7. Women in the Abolition Movement
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Women of all races identified with the abolition movement, some as Christians, some as humanitarians, some from personal experience, and many were notorious household names for their quest to end slavery in the United States.
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Phyllis Wheatly, Library of Congress
It’s easy to compartmentalize the various human rights struggles of history. Most human rights issues are and always have been linked. The struggle for the emancipation of enslaved people was intertwined with the struggle for women’s rights, both in the people advocating for it and in the systemic and political issues they raised. As members of an oppressed class themselves, women brought empathy, compassion, intelligence, and plenty of organizational skills to the abolition movement.
Recognizing the connection between racial and gender oppression, iconic suffrage pioneer Susan B. Anthony famously urged her followers to “make the slave’s case our own.” But she is just one of many examples.
Advocacy for abolition goes way back. Phyllis Wheatly brought abolitionist ideas to American culture with her poetry. Wheatley was born in West Africa and taken to Boston as a child. In 1773 she was emancipated and became the first published African-American woman poet. Her poems included the reflection on slavery, “On Being brought From Africa,” which opened people’s eyes to the humanity of enslaved people. Her work was even praised by George Washington.
One of America’s earliest advocates for ending slavery was Abigail Adams, who once counseled her husband to “remember the ladies” when he and the Continental Congress were debating independence. In September of 1774, Abigail wrote to John: “I wish most sincerely there was not a Slave in the province. It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me--fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.” For Abigail Adams, the cause of liberty meant liberty for all.
Leading up to the Civil War, many women called for abolition in private letters and poems, but it was highly unusual for a woman, especially an African-American woman, to speak in public on the matter. On September 21, 1832, Maria W. Miller Stewart spoke before the African-American Female Intelligence Society in Boston’s Franklin Hall. Stewart’s jeremiad, a form of speaking derived from the sermons of New England ministers, accused white Americans of breaking their covenant with God by supporting slavery. Stewart believed that God would judge Americans for the sin of slavery. She traveled throughout New England sharing her message with Christian Americans.
Women who had experienced the horrors of slavery were incredibly powerful representatives of the abolition movement. Amy Hester (Hetty) Reckless was born into slavery in southern New Jersey. She escaped violence at the hands of her mistress and settled in Philadelphia in 1826, operating a safe house on the underground railroad and supporting education for black children. In 1833, Hetty became a founding member of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. Reckless also worked with the Female Vigilant Association starting in 1838, assisting enslaved people on their Underground Railroad journey, often at considerable personal risk.
Black women also wrote powerful pieces to teach people about the horrors of slavery. In 1861, Harriet Jacobs published her autobiography, "Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl." The book chronicles Jacobs’s life on a North Carolina plantation. She wrote about her abuse and her escape from her owner who sought to sexually abuse her. She got out by hiding in a crawlspace in her grandmother’s attic for seven years. When Jacobs finally escaped to New York, she worked as a nanny while supporting both the abolitionist and feminist causes. Her employer eventually purchased her freedom, and Jacobs helped found two schools for formerly enslaved people.
Recognizing the connection between racial and gender oppression, iconic suffrage pioneer Susan B. Anthony famously urged her followers to “make the slave’s case our own.” But she is just one of many examples.
Advocacy for abolition goes way back. Phyllis Wheatly brought abolitionist ideas to American culture with her poetry. Wheatley was born in West Africa and taken to Boston as a child. In 1773 she was emancipated and became the first published African-American woman poet. Her poems included the reflection on slavery, “On Being brought From Africa,” which opened people’s eyes to the humanity of enslaved people. Her work was even praised by George Washington.
One of America’s earliest advocates for ending slavery was Abigail Adams, who once counseled her husband to “remember the ladies” when he and the Continental Congress were debating independence. In September of 1774, Abigail wrote to John: “I wish most sincerely there was not a Slave in the province. It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me--fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.” For Abigail Adams, the cause of liberty meant liberty for all.
Leading up to the Civil War, many women called for abolition in private letters and poems, but it was highly unusual for a woman, especially an African-American woman, to speak in public on the matter. On September 21, 1832, Maria W. Miller Stewart spoke before the African-American Female Intelligence Society in Boston’s Franklin Hall. Stewart’s jeremiad, a form of speaking derived from the sermons of New England ministers, accused white Americans of breaking their covenant with God by supporting slavery. Stewart believed that God would judge Americans for the sin of slavery. She traveled throughout New England sharing her message with Christian Americans.
