill by making necessary social changes for the nation’s
well-being. (Ginzberg).
A Few of the Antebellum Movements.
The Suffrage Movement.
The Suffrage Movement was created by American middle class women who felt that
the fate of the nation should not be exclusive to men to make the decisions.
Although this movement for the right to vote would
last until 1920 it began during a time when women began to vocalize their desire
for gender equality in America.
The women of the suffrage movement wanted not only
the right to vote for female Americans but also the same equality allowed to
their male counterparts.
It was important that women could not only have a
political voice but also be able to vote for the issues that effected political
policies and society. Suffrage women also worked for
the
social rights to independently own property, have a right to divorce and keep
their own wages.
The most historical noted event of this movement
happened in New York at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 where women wrote
and signed the Declaration of Sentiments. (Ginzberg).
The Temperance Movement.
During this period when more people moved to urban areas there was an increase
of alcohol consumption that brought the problems of alcohol usage to the
forefront of society.
The American Temperance Society was formed in 1836
to curb the amount of alcohol that was consumed since most Americans drank some
variety of alcohol during most times of the day.
As stronger liquor was distilled and made available
at lower costs women were convinced that the problems in the home such as
domestic violence and bad moral behavior were a direct result of these changes.
The members of the temperance movement wanted to save the weak souls and
strengthen the family life of America.
A lot of women in the movement met resistance
because they were considered as supporters of teetotalism and wanting to
infringe on the rights of people in their homes.
Since most families served beer or wine because of
the water conditions and most medicines were alcohol based this movement met a
lot of opposition.
As the movement continued temperance became the
foundation for the laws of prohibition during the early twentieth century.
(Ginzberg).
The Abolitionist Movement.
The American Abolitionist Movement
called for the immediate end of slavery and an end to racial inequality.
The nature of the movement was spurred on during
the Second Great Awakening in America by anti-slavery supporters establishing in
society the religious belief that all men should be created equal and all people
were born free. The
abolitionists were different from individuals involved in the anti-slavery
movements because they called for the immediate freeing of all slaves because of
the moral degradation happening to those imprisoned by slavery.
Women were a large part of this movement because
the treatment of slaves evoked strong maternal emotions, similar feelings of
inequality and it was a cause that evoked strong feelings of empathy.
Like
the other movements of this time era, abolishing slavery met a lot of opposition
and women were met with a lot of resistance as they pulled together to support
the cause in great numbers. The women however could not be stopped on their
quest to bring attention to the cause and the strong commitment to ending
slavery would eventually lead to political activism. It became a movement that
created tension between the North and South regions of the nation that would
lead to the Civil War and emancipation of slaves.
(Ginzberg).
Women involved in the Movements.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
(November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902).
Elizabeth
Cady Stanton was a leading and well known activist during the antebellum years.
Unlike the majority of women during the time,
Stanton was formerly educated and attended Johnstown Academy until the age of
16. She
married Henry Stanton in 1840 and at the marriage ceremony she had the minister
omit the part of the vows that stated a woman should obey her husband because of
her strong belief that women were equal to men.
Stanton was first involved in working with her
husband in the abolitionist movements which then expanded to her working towards
women having equal rights in society. She became a key figure in the suffrage
movement in order to give women the right to vote on the political issues of the
nation that should not be left solely for men to decide the fate of all people.
While working towards suffrage it was apparent to
Stanton that women should have the rights of equality on all matters. Stanton
believed that women should be able to have the rights to divorce,
parental and custody rights, property rights, rights to wages, and birth
control.
She is credited for organizing the first major conference
for advocating the rights of women in Seneca Falls, New York.
It was also her contributing visions for the future
of women that were declared in the Declaration of Sentiments that was written
during the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Stanton became a friend and
associate of Lucretia Mott who she worked with to advocate woman’s suffrage and
equality. (Lewis).
Lucretia Mott.
(January 3, 1793 – November 11, 1880).
Lucretia
Mott was a Quaker involved in abolition, suffrage and social reform.
She was educated at a school for Quakers where she
later taught and met her husband.
Her
husband helped organize the American Anti-Slavery Society where she also worked
for the abolishment of slavery.
Mott
held the Quaker belief that slavery was evil and all men had the right to
freedom. Mott attended all three national
Anti-Slavery Conventions of American Women
in 1837, 1838, and 1839.
Mott and her husband were recognized for their
efforts in the abolitionist movement but she soon became involved in the rights
for women and suffrage movement after finding out her male teacher counterparts
made higher wages.
In 1848, Mott helped Elizabeth Stanton organize and
put together the Seneca Falls Convention for women’s rights.
Although Mott was a leader in the suffrage movement
she did not hold the same beliefs as some of the other female activists.
