Women In the Antebellum Reform - Research Paper Example

Introduction about the antebellum incident The antebellum incident took place in 1837. Antebellum reform incident was a consensus of reform organizations, who matched to New York to see anniversary meetings. Leaders of reform organizations raise some issues too including; crimes, prostitution, poverty, alcohol, ignorance and slavery, as the major causes of death in the republic of America, and therefore, advocated for change. The reform organizations involved both men and women in relation to the issues they raised to advocate for change. It is reported that for a full week session, women and men from North West and mid west travelled to New York to conduct such speeches, which advocated for change (Elizabeth 91). Gradually, movements for change by women and men, who belonged to the reform organizations, started addressing different religious beliefs, goals and strategies. In addition, the leaders of reform groups started demonstrating to the public ways in which a better society would perform tasks to avoid massive killings. The mission for the activists for change was that one time; the United States of America could be improved, uplifted and perfected. Other issues that characterized the Antebellum period were such as; financial panic which erupted in New York in early 1837 to the extent that few people made purchases on shops. Wealthy people who supported different groups had run Bankrupt and New York registered a large number of street beggars that year compared to the previous years. Unemployment, hunger, homelessness, prostitution, and criminal cases were highly registered (Finkelman 39). Advocates for change during the antebellum era held debates over gender and cultural issues; segregation on grounds of lasses. The effort to test reforms was also attributed to the fact that white women and men dominated charity organizations that they took the rest of the citizens as their subordinates. As a result, other citizens were present to acts of oppression. The following report contains works of various authors in their books about the status of women in Antebellum. Professor Ginzberg gives an idea of women in relation to antebellum improvement in two ways. In the first way, women are examined alongside factors such as belief, class and race, upon which reform movements were based. In another perspective, Ginzberg views women participating in favour of social change. Women participated in social change through distributing Bibles, resisting intemperance, charity initiatives, tracts, they were opposed to slavery, and in general, women demanded their rights. The Antebellum Era was so, characterized by alteration mechanisms, which sought to empower women in the world over (Finkelman 39). One of the basic features of concern for women in Antebellum was to express their attitude towards sex. Women’s views about sex in Antebellum can be traced in the works of Helen Leftkowitz. Helen discusses about the social and cultural implications of gender and sex education in the antebellum era. Helen bases her studies at Amy Greenberg, Pennsylvania state University. Women challenged the idea that social problems, which affected America at the time would be changed through maintaining the ruling governments. Reformers made movements, one after the other in search for reforms in the government systems (Elizabeth 91). According to Oregon Public broadcasting media in America, the antebellum movement, which he also terms as a period of industrial action had social, economic, religious and political consequences to women in the United States and the surrounding countries. An article by Oregon Public broadcasting reveals that I the Antebellum movement, as middle class people and the original born families who were abandoned and made to be the production units of the home. As men left household chores to look for jobs in offices, women remained calm and barely got chances of moving to look for jobs in public places. Oregon public broadcasting however reveals that women of different classes and races from those of Americans were affected differently during the antebellum era (Nancy 60). As the working and middle class women looked for jobs in the growing factories, there was constant demand for cotton by England and British Textile manufacturers. This meant that slave women would go and work in the field plantations as assigned by their slave masters. In other words, some women were enjoying while others suffered due to racial segregation and unequal distribution of tasks. Lower Southern America was economically poor, and declining, and there was no commercial activity being carried out (Finkelman 39). On that matter, slaves from the desert Lower south were sold to the valid upper south to work in cotton producing areas. Before the Antebellum era, there was a culture of “True womanhood,” which was spread throughout America. This culture postulated that a real woman must stay at home, prepare food for the man and provide necessary protection to children without any question. All economically efficient and submissive women were subjected to the values of true womanhood (Nancy 60). While advocating for change, Educated American women like Catherine Beech demanded that the government should allow women to have some degree of skill as a means of enabling them have enough skills of taking care of children. As a result of Catherine’s inspiration, women were advised to take on the teaching provision as the best they could do. The women, America perceived to be more morally upright than men were allowed to proceed for college including those who had skills of nurturing children. Women who were subjected to hard labor in plantations with their families developed much responsibility for their families and resolved not to continue suffering with their families. As a result, women had jointly meet the antebellum movement. Male medical workers, lawyers and ministers never allowed their women to participate in public affairs claiming that they were so weak. Women activities were also restricted in the prohibition and