5 Assignment 01

I’ve just finished reading through your responses to chapter three from Davis’ work, Women, Race & Class (1983). Before commenting on the substance of your posts, I want to make a few comments about the more formal aspects of your writing.

Please make sure to proofread before you publish. If there are numerous spelling and / or grammatical errors, you will receive partial credit. As I mentioned in class, posts might appear in wingdings if you use a web-based platform (like google docs) to compose your post, and you accidentally copy html when transferring the content to WordPress. To prevent this from happening, you can write and edit in Microsoft Word. Alternatively, you can review your post in WordPress using the text editor (above) and remove any html coding that appears (HTML coding is everything that appears in brackets <> ). Make sure everything is written in your own words, and any paraphrased text includes a citation. Finally, the only category assigned to your post is the assignment for that week. For example, this week you should have tagged your post with the category on the right: “assignment 01.”

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In your responses to Davis, many of you noted who was not asked to attend the Convention at Seneca Falls. These omissions, as some of you stressed, are all the more shocking because of the recent struggles faced by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott when attempting to contribute to the Anti-Slavery Society on equal terms with male abolitionists. In light of these experiences, we might expect Stanton and Mott to have been more sympathetic to “outsiders” to the women’s movement.

By way of introducing details about the life of Charlotte Woodward, Davis considers the different motives working women had for attending the convention at Seneca Falls. On the whole, the declarations that were the outcome of the convention addressed challenges that faced middle and upper class white women. Charlotte Woodward and some others were looking for guidance on how to improve the conditions of their lives as workers, but the conditions of working women seemed to be a marginal concern at the convention. This was too bad, because the activism of working women prior to the convention suggests what these women could have contributed to the movement had their problems been fully incorporated into the Seneca Fall Declarations and the tenets of the women’s movement during this period. In fact, by making the struggles of married women a primary concern, we could argue that Stanton and Mott reveal how much they didn’t understand about the conditions governing access to “rights.”

Some white women were quick to make comparisons between the lives of married women and that of slaves. From this analogy they did not mean middle and upper class women should dissolve their marriages in protest. I say this only partially in jest because to make this case would have required these women to see the way inequalities based on race, gender, and class were (and are) linked to accumulations of wealth in a capitalist economic system. As Davis underlines in this chapter and throughout her book, it was their mistake to think the subject of rights could be addressed separately from the economic concerns about labor (both slave or wage-based) that were also unfolding during this period.

Angela Davis attempts to convey the initial free-for-all that was the commencement of the women’s rights movement alongside black liberation, describing the difference in ideologies, interests and involvement of women and abolitionists determined for equal rights. Davis sheds light on the juxtaposition of the already destitute working conditions available to working class women, the all around inhumane treatment of African American women and the concerns of the Abolitionists party. Through the mentioning of Charlotte Woodward and Sojourner Truth, Davis shows all women outside the rising middle class made up a notable majority of women that were mostly unrepresented by the Convention at Seneca Falls, which included mill workers and slaves. Such are the lives of Woodward and Truth; women who strived for much more than an equality of status to men, white or black. Focusing on the absence of any colored women at the Convention at Seneca Falls, Davis makes it clear that there is a difference in agendas within the women’s rights movement regarding association with the lower class women and African Americans. As a result collaboration between oppressed women and abolitionists was not prioritized and prevented the movement from achieving its full potential. Thus, the lack of integration of abolitionists in the women’s rights movement outside of the few Davis mentions most likely stumped the collective growth of the effort early on, or at least partially nullified the impact of the Convention at Seneca Falls. Moreover, I believe that Davis wants the reader to understand the importance of the conflicting movements during mid-nineteenth century and how they competed, by highlighting both the differences and similarities of African Americans and women fighting for equal rights. Had both parties effectively collaborated, women’s suffrage and the freedom of black Americans could have essentially provoked the undertaking of a second American revolution.

