Meta-Review: Susan B. Anthony - Racist, Manipulator? Who's Lying to You About Early Feminism?

Meta-Review: Susan B. Anthony - Racist, Manipulator? Who's Lying to You About Early Feminism?

When mentioning feminism, people often write about those good, moderate feminists--feminist leaders of the 1800s. Let's go Web surfing. You might be really surprised at what we'll find.

Men started organizations to abolish slavery in the 1700s. In 1794, early abolitionists held the Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies. Men and women continued to work against slavery in those organizations for some time without interference from feminists, who were known then as "woman's rights" proponents or "suffragists."

In the 1800s, early feminists repeatedly entered anti-slavery and temperance (alcohol prohibition) organizations for the purpose of forcing feminism into other agendas. Their demands for leadership by the most radical feminists were often rejected. They tried to abuse the abolitionism and temperance movements for their own cause.

William Lloyd Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society split over his pro-feminism and refusal to allow members to engage in any political remedy. Most members of his organization went on to form other organizations, leaving him with few supporters. He tried to disband the organization unsuccessfully in 1866, retired, then tried to credit the end of slavery to himself. The Fourteenth Amendment was in the works of Congress the same year.

The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 with the Fifteenth Amendment likely to be, to give people of all races the right to vote. But the Fifteenth Amendment did not specify "sex." Susan B. Anthony and her friends became so furious that they began to oppose the ballot for people of colors other than white.

Anthony and Stanton joined George Train--a notorious racist--on a speaking tour in 1867, then accepted funding from him to start their newspaper, The Revolution (on microfilm in many universities). Much information exists on this facet of the early "women's" movement, although not in popular media or school texts sanitized by feminist censors. There is possibly more of the real, less censored History in our libraries than one person could ever find or read.

In these reading sessions, the surprises keep coming. Stanton made crude, public racist remarks in her speeches while Anthony made veiled, slippery racist comments. Did you know that Susan B. Anthony "refused to speak out against lynching?" (WWW. Dr. John McClymer, Dr Lucia Knoles, Dr. Arnold Pulda, "The KKK in the 1920s," part of "America in the 1920s" E Pluribus Unum Project.) Sometimes, a refusal to speak, especially by someone who is in the business of speaking, can have sad consequences.

Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Matilda Joslyn Gage formed a separate "suffrage" organization against the vote for African-American men--the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. "The NWSA and the AWSA" were eventually "reunited" (WWW. E. Susan Barber, Barbara Orbach Natanson, "One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview, ('1900')" American Memory, Library of Congress). Anthony chose Carrie Catt to take her place as NAWSA President. Carrie Chapman Catt ("H-Women" discussion board thread), another close associate of Anthony's, was, of course, also a racist.

It's a shame that Anthony asked for censorship of all history that "reflected badly on others" (WWW. IOBA Standard. Martha Kelly, "Neglected Americana: The Woman's Rights Movement". Mary Huth, "From a talk delivered at the Susan B. Anthony House in 2002." Gutenberg Books.) from her biography. We'll probably never find all of the truth about her and other early feminists.

Anthony is rumored by many quotation sites to have made a comment once about "bicycling" leading to "untrammeled womanhood." With that and what we've learned, I can't help but remember a scene from the early part of the old "Wizard of Oz" film. Dorothy looked out through the window as her house twirled in the tornado, and she saw Miss Elmira Gulch bicycling while suspended in the wind. Then Miss Gulch turned into...and her bicycle turned into a...well, you know. After having read so much of the early History involving feminism, it's difficult to get the melody that accompanied that scene and later scenes with the same character (Elmira and her other, more clear manifestation) out of one's head.
Art Lemasters

("African-American Mosaic," Library of Congress. Zachariah Poulson, Minutes of Proceedings of a Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies...,". Title page Philadelphia: , 1794 Rare Book and Special Collections Division. http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam005.html)

(Christian Answers Network. David Barton, WallBuilders. Eden Communications. "Benjamin Rush, Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Minutes of the Proceedings of a Convention of Delegates >From the Abolition Societies Established in Different Parts of the United States, Assembled at Philadelphia, on the First Day of January, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Four... (Philadelphia: Zachariah Poulson, 1794), p. 24. 'To the Citizens of the United States.'" http://www.christiananswers.net/q-wall/wal-g003.htm)

(Dr. John McClymer, Dr Lucia Knoles, Dr. Arnold Pulda, "Origins of the Woman's Rights Movement - A Narrative Guide to the Sources." E Pluribus Unum Project. http://www.assumption.edu/nmc2000/TemperanceConventionPlot.html