abolition movements. Some male citizens reportedly even thought that women could not speak or participate in public affairs or even manage homes so easily. Following this wrongful act, groups of women decided to organize reform camps ad joined antebellum movement to try from their freedom (Elizabeth 91). Having won the men in an idea to look for education as a way of getting better skills for taking care of children, women became educated and established functions that they would take to progress, according to the ways of true womanhood. At the same time, women became aware of the functions that male counterparts claimed would only be done by males and could not be managed by females. At this point, women had all the information about sources of their judgement as well as their strength. The fact that they were allowed to become teachers, they became so weak and committed in spreading theory of change to people through teaching. In 1840s, women started organizing reform movements in America under what historians call Antebellum era. Their causes for the movement were well established (Nancy 60). Two women, namely, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Candy were tired of the government of America denying women basic rights. The two women prepared a meeting at Seneca Falls in New York in July 1848 to address issues concerning denial of right to women. Two hundred women are reported to have attended this function and 40 men. In the meeting, historical documents show that participants agreed that women deserved a lot of things, but the first one was the government allowing them have full rights and privileges enjoyed by citizens of the nation. After the Seneca conference organized by Lucretia and Elizabeth, many other conventions raising issues of concern of women were established in different areas and at that moment, women started to involve themselves fully in advance programs. More details of the women position in the antebellum movement can be traced from a transcript by Philadelphia public ledger. The Philadelphia public ledger transcript is perceived to have provided ridicule mechanisms to the women reform movements. It is decent looking at the claims included in the Philadelphia public ledger record before knowing more sparks to women involvement in the antebellum movement. To argue that women movement was not feasible, Philadelphia data described women in such a way that they were forced to jerk off a request for a revolution (Elizabeth 91). The transcript stated, “Philadelphia women do not only posses beauty but are celebrated for discretion modesty and unfeigned diffidence as well as wit, vivacity and good nature. Whoever heard of a women conference in Philadelphia for a reformer or anyone who was in support of it…. Address the jury….” In other words, the movement for change by women in Philadelphia was not advocated for, and its campaign was not recognized. The officials in Philadelphia were busy lowering the intentions of the movement. The authorities in Philadelphia claimed that ladies only turn up with enthusiasm and would not face reality. They only agitated for aspirations they would not argue. Demanding for rights to all privileges was considered a requirement for men not women. In the Philadelphia publication, writers state women are the controllers of everything concerning human affairs. The writer of Philadelphia adds that women of New York are not as credible as those in Philadelphia. This, he mocks that is due to the fact that any women in their traditions do not raise holding rebellions because they have governance issues on their finger tips. By virtue of beneficiary means to be called mothers, daughters and girlfriends, Philadelphia writers assume, women have enough power. In addition, the publishers Of Philadelphia claim that the roles, rights and privileges of men can only be determined by nature but no by man. This implies that advocating for change and allocation of human rights, as well as full privileges is not necessary among women. In the final remarks, the Philadelphia publications ending in an assumption that women should work hard to maintain their positions s mothers but not as women. The press ridiculed women who accessed power. In an excerpt form, the Freedom Journal, the following issues were noted (Finkelman 39). Women were not formed to provide exceptional protection for themselves but to weaken male attention and that compassion of women is a reward for the dangers men endure while trying to ensure that women are preserved in delicate ways. I addition, the right journal states that women, by the day before sparking off the Antebellum movements were expected to stay at home, and that in case they moved out of home, they would get a source of distress and would have gone beyond their limits. In this way, women were seen as housekeepers, who only waited for husbands, and they are assigned chores to do. Women therefore, had to rise and avoid this possible prison situation by their male counterparts, through joining antebellum movement. The freedom’s journal also reads that women should exert themselves in household affairs, wait for their husbands and never to suggest anything till their husbands have said something. The freedom’s journal also revealed that women had to be flattered by the little things their husbands praised them of or the slightest admiration by their husbands. One of the evidence, which actually lowered women were that women are supposed to know more than their husbands do but were not expected to reveal their education until their husbands did so. This was right standard treatment of women, which was regarded as unfair to women. This also prompted women to join antebellum (Nancy 60). In Matilda’s letter, 1837, there is a ridiculous language about the right of women. The idea of women being consulted on making decisions about issues that matter was silenced in Matelda’s knowledge of 1837. Matelda claims that consulting women when making a decision on issues that matter in society was for the days gone by and that women are no longer supposed to be consulted when making