Women who had experienced the horrors of slavery were incredibly powerful representatives of the abolition movement. Amy Hester (Hetty) Reckless was born into slavery in southern New Jersey. She escaped violence at the hands of her mistress and settled in Philadelphia in 1826, operating a safe house on the underground railroad and supporting education for black children. In 1833, Hetty became a founding member of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. Reckless also worked with the Female Vigilant Association starting in 1838, assisting enslaved people on their Underground Railroad journey, often at considerable personal risk.
Black women also wrote powerful pieces to teach people about the horrors of slavery. In 1861, Harriet Jacobs published her autobiography, "Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl." The book chronicles Jacobs’s life on a North Carolina plantation. She wrote about her abuse and her escape from her owner who sought to sexually abuse her. She got out by hiding in a crawlspace in her grandmother’s attic for seven years. When Jacobs finally escaped to New York, she worked as a nanny while supporting both the abolitionist and feminist causes. Her employer eventually purchased her freedom, and Jacobs helped found two schools for formerly enslaved people.
Harriet Jacobs, Library of Congress
Harriet Tubman, Public Domain
Harriet Tubman has a historical resume that is quite impressive. After her escape from bondage, Tubman made thirteen trips back to the south to free more than seventy enslaved people. In addition, Tubman gave many powerful speeches on behalf of abolition and women’s rights. Even though she could neither read nor write.
Sojourner Truth, who escaped from slavery in 1826, also rose to prominence speaking about intersectional equal rights. Her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” reminded folks that Black women were women too, and yet were not treated as such. It profoundly integrated the issues of racial and gender equality, and reminds us that women’s history isn’t experienced the same way for all women.
In spite of their own struggles to gain equal legal and social rights in America society, American women were in the forefront of the struggle to end slavery. They wrote pamphlets, gave speeches on behalf of enslaved people, and they dedicated their lives and their talents to the task of improving the lives of freed people.
More and more white women began to connect the struggle for emancipation from slavery to the journey for equal legal and social rights for women. Margaret Fuller, a philosopher and Transcendentalist colleague of Thoreau and Emerson, noted that restrictions on the economic and political freedom of women were comparable to the restrictions imposed on enslaved people. To be clear, legally not being allowed to own property is not on the same level as being property--but Fuller’s point allowed others to consider a more equality-oriented perspective.
Lucretia Mott was active in William Lloyd Garrison’s American Anti-Slavery Society and helped to found the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. She was a Quaker preached, accustomed to speaking her mind in religious spaces, and found it impossible to reconcile that she could not outside her congregation. Her sister, Martha Coffin Wright was a friend and supporter of Harriet Tubman. Both were organizers of the first women’s rights in 1848 at Seneca Falls, NY.
Lydia Maria Child insisted abolition should be included in a broader social reform context. Born into a religious family, Child trained to be a teacher and founded a school in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1826. She published the Juvenile Miscellany, a magazine for children, but she lost her southern subscribers when she published her anti-slavery views. However that didn't stop her. In 1833 Child argued for immediate emancipation of enslaved people in An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.
Sojourner Truth, who escaped from slavery in 1826, also rose to prominence speaking about intersectional equal rights. Her speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?” reminded folks that Black women were women too, and yet were not treated as such. It profoundly integrated the issues of racial and gender equality, and reminds us that women’s history isn’t experienced the same way for all women.
In spite of their own struggles to gain equal legal and social rights in America society, American women were in the forefront of the struggle to end slavery. They wrote pamphlets, gave speeches on behalf of enslaved people, and they dedicated their lives and their talents to the task of improving the lives of freed people.
More and more white women began to connect the struggle for emancipation from slavery to the journey for equal legal and social rights for women. Margaret Fuller, a philosopher and Transcendentalist colleague of Thoreau and Emerson, noted that restrictions on the economic and political freedom of women were comparable to the restrictions imposed on enslaved people. To be clear, legally not being allowed to own property is not on the same level as being property--but Fuller’s point allowed others to consider a more equality-oriented perspective.
Lucretia Mott was active in William Lloyd Garrison’s American Anti-Slavery Society and helped to found the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1833. She was a Quaker preached, accustomed to speaking her mind in religious spaces, and found it impossible to reconcile that she could not outside her congregation. Her sister, Martha Coffin Wright was a friend and supporter of Harriet Tubman. Both were organizers of the first women’s rights in 1848 at Seneca Falls, NY.
