Historical Context
The beginning of the 18th century is a period of some deviation from the ideas of women’s rationality and equality with men. The idea of cultivating female ‘weakness’ was especially popular among the privileged classes. The third chapter of the book ‘Through Women’s Eyes’ is a historical essay revolutionary-liberation the struggle of the women during the American Revolution.
The chapter is focusing on some problems, such as the role of the masses in the struggle for women freedom, the alignment of class forces in colonies, the relationship of different groups and classes during the American Revolution movement, and on the problem of ‘rights’. The hostility of utopian thought to women and femininity was combined with the sharp attacks of philosophers on the women’s liberation movement (TWE, 123). In this period, men thought that a woman (‘second-class’ being) as an unequal a man.
Throughout the 18th-century, women from European countries took an active part in society. The mass of women worked for themselves and enjoyed economic independence; commoners were free to visit public places, and secular ladies, organizing their salons, tried to interfere through their visitors – their friends – into politics. In a general chorus of demands for freedom from despotism, women were asked to recognize their rights to civil life – education, work, respect in family and society. My goal in this essay to show historical place of all women, and how they built their freedom in Revolutionary/Early Republic Period and Antebellum Period.
The revolution contains military and political events in the English colonies of North America, held from 1775 to 1783. The main stage of the revolution was the War of Independence. As a result of the defeat of England and its expulsion from North America, a new state was founded and recognized – the United States of America (USA). However, what were the results of American Revolution because it was important to determine what American Revolution gave to the people, what freedom and for whom it went and how revolutionary slogans and declarations were really embodied in ‘human rights’.
Moreover, the American Revolution took place within the framework of the anti-colonial struggle for freedom. This was its specificity. However, her victory was possible only because resistance to the policy of the metropolis had taken on a mass character. The liberation struggle was combined with a movement for socio-economic transformation and elimination of old orders in all spheres of colonial life. This movement took place in conditions for the separation of American society into different social groups and classes, whose position determined its features, character, and results.
Content Summary
The first source that I use was Abigail Smith Adams Letters. One of the brave women was Abigail Smith Adams. Abigail Smith Adams (1744-1818), was the first American woman who raised her voice in defense of women’s rights. Additionally, she went down in the history of women’s freedom with the famous phrase that contains obeying the laws which women did not take part in, and the authorities did not represent women’s interests (Reader 8). She believed that the ability to rational thinking is not connected with gender, does not depend on him, and female ‘weakness’ and readiness to submit is nothing, but a consequence of the male desire to educate them in women (Reader 9).
Many men at that period claimed that the desire of women to emancipation is associated with the artificiality of urban life, in which a woman seeks equality in legal and economic spheres. If women have these rights equality, it will be dangerous for them. However, Abigail Smith Adams claimed that the well-educated and educated girls subsequently obtained the best wives and mother of America, whose female dignity contributed to the formation of children, a sense of morality and patriotism towards their homeland (TWE, 155). Moreover, in this revolution time, women took up arms and joined the ranks of ‘defenders of freedom.’ Molly Pitcher was a woman who struggled for political and civil rights and participated in the revolutionary movement (TWE, 133).
Significance
Based on the consideration of this topic, I can draw some conclusions: women’s movements arose from nothing, their appearance was due to many reasons, including the development of the society itself; at different historical stages. Furthermore, women’s movements took various forms. In most civilized countries, equality between men and women is enshrined in legal acts, which is an undeniable achievement of women’s movements, but often the state, recognizing the equality of opportunity, provides these opportunities only to men, which is unacceptable and is a form of discrimination against women.
In addition, one of the merits of women’s movements is the creation of many women’s organizations and associations, different in tasks that permeate all spheres of life. A woman is the amazing creation of God. Nature has given women the most important functions. However, in different periods of human existence, the role of women in society was not the same.
Antebellum Period (1830-1861)
Historical Context
In chapter four from the book ‘ Through Women’s Eyes ‘, readers can see a description of the women’s lives in the period (1830-1861). There are some descriptions of the ideologies of that time in relation to women and what role they should have in society. In the famous women’s magazine “Godey’s Lady’s Book”, an author wrote, “The perfection of womanhood… is the wife and mother” (TWE, 188). It was Christian womanhood. All that people know about a woman is best placed in the word ‘mercy.’ There are other words – the sister, the wife, the friend and the highest is the mother.
Furthermore, the history contains the memory of women that were in slavery. It was the darkest period in the American Women history. By the time of the conquest of independence, the United States was an agrarian country. There was a predominance of farming in the North. Moreover, there were mainly slave-owning plantations, mainly tobacco and cotton in the South of the United States (TWE, 251). The main feature of the plantation economy was the use the labor of slaves by planters (TWE, 205). Slavery has led to racism. But its peak, American racism has reached, of course, in the South. After all, for planters, black people were also property, and where human rights came into conflict with property rights, property prevailed.
As the political, economic and social changes took place in the United States, there was a need for a new, revolutionary approach to the Republican state. The first attempts were not slow to appear, and they relate not so much to the type of government as to the forms of expression of this new relationship. From a nation that took on a great liberation mission and thereby made a radical revolution in the world, expected equally dramatic changes in art, literature, and religion. Freedom, which the Americans have found, destroyed the old forms of government.
Content Summary
In the summary of the book “Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom”, written by Ellen and William Craft, the authors illustrated their lives during escaping from slavery. Ellen Craft (1826–1891) was a white slave woman in Georgia in the United States, and William Craft (1824 –1900) was an Afro-American slave man. “We were married, and prayed and toiled on till December 1848, at which time (as I have stated) a plan suggested itself” (TWE, 228). They fall in love, and they made a division to escape from slavery.
Moreover, they had a special plan on how to do that. Christmas time was a perfect time for that because their owner gave them a couple days for Christmas (TWE, 228). Their plan was successful, and they got human rights and human freedom that belonged to them right from the birth. From the book “Through Women’s Eyes”, the author described slave women (TWE, 197). There was a movement that struggled with slavery. Some women who advocated the abolition of slavery said that they cannot preach and broadcast from the stage because it is unnatural, not feminine.
The leaders of these movements, such as Angelina and Sarah Grimke, fought against this and argued that women have the right to act on an equal footing with men (TWE, 207). There were also women freed from slavery, such as Harriet Jacobs, who said that women are under the men. A woman in slavery did not differ from a man in slavery (Lecture 9). Women had to work on the field, they were beaten, and their owners sold their children. The truth insisted on the injustice that they were not allowed to vote, take care of their children and live in safety.
Significance
Despite many achievements, women’s movements at all stages of their development experienced many difficulties. Gender equality is an essential condition for the development and preservation of peace in any country. A woman who moved the work of her liberation, at the same time helped the whole liberation of the country because of the liberation of a woman was not only her advancement.
Finally, to understand that the women’s movement was not aimed at fighting with men but at organizing women, at mobilizing a whole half of the population to combat prejudice; to combat the one-sided masculine system of society. There were a lot of brave women and men who fight for human freedom. I chose some of them, such as Abigail Smith Adams, Molly Pitcher, Ellen and William Craft, and Angelina and Sarah Grimke were history’s heroes in Revolutionary/Early Republic Period and Antebellum Period.