decisions. Instead, the message reveals that societies are not supposed to conform to the cultural practices of their famous fathers and mothers. Matelda claims that by acknowledging the fact that grandfathers and mothers existed one day and eventually died, eve policies or buyer which existed also disappeared with them. Therefore, women ceased to be consultants over fundamental issues (Finkelman 39). In antebellum, women claim that they have control over men only in areas of education and religion and therefore, should work perfectly to out-compete men using knowledge. Those were some of the discussions women presented at the antebellum conference. By virtue of having privileges of education and religion over men, women decided to use these privileges in such a way that they get educated; learn policies surrounding them about issues relating them with men. After clearly identifying those issues, they would then use the opportunity of learning to study ways of advocating for change. In addition, women were perceived to be more rigorous than men and they sought ways of how to use that freedom and beat the misfortune of being totally subjected to men. This also justifies why women had to go for antebellum movement. From the story of Harriet Trubman, 1863, we can also determine the reasons as to why women joined the antebellum movement for change. Harriet narrates that she was a slave under a certain master, with her family. The owner had bought Harriet of doing plantation industry. However, due to much caring for children, Harriet moved with a little boy to the lord’s property and both the boy and the mother stayed together. However, Harriet reports that she loved her youth so much and never wanted her to be assigned servant activities except for her. One time, Harriet observes her master creating powerful responsibilities for her boy child and intercepts them. However, the target of the master is to exploit this little boy so that before he becomes familiar enough to start counteracting suggestions, he is made weak and submissive. Harriet was not alone; many women faced similar challenges and decided to find ways of overcoming such situations through joining the antebellum movement. Using religion, women also fought slavery in the antebellum movement. Religious women like nuns and related sisters advocated for a fight against slavery. In implementing their support, these women actually decided to start rescuing little boys and girls they started being overworked by slave masters. They ensured that by establishing temporary relationship of brother/sisterhood. This association was established because once slave masters knew un was rescuing a sister, they became open and set the boys free. Slave women were so oppressed that they even started composing songs, which they called Slave work songs. In some areas where women got a chance to work in public positions outside the home, males dominated the workplace. The occurrence of males dominating women at work places never impressed women at all because they actually wanted to take chances of leading organizations just like the male counterparts. In the temperance movement, for instance, women were dominated by male workers.Women started organizing charitable organizations specifically to help women and not men at all. Women, through charitable organizations, addressed issues such as wage levels, education, while others focused on improving lifestyles of their counterparts. In Utopia, women demonstrated for their rights through making experiments on their advocacies with new systems of property and family relations. Division of labor between genders, in Utopia, was challenged by few women, but most advocated for it. It is also believed that women’s commitment to antebellum brought about a lot of rebuilding to societies. During antebellum movement, women became aware of their property rights and the global human rights principles for themselves and their friends (Nancy 60). Female workers who were taken after getting married got tough work, payment was unusually low and was not allowed to look at their children in any time while they labored with their work. Women who migrated from other countries to the United States made them rival for domestic servant engagements. They struggled to get places as domestic workers. Domestic servants had difficult interfaces with their middle mistresses. In order for the central women counterparts, to have enough money for survival, the domestic servants and own owned homes had to work hard day and night to ensure that they collect enough money for their middle class counterparts. Enslaved women had to fight hard in order to maintain their family ties. However, this seemed quite difficult because of the exploitation imposed on them by their slave masters. Therefore, when an opportunity came to advocate for change, they saw a need to rise, present their causes and afflictions, and then become liberated. Some women were forced to move and work on plantations as servants and were expected to leave their loved ones behind. On plantations, women used hand labor and were expected to work full time without rest. Between 1820 and 1830, slavery is believed to have separated many women from their families. The estimates of three hundred thousand couples were separated from each other during the period of slavery. Most female slaves were subjected to agricultural activities as agricultural laborers. They used to wake up unusually early in the morning and would work from that time to late in the evening when it is so dark. At night, slave women were not expected to go back to their relatives but to slave quarters. Even the situation in slave quarters was so unsuited to the lives of slave women. This is because they were subjected to the hands of an overseer, who made sure they could not escape from the camp. Women were thus, forced to join the antebellum movement in search for freedom and equal rights like men. The distribution given about a slave woman’s slave house also implicates that slave women had to go for a reform movement. The floor of slave houses were not cemented, had