Emancipations Of Slaves And Women In The Early Nineteenth Century Essay

In three decades prior to the outbreak of Civil War, the Northern United States abounded with movements yearning for social transformation. The two most important movements, the ones that struck deeply at the foundations of American society, that ones that were so influential that they indeed provided the historical background to the two immense issues that Americans continue to debate and struggle with, were the crusades for the abolition of slavery and the equality of women. In the early nineteenth century, the people who challenged the idea of slavery and the adversity of women were usually slaves and women themselves. They were the ones once considered the "less-humans" without any right to speak, yet they were the ones directly suffered from oppression. The anti-slavery movements took place in the aftermath of the American Revolution and prior to the outbreak of Civil War. Being evoked by the sinful nature of slavery, people like William Lloyd Garrison, a Massachusetts printer and editor, began to make verbal actions against slavery. In January 1, 1831, Garrison published the first issue of The Liberator (Rankin 50), which was to be one of the very first vehicles for radical abolitionism. The sentiments of women's rights came afterward the experiences in anti-slavery movements. Sarah and Angelina Grimkà © were among the very effective anti-slavery speakers. As active reformers, women gradually developed organizational skills that were necessary for a nother thorough social transformation. They learned to appeal persuasively in order to speak to large groups of men and women about the importance of social transformation. In the service of anti-slavery, women had found their voices. At the First Women's Rights Convention in 184... ...s today, the United States is certainly a less racially and sexually unequal society than it was back in the nineteenth century. Even though the American people are still struggling with the true meanings of justice and equality and how to soundly apply them to society, the wrongly-driven ideology is decomposed forever. Even though the status of African Americans and women in the United States today still needs improvement, the victories they conquered so far have sparkled the history of human civilization. All these changes do represent the hardest efforts that the American people have paid in the past centuries in order to change the United States and the world to a better place for living. Works Cited Rankin, David C. History 40B Reader. Irvine: Anteater Publishing, 2003. Roark, James L., et al. The American Promise. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2003.