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% Lutfur Nahar completed
Angela Davis introduces the topic of “Class and Race in the Early Women’s Rights Campaign” in chapter through the words from two women activist Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who are the representative of the educated middle class women. As the title mentions, Angela Davis discusses the connections of class and race during the early women’s rights campaign. Her central argument was towards the struggles of Black Liberation and battle for women’s rights. Angela Davis was trying to convince the reader that it was not only about fighting for the abolition of slavery or the rights of women, but it was about everyone fighting for equality whether one was a man, woman, black or white. Moreover, Angela Davis talked about the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women’s rights convention where the idea of the right for women to vote was introduced. The other main concerns of the convention were marriage, and women’s exclusion from the professional workplace. Here Angela Davis is trying to highlight the negative effects of racism and classism upon women.
Furthermore, along with many white women, black women also took part in the Convention. One of those black women was Sojourner Truth, whose powerful “Ain’t I a Woman” speech played a major role in the women’s right movement. Her race, class and economic status did not prevent her from fighting for the women’s rights along with white women. Angela Davis also introduces Charlotte Woodward, who also attended Seneca Falls Convention to seek help in improving her wage. The motive for her being there was to rebel against male supremacy. Throughout the chapter Angela Davis introduces different women to demonstrate that these are the very women that fought to make sure that women of the future will be treated fairly in the male dominated society.
Even though Angela Davis was mentioned inspiring women who participated in the Convention, many were not allowed to share their perspective. In the process some of them forgot about their fellow colored women and who they were fighting for. In addition, in the chapter Angela Davis conveys the idea that with unity one can accomplish more, rather than doing it by his/her self.
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% Ju Yong Roh completed
I believe that Angela Davis is trying to show us that convention at Senaca Falls wouldn’t be effective as it was if there were no woman’s working classes. Of course, there were great assistance from upper classes females like Elizabeth Cady Stanton who aided the abolition of racism and inequality of sex. She stood up to fight against society because she also experienced that every efforts she did to get knowledge from law schools and excellence in studies became nothing as she married. It was important for high classes to fight against society to achieve same right as male. However, as Angela Davis mentioned in this chapter, it wasn’t a life-related problems to the people who are women at higher classes compared to working classes. Women at working classes wanted better quality of life, and it would be obvious that they were desperate to improve their lives and wanted to be treated same as male.
Furthermore, I think Angela Davis also trying to tell us that cooperation between Black and White was important. When abolition against gender inequality and racism happened, male anti-slavery leaders also fought with abolitionist for women right. For example, Fredrick Douglass, an African-American social reformer and abolitionist, helped Elizabeth Cady Stanton introduced a resolution on woman suffrage. There was no one but Fredrick Douglass who helped her to extend the right to vote to women. Furthermore, most of the African Americans who lived in this period were slaves and discriminated by racism. Therefore, they desperately wanted the right of women and black. Sojourner Truth, an African-American abolitionist and women’s right activist, did a speech “Ain’t I a Woman?” at 1851 women’s convention in Akron, Ohio, and I think it touched many people’s heart because she had preparedness for death to achieve the right.
In conclusion, I believe that Angela tell us that outcome of this convention was successful because there were groups who had same ideas like they wanted to get educated.
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% Andrew Brock completed
I find Angela Davis in chapter three on ” Class and race in the Women’s Rights Campaign,” to be attempting to tell the reader of the many hardships of the Women’s rights campaign. While reading this chapter of her book the emotions I mostly felt were anger and disgust, but I also found myself being proud and somewhat amazed.
Most of my anger and disgust comes from, what anyone can find obvious, the hardships these women had to go through described by Davis. At the very beginning there is a common quote used to describe America as the land of the free and the home of the brave. I bring attention to this as it can easily be inferred that Davis means to draw attention to these words and how untruthful they were at the time. Simply by adding quotes to that phrase it can be seen that she wants to exemplify the opposite of those words. Land of the free white man and home of the frightened as an example.
Another thing that greatly caught my attention is when Davis talks about Charles Remond’s involvement. He refused to take his seat in the Seneca Convention due to women being excluded from it. He supported several women’s groups who even paid for his expenses to get to the convention. Davis detailing this event shows the complete disregard for women in that time but also shows how women were not the only ones taking action to get women’s rights. Remond refusing to take his seat can be interpreted as him showing true dedication rather than no longer wanting to be involved. His reasoning of the women he was supporting having the inability to be present for him to support I find only strengthens this claim.
