Anti-Slavery Movement and Women’s Rights Movement

During the eighteenth and the nineteenth century, slavery had become a common source of labor in American plantations. Slavery was geared towards black slaves from Africa. In the United States of America, support for the slave trade was split between the north and the south. The north was more industrial and offered equal rights to all races. On the other hand, the south was made up of large plantations that required a workforce for any yields to be seen. Due to the split in support for slavery, people who did not support slavery formed the Anti-Slavery Movement. The Anti-Slavery Movement was formed to help slaves from the south escape to the north, where they would live peacefully and receive equal treatment. The Anti-Slavery Movement was made up of both genders, with people playing different roles to ensure the movement’s success. Women involved in the Anti-Slavery Movement stood for what they knew was right and played a huge role in securing freedom for the slaves. One of the main reasons to write this paper is to highlight women’s involvement in the Anti-Slavery Movement, their motivation that led to their involvement, their contribution, and how their involvement led to the establishment of the Women’s Rights Movement.

Different people have different motivations to be involved in any movement, but some of the main motivations that made women want to be involved in the Anti-Slavery Movement include; the first has to do with their humanity. Slaves were treated unfairly, bordering cruelty. Many people did not like and would not sit back and let others treat people like property for their profits. The second reason why some women joined the Anti-Slavery Movement was their religion. During the period, the Liberal religions were vocal on human rights and equality of souls no matter their race (Howard 265). Due to this, some women were convinced that if souls were considered equal no matter their race, people should also have equal rights while on earth. As a result, they joined the Anti-Slavery Movement to help others secure their freedom and equality. Some of the common Liberal religions include the Quakers, Unitarians, and Universalists. The other reason some women wanted to join the Anti-Slavery Movement was that they were slaves and wanted to secure the freedom of other slaves in the south. Although the number of former female slaves that were members of the Anti-Slavery Movement was low, their involvement was crucial to secure freedom for other slaves. Whatever motivation each woman had makes no difference; their involvement in the movement is undeniable.

Members of the Anti-Slavery Movement played various roles during the movement. Some of the main contributions women had include; the first is that the Female Anti-Slavery Society was very vocal and involved in the emancipation of slaves. Through their efforts, more people were willing to be involved in the struggle for equality, which strengthened the Anti-Slavery Movement and led to the Civil War. The second contribution is that most of the Underground Railroad was supported by women (Howard 275). The Underground Railroad was a series of a safe houses that liberators would use to transport the slaves from the south to the north. Some of the services women provided to slaves in the Underground Railroad include protection from authorities wanting to arrest and return them to their “owners,” offering food and water to the slaves during their journey, and providing transportation from one Underground Railroad station to the next. Some women were also involved as liberators. This means that some women were actively involved in going to the south to help slaves escape from their masters and help them through their journey north, where they would be safe and receive equal rights. Through women’s involvement in the Anti-Slavery Movement, many slaves were successfully liberated from slavery and lived peacefully in the north.

During the Anti-Slavery Movement, some women were famous for their involvement in the struggle for freedom for the slaves. One of the most famous of them all is Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was a former slave that escaped from captivity on her own. When she managed to get to the north, she was introduced to the Anti-Slavery Movement and decided to join as one of the liberators. She used the name Moses as she offered her life and services to help slaves escape to the north (Blanchard 65). As a member of the Anti-Slavery Movement, she conducted thirteen missions and helped seventy slaves escape from slavery. Some of her accomplishments include that she never lost a single slave during her missions. She would later become a Union Scout during the Civil War and be the first woman to lead a combat assault. Other women famous for their roles in the movement include Susan B. Anthony, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Louisa May Alcott, Elizabeth Blackwell, Ednah Dow Cheney, Lydia Maria Child, Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis, and Lucy Colman. Their courage and involvement were the reason why the movement was successful.

As women were fighting for equal rights for slaves, they realized they would also fight for their rights. The Women’s Rights Movement developed due to the women in the Anti-Slavery Movement choosing to expand the American promise for equal treatment for the slaves to include women. When the women involved in Anti-Slavery Movement decided to start the Women’s Rights Movement, they received support from other members, including male members of the Anti-Slavery Movement (Dailey 6). Due to the support and experience, they made the Women’s Rights Movement a success. their main agenda was to improve and ensure equal rights for women compared to men.

For the women to want to develop another organization to fight for women’s rights, they realized several issues in society. The first was that women were struggling to receive equal rights due to the existence of conservative religions. The religions offered ideologies that demined and degraded women stripping them off of their rights. The second reason women developed the Women’s Rights Movement was due to gender discrimination that existed in society (Dailey 5). Apart from unfair treatment from some religious groups, many people and organizations were not fair to women. The Women’s Rights Movement was meant to help women of all color receive the equal treatment they deserved.

To sum up what has been stated, the eighteenth and the nineteenth century was a dark era where America would use slaves as cheap labor for their fields. During that time, the northern part of the United States of America industrialized and offered equal rights to people from all races. Due to the difference in ideologies, the Anti-Slavery Movement was formed in the north to help secure freedoms and equal rights for slaves.  Women were involved in various activities to help the movement’s activities to secure the slaves’ freedom. Their main involvement was in managing and funding the Underground Railway, but some would also go for missions to the south to liberate slaves. From the Ant-slavery Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement was developed to fight for their rights as they had fought for the slaves’ equal rights.

Bibliography

Blanchard, Bettina. “Harriet Tubman.” (2020). https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/wmpg_bhm/41/

Dailey, Karen Elizabeth. Southern Civil War Women and the Women’s Rights Movement: Finding a Place in History. Diss. Southern New Hampshire University, 2021. https://search.proquest.com/openview/9567159bbdf2b25312b3d0a1befc90c4/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y

Howard, Neil. “Abolitionist anti-politics? Capitalism, coercion and the modern anti-slavery movement.” Revisiting Slavery and Antislavery. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 263-279. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-90623-2_10