Lydia Maria Child insisted abolition should be included in a broader social reform context. Born into a religious family, Child trained to be a teacher and founded a school in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1826. She published the Juvenile Miscellany, a magazine for children, but she lost her southern subscribers when she published her anti-slavery views. However that didn't stop her. In 1833 Child argued for immediate emancipation of enslaved people in An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans.
Sojourner Truth, Library of Congress
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Margarett Fuller, Library of Congress
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Lydia Maria Child, Library of Congress
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Sarah Grimke, Library of Congress
While most people relate abolition to the northern states, there were certainly Southern women who worked to end slavery too. Sarah and Angelina Grimke were born to unimaginable wealth and raised on a South Carolina plantation that included hundreds of enslaved people. They were so wealthy each family member had a personal slave. Using Christian arguments of charity and compassion, both sisters came to abhor slavery. In the 1820s, Angelina wrote to William Llyod Garrison and he published her letter in his liberal journal The Liberator. She was widely criticized and her writings were burned in Charleston. Faced with the ridicule, the Grimke sisters doubled down and became among the most vocal and famous critics of slavery. As feminists, they broke the taboo regarding women’s presence on the lecture circuit, which contributed to their profound and positive influence on both movement, but they faced considerable backlash. Their male abolitionist peers tried to withdraw them from the speaking circuit. When Angelina married Theodore Dwight Weld a pro-slavery mob burned down Pensylvania Hall where they were married. When they traveled through New England speaking to “mixed audiences” a mob of protesters surrounded them, because who were they to speak to men? Two sisters, two movements, too bad for racists and sexists.
The Grimke sisters were originally inspired to oppose slavery in part because their brother had consentual children with an enslaved woman. One of these children was Francis James Grimke, who later served as a minister in Washington, D. C.. He married Charlotte Louise Bridges Forten, who came from a prominent free Black abolitionist family in Philadelphia. Forten’s family had a long history of helping enslaved people escape bondage. She trained as a teacher, becoming the first Black graduate of the Salem Normal School in 1856. She was one of the first African-American teachers in Salem and was a member of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society, a precursor of the black women’s club movement that flourished in the early twentieth century.
Another South Carolina native, Mary Boykin Chesnut, was the matriarch of a family that owned nearly 1,000 slaves. However, in February of 1861, as Confederate war sentiment was increasing in intensity, Mary Chesnut began to compose a diary that revealed the inner life of the plantation. While not specifically an abolitionist document, Chesnut’s diary, which was published long after her death, provided important material for historians hoping to understand the life of the plantation.
Some women contributed to the abolitionist cause by articulating a religious and moral position against slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe was a member of a famous family of ministers. In 1832, Harriet moved with her father to Cincinnati, Ohio, a river town that was a northern destination for many escaping enslaved people. She’d listen to debates about slavery at the her dad’s Seminary group and after hearing about, you know, the absolutely legal terror happening to human beings, she used her talent to take a stand against the oppression. In 1852, while sitting upstairs in the attic and having her sister watch her many children, Stowe wrote and published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which detailed the horrific conditions and dangers of plantation life. The book and play based on the story were both wildly popular. Legend has it that President Abraham Lincoln told Stowe in 1862, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Kind of a backhanded compliment, Abe, but it can’t be denied Stowe’s work really affected her readers’ opinions of the political issue. Her home was a stop along the underground railroad.
By the late 1850’s the divisions between the north and south were raw. Talk of secession was eminent. John Brown, a radical abolitionist from New York had not only murdered some pro-slavery folks, but led a raid on Harper’s Ferry Virginia. Harriet Tubman was supposed to be with him, but she was on another mission… seems someone knew she was destined for more. The South felt attacked and when Lincoln was elected it was the last straw.
The Grimke sisters were originally inspired to oppose slavery in part because their brother had consentual children with an enslaved woman. One of these children was Francis James Grimke, who later served as a minister in Washington, D. C.. He married Charlotte Louise Bridges Forten, who came from a prominent free Black abolitionist family in Philadelphia. Forten’s family had a long history of helping enslaved people escape bondage. She trained as a teacher, becoming the first Black graduate of the Salem Normal School in 1856. She was one of the first African-American teachers in Salem and was a member of the Salem Female Anti-Slavery Society, a precursor of the black women’s club movement that flourished in the early twentieth century.