Angela Davis brings to the attention of the reader from the beginning that women had many obstacles against them because of their race, class, or status. They were looked upon as property from the perspective of men. Viewed as  housewives,  nurturers, and child bearers, nothing more. In chapter 3 Davis expresses it was a long time coming for the equality of woman’s rights and  the significance of the first World Anti Slavery Convention in 1840. Stanton a middle class woman who’s goals seemed to be put on hold because of her being a wife and mother, stated that she might not have known where to begin, or how to begin but  woman being oppressed for so long she knew change must take place. During the initial planning their were disagreements between Lucretia Mott and Stanton on whether the right to vote for woman should be a encouraged, i believe that defines part of why the fight for woman’s equality but more specifically political equality began to take its first steps anyway. The right to vote being a very significant factor, although some may not have agreed at the time. So although Mott and even her husband downplayed this thought, Frederick Douglas was an important person who actually stood behind woman becoming able to vote. Douglas firmly supported, bringing the issue of woman’s rights to the attention of the Black Liberation Movement, as well as The National Convention of Colored Freedman. Opening the door for woman to be included in other important movements. The battle for woman’s suffrage was an ongoing process, when the Seneca Falls Convention took place women who had no wages to rely on from the work “they had done were fighting for more then the right to vote, they were fighting for survival” (Davis, 60).  These working woman experienced getting their money they earned taken away from a male and being controlled. Woman going through the same issues, fighting for similar changes, seeking advice and equality of all rights aspired to one day be looked at in the same eyes men are looked at in.

Angela Davis explores the women’s rights movement in chapter 3 of Women, Race & Class, “Class and Race in the Early Women’s Rights Campaign”. I found the way Davis connected white women and women of color under the oppression of male supremacy while exposing the flaws in the cohesion of the women’s rights movement to be very insightful and offer a deeper perspective on the standard understanding of the first women’s rights movement. Davis begins discussing the flaws with the “radical men” at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London as the initial spark that led to the famous convention at Seneca Falls. A convention that was supposed to represent freedom of oppression from the dominant male hegemony ironically excluded women from participation. Women began working towards equality long before the Anti-Slavery Convention and Seneca Falls. There was a significant class division amongst women – in the late 1700s/early 1800s, women were the majority workers in textile mills yet still legally the property of their husbands or fathers (the same way slaves were the legal property of their owners). These working women were not entitled to their wages, still had to defer rights to men and weren’t included in the social movement of elite women. The culmination of events brought attention to the fact women and African Americans were suppressed and suffered in similar ways at the hands of the white men controlling and limiting their rights. Women, slaves and working class individuals joining forces to fight oppression was a hugely powerful component to the success of the women’s right movement and progression towards equality. Although it was difficult for some elite women to relate to lower class individuals (and especially slaves) their joined suffering created power in numbers that allowed for a more active push towards equal rights, the right to vote, education, power over wages, worker’s rights and so much more.

I think this is something that we still see today, especially with the modern political climate. It’s almost as if some women don’t see how they are oppressed in society. It is difficult to connect to and empower other oppressed women if you are unable to see the oppression that you exist under. I think about women who support Trump and don’t understand how some of the things he has said or some of his appointees could potentially pose a threat to women’s rights and the rights of minorities (including LGBT individuals). It makes me think of the elite women who initially saw themselves as separate from working class women. I wonder if these women don’t want to relate to feminists the same way women of the gilded cage didn’t want to relate to textile workers. History has shown that there is power in numbers and when minorities and oppresses demographics join forces, change is more effective.

The Seneca Falls Convention opened the door to many issues surrounding women rights. Davis shows how flawed the premise of the women’s rights movement. The middle class women who wanted so much of their freedom back, failed to look to the freedoms of their working sisters. Sojourner Truth was an incredible force to the movement. She fought for what it meant to be a women in every facet of the struggles met. The most insightful part of Davis tellings of Truth, are the way she broke down the basis of christianity as means to justify women mistreatment. In chapter two the Council of Congregationalist Ministries of Massachusetts, spoke of a women not being able to talk the place of a man as a public reformer. Doing this, would be considered a great sin. Truth cleverly brought up the basic truth of reproduction, in that Jesus did in fact come from a women. Even more brilliant was Truth’s reference to Eve. I myself felt empowered as a women, knowing that I have the means to turn the world upside down. Thats what Sojourner Truth did. She empowered women to not be afraid to speak up and fight.

