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Signs in underground railroad
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In the book The Underground Railroad, we learn of a woman named Ethel Wells a Christian educator who shows some signs of being a lesbian. In Ethel’s time (the 1800’s) it was considered disgusting when you love someone who is not of the opposite sex. If one woman was found with another woman in sexual relations you were either stoned, put into an asylum, or punished by death (Wikipedia). Ethel shows her first sign of being a lesbian when she was little. Ethel would play with her friend Jasmine and they would play husband and wife kissing and quarreling as she saw her mother and father do. Once Ethel turned eight her father banned Ethel from playing with Jasmin saying, “so as not to pervert the natural state of relations between the races”(263).
The Civil War lasted for four years, three weeks, and six days. The Civil War caused a numerous amount of good and bad things. Along with the union coming out victorious, slavery was abolished, territorial integrity was gained, the reconstruction era began, and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Although, many people were involved in the process leading up to the civil war. Abolitionists played a huge role in the progression in civil rights. They fought for the freedom of slaves and the ceasing of slave trade from Africa. There were many activists involved in this movement, including Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. These two women abolitionists are two of the most dynamic woman and well known abolitionists. Although Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth have many similarities, they have certain aspects that allow them to differ from each other. Despite their slight differences, Tubman and Truth were seemingly the most efficient and effective in their duties as abolitionists.
Lynching and Women: Ida B. Wells Emancipated blacks, after the Civil War, continued to live in fear of lynching, a practice of vigilantism that was often based on false accusations. Lynching was not only a way for southern white men to exert racist “justice,” it was also a means of keeping women, white and black, under the control of a violent white male ideology. In response to the injustices of lynching, the anti-lynching movement was established—a campaign in which women played a key role. Ida B. Wells, a black teacher and journalist, was at the forefront and early development of this movement. In 1892, Wells was one of the first news reporters to bring the truths of lynching to proper media attention.
It is well known that slavery was a horrible event in the history of the United States. However, what isn't as well known is the actual severity of slavery. The experiences of slave women presented by Angela Davis and the theories of black women presented by Patricia Hill Collins are evident in the life of Harriet Jacobs and show the severity of slavery for black women.
Religion is one point McDowell brings forth in her essay, during the Jazz era she stated that singers such as Bessie Smith, Gertrude Rainey, and Victoria Spivey sung about sexual feelings in their songs. Women during this Jazz era were freer about their sexuality, but due to this freeness, an article called “Negro Womanhood’s Greatest Need” criticized the sexuality of Black women. In this article, the writers criticized Black women of the Jazz era; one part stated “…“speed and disgust” of the Jazz Age which created women “less discreet and less cautious than their sisters in the years gone by”. These “new” women, she continued, rebelling against the laws of God and man” (p.368). Women showing expressing their sexuality is not only an act against God, but also against men.
Dr. Sally Miller Gearhart, a Sweet Briar Alumna from the class of 1952, published a story about her own experience with romantic friendship in the collection of gay and lesbian short stories “The New Our Right to Love.” In her story, Dr. Gearhart describes falling in love with one of her fellow Sweet Briar sisters “Lakey.” The two women began an intimate relationship during their sophomore year at Sweet Briar College, even becoming roommates to conceal their romance. These women carried on an intimate and sexual relationship behind closed doors, yet around campus their interactions remained completely plutonic. The story of Dr. Gearhart and “Lakey” is one that is not unusual for romantic friendships that existed from 1920’s to the 1950’s.
Ida B. Wells was a woman dedicated to a cause, a cause to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from being murdered by lynching. Lynching is defined as to take the law into its own hands and kill someone in punishment for a crime or a presumed crime. Ida B. Wells’ back round made her a logical spokesperson against lynching. She drew on many experiences throughout her life to aid in her crusade. Her position as a black woman, however, affected her credibility both in and out of America in a few different ways.
With all that Ethel Waters has contributed to music and film, it is surprising that she is often forgotten. She was a talented blues singer whose unique style distinguished her from other blues singers and she was a jazz vocalist as well. Her talent extended beyond singing, when she became a dramatic actress who earned award nominations for her performances. What was most remarkable about Waters' performances was how she reconstructed the mammy character into one that challenged stereotypes.
Another point that someone might argue about the Underground Railroad is Harriet Tubman. She was one of the conductors of the Underground Railroad. She would an African American born slave, spent most of her life on the plantation, who risked her life multiple to times to get her fellow slaves to safety. She escaped from Maryland but see continued to put her freedom on the line for fellow slaves who wanted to use the Underground Railroad. Her original intent was to go back to Maryland to get her husband, but to her surprise, he had taken a new wife. She was angered by this but this anger was only used for the good of getting her whole family out of slavery and to their freedom. She continued to travel back south help people about ten years
Numerous are mindful of the considerable deed that Harriet Tubman executed to free slaves in the south. Then again, individuals are still left considerably unaware about in which the way they were safeguarded and how she triumphed each and every deterrent while placing her life at risk of being captured. She is deserving of the great honor she has garnered by todays general society and you will find out her in the biography. The title of this biography is “Harriet Tubman, the Road to Freedom.” The author of this piece is Catherine Clinton. ”Harriet Tubman, the road to Freedom” is a charming, instructive, and captivating book that history appreciates and is a memoir than readers will cherish. The Target audience of the biography is any readers
The Nazis believed that male homosexuals were weak, epicene men who could not fight for the German nation. Homosexuals couldn’t produce children; therefore, they were unable to increase the German birthrate. Since they could not produce they were a racial danger because they could not contribute to the Aryan race. The Nazis believed women were not only inferior to men but also dependent on them by nature. Since they believe that these women were dependent on men they considered lesbians to be less threatening than male homosexuals. The Nazis did not target lesbians because they believed lesbians could still carry out a German woman's primary role: to be a mother of as many "Aryan" babies as possible. The Nazis did not classify lesbians as homosexual prisoners, and only male homosexual prisoners had to wear the pink triangle.
In Katz essay, he strongly believes that heterosexuality is an invention. Katz provides an immense amount of examples and interesting information to back up his claim. His thesis that heterosexuality has not always existed and is a modern and metaphysical claim. Katz insists that the heterosexuality concept of perceiving, categorizing, and imagining has only sated back to the nineteenth century (Katz, p. 47). He points out that before heterosexuality, Americans idealized True Womanhood, True Manhood, and True Love and categorized them as being pure (Katz, p. 48). With that information, it’s safe to say that in the 1820s and 1860s it was definitely not acceptable to take a liking of the same sex. At this time, True love was idolized only between a man and a woman in hopes of marriage
The lives of men and women, women more than men, have changed a lot of the past couple years even decades and more than that. The interconnection of race and gender in the evolving social hierarchy of the early South, Colonial North Carolina, has changed. In Colonial North Carolina the main difference was on how the ways of “ordinary people” interacted with different genders and how race was different between the people of North Carolina. Peoples’ beliefs were the main thing that changed these views, but sometimes it reflected on political beliefs also. Between men and women sex was seen differently. Men and women’s views on sex were far from similar and this has affected their views on race and their views on each other. Views on sex has been
Robinson, Charles F. Dangerous Liaisons: Sex and Love in the Segregated South. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas, 2003. Print.
A few days before the Stonewall riots I was in the Stonewall Inn having some fun and having some laughs. The police here in New York were always raiding gay bars. Being gay or lesbian in the 1960s was hard. You could be put on a list by the FBI that says you are a sexual pervert or you could be arrested for just holding your partners hand.
The Underground Railroad, a term that have been used dating back as early as the1830s.