Writing Assignment #2

Option 1) The leaders of the nineteenth-century woman’s rights movement were mainly well-educated white women. Though most of them first became politically active as abolitionists, they typically spoke and wrote about woman’s rights in ways that at best failed to resonate with black women, and at worst actively alienated them. Imagine being a black woman (a literate slave in the South, or a free black in the North) and read the 1848 “Declaration of Sentiments” (Document 42 in Sklar, Women’s Rights Emerges within the Anti-Slavery Movement, 1830-1870). Think about how you would have responded to this document? Then read Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech (Document 43) and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s 1866 speech (Document 52). After reflecting on these sources, write a short paper answering the following question: Despite the fact that virtually all woman’s rights advocates supported abolitionism, black women often perceived the nineteenth-century woman’s rights movement as a “white woman’s movement.” Why was this case?

Option 2) Drawing on the Hershberger article on Indian removal and documents from Sklar, Women’s Rights Emerges within the Anti-Slavery Movement, 1830-1870, discuss the relationship between the early movements against Indian removal and slavery and the nineteenth-century movement for women’s rights. In what key ways were the early women’s rights advocates influenced by the antebellum protest movements against Indian removal and slavery?

 

Be sure to refer to the course readings. You should definitely make use of Sklar, and you might want to refer to other readings as well. Unless you draw on additional sources, you may use short citations, such as (Sklar, 42), and you do not need to provide a Works Cited page.