Angela Davis talks a lot about the Convention at Seneca Falls in chapter three on “Class and Race in the Women’s Rights Campaigns.” Along with that, Angela Davis brings into account the details of the works and lives of other prominent figures during this time, and the different initiatives taken during the movement. We are taught from most of our previous history classes that the Seneca Falls convention was the first of it’s kind, and the start of the women’s suffrage movement. However, Angela Davis makes it clear in her writing that although the Seneca Falls convention was the first public meeting for the resolution, many women beforehand had raised their voices against sexism. The 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London was what inspired Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton for the Seneca Falls convention, as the men made it very apparent to exclude the women by the majority vote (Davis, page 51). Lucretia Mott had the experience being a female abolitionist, while Elizabeth Cady Stanton had the experience of being a white middle-class woman. At the Seneca Falls Convention, the activists were able to bring forth the idea of the women’s right to vote, with help from Frederick Douglass, and draft the Seneca Falls Declaration, which officially started the movement towards gender equality. However, the declaration was not so inclusive towards the white working class women, as well as the women of color. From the late 1820s, working women staged turnouts and protests against the double oppression they faced as being female and industrial workers, long before the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 (Davis, page 59). As early as 1837, Angelina and Sarah Grimke criticized organizations and associations for not including or involving black women in their movements. More than ten years before the Seneca Falls convention, Maria Stewart, native-born black women, addressed the issue of women’s rights and education for black women in a newspaper (Davis, page 63). Most historical of all, Sojourner Truth attended conventions after the Seneca Falls one, delivering speeches on the solidarity of black women in this movement. She talked about the fact that black women also deserve to be free from racist oppression and sexist domination, and her speeches still continue to inspire and move the audience today (Davis, page 65). Throughout this chapter, I believe that Davis was trying to tell us that although the ideas of women’s rights and equality were present amongst all women before the convention in 1848, it helped bring those ideas public and initiated the movement.

In Class and Race in the Early Women’s Right Campaign, Angela Davis depicts the conflict of interests and struggles within the women’s right movement. Davis starts her argument by informing us about the demands and sentiments of the white upper-class women who declared at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. In that occasion,  privileged white women spoke about equal rights between the sexes, changes in the gender roles of women, and criticized the oppression of the marriage institution. These women opposed male domination in areas of education, professions, health  and demanded economic freedom.

However, David shows that these affluent class women did not include in their declaration the demands and interests of working class white women and women of color. Upper-class women wanted to share their social rank with men.Their main goal was to obtain political participation and the right to vote. But  women  who belonged to lower social strata wanted rights as well. Emancipation, recognition, basic rights, and access to education and regulations in their workplaces were some of their grievances. The first convention was not successful because women were not unified. But it was a positive outcome to uncover that social class and race were other structural issues that overlapped within the women’s right.

On the other hand, in future conventions advocates of the women’s movement such as Charlotte Woodward, would represent a larger number of working class-white women, who  were treated as domestic slaves in their private homes. They complained for their fathers and brothers and husbands who micromanaged their activities and deprived them from receiving the salaries they earned sewing. Other white-working class women would join the women’s movement to fight against exploitation as well. These women were in their majority immigrants and worked in the textile industry. Women would work double shifts in crowded factories,  under terrible conditions, for minimum wages as well.  These women were active in their participation and they organized in demonstations against the industrial capitalists in numerous occasions.

Another woman who had a great impact in the women’s right was Sojourner Truth, who spoke in the first National Convention on Women’s Right in Worcester Massachusetts 1850. This women of color was an ex-slave and advocate of the abolition movement. She fought for access to education for colored women, women’s suffrage and equal rights. In her speeches she demonstrated a great strength and commitment to resist those who opposed the changes proposed by the women’s movement.

Therefore, the outcomes of these conventions were to identify that the struggles in terms of class, race and gender in the north and the south had a common denominator. Political power, economic exploitation and oppression were directed towards working class, African Americans, and women. This awareness or class consciousness was the major gain of the  women’s right movement. But the fight for obtaining equal rights, abolition of slavery, access to education, and economic freedom would continue in the coming decades.

