The Role of Women in the Antislavery Movement in the United States

The Romanticism Period (1830-1865) is an important era in world history, including that of the US. Some of the major features of this time in the US include the emergence of feminist organizations in the US and anti-slave (abolitionist) movements. The Women’s Movement is known for its fight for equal gender rights. However, most people are not aware of the contribution to other aspects of American society such as the significant role of women in the abolition of slavery. The struggle for women’s equality was related to the abolitionism movement primarily due to the active involvement of women in the two causes to fight for equality. From 1830 to 1850, women were a significant force to reckon with within the abolitionist movement in America due to their resilient demand for the equal treatment of all people, in spite of color and gender (Lochhead 2). Women coordinated their efforts by forming female anti-slavery societies and women’s countrywide anti-slavery conventions (Lochhead 2).

The involvement of American women in the fight for slavery extended beyond American soil. During the World’s Antislavery Convention in London in 1840, there were seven female representatives from the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts (including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucracia Mott), waiting outside the hall to listen to the conference proceedings (Blackwell 14). During that time, women were rarely given an opportunity to discuss significant issues such as politics, but they still fought against slavery (Blackwell 15). In the 1820s, Elizabeth Chandler informed many women about abolition through her articles in “The Genius of Universal Emancipation.” In her work, Chandler included pictures of female slaves and titled it “Am I, not a Woman and a Sister?” after this, the Female Department of the newspaper started to discuss the difficulties undergone by female slaves, even during pregnancy (Lochhead). Chandler wanted to make other women to put themselves in the shoes of female slaves and garner female support for the anti-slavery movement.

Two of the most important women in the abolition movement in the 1930s were Sarah and Angelina Grimke. They grew up in South Carolina and witnessed the suffering of slaves. Sarah joined the Society of Friends in 1821 and Angelina joined in 1829 (Lochhead 8). They were then appointed by the AAS as lecturers in the North East. The decision created controversy, including opposition by religious leaders, since women were not allowed to give public lectures (Lochhead 8). Harriet Tubman was another essential woman whose work in slavery cannot go unmentioned. She was a conductor if the Underground Railroad, a Union spy, a nurse, and an ardent supporter of women’s suffrage. Harriet was born into slavery, and her skull was fractured by her owner when she tried to save a fellow slave from punishment (Humble ISD 3). As a result, if the head injury, she suffered frequent fainting spells throughout her life, but that did not stop her from fighting for freedom. After her escape, she made nineteen journeys to free slaves. Tubman had medicine to quiet crying babies and a pistol to scare off slave hunters. The authorities put a bounty on her head ($40,000), but she was never caught (Humble ISD 3). The worst place to be a slave during this era was the South. In the Southern Confederate States, racial segregation was at its worst due to the highly discriminatory Jim Crow rules.

During the Industrial Revolution, many factories sprung in the US, primarily due