Abolition and Women

The mid 19th century is called “the Age of Jackson” because it was as revolutionary as its namesake, Andrew Jackson, seventh United States president and developer of the Democratic Party. The Jacksonian Period was an era of change. The Industrial Revolution of the century began taking its toll on the US. Since the average man was a laborer, people began to move to cities. These growing cities became centers of filth and poverty while small agricultural regions began to decline. The Transportation Revolution connected the continent with a web of railroads, allowing the migration westward and boosting the economy. The invention of the cotton gin impacted southern agriculture by speeding up the harvest of cotton and, in turn, revamped slavery in the south. People began distrusting industry and the capitalist way of life. Some people turned to religion for the answers, others to reform movements. Reformers fought for causes, spanning from improved conditions and wages for laborers to temperance. Throughout this period, however, two social reforms stood out among the rest. Since the beginning of the United States, the abolition of slavery had been an issue. Although slavery was not directly discussed in it, the Const

The Declaration of Sentiments, presented at the Seneca Falls Convention, was written by Elizabeth Stanton as a satire of the Declaration of Independence. Abolition laws were passed in all of the northern states, but it remained in the South, which depended on slave labor for their economy. The document put a cap on the trade of slaves from Africa, creating a gradual end by 1808. This angered many women, including Elizabeth Caty Stanton and Lucretia Mott. The abolitionist movement came to a head with the Civil War, after which slavery ended. Suffragettes wanted to have a voice and moral input so that they had an effect on society. Though progress was slow and the movement was postponed during the Civil War, the suffragettes"tm goal eventually was achieved when women received the right to vote with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The Suffragettes petitioned for equal rights for women, under the law and in society. Weld, like Walker, appeals to moral judgment. Another example is The Confessions of Nat Turner. Fewer still had a formal education. By stating "all men and women are created equal," Stanton laid out the foundation of the movement and gave justification to the suffragettes"tm cause. Women"tms suffrage and the abolitionist movements were much the same, though still very different. Turner"tms story, and other first-hand accounts of the horrors of slavery, such Frederick Douglass"tm autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, provided persuasive support to the abolitionist argument. The issue of women"tms rights had also been in debate since the early days of the Union, though it did not become a major movement until the 19th century.