Another South Carolina native, Mary Boykin Chesnut, was the matriarch of a family that owned nearly 1,000 slaves. However, in February of 1861, as Confederate war sentiment was increasing in intensity, Mary Chesnut began to compose a diary that revealed the inner life of the plantation. While not specifically an abolitionist document, Chesnut’s diary, which was published long after her death, provided important material for historians hoping to understand the life of the plantation.
Some women contributed to the abolitionist cause by articulating a religious and moral position against slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe was a member of a famous family of ministers. In 1832, Harriet moved with her father to Cincinnati, Ohio, a river town that was a northern destination for many escaping enslaved people. She’d listen to debates about slavery at the her dad’s Seminary group and after hearing about, you know, the absolutely legal terror happening to human beings, she used her talent to take a stand against the oppression. In 1852, while sitting upstairs in the attic and having her sister watch her many children, Stowe wrote and published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which detailed the horrific conditions and dangers of plantation life. The book and play based on the story were both wildly popular. Legend has it that President Abraham Lincoln told Stowe in 1862, “So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” Kind of a backhanded compliment, Abe, but it can’t be denied Stowe’s work really affected her readers’ opinions of the political issue. Her home was a stop along the underground railroad.
By the late 1850’s the divisions between the north and south were raw. Talk of secession was eminent. John Brown, a radical abolitionist from New York had not only murdered some pro-slavery folks, but led a raid on Harper’s Ferry Virginia. Harriet Tubman was supposed to be with him, but she was on another mission… seems someone knew she was destined for more. The South felt attacked and when Lincoln was elected it was the last straw.
Julia Ward Howe, Library of Congress
One of the earliest battles in the Civil War occurred at Port Royal on the Atlantic coast between Charleston and Savannah, Georgia. The Union victory effectively freed the 10,000 enslaved people of the region...but being free and having means for a future are two different things. So! The “Port Royal Experiment” was born! Abolitionists did what they do best. They served. They established schools, medical facilities, and paved the way for land ownership for these recently freed African-Americans. The Penn School, which is still around today, was run by abolitionists Charlotte Forten, Ellen Murray, and Laura Towne. The school provided literacy and history instruction as well as practical skills like basketmaking, shoemaking, and carpentry to African-American children.
We’ve talked about a lot of influential written work by women, but a song can also capture a historical moment. When Julia Ward Howe met President Lincoln in 1861, she penned new words to the familiar tune, “John Brown’s Body,” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was created. The song was a popular and invigorating anthem among Union soldiers not only toward victory, but the moral imperative to end slavery. She said:
“Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on. As He died to make men holy,
let us die to make men free; While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.”
We’ve talked about a lot of influential written work by women, but a song can also capture a historical moment. When Julia Ward Howe met President Lincoln in 1861, she penned new words to the familiar tune, “John Brown’s Body,” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was created. The song was a popular and invigorating anthem among Union soldiers not only toward victory, but the moral imperative to end slavery. She said:
“Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on. As He died to make men holy,
let us die to make men free; While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.”
Harriet E. Wilson, Public Domain
Efforts to improve the lives of free African people in the south continued after the War, and surprise, surprise, women were key in establishing schools. In 1868, Martha Schofield, a Quaker from Pennsylvania, brought her life savings of $468 to Aiken, South Carolina to establish a school for newly freed African-American folks. Students could learn basic academics and life skills--like cooking and sewing. The Schofield Normal and Industrial school is now a public middle school, and, oh, you bet the students there learn about Martha Schofield to this day.
Social norms in the 19th Century demanded middle-class and wealthy women devote their energies to home and family, but jokes on society because those expectations were so frustrating to many women, not only did they want to upset gender norms, but fight for racial equality too. Thus, American women found their voice and their place in both the struggle for women’s rights and the abolition movement. As we’ve learned, some women wrote books, others wrote songs. Some started schools, others risked their lives on the Underground Railroad. Some had power and wielded it to help others, and some women were born enslaved but became powerful through their actions. Regardless of how these and many more women attempted to create a more equal country, their attempts were not in vain. We can celebrate them and follow in their herstorical footsteps now--all these years later.
By the end of this era, so much remained in question. Would the federal government get involved? Would this come to war? Would women’s advocacy be well received? How would women’s politicization impact their role in society? Was suffrage an obvious next step?