Mott was for women having equal rights but did not
hold certain that the right for elective franchise in a corrupted political
system that allowed slavery would make a difference.
Despite having those feelings, her signature is on
the Declaration of Sentiments written at the Seneca Falls Convention.
In 1850, Mott
authored and published Discourse of Women as a way to express the repression and
restrictions placed on females in American society. After the Civil War, Mott
would become the first president of the American Equal Rights Association that
worked for issues concerning women’s rights and rights for the freed slaves.
(Chew).
Margaret Fuller.
(May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850).
Margaret Fuller was an author during the antebellum
time in America.
She was educated early by her father and went on to
an academy to become a teacher.
Fuller was an activist for the rights of women but
more specifically a woman’s right to education and employment.
She used her jobs as a journalist and editor to
promote the belief that, once educated, women could branch out of the domestic
roles or feminine jobs like teaching. If equal rights for education and
employment were obtained then Fuller believed that women would be able to become
political activists with the right to vote.
She also believed in the emancipation of slaves
because she held to the idea that the abolitionist movement was similar to the
movement for the rights of women.
Fuller also became involved in the types of welfare
movements of the era believing in the transcendental idea of caring for the
whole individual which included the body and the mind.
Fuller died before the end of the antebellum era
but was admired for the work she did advocating for the rights of women.
(Weatherford).
Pauline Wright Davis.
(August 7, 1813 – August 24, 1876).
Pauline Wright Davis was an educated woman that
became involved in the antebellum movements after she was not permitted as a
single female to become a missionary.
She was discontented with the Presbyterian churches
views that did not allow for women to be outspoken or active in the roles of the
church.
After marrying her husband she served on the executive
committee of the New York Central Anti-slavery Society where she worked to
abolish slavery.
When her husband died she studied to become a
doctor where she started to give anatomy lessons exclusively to women.
It was in 1850, after she remarried, that she
focused all of her attention exclusively on women’s rights and suffrage.
In the same year she organized the National Women’s
Rights Convention in Massachusetts where she gave the opening address.
The convention supported the rights of women to be
educated, equal employment opportunities for women, marriage reform and
temperance.
The major issue addressed at the convention was the
importance of the women’s suffrage movement. After this she went on to be editor
of a women’s newspaper that supported suffrage and the push for the equal rights
of women.
In 1870, Davis organized the 20th
anniversary of the Women’s Rights Convention and was credited for publishing
The History of the National Woman's Rights Movement
which detailed the proceedings.
(Weatherford).
Susan B. Anthony.
(February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906).
Susan B. Anthony was considered a leader in the
feminist and suffrage movements during the antebellum period.
Anthony was a Quaker who grew up educated mostly by
her father after in a public school she was not taught the same as the boys.
Her father was a born Quaker who was involved in
the abolitionist movement and passed his beliefs of the evil of slavery onto his
daughter.
Anthony joined the Quaker’s abolitionist movements and
worked for an anti-slavery resolution.
She would later become a teacher and would
be inspired to join the women’s rights movement
after finding out she was not paid as much as the male teachers.
Anthony then moved on to actively work in the
temperance movement.
In 1849 she would become the secretary for the
Daughters of Temperance where she spoke out at conferences about alcohol abuse.
Anthony believed that social reform was needed to
improve society and the welfare of the people that made up society.
In 1851, while in Seneca Falls, Anthony met
Elizabeth Stanton who she worked together with to form the first women’s state
temperance society in America.
It would be the next year that she would give her
first public address on women’s rights to the third annual National Women’s
Rights Convention and gain notice as an influential figure advocating the rights
of women.
She would go on to speak at every National Women’s Rights
Convention and serve as the convention’s president in 1858.
In 1872, after working for the rights of African
Americans and women to vote, she was arrested for voting in a national election.
She was fined $100 by a Supreme Court judge and
keeping to a promise she made the judge she did not ever pay one dollar towards
the fine.
After her death, Susan B. Anthony was given national
recognition for her work in the suffrage movement. (A&E Network)
Amelia Bloomer.
(May 27, 1818 – December 30, 1894). Amelia Bloomer was a
moderately educated woman that worked as a teacher and governess before she
became married in 1840.
At her husbands suggestion Bloomer started to write
for his newspaper in Seneca Falls.
In 1848 she attended the Seneca Falls Convention
and the following year she began to edit the first women’s newspaper publication
The Lily
for the members of the Seneca Falls temperance
movement. Bloomer was a well known and outspoken temperance and suffrage
activist that believed through her publications more women could be reached to
benefit the temperance cause.
From 1871 to 1873 she served as president for the
Iowa Woman Suffrage Association. Bloomer is also known for her modified form of
dress to include oversized bloomers that looked as if she was wearing pants.
After gaining attention for her altered fashions
she started publishing fashion tips in the publication that started the women’s
dress reform. Although Bloomer is a lesser known activist she contributed by
using her writing and publications to reach as many women as possible for the
temperance movement. (A&E Network)
Sojourner Truth.
(c. 1797 – November 26, 1883). Originally born Isabella
Baumfree, Sojourner Truth was an African American born into slavery that escaped
from her owners in 1826.
Truth bore 5 children as a slave but only escaped
with an infant daughter buta fter learning her son was sold illegally, she sued
her former owner and was one of the first African American to win a legal case
in America. She became an abolitionist and women’s rights activist after
adopting Christianity in 1843.
Truth believed the spirit had called her and she
began a long campaign preaching to others for the abolishment of slavery. In
1850, through dictation, her memoirs were printed in a book published as
The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave.
During the same year she spoke at the first
National Women’s Rights Convention in Massachusetts.
It was in 1851 at the Ohio Women’s Rights
Convention in Akron, Ohio where she spoke her famous “Ain’t I a
Woman?” speech that gained so much attention for her as a
women’s rights activist.
Truth went on to preach and deliver key speeches
around the nation where she advocated the emancipation of slaves and rights for
women including the 1853 Mob Convention and the 1867 American Equal Rights
Association Convention.
Truth was not just a speaker for the abolitionist
and women’s rights movements but also worked to establish the rights of former
slaves and African Americans.
She recruited African Americans for the Union army
during the Civil War and after the war worked to try to gain land grants for
former slaves from the government.
Truth is credited as being an influential part of
the antebellum movements and is not only recognized nationally but also by the
Episcopal Church calendar of saints.
(Painter).
Harriet Ross Tubman.
(1820-March 10, 1913). Born as a slave, Harriet Tubman was
an abolitionist who later became a suffragist working towards women’s rights.
Tubman escaped her owners in 1849 and is credited
for aiding the escape of over 300 slaves during the Civil War.
Because
of her status as an escaped slave Tubman did not attend large rallies or
organized movements against anti-slavery but rather made speeches against
slavery at smaller gatherings.
Tubman is better known for the more than nineteen
trips into the South to aid over 300 runaways back into the North and Canada.
She made use of the Underground Railroad to help
bring slaves to freedom and is attributed to never losing a human life during
her excursions.
Her beliefs were spiritual based but her actions
were motivated by her own ill treatment from her slave owners.
Tubman is credited with helping to recruit and
organize the men for the events that transpired at Harper’s Ferry which
escalated the tensions between North and South before the Civil War.
It was not until after the antebellum period and
Civil War that Tubman became involved in the suffrage movement.
It was her belief that all she had worked for
should result in a woman’s right to vote and a woman’s right for equality.
(Anderson).
Results of the Antebellum Movements.
The women of the antebellum movements
were all different but had similar qualities in their beliefs about the reform
efforts needed for the time era.
The women were mostly white, educated and from
prominent families but other influential women were African Americans that had
little education and were former slaves.
All the women seemed to share spiritual beliefs or
were in religious congregations that felt inequality and social reform should be
addressed through suffrage, temperance and abolition. Their dedication to the
movements before the Civil War helped to establish the ideas that continued for
social reform into the twentieth century. The women activists campaigned for
equal rights, the end of slavery and the elimination of alcohol successfully
enough to unite a great number of people to further the causes.
The antebellum women activists were not only
commemorated in America’s history but became key national figures because of the
changes they attempted to make during their lifetimes. (Ginzberg).
A&E Networks.
N.p..Bio.True Story Amelia Bloomer. Web. 22 Nov
2013. <http://www.biography.com/people/amelia-bloomer-9216245>.
A&E Networks, . N.p.. Susan B. Anthony. Web. 22 Nov 2013.
<http://www.biography.com/people/susan-b-anthony-194905>.
Anderson, E.. N.p.. Harriet Tubman. Web. 20 Nov 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman>.
Chew, R.. N.p..
Lucretia Mott. Web. 20 Nov 2013.
<http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jan/mott.html>.
Ginzberg, Lori .
Women in Antebellum Reform.
Harlon DavidsonInc., print.
Lewis, J. J.. N.p.. Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Web. 20 Nov 2013.
<http://womenshistory.about.com/od/stantonelizabeth/a/stanton.htm>.
Painter, Nell Irvin .
Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol.
W. W. Norton & Company, 1996. print.
Weatherford, D. .
American women's history.
Macmillan General Reference, print.
"Great Star" flag of pre-Civil War USA