(Jone Johnson Lewis. "Elizabeth Cady Stanton Quotations." About Women's History. Helen Kendrick Johnson, Woman and the Republic: A Survey of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States and a Discussion of the Claims and Arguments of Its Foremost Advocates. The Guidon Club Opposed to Woman Suffrage, New York, 1913. http://womenshistory.about.com/library/qu/blqustan.htm. 16AUG03)

(Garrison, William Lloyd, Houghton Mifflin. James Brewer Stewart, "William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation" (1991); John L. Thomas, The Liberator William Lloyd Garrison: A Biography (1963). http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_035200_garrisonwill.htm)

(The Journal for MultiMedia History, "Video Review of Not For Ourselves Alone," Rebecca Edwards, Vassar College. "Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony." Video. Produced by Ken Burns and Paul Barnes. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward. 1999. http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol3/ourselves_alone/ourselves-alone.html).

(Marjorie Spruill Wheeler, The History of the Suffrage Movement. PBS Online. http://www.pbs.org/onewoman/suffrage.htm)

(Ida Husted Harper, Life and Work of Susan B.Anthony V2, Chapter XXVII. 1898-1908. "Not for Ourselves Alone." PBS Online. http://www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/resources/index.html?body=bread_not_ballot.html)

(Houghton Mifflin, The Reader's Companion to American History. "National Woman Suffrage Association." http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_063800_nationalwom2.htm)

(Dr. John McClymer, Dr Lucia Knoles, Dr. Arnold Pulda, "The KKK in the 1920s," part of "America in the 1920s." E Pluribus Unum Project. http://www.assumption.edu/ahc/1920s/Eugenics/Klan.html)

(Ellen DuBois, Syllabus on the Web, 1998. Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, "African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920, Equal Rights Association Meeting, New York City, May 12-14,1869." http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/dubois/classes/995/98F/doc30.htm)

(E. Susan Barber, Barbara Orbach Natanson, "One Hundred Years toward Suffrage: An Overview, ('1900')" American Memory, Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/vfwhtml/vfwtl.html).

(IOBA Standard. Martha Kelly,"Neglected Americana: The Woman's Rights Movement". Mary Huth, "From a talk delivered at the Susan B. Anthony House in 2002." Gutenberg Books. http://www.ioba.org/newsletter/V11/IOBANL-SuffragePt2-5-03.php#8)

(Louise Michele Newman, White Women's Rights: The Racial Origins of Feminism in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)

(James Allen, John Littlefield, "Photographs and Postcards of Lynching in America." "Without Sanctuary." Musarium, 2000. http://www.musarium.com/withoutsanctuary)

I've heard that suffragettes or other early feminists gave black women activists a cold shoulder. In the south, the suffragettes may have been enthusiastic for Jim Crow. All those white guys were "defending southern womenhood", don't you know. Personally, I imagine anyone who grew up in the south, didn't work or conduct business, rarely travelled (much less left their house or spent much time outside in direct sunlight), and was raised to be innocent, naive, and virtuous would never question the thinking behind Jim Crow or think about the humanity of those uneducated, subservient dark people who didn't dress very well. Your average suffragette was probably not a homemaker, but someone with too much time on their hands. But the end result of their efforts was for the best (electing Warren Harding doesn't count). It just took some time.

Using a strategy first suggested by Henry Blackwell, northern and southern leaders began to argue that woman suffrage--far from endangering white supremacy in the South--could be a means of restoring it. Indeed, they suggested, the adoption of woman suffrage with educational or property qualifications that would disqualify most black women, would allow the South to restore white supremacy in politics without "having to" disfranchise black men and risk Congressional repercussions.

It was a strategy that worked, and gained women the vote much sooner than had it not been used. The argument that allowing women to vote would add twice as many WHITES to the voting pool. The women's movement also floated the idea that women would vote in accordance with their husband's wishes, thereby essentially given white men two votes instead of one.

Enough MEN bought both strategic arguments that the 19th Ammendment passed. In short, they were suckered.

Politics is dirty business. Many men were and are miffed at the fact that women can play just as dirty as men to get wha they want.

Whether or not feminists were racist is immaterial. No doubt as many were as were men in any men's group. Great numbers of Americans (including men and women) were and are racist. Personally, I believe early feminists used racial arguments as a strategy ..... and a mighty sucessful one..... to gain the vote.

"I've heard that suffragettes or other early feminists gave black women activists a cold shoulder."

