African Americans and women, in the antebellum period of the United States, shared many similarities. All of the similarities are based on how they had little or no rights in their homes, their communities, and their country. Both groups were not given the right to vote and they were considered property, giving them a more demeaning position in society. Abolitionists and feminists both made movements to try to improve their positions in society.
As white males continually gained suffrage in the United States’ “democratic” system, both African Americans and women were still denied the right to vote. The white males who could vote, were intensely against the two groups being able to have a say in the political processes. In the 1830s, many white males were now able to vote, either with or without property, while African Americans constantly lost this right as many states adopted laws that prevented the free black people from voting. Some states even went so far as to reinstate property laws that hadn’t been used in years. Women were seen as “inferior to the white race”, just as being African American was, so they, therefore, had an “incapacity to exercise political power”. This was seen as a natural position of women, just as they were supposed to be the home-makers, “cloistered in the private realm of the family”. In antithesis to this, women soon began to participate in reform movements, making themselves in the middle of the public eye. However, the ability to vote was soon seen as the right of the person who was the dominate figure, or head of the household, automatically striking out women from that position since they could only be a wife, daughter, or sister to that figure.
Both women and African Americans were treated a...
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... together to try to stop them.
Works Cited
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Eric Foner, The Story of American Freedom, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., 1998), 83.
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Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, and Waldo E. Martin Jr. Freedom On My Mind, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013), 267.
Deborah Gray White, Mia Bay, and Waldo E. Martin Jr. Freedom On My Mind, (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013), 267.
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...hile African Americans went through journeys to escape the restrictions of their masters, women went through similar journeys to escape the restrictions of the men around them. Immigrants further strived to fit in with the American lifestyle and receive recognition as an American. All three groups seemed to shape up an American lifestyle. Today, all three of these perceptions of freedom have made an appearance in our lives. As we can see, the transition of freedom from race equality to gender equality shows that freedom has been on a constant change. Everyone acquires their own definition of freedom but the reality of it is still unknown; people can merely have different perceptions of freedom. Nevertheless, in today’s society, African Americans live freely, women are independent, and immigrants are accepted in society. What more freedom can one possibly ask for?
In Eric Foner’s book, The Story of American Freedom, he writes a historical monograph about how liberty came to be. In the book, his argument does not focus on one fixed definition of freedom like others are tempted to do. Unlike others, Foner describes liberty as an ever changing entity; its definition is fluid and does not change in a linear progress. While others portray liberty as a pre-determined concept and gradually getting better, Foner argues the very history of liberty is constantly reshaping the definition of liberty, itself. Essentially, the multiple and conflicting views on liberty has always been a “terrain of conflict” and has changed in time (Foner xv).
Lowi, Theodore, Benjamin Ginsburg. American Government: Freedom and Power. W.W. Norton & Company, New York: 1998.
Morgan, Edmund S.. American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. : George J. McLeod, 1975.
Ann Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, a 2011 book. Print. The. Gilman, Charlotte.
Black and white abolitionists shared common assumptions about the evil of slavery, the "virtue of moral reform", and the certainty of human progress"(1). Schor, Garnet,1877, & Lanngston, 1989). This shared understanding provided "the basic for the interracial solidarity" and cooperation so vital in the crusade against slavery"(2). (Schor and Garnet, 1877). But blacks also brought a distinct perspective to the antislavery movement. Their abolitionism was shaped profoundly by their personal experience and racial oppression. Unlike most white abolitionists, they conceived of antidlavery as an all-encompassion struggle for racial equality, and they took a more pragramatic, less doctrinaire approach to antislavery tactics. The contrast between the two abolitionists -- black and white -- become increasingly apparent in the 1840s and 1850s as black expressed a growing militancy, asserted greater independence, and called for racially exclusive organization and initiatives.
... Bobrick, Benson. Fight for Freedom: The American Revolutionary War. New York: Atheneum, 2004. Print.
Emerson, Ralph W. "The American Scholar." Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Brief Third ed. Vol. One. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012. 270. Print. Voices of Freedom excerpt
Before 1920 women did not have the right to vote. They were known as “second class citizens”. Women were to stay home to help and organize the family’s necessities. Having any other higher power was said to be way out of their limitations. Mainly because women weren’t fully exposed to the happenings outside of the home, which led to the male figure believing that it was impossible for women to vote if they didn’t know the facts. Men thought that if women were able to vote that they would reach a power, that they could not take away and they didn’t want that. Men wanted to be head of the household and everything else in between.
The idea of freedom can be seen throughout Collection 2 in our textbook. Freedom can be seen in the short story “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela when it talks about the freedom of speech. Addition to that, an article “A People’s History Of The 1963 March On Washington” by Charles Euchner shows freedom in its article when it talks about the segregation occurring to colored men. Lastly, freedom is shown in the graphic novel “Persepolis 2: The Story Of A Return” by Marjane Satrapi as it shows high restriction.
30.) Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty! An American History. 4th ed. (W.W. Norton, 2012), 599.
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Nothing in life is guaranteed, but the one thing that humans demand is freedom. Throughout history, there are countless cases where groups of people fought for their freedom. They fought their battles in strongly heated debates, protests, and at its worst, war. Under the assumption that the oppressors live in complete power, the oppressed continuously try to escape from their oppressors in order to claim what is rightfully theirs: the freedom of choice. In Emily Dickinson’s poems #280, #435, and #732 and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, freedom is represented by an individual’s ability to make their own decisions without the guidance, consultation, or outside opinion of others in order to find their true sense of self. Once an individual is physically and spiritually free, they can find their true sense of self.
...ann, Fredrick (1999). The Most Powerful Freedom Strategy. How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World, viewed 8 March, 2008.