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Assignment 01: Davis on Race & Class

The inspiration for the Seneca Falls Convention was clearly rooted in the dismissive treatment of female abolitionists, whether in London at the World Anti-Slavery Convention or before, on the premise of human rights. Davis describes the struggle, for the organizers to define the varying nuance of women’s rights and the human rights of slaves. In hindsight, we can see that the rights discussed at either convention are no different in the oppression of humanity. What I see Davis pointing out is the dismissal of Charlotte Wood and admiration mixed with hesitation of Sojourner Truth. To negate the working woman, Charlotte Wood, is more than a classist issue. The working condition of the mills were no secret to the middle-class women, despite many of the women abolitionists not having to personally experience the conditions they must have known someone who had. Charlotte’s struggles for autonomy as a married woman working in the home were also easily identifiable as many of the married women had undervalued work they provided for their family.

Luckily for the organizers, Sojourner Truth was in attendance to direct the conversation. Presumably many of the middle class and bourgeoisie had never experienced any level of hard labor and if they had would likely not talk about it in mixed company. The male adversaries, then as now, are quick to emphasize the assumed weaknesses of women and by discouraging the women in attendance from speaking the men could maintain their supremacy. Fortunately, Sojourner had already survived extreme physical and emotional trauma and was entirely unfazed. Although she was a forceful and inspiring speaker, the economic and racial tensions between the white majority and Sojourner would overshadow her contribution to the convention and women’s movement, an issue that is alive and well to this day. Despite the Seneca Falls Convention’s success to create movement in the fight for women’s rights the blind spot on what defines oppression was left looming. Women’s rights are not specific to class or race and collectively uniting has consistently proven far more efficient. Davis suggests that the struggle we face, as women and a society, could be linked to our own self-imposed categorization of our differences instead of uniting our similarities. It is impossible to imagine what would have happened at Seneca Falls if Sojourner had never taken it upon herself to attend and speak for women. At the end of the day liberation is liberation and not connecting oppressive behaviors of capitalists, sexists or racists only perpetuates the “acceptance” in society.