Social norms in the 19th Century demanded middle-class and wealthy women devote their energies to home and family, but jokes on society because those expectations were so frustrating to many women, not only did they want to upset gender norms, but fight for racial equality too. Thus, American women found their voice and their place in both the struggle for women’s rights and the abolition movement. As we’ve learned, some women wrote books, others wrote songs. Some started schools, others risked their lives on the Underground Railroad. Some had power and wielded it to help others, and some women were born enslaved but became powerful through their actions. Regardless of how these and many more women attempted to create a more equal country, their attempts were not in vain. We can celebrate them and follow in their herstorical footsteps now--all these years later.
By the end of this era, so much remained in question. Would the federal government get involved? Would this come to war? Would women’s advocacy be well received? How would women’s politicization impact their role in society? Was suffrage an obvious next step?
Draw your Own Conclusions
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Was the abolition movement sexist and classist?
As far as progressive movements go, abolition was incredible, but it had a dark side. Women were denied seats at meetings, pulled off the speaking circuit, and otherwise discriminated against. Do the ends justify the means? 
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How were the experiences of enslaved women similar yet sometimes different than those of men?
In this inquiry students explore laws, court transcripts, and autobiographical accounts about enslaved men and women, to highlight the differences in their experiences.
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In what ways were free Black women in the antebellum south part of the economy?
Let's break the stereotype that Black women only worked as domestics and in forced labor-- it's just not accurate. What DID Black women do?
Was slavery different from indentured servitude?
No everyone in the colonies were free and those that were bound to labor had varying degrees of freedoms. In this inquiry, students will compare the experiences of Harriet Jacobs a formerly enslaved woman and Harriet Wilson an indentured servant.
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Was Seneca Falls the start of the women's rights movement?
In this inquiry students explore the "myth of Seneca Falls," coined by Lisa Tetrault. Was this really the beginning? Should the organizers, who did not include any women of color be heroified? Let's dig in.
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Ah Toy, Public Domain
Fanny Wright, Wikimedia Commons
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How did Gold Rush women continue the Cult of Domesticity and how did they stretch or change it?
In this inquiry, students explore the primary and secondary sources related to women's roles in the Gold Rush.
Should 19th century women speak publicly about abolition?
In this inquiry, students explore the prolific writing about the Cult of True Womanhood by 19th century authors. Their vision for women was one of submission, modesty, humility, and domesticity... but was the literature reflective of real women? Of the women writers, were they models of this vision?
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Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- The National Women's History Museum has lesson plans on women's history.
- The Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History has lesson plans on women's history.
- The NY Historical Society has articles and classroom activities for teaching women's history.
- Unladylike 2020, in partnership with PBS, has primary sources to explore with students and outstanding videos on women from the Progressive era.
- The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has produced recommendations for teaching women's history with primary sources and provided a collection of sources for world history. Check them out!
- The Stanford History Education Group has a number of lesson plans about women in US History.
Period Specific Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- Women and Slavery:
- C3 Teachers: In November of 1815, an enslaved woman known only as Anna jumped out of a third floor window in Washington DC in what was assumed to be a suicide attempt. Presumed dead, abolitionists used her story to expose the harsh realities of slavery and advocate for better treatment of slaves. In 2015, the Oh Say Can You See research project uncovered an 1828 petition for freedom from an Ann Williams for herself and three children. This woman was the same “Anna” who had leapt from the window, still alive but severely injured from her fall, a contrast to the widely held belief that she had died in the fall. In 1832, a jury ruled in her favor, granting Ann and her three children freedom from master George Williams. Ann and her children went on to live free in Washington, subsisting on the weekly $1.50 that Ann’s still enslaved husband was able to provide for his family. This inquiry and the compelling question seeks to address the autonomy that enslaved African Americans had, and the question of what freedom meant to Anna.
- Stanford History Education Group: In 1937, the Federal Writers' Project began collecting what would become the largest archive of interviews with former slaves. Few firsthand accounts exist from those who suffered in slavery, making this an exceptional resource for students of history. However, as with all historical documents, there are important considerations for students to bear in mind when reading these sources. In this lesson, students examine three of these accounts to answer the question: What can we learn about slavery from interviews with former slaves?
