Danielle HernandezMs. Geraghty

American HistoryNovember 27, 2009

Women in Ante-Bellum America

In the Ante-Bellum years, middle class Northeastern women defied the cult of

domesticity and became political activists. They moved into the political arena on questions of

slavery, women’s rights, temperance, and prison reform. They sponsored conventions, signed

petitions, raised funds, and influenced legislation. This was a critical time in women’s history.

During the Ante-Bellum period, the topic of much discussion was slavery. Before the

country plunged into a civil war, it was constantly debating whether or not slavery was moral or

just. Many leaders in the abolitionist movement were, in fact, women. Women’s fight against

slavery was born out of the changing views of women in the early 19th century. Women such as

Catherine Beecher, a schoolteacher, began questioning the role of women in society and, through

the writings and actions of her and her sister, encouraged many women to build a strong

American society. This idea of reformation and rights brought women to the idea of abolition

since they saw their social situations mirrored in those of the oppressed black slaves. Soon, the

American Anti-Slavery Society which was founded in 1833, ceased to be male-dominated with

the addition of Abby Kelly in 1840 to their committee. After her election, Lydia Maria Child,

Lecretia Mott, Margret Jones Burleigh, Mary Grew, and Sarah Pugh, and Maria Weston

Chapman were also elected to the committee. This created an immense split amongst members

of the committee. Women argued that they were taking part in this movement due to a woman’s

understood ability to be very moral and sensitive. The men in the committee, however, rebuked

this by claiming that they only have business spreading their morals within their own families.

Many men in the AASS resigned, but the founder of the organization, William Lloyd Garrison,

supported women and blacks joining in on the abolitionist movement. A few women from the

AASS went off and formed their own organizations just for women against slavery. The

Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, which was founded on December 9, 1833, is often

referred to as the cradle of women’s rights. Along with this, a number of women- both black and

white- began to become very active abolitionists. The Grimké sisters and also a black woman,

Sojourner Truth, attended various anti-slavery meetings, gathered petitions, gave public

speeches, and wrote pamphlet and books. Another very popular way to raise awareness and

funds in the abolitionist movement was through fairs. Later in the year, however, the first World

Anti-Slavery Convention was held in London where those assembled voted to prohibit women

from participating in abolitionist movements and organizations. Women such as Lecretia Mott

and Elizabeth Cady Stanton turned their anger into action by marrying abolitionists and became

the catalysts which began a great women’s rights movement.

The involvement in anti-slavery movements developed the demand for women’s rights.

Mott and Stanton joined together after being rejected by the World Anti-Slavery Convention and

created the first women’s rights convention in US history. The Seneca Falls Convention passed a

total of 12 resolutions. One of the resolutions was called the Declaration of Sentiments which

called for women’s rights and hinted to the Declaration of Independence. It was written by

Elizabeth Stanton herself. The last resolution, however, was very controversial and would

continue to be so for a long time. This last resolution addressed the topic of universal women’s

suffrage. Not only did it receive a cold shoulder from men, but also women at the convention

who didn’t want to push it too far. Many women continued with Catherine Beecher’s view that

women should have power only through their work within domesticity but the Seneca Falls

Convention became a turning point in women’s history that’s lasting effects are still prominent

today. Since the convention, women began being enrolled in a number of universities that had

recently excluded women. Due to this, a chain of events developed. Since women had this formal

education, more and more women were taking up occupations that had never been available to

them. Many women excelled in their occupational areas in Ante-Bellum America. Margaret

Fuller became the editor of an important philosophical journal in 1845 in which she then

continued to write on behalf of women’s rights. In the late 1840’s, Maria Mitchell became the

first female astronomer and Elizabeth Blackwell followed suit in becoming the first woman to

practice medicine. Although African American women such as Sojourner Truth were not present

at that Seneca Falls Convention, they too joined together to fight for their rights and, especially,

for the issue of slavery. African American women were actually more organized and equal-

footed on the subject of slavery than white Northeastern women who tended to disagree with

each other on a number of occasions.

Not only did women fight on behalf of the rights of themselves and slaves, they also

fought for a number of other social issues in society. Women led movements in repairing society

through temperance and prison reform. Americans, in the early 19th century, lived in fear that the

United States was becoming a country of drunkards. People were consuming more alcohol then

than during any other time in the country’s history. Often the women and the children in society

were affected the most detrimentally. Family life was threatened by violence from drunken men.

In 1834, the American Temperance society was formed and those involved took pledges to

abstinence. Many women were involved in trying to dissuade the public from drinking since they

were often the victims of the drink. Attempts at prohibition laws restricting alcohol were made

but soon failed. Nevertheless, the temperance movement did have a positive impact on the

drinking habits of Ante-Bellum Americans. Women continued to work on various social reforms

such as abstinence but one individual truly left her mark in reformation. Dorothea Dix was a

schoolteacher in Massachusetts and, in 1841, she visited a local prison as a volunteer to teach the

inmates. Upon arriving, she was appalled by the conditions under which the inmates lived. They

had prostitutes, drunks, criminals, and the mentally ill all locked up together in unheated, foul-

smelling environments. During these times, those in charge of prisons and mental hospitals felt

that the insane could not be rehabilitated and that their conditions mattered not. Dix continued to

visit and take notes on many other prisons within the state and, since she had political ties and a

coy personality, she was able to create change for the better. As a result, 15 states built hospitals

for the mentally ill and she was the indirect cause of the formation of another 32 mental

hospitals, 15 schools for the feeble-minded, a school for the blind, and a number of training

facilities for nurses. Later in her life, Dix asked the US Congress to set aside millions of acres of

land for the mentally ill but when the bill was vetoed by the president, she set out to continue her

reforms throughout Europe.

Not only did women simply break away from the cult of domesticity in Ante-Bellum

America, they also became political activists. American women gathered in conventions, held

fairs to raise funds, and influence legislation on matters on slavery, women’s rights, temperance,

and prison reform. This critical point in women’s history affects women to this day as they

continue their fight in the footsteps of these important individuals.

References

Bacon, Margaret Hope. "Anti-Slavery Women Find a Voice." The Historical Society of

Pennsylvania. Nov 2005. PDF. 27 Nov 2009.

Blackmon, Dan. "Women in the Anti-Slavery Movement." Coral Gables High School AP

American History. 08 Jul 1999. Web. 27 Nov 2009.

Brown, Ira V. "Cradle of Feminism: The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, 1833-1840."

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1978): 142-166. PDF. 27 Nov 2009.

Bumb, Jenn. "Dorothea Dix." Women's Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and

Society. 2009. Webseter University, Web. 28 Nov 2009.

Cayton, A, E Perry, L Reed, and A Winkler. America: Pathways to the Present. Upper Saddle

River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. (261-63, 274-78). Print.

Mercado, Steven. "Reform & Culture in Antebellum America: 1790-1860." History Sage. 22 Jun

2004. Chaffey High School, Web. 24 Nov 2009.

Wilson, Kathryn. "Friends of Freedom: The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society." The

Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 2005. Web. 27 Nov 2009.