By including details from the lives of Charlotte Woodward and Sojourner Truth, I believe Angela Davis is trying to tell us that while the Seneca Falls convention was a good starting point, it did not completely address or resolve the issues that women of all race and class were experiencing. At the Seneca Falls convention, many working class women were still working under undesirable conditions and some, like Charlotte Woodward, wanted to get out of the house and have their labor recognized. She attended the convention for reasons different from most of the attendants: to improve her working status which was an issue many of her peers did not experience. I believe Davis included Woodward and her story because while the white women there were advocating for equality, white women working with worse working conditions were not focused on and black women were not even present or supported.

She then moves on to Sojourner Truth’s story and her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?,” speech delivered at a convention for women’s rights in Akron, Ohio. Determined to free herself and her peers from sexist and racist oppression, Truth confidently rebuts opposing arguments and leads the rest of the fainthearted women at the convention to a winning argument through the use of her own experiences which showed that while she was a woman, her experiences proved she was no weaker than a man. Although people began to oppose her, she continued to lead the argument for women’s rights against the varying viewpoints in the conventions.

All in all, I believe that Davis brought up the stories of these two women to show how middle class white women were forgetting about working class white women and black women at the Seneca Falls Convention. In order to push for equality for these two ‘classes’, their life experiences had to be brought to light in front of everyone.

From time, women were never known as delegates or people in position of power, more often as the wives of those who were in power.  Women never really had an identity of their own. Politically, socially, and economically, women were always inferior to men, especially when married.  Davis’ purpose of this chapter was trying to prove to us the power of women, no matter of race or economic status.  In this chapter we see two women, whom both attended the Seneca Convention, but for very different reasons.  Charlotte Woodward, a White Woman, motives for signing the Seneca Falls Declarations was because of the oppression she felt being inferior to men economically.  Although she was a working women from home, the men in her family felt entitled to her money because legally the men were in control of her money.  However, Sojourner Truth, an ex-slave, vocally expressed her aspirations to be free not only from her racist oppression, but from her sexist domination. While Woodward focuses on the economic inequality, Truth touches more on the social issue of women seen as the “weaker sex” by explaining her ability to overcome the horrible experiences she went through, and picking herself up through every situation. She tells everyone she was able to go through that because of the strength of being a woman.  Her words were so touching, it leaves everyone in shock and awe. From this we can see the difference in the oppression or black and white women (middle class).  This gave us a sense of the difference in their struggles of being a women. Overall, we get the sense that Davis’ purpose was to  expose the diversity of women empowerment. We can see women from different races, backgrounds, and economic status, coming together to overcome the one most significant issue they all have in common, gender inequality.

Angela Davis shares many insights about the early Women’s Rights Campaign in this chapter. She begins with the 1848 Convention at Seneca Falls because it was the first organized women’s rights convention to take place. Davis hones in on the convention’s importance and focus – the idea that marriage disables a woman’s independence (economically and mentally), and also notes the significance of the first controversial mention of women’s suffrage. However, Angela Davis goes on to talk about the problems with the Convention at Seneca Falls as well. The Convention brought up sentiments relating to only a small group of women. Not only did the Convention leave out working white women, it also left out black women — both enslaved and free.

Davis describes the work of other women within the movement to prove that the advocacy for women’s rights began much sooner than 1848 and included women from every class and race. She points out that single white women who worked in the textile mills suffered from sexism and oppression in their own ways. These women worked tireless hours in some of the most horrible working conditions and were not treated fairly. They fought for their rights with rallies and strikes years prior to the Seneca Falls Convention and yet were hardly mentioned.

Similar to working white women, black women began fighting for equal rights (especially education rights) long before the organized convention. Still, there was absolutely no mention of black women at the Convention at Seneca Falls, nor were any black women present. While Davis cannot understand this, since the very birth of the women’s rights movement came from abolitionism and anti-slavery sentiments, she admits this is not the first time black women were left out of the conversation. In fact, Davis sheds light on perhaps one of the biggest problems with the early women’s rights campaign – that the movement had “failed to promote a broad anti-racist consciousness”. Two years after the 1848 convention, Sojourner Truth prompted new ideas about equality, namely racism and sexism. She pleaded that black women deserved freedom from oppression just as much as white middle-class women.

Davis ends this chapter with the idea that the fight for equality was a triangular issue that should include women, blacks and labor in its agenda. Could there be equal women’s rights before complete abolitionism?