To conclude I would like to mention one thing in Davis’s text that brought up my mood as I was nearing the end. I personally enjoyed Davis’s description of Frances Dana Gage going to speak in the convention. Davis describes her very well as a fearless woman who would not listen to the many that attempted to convince her not to speak. I find Davis to be very good at letting the reader know of the many things women had to go through during the Seneca Convention and she also excels at making the reader not only be interested but sympathize with the women involved.
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% Keerim Kim completed
Angela Davis introduces the lives of women in mid-19th century by giving out the example of convention at Seneca Falls. By that time, the society was dominated by the idea of male supremacy and although there were strikes advocating women’s rights, they were not having powerful impact on the society. Therefore, which took place in the summer of 1848, Seneca Falls convention became the starting point of women to speak out publicly for their rights. Rooted from Seneca Falls, there were several women’s conventions throughout the nation and more people fought for discrimination of sexism. In Seneca Falls convention, the main reason people spoke up was to get liberation and gain rights as white middle-class women. Oppressed by what they personally experienced, middle-class women tried to organize a political challenge to fight for equality.
However, surprisingly the resolution for woman suffrage was not yet brought up and moreover, there were no black women attending the convention at Seneca Falls. It also ignored the circumstances of white working-class women. As time went by, the idea of gaining women’s rights escalated and it led ways for blue-collar women and black women to speak up. For example, Davis introduces Charlotte Woodward as a critical figure for white working-class woman. Back in early 19th century, most workers in textile industries were women and Charlotte Woodward was one of them. She suffered in very poor working conditions and her wages were controlled by men in the family. Along with other women workers, she was having double oppression as woman and as an industrial worker. Another example that Davis illustrated was Sojourner Truth, who was an ex-slave, and later became as a symbol of black women. She was also suffering from double oppression, in both racist and sexist discrimination. Her speech influenced and resonated people as she strongly fought for male supremacy. By illustrating influential figures as Woodward and Truth, Davis tried to show that women were victims of exploitation in many fields. Also, by the endeavors of such people, the society could gain consciousness of political, racial, social issues of women and slowly improved the situation for women to acquire their equality.
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% Jing Jiang completed
I believe that Davis is trying to tell us the changed of women’ social status during the Seneca Falls Convention. From the absent of women in the convention, bring up the issue of inequality for women. This reference was not just talking about the right for women to vote, also arguing for change the traditional stereotype of women: stay at home and being a housewife. As Charlotte Woodward states in the reference: Women were consider lived as dependent for their husband after they married. The first part of this reference was focus on the middle-class white women, but in the rest of part also talk about working women and black women, which are more difficult to fight for their rights than middle-class white women.
Davis also gave the life experiences of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass tell us how education and political effect on the result of women’s right. Such as the major of Stanton of a law student taught her to be able to organized the political challenge of oppression, and have possibility to fight for equal. The publish of Douglass after the convention also help to introducing the issue of women’s right to the black liberation movement, and to the future.
Another outcome of the women’s right were the equality between black women and white women. The black women have more disadvantages in struggle for the right rather than white women. They face the problem of racism. Sojourner Truth gave a speech in the first National Convention,she was the only one to argue with the male supremacist, gave the strong speech ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’, defeat to the men’s weaker sex argument. Her speech also inspire other to struggle the right such as Frances Dana Gage.
In conclude, this convention can be mark as a important point in the way to the equality of women’s right.
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% Fleta Selimaj completed
The underlying issue that Davis is bringing to light in this piece is the gap that is evident between women, depending on class and race. Although the Seneca Falls convention was an effort to promote equal rights for women, there was still a divide, as the focus fell primarily on middle-class women, leaving working class and African-American women out of the spotlight. The working-class women who spent their days in the mills working in horrible conditions with little pay and no regard for health concerns slowly began to rise up and demand equality. As for African-American women, their experiences in the slave trade became an even more powerful driving force in the women’s rights movement. With that being said, I believe that Davis is trying to prove just how attainable equality for women can be if women would work together to bridge this gap by encouraging others and speaking up. However, it did not come that easy, as many women who supported the abolitionist campaign did not incorporate anti-slavery concerns into their fight for equality. Also, there were women that did not agree with the abolitionist campaign at all, which posed an even greater issue as it weakened their fight altogether. Davis includes these concerns because it is important to show that the convention failed to hold African-American women and working-class women up to the same stature as middle-class women. It did not speak for the women who needed more recognition in society, which ultimately took away from its ability to truly create change. It played favorites by focusing on the more ‘desirable’ or ‘capable’ group of women instead.