limited stuff, mattresses were made out of cornhusk, and There were also some pots and pans. Slave women were given only two outfits of clothes and a couple of shoes, each year. Every week, slaves got rations of rice, peas, molasses, food and tobacco. Even among the women, there were classes who were smarter. Slave mistresses for example dressed well, at well and rarely did manual labor. In the big house, slaves, shared space with all children they hard and were subject to airborne diseases (Elizabeth 91). Women in the south were disturbed by the war more than their counterparts in the North. This was because fighting was done better in the south than in the North. Plantation mistresses used to keep a close look at the big house of their master. When most of the men went to work, they were expected to take a look at the entire operation of the plantation, on which their lives depended. In addition, slave women who remained on the plantation had to finish work left behind by men. Northern women of leisure classes experienced the war in different ways. One group of these women moved on gathering forty thousand signatures of counterparts urging congress to pass a law that enhanced grant of freedom of expression, having equal rights and being very independent as male counterparts. Some other women formed charitable organizations looking for medical and other services for the union army (Helen 1). Blackwell, who is also known as the first female doctor in the United states, following the resignation of a request to end slavery in America, as advocated for b reform organizations, convened a meeting of three thousand women in New York. This meeting ended up into reforms which included the United States Sanitary commission that later resulted into the biggest voluntary association in America. The commission had seven thousand branches over the north and men had the leadership and sanitary roles. In involving men, women wanted to demonstrate that, for women, it is health to work with men. It even signified that, even when men gave autonomy to women, men would retain the position of superiority. Women held so much as most positions, men were given opportunity t take leading roles in the sanitary commission. This was done as a way of advocating for change (Elizabeth 91). The work of the sanitary commission took different channels. At one end, the sanitary authority organized fundraising sanitary fares, supplied army camps and hospitals with bandages, clothing, food and treatment and nurses who volunteered. In the military, the sanitary council supplied those people with drug and anther medical care required. Single women played an outstanding work in the antebellum reform movement. They gave reports of having initiated the resettlement program and a new United States Bureau. Single women, by establishing the children Bureau gave rise to other movements to address such issues as factory safety, housing, child labor, mothers’ pensions, women’s unions, juvenile-related issues, women suffrage and public health. Reform movement was expanded by married women through the creation of infusing clubs, temperance societies, church groups, firm women’s clubs and civic organizations throughout the united States with different activist’s policies. Black women’s clubs were also considered being instrumental in the antebellum movement. Black women fought hard to ensure that the government ensured racial equality. Black women fought against issues such as being overworked more than their white counterpart’s n grounds that they never shared similar races, denying them chances of being with their families and loved ones, among many other factors. Finally, but not the least, we can look at the report by Suzan B, who, after undergoing an agreeable person is subjected to conditions that require reform movement. Suzan B Anthony reportedly had a social life and worked in dignity and after a fateful encounter with Candy she decided to join and support the amendment organizations. Antony strengthened her relationships with educated people, politically statutes and they made a positive complete, range of reformists. Being an agent of American antislavery society, she participated in the reform activities by travelling from one place to another in order to advocate for freedom and equal rights, mainly of Black Americans. Even when the antebellum period vanished, Anthony remained as an advocate for freedom and independence among women. An extraordinary feature, which Candy and Anthony did during the antebellum revolution, was the creation of a newspaper called the world, which published complex issues. In conclusion, the antebellum movement was a proposal by both men and women against all forms of segregation, abuse and unfavorable conditions, which had affected Americans leading to their death. Slavery acted as the most serious problem that required immediate attention. In addition, racial segregation was seen as a hindrance to non residents. In the end, however, we see women as the key role players in the reform movement and that in spite of their male counterparts failing to connect with them; they form organizations and respect men by giving them senior class (Helen 1). Work cited Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz. Attitudes towards sex in Antebellum America: a Brief History with Document. Paul Finkelman. Defending Slavery: Proslavery thought in the old South: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Routledge. 2009 Elizabeth Stantson, Organization of American Historians and Regents, University of California. 2008. Print Harriet Tubman. Saving the women. Alabama: Routledge. Print Lorie D. Ginzberg. Women in Antebellum Reform. New York: Cengage. Print Matelda’s Letter, August, 2007 Nancy A. Hewilt, Reform and Reformers in the Atibellum Era, extracted from google.com on 30th Nov 2011. Sandra O, The Routledge of historical atlas of Women in America Susan Leighow & Rita Sterner-Hine, The Antebellum Women’s Movement (1820-1860) Welfare Reform in the Early Republic, a Brief History with Documents. Women in Antebellum Reform by Lori D. Ginzberg Read More