- Gilder Lehrman: Women always played a significant role in the struggle against slavery and discrimination. White and black Quaker women and female slaves took a strong moral stand against slavery. As abolitionists, they circulated petitions, wrote letters and poems, and published articles in the leading anti-slavery periodicals such as the Liberator. Some of these women educated blacks, both free and enslaved, and some of them joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and founded their own biracial organization, the Philadelphia Women’s Anti-Slavery Society. The little-known history of most of these women is a fragmented one. While several of the most well-known activists are mentioned in accounts of the abolitionist movement, there is scant reference to most other female abolitionists. Some brief biographies make reference to the births and deaths of the lesser-known women but offer only limited mention of their work. Through research and analysis in the classroom, students will learn about the diversity of women who participated in anti-slavery activities, the variety of activities and goals they pursued, and the barriers they faced as women.
- National History Day: Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Lyman and Roxanna Beecher. Harriet grew up in a household that held equality and service to others in the highest regard. Her father and all seven of her brothers became ministers, while her sisters, Catherine and Isabella, were champions of women’s education and suffrage. Harriet received a formal education at Sarah Pierce’s Academy, one of the first institutions focused on educating young women. There she discovered her talent for writing. Harriet became a teacher and author, proving to be an outspoken woman in a time when female voices often went unheard. Following in her family’s tradition of service, she became a passionate abolitionist. She published more than thirty works in her lifetime, the most famous of which was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel that exposed the evils of slavery. Through her writings and speaking engagements, Harriet Beecher Stowe effectively helped to open the eyes of the world to the urgent problem of slavery in the United States. Did Stowe misrepresent slavery?
- Gilder Lehrman: The accounts of African American slavery in textbooks routinely conflate the story of male and female slaves into one history. Textbooks rarely enable students to grapple with the lives and challenges of women constrained by the institution of slavery. The collections of letters and autobiographies of slave women in the nineteenth century now available on the Internet open a window onto the lives of these women and allow teachers and students to explore this history. Using the classroom as a historical laboratory, students can use these primary sources to research, read, evaluate, and interpret the words of African American slave women. The students can be historians; they can discover the history of African American slave women and write their history.
- Gilder Lehrman: Children’s Attitudes about Slavery and Women’s Abolitionism as Seen through Anti-slavery Fairs: Over two days, students will examine the attitudes that children from northern states had about slavery during the 1830s to 1860s and how abolitionists tried to change their way of thinking. They will also explore how woman abolitionists used anti-slavery fairs to generate support for the anti-slavery cause.
- Edcitement: Elizabeth Keckly was born into slavery in 1818 near Petersburg, Virginia. She learned to sew from her mother, an expert seamstress enslaved in the Burwell family. After thirty years as a Burwell slave, Keckly purchased her and her only son's freedom. Later, when Keckly moved to Washington, D. C., she became an exclusive dress designer whose most famous client was First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckly’s enduring fame results from her close relationship with Mrs. Lincoln, documented in her memoir, Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House (1868). In this lesson, students learn firsthand about the childhoods of Jacobs and Keckly from reading excerpts from their autobiographies. They practice reading for both factual information and making inferences from these two primary sources. They will also learn from a secondary source about commonalities among those who experienced their childhood in slavery. By putting all this information together and evaluating it, students get the chance to "be" historians and experience what goes into making sound judgments about a certain problem—in this case, how did child slaves live?
- PBS and DPLA: This collection uses primary sources to explore women in the antebellum reform movement. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
- PBS and DPLA: This collection uses primary sources to explore Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
- PBS and DPLA: This collection uses primary sources to explore Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
- Seneca Falls:
- Stanford History Education Group: When the 19th Amendment was passed in 1920, the fight for women’s suffrage had already gone on for decades. Many women had hoped that women would win suffrage at the same time as African Americans. However, the Fifteenth Amendment only extended suffrage to African-American men. In this lesson, students explore the broad context of the women’s suffrage movement through reading selections from Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
- Gilder Lehrman: Under the leadership of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a convention for the rights of women was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848. It was attended by between 200 and 300 people, both women and men. Its primary goal was to discuss the rights of women—how to gain these rights for all, particularly in the political arena. The conclusion of this convention was that the effort to secure equal rights across the board would start by focusing on suffrage for women. The participants wrote the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, patterned after the Declaration of Independence. It specifically asked for voting rights and for reforms in laws governing marital status. Reactions to the convention and the new Declaration were mixed. Many people felt that the women and their sympathizers were ridiculous, and newspapers denounced the women as unfeminine and immoral. Little substantive change resulted from the Declaration in 1848, but from that time through 1920, when the goal of women’s suffrage was attained with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, the Declaration served as a written reminder of the goals of the movement.