Luckily, the empowering presence and voice of Sojourner Truth made an impact when she chose to speak up at the Akron convention. She brought to light the issues with racist and sexist viewpoints that hindered the promotion of the women’s movement. Her experiences made her credible and showed her true strength and wisdom. She did not hold back when discussing her days as a slave and the struggle that she went through. Her influence on the women’s movement is one that encourages individuals to see that even a black woman deserves to be seen, respected, and given the same rights as a white woman. Although people were moved and inspired by her fire, there were still many who spread hate and negativity towards her speeches. Yet even then, they did not sway her. Davis included Sojourner into this piece so that one can understand the importance of coming together as one, despite your background, in order to promote change and make a difference. In order for women to achieve the equality they strive for, it is necessary that they join together. A movement cannot be divided, otherwise it will not meet its mark.
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% Connie Qiu completed
By mentioning both Charlotte Woodward and Sojourner Truth and their contributions to the Women’s Rights movement, Davis is emphasizing how important it was for middle class white women to be able to understand the situations that other women were also in. After hearing first hand accounts of the women working in the mills and Sojourner Truth’s experiences as a slave, it forced the middle class white women to realize that working women and women slaves are still women that should have the same rights that they were advocating for. Davis is also saying that these different experiences actually benefited the women’s rights movement and without them the outcome might’ve been different. Many of the first conventions, such as the one at Seneca Falls was only initially meant to address the issues middle class white women had, such as after being married they are solely dependent on their husband and are expected to be housewives. It was only after Charlotte Woodward and others working women spoke out that many others addressed their issues as real issues. Even then, there were no black women at the Seneca Falls convention which means their rights were not included. I feel like Davis is also trying to point out the irony of what happened since the middle class women wanted equal rights as men but they, themselves, left out women who were different than them.
It was at the National Convention on Women’s Rights, where Sojourner Truth talked about her life when she was a slave, and through her speeches, proved to other women and men that were there, that black women are also women and should be included in all the things the Women’s Rights movement was fighting for. These conventions helped to get the stories of the working women, and the black women out there so their issues would also be included in this fight for women’s rights. Eventually, many women such as Angelina Grimke advocated for all women’s rights. Hearing the stories of the black women, working women, and others at the conventions brought all women together to fight for their rights instead of against each other. Without people like Charlotte Woodward and Sojourner Truth telling the middle class white women what their lives were like, they might have been fighting for their each individual rights, such as, just solely Black Liberation instead of also Women’s Rights.
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% Diana Rodriguez Duran completed
I believe Davis is trying to tell us that the Seneca Falls Convention was made with the target of recognizing the electoral power for women, but instead one its primary focus was the institution of marriage which resulted in many adverse effects on woman. Also the Seneca Falls Convention focused the attention meanly in middle class white woman, letting out the situation of white working class women. They had to work long shift in very bad conditions, exposed to many diseases and other risks, as an example of this were women who worked in the textile mills in the Northeast. What was thought would be a fair movement for all female gender and the culmination of years of injustice, insecurity and even domestic abuses, became a convention that took into account a single group of women; Middle-class white women. Black women were entirely ignored in all the convention documents. No document made any reference about their participation in the abolitionist movement. Another contradictory fact that could be even ironic is the fact that in a convention in favor of women’s rights, where most of the assistants were women, women were not allowed to speak. Also, do not forget Prudence Crandall, who defied her white townspeople by accepting a Black girl in her school to create an equality in education among white and Black women, but during Seneca Falls Convention white women forgot the common desire for education that they once shared with Black women. White women wanted to be free in many legal aspects, but they were not ready to put away the prejudices and renounce racism. This makes clear that the major weakness in the Seneca Falls Convention was racism. Middle class white women did not see this convention as a fight for the gender since they only sought their own benefits. I think Davis also makes a difference when he mentions to Sojourner Truth, a black abolitionist who fought for Black women were considered into the abolitionist movement, something that Seneca Falls Convention did not do.