Yes, they did! That information is at some of the sites in
the cites and links in the piece. Except for Sojourner
(who in essence said that feminism was more important than
the 15th Amendment), the African-American women
rightfully split off from the early white feminazis.

There were slurs and other information that could have been
quoted, but the author did not want to recall anger to
anyone to the point where their day was messed up. But
there is a link to a lynching museum (with photos)
site--something we in the USA must never forget, IMO.

And Ward Connerly is right on with the RPI--a brave and
honorable man. It's time for a new direction in this
country--Americans, working together to make and keep
our country free! ...and the Republican Party to
continue with some of its better early roots. The Dems
were the worst when it came to racism.

Susan B. didn't do anything to bring the 19th. She hindered
it. Conservative people who remained faithful to the
Republican Party were the ones really responsible for
passing. Susan B. and her witchy friends only hindered
it by their "free love," man hating, anti-Christian,
racist and Marxist agendas. And they willfully set
temperance and the 15th back. Susan was also the
most radical kind of DV feminazi.

The documents disagree with the feminazi line and the
sanitized, filtered garbage being sent to our little
girls in schools and to our government publications.

Feminism is a branch of socialism and nothing more.

But the word going out proves all of this.

Whatever. You obviously have a personal vendetta against feminism that clouds your vision.

Women, blacks and everyone else rightfully got the vote which is the POINT of a representative democracy. One of the fundamental principles announced in the Declaration of Independence is that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Women made up 50% of the governed and were rightfully indignant at being snubbed. The 15th Ammendment should have covered EVERYONE, not just a small percentanage of the disenfranchised. Feminsists of the day did what they had to to ensure that women got their just rights under the precepts of our Constitution. The 15th had already passed. They didn't work to rescind it, they just wanted women (50% of the population) to be included in it. If they had to use pre-existing racisist and sexist attitudes in a ploy to get the vote, I'd say that was pretty smart (if dirty) politics. They co-opted existing dirty political tactics. Now some are upset that women have learned how to manuever politically (from watching men). It may not be pretty but it does work.

"You obviously have a personal vendetta against feminism
that clouds your vision."

You obviously haven't read the review and the referenced
pages. And real conservatives don't follow the likes of
Hillary in any disguise. They only launch the cries of
false victimhood in efforts to fool conservatives into
launching socialism via gobs of new bureaucrats against
what they describe as an epidemic of evil fathers and
men. ...all to destroy the family so they can have their
"sexual freedom."

Feminists make rhetorical noise without reason or facts.
The review is full of and linked to the facts.

Here. We're way ahead of feminist lurkers. The
following is from a strategist in an organization of
Republican voters ("Bob").

Quote:

Trying to anticipate the feminist dismissal of it (and dismissal will likely be their tactic of choice -- it's what they always do when faced with uncomfortable facts), I have a suggestion for the more detailed, follow-up article you said was planned. I expect they will try to excuse old Susie B by asserting that her opposition to the Negro vote wasn't racism at all, but a political tactic, an attempt to gain recognition of the alleged injustice of enfranchising black men, but not white women. Sort of a "but we should ALL have the same rights" kind of thing. They'll "prove" that by pointing out her work as an abolitionist.

Doesn't matter. What matters is everyone has a voice in politics. Whether or not you agree with them is another matter entirely. Not all women vote the same way. Not all feminists believe in the same things or vote the same way. That's the beauty of our system. A system we would not have if HALF our population could not vote.

I agree it was not the point. I was responding to your off-the-point diatribe against "socialism".

The point of the review is that (if) some early feminists were racist or used racist/sexists strategy ... or strategically allied themselves to certain groups to gain political clout, that this is supposedly discredits them. Well, if it does, it discredits every politician and politic activist from the beginning of time.

It's calld Politics. Women then and now know how its played. Maybe they read history books.

___ The Founders sold blacks down the river and appeased the slave-holding South in order to get them to join the Union. It's called politics. That's how the game is played.

___ Many of our Founders OWNED blacks as slaves. If we're going to discredit the ideals and views of racists, we'd be making a long list of ideals that have no merit .... including the ones our coutry was founded upon.

If we're going to indict ends justify the means strategy, then early feminists have plenty of company. I think what they did was rather smart. Since men were the only ones who could vote on whether or not women could vote, they appealed to men at THEIR level, using existing racist and sexist language.

It worked.

Obviosly when we look at history, we have to accept the good with the bad and look at the sum total of where we are NOW. We're the strongest freest nation on earth, in the history of earth. I'd say our not-so-perfect predecesors did a pretty good job all in all in bringing that about.

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