- Edcitement: In the spirit of Abigail Adams's challenge to her husband (and his colleagues), this lesson looks at the women's suffrage movement that grew out of debates following the Declaration of Independence and the conclusion of the Continental Congress by "remembering the ladies" who are too often overlooked when teaching about the "foremothers" of the movements for suffrage and women's equality in U.S. history. Grounded in the critical inquiry question "Who's missing?" and in the interest of bringing more perspectives to who the suffrage movement included, this resource will help to ensure that students learn about some of the lesser-known activists who, like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Susan B. Anthony, participated in the formative years of the women's rights movement.
Bibliography
Aptheker, Herbert. Abolitionism: A Revolutionary Movement. Boston: Twayne, 1989.
Basker, James G., gen. ed. Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2005.
Chadwick, John White, ed. A Life for Liberty: Anti-Slavery and Other Letters of Sallie Holley. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1899.
Collins, Gail, America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York, William Morrow, 2003.
Cumbler, John T. From Abolition to Rights for All: The Making of a Reform Community in the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, 1845.
Duberman, Martin, ed. The Antislavery Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.
DuBois, Ellen Carol, 1947-. Through Women's Eyes : an American History with Documents. Boston :Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.Indians Editors. “NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN.” Indians. N.D. http://indians.org/articles/Native-american-women.html.
Foner, Eric. Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010.
Gellman, David N. Emancipating New York: The Politics of Slavery and Freedom, 1777-1827. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006.
Hochschild, Adam. Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.
Jeffrey, Julie Roy. Abolitionists Remember: Antislavery Autobiographies and the Unfinished Work of Emancipation. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008.
Quarles, Benjamin. Black Abolitionists. New York: Da Capo Press, 1991. (revised edition)
Painter, Nell. Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Soderlund, Jean R. Quakers & Slavery: A Divided Spirit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Ware, Susan. American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War Against Slavery. Cleveland, OH: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1969. Reprint, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.
Basker, James G., gen. ed. Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820. New York: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, 2005.
Chadwick, John White, ed. A Life for Liberty: Anti-Slavery and Other Letters of Sallie Holley. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1899.
Collins, Gail, America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York, William Morrow, 2003.
Cumbler, John T. From Abolition to Rights for All: The Making of a Reform Community in the Nineteenth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, 1845.
Duberman, Martin, ed. The Antislavery Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.
DuBois, Ellen Carol, 1947-. Through Women's Eyes : an American History with Documents. Boston :Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.Indians Editors. “NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN.” Indians. N.D. http://indians.org/articles/Native-american-women.html.
Foner, Eric. Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery. New York: W. W. Norton, 2010.
Gellman, David N. Emancipating New York: The Politics of Slavery and Freedom, 1777-1827. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006.
Hochschild, Adam. Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.
Jeffrey, Julie Roy. Abolitionists Remember: Antislavery Autobiographies and the Unfinished Work of Emancipation. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2008.
Quarles, Benjamin. Black Abolitionists. New York: Da Capo Press, 1991. (revised edition)
Painter, Nell. Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Soderlund, Jean R. Quakers & Slavery: A Divided Spirit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Ware, Susan. American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. Lewis Tappan and the Evangelical War Against Slavery. Cleveland, OH: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1969. Reprint, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.
PRIMARY AUTHOR: |
Dr. Barbara Tischler
|
Primary Reviewers: |
Kelsie Brook Eckert and Dr. Alicia Guitierrez-Romine
|
Consulting Team |
Editors |
|
Kelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University Dr. Barbara Tischler, Consultant Professor of History Hunter College and Columbia University Dr. Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, Consultant Assistant Professor of History at La Sierra University Jacqui Nelson, Consultant Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University Dr. Deanna Beachley Professor of History and Women's Studies at College of Southern Nevada |
Alice Stanley
Reviewers18th Century
Dr. Margaret Huettl Hannah Dutton Dr. John Krueckeberg 19th Century Dr. Rebecca Noel Michelle Stonis, MA Annabelle L. Blevins Pifer, MA Cony Marquez, PhD Candidate 20th Century Dr. Tanya Roth Dr. Jessica Frazier Mary Bezbatchenko, MA |
Remedial Herstory Editors. "7. WOMEN IN THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT." The Remedial Herstory Project. November 1, 2022. www.remedialherstory.com.