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% Christin Rosado completed
I believe that Davis is trying to tell us that although many women attended the Seneca Convention to help raise awareness in the fight for women they focused on topics that led them to omit the awareness of both Mill girl and African American women struggles. During the course of the convention, there was much talk about the struggles of women in the Document Farmer class (Davis). However, it was never mentioned how many young Mill Girls were forced to work under terrible conditions for long hours (Davis). The Seneca Convention protesters also failed to mention the struggles many African American women faced as slaves who were not given the basic human rights they deserved (Davis). They failed to acknowledge all of the protesting and movements made by both Mill Girls and African American women done with the intent to gain their rights, be treated fairly in their workplace, and be seen as equal to men. As I read Davis’s piece, I felt that her tone of writing emitted annoyance as if she was unhappy that the protesters at the Seneca Convention wasted this important moment by forgetting about the women outside of their class.
Although the Seneca Convention shed light on the struggles of only one class of women and the consistent forgetfulness of many white women to include their fellow African American and Mill sisters; it sparked many other movements to erupt. Davis informs readers that after Seneca, many other conventions were held like the Negro Convention (Davis). At the Negro Convention, organizers put great emphasis on encouraging and inviting both black and white women to join (Davis). I believe that this was an attempt to get all women of different classes and races together as a way to speak of the injustices they all faced without neglecting to share anyone’s stories. I believe that Davis is trying to tell readers that the Seneca convention made those who were forgotten feel as if they needed to take matters into their own hand so they could insure that their struggles were also noticed.
Lastly, another outcome of the Seneca Convention was Sojourner Truth. A couple of years after Seneca, Sojourner Truth attended the Akron convention where she delivered powerful speeches about women being equal to men and subtlety criticizing racist women (Davis). Sojourner included everyone and fought for all women especially those who were African American (Davis). I strongly believe that Davis included Sojourner truth and all her success that she gained through her speeches because she wanted readers to know that more is achieved when you include everyone. I also believe that she was trying to slightly insult women protesters at the Seneca convention by basically saying a woman apart of a group you failed to acknowledge didn’t forget to include you and was more effective with her speeches than you were at your convention.
Chapter three of Davis’s Women’s, Race & Class discussed many conventions held or attended by Women (Davis). Davis tried to tell readers that the Seneca convention that was meant to fight for all women ended up being a fight for certain kinds of women. She emphasized the impact that the Convention had on the women that were excluded by telling us that it motivated them to get out and share their story and the stories of women different from them. A major lesson I feel Davis was trying to convey to her readers is that we achieve more and our voices are better heard when we include everyone and work together.
Davis, Angela Y. “Chapter 3: Class and Race in the early Women’s Rights Campaign.” Women,
Race & Class. N.p.: Random House Inc., 1981. 52-74. Print.
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% Martin Huynh completed
I think Davis is trying to tell us that the Seneca Falls Convention had brought into light many issues that were absent in the convention, which would be later be the focus in future meetings. The focus of the convention was to discuss equality for women, but most of the individuals involved wanted to deter from actually talking about women’s suffrage. Like in the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, the women did not have a voice. However, the difference between these two conventions is that in the London convention, the women did not have a say for anything that was being discussed, they were merely spectators in the crowd, while in the Seneca Falls convention, there was no primary focus regarding the rights of women, only various issues were acknowledged such as the effect marriage had on the status of women and reforming conditions for white working women. Marriage stripped away whatever a woman had to her name, such as her education background and skills. This was the case for Elizabeth Cady Staton, who had studied mathematics and Greek, and was studying law under her father, but soon after she was married, her status was changed to fulltime housewife and mother. This was known as the middle-class woman’s dilemma. Another issue was brought up in the convention, the issue of the working conditions of working-class white women. While this issue did not directly relate with many of the women in the convention and was neglected in a sense, it still affected the working women in there, such as Charlotte Woodward. The struggle Woodward had dealt with as a working woman can be compared to the middle-class woman’s struggle as both seek to be valued as equal to men, whether it be through the economic support provided or through the social status they hold in the family. Another issue that was also neglected was the struggle of Black women. The absence of this group of women in the convention showed the disregard the people have for them, when it is the Black women that suffers from both racism and sexism. However, this exclusion had brought upon a stronger presence for Black women in later years, in which Sojourner Truth would speak out at women’s rights meetings, fighting against racist and sexist oppression.
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