Women's Rights Emerges Within the Anti-Slavery Movement, 1830-1870 A Short History with Documents

by Sklar, Kathryn Kish

• ISBN13: 9781319113124
• ISBN10: 1319113125
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-01-07
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Combining documents with an interpretive essay, this book is the first to offer a much-needed guide to the emergence of the womens rights movement within the anti-slavery activism of the 1830s. The introductory essay places a new focus on the relationship among campaigns against racial prejudice and the emergence of the women’s rights movement, tracing the cause of women’s rights from Angelina and Sarah Grimkés campaign against slavery and the emergence of race as a divisive issue that finally split that movement in 1869. A rich collection of nearly 60 documents—10 of them new--includes a range of voices, from free black women activists such as Francis Watkins Harper and Sarah Mapps Douglass, to Quaker abolitionists and their opponents. Document headnotes, maps and illustrations, a chronology, questions for consideration, a selected bibliography, and an index have been updated and enrich students understanding of this period.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

PART ONE. Introduction: "Our Rights as Moral Beings"

The Second Great Awakening Empowers Women to Speak Out Against Slavery

Angela Grimké’s’s Growing Alienation from Conservative Quakers

Seeking a Voice: Antislavery Women Join Garrison’s Movement, 1831-18

Women Claim the Right to Act: Angelina Grimké Leads the Way

Redefining the Rights of Women: Angelina and Sarah Grimké Speak in Massachusetts,

Summer 1837

The Antislavery Movement Splits Over the Question of Women’s Rights, 1837–1840

An Independent Women’s Rights Movement is Born, 1840–1858

Frances Ellen Watkins Speaks for the American Anti-Slavery Society, 1854-1860

Women’s Rights Movement Forges National Organizations that Reflect the Ongoing Struggles with Race in American Society, 1865-1870 ?

PART TWO. The Documents

Women Emerge in Public Life as Writers and Speakers Against Slavery and Racial Prejudice, 1831-1833

1. Female Literary Association of Philadelphia, Preamble to Constitution, 1831

2. Maria Stewart, Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality, 1832

3. Mrs. Maria W. Stewart, Address before the Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of Boston, 1832

4. Sarah Mapps Douglass, "Ladies’ Department, Mental Feast," The Liberator, July 21, 1832

5. Maria Stewart, Lecture Delivered at the Franklin Hall, Boston, September 21, 1832

6. Maria Stewart, Farewell Address to Her Friends in the City of Boston, 1833

7. Declaration of Sentiments at the Founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Philadelphia, December 6, 1833

8. Preamble, Constitution of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, 1837

9. Lucretia Mott, Life and Letters, 1833

Women Claim and Debate the Right to Speak and Act against Slavery and Race Prejudice, July 18364–May 1837

10. American Anti-Slavery Society, Petition Form for Women, 1834

11. Angelina Grimké, Appeal to the Christian Women of the South, 1836

12. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Jane Smith, New York, December 17, 1836

13. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Jane Smith, New York, January 20, 1837

14. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Jane Smith, New York, February 4, 1837

15. Sarah and Angelina Grimké, Letter to Sarah Douglass, Newark, N.J., February 22, 1837

16. Angelina E. Grimké, Letter to Jane Smith, New York, N.Y., March 22, 1837

17. Angelina and Sarah Grimké, Letter to Sarah Douglass, New York City, April 3, 1837

The Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, 1837

18. Sarah Forten, Letter to Angelina Grimké, Philadelphia, April 15, 1837

19. Angelina Grimké, An Appeal to the Women of the Nominally Free States, 1837

20. The Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, Proceedings, New York City, May 9–12, 1837

21. Catharine E. Beecher, Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism, with Reference to the Duty of American Females, 1837

The Grimké Sisters Redefine the Rights of Women as Antis-Slavery Speakers, Massachusetts, Summer 1837

22. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Jane Smith, Boston, May 29, 1837

23. Maria Chapman, "To Female Anti-Slavery Societies throughout New England," Boston, June 7, 1837

24. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Jane Smith, Danvers, Mass., June 1837

25. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Jane Smith, New Rowley, Mass., July 25, 1837

26. Pastoral Letter: The General Association of Massachusetts to Churches under Their Care, July 1837

27. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Jane Smith, Groton, Mass., August 10, 1837

28. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Theodore Weld, Groton, Mass., August 12, 1837

29. Theodore Weld, Letter to Sarah and Angelina Grimké, August 15, 1837

30. John Greenleaf Whittier, Letter to Angelina and Sarah Grimké, New York City, August 14, 1837

31. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Theodore Dwight Weld and John Greenleaf Whittier, Brookline, Mass., August 20, 1837

32. Angelina Grimké, "Human Rights Not Founded on Sex": Letter to Catharine Beecher, August 2, 1837

33. Sarah Grimké, "Legal Disabilities of Women": Letter to Mary Parker, September 6, 1837

34. Resolutions Adopted by the Providence, Rhode Island, Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, October 21, 1837

35. "Just Treatment of Licentious Men,": Letter to the Friend of Virtue, ?January 1838

36. Angelina Grimké Weld, Speech at Pennsylvania Hall, Philadelphia, May 16, 1838

37. The Burning of Pennsylvania Hall, May 17, 1838

The Antislavery Movement Splits Over the Women’s Rights Question, 1837–1840

38. Angelina Grimké, Letter to Anne Warren Weston, Fort Lee, N.J., July 15, 1838

39. Lydia Maria Child, Letter to Angelina Grimké, Boston, September 2, 1839

40. The Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, Annual Meeting, October 1839

41. Henry Clarke Wright, Letter to The Liberator, New York, May 15, 1840

An Independent Women’s Rights Movement Is Born, 1840–18580

42. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Letter to Sarah Grimké and Angelina Grimké Weld, London, June 25, 1840

43. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Planning the Seneca Falls Convention, 188148

44. Report of the Woman’s Rights Convention held at, Seneca Falls, N.Y., July 19–20, 1848

45. Proceedings of the Colored Convention, Cleveland, September 6, 1848

46. "Woman’s Rights," The Lily, October 1, 1849

47. Abby H. Price, Address to the "Woman’s Rights Convention," Worcester, Mass., October 1850

The Problematics of Race within the New Movement, 1850

48. Parker Pillsbury, Letter to Jane Swisshelm, November 18, 1850

49. Jane Swisshelm, "Woman’s Rights and the Color Question," November 23, 1850

50. Sojourner Truth, Speech at Akron Women’s Rights Convention, Ohio, June 1851

Free Black Women become Public Speakers against Slavery and Racial Prejudice, 1850-1860

51. Lucy Stanton, "A Plea for the Oppressed," Oberlin Evangelist, December 17, 1850

52. Frances Ellen Watkins, Letters to William Still, 1854-1856

53. Frances Ellen Watkins, "Bury Me in a Free Land," Anti-slavery Bugle, 1858

54. T. R. Davis, "Lectures by Miss Watkins," The Liberator, Margaretta, Ohio, February 924, 1860

The New Movement Debates Questions of Race and Sex, 1866-1869

55. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Speech at the Eleventh Woman’s Rights Convention: "We Are All Bound Up Together," ?New York, May 1866

56. Equal Rights Association, Proceedings, New York City, May 1869

57. Founding of the National Woman Suffrage Association, New York, 1869

APPENDIXES

A Chronology of the Antislavery and Women’s Rights Movements (1830-1870)

Questions for Consideration

Selected Bibliography

Index