Women's Rights Dbq

Throughout the history of our world, there have been dozens of revolutionary wars. Although these wars were revolved around different people and different issues; most of them were caused by one group taking away another’s liberties. We see this in the American Revolution which was caused by the British not respecting the colonists’ natural rights. In order to prevent their new nation from following in the footsteps of Britain, they defined liberty as having the ability to make political decisions based on your place in society. By looking at certain historical documents we see the men in the society had the most freedom, while women and slaves were unable to voice their opinions.

One of the biggest events to spark the revolt against Britain

was the laws passed around taxes. This was a major problem for the colonists because they had to pay extra money for a country they aren't represented in. The term “no taxation without representation,” was used by many of the colonists when they started to boycott British taxes. They felt “that it is…essential to the freedom of a people, and the…right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them but with their own consent” (Document 1). This is saying that it was unfair for Parliament to enforce laws on the colonists since they are underrepresented in their government. Also in Document 7, Thomas Paine talks about how America would flourish without the help of Great Britain. He uses the comparison of a mother and child, saying that a child should have the chance to make his own decisions once he has grown up. Most of the people in America believe that they should be able to make the political choices in order to create a thriving nation. Both of these documents show how the people of New England felt about Parliament and how they were politically represented. The colonists wanted to make sure they weren’t going back to the ideals they were fighting against in their newly independent country.
Although they were fighting for the natural rights of all, the women were not given their natural rights.

Once a woman is married, she is considered to be unified with her husband. In William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, it states that “Upon this principle, of a union of person in husband and wife, depends almost all the legal rights, duties, and disabilities, that either of them acquire by the marriage.” This is saying that once a man and woman get married, they are unified by law and all of their rights are given to the husband. In the late 18th century, Abigail Adams, John Adams wife, sends a letter asking her husband to fight for women’s rights. She believed that men shouldn’t be given unlimited power over their wives; furthermore, she argues that women will start to fight back about “any laws in which [they] have no voice or representation” (Document 10). Abigail is asking John to fight for what the colonists were fighting for during the American Revolution. Although the colonists were fighting for fair representation, John Adams immediately shuts Abigail down saying, “we know better than to repeal our masculine systems” (Document 11). John Adams shutting down Abigail’s requests shows that the men controlled the political advancements in society and they were not planning to get rid of any of that power. Therefore, the women in this nation were stripped of their abilities to have a political

opinion.
The last group of people who received no representation in the American government were the slaves. Since the beginning of the slave trade, Africans were seen as property to the white colonists instead of human beings. When the war ended, The question of whether or not slaves should be given natural rights caused many conflicts. During the late 18th century, a group of Massachusetts slaves and freeman addressed the colonial government protesting the fact that all men were created equal, thus all men deserved to be free. Despite their “peaceable and lawful attempts to gain [their] freedom,” they were denied their natural rights and remained enslaved. This shows how the slaves did not have a say in any political decisions in the nation because they were not seen as human beings deserving of freedom. Despite their peaceful requests to change the laws, their opinions were disregarded since they had no right to a political opinion.
In conclusion, the American colonists saw liberty as having the power to contribute to the advancement of their nation. While women were not represented in the government, the colonists justified this by saying that they are represented by their husbands.In order to justify why the slaves didn't have the right to freedom, they labeled them as property instead of people. After the war, the colonists made sure to prevent another Great Britain, but in doing so, they refused the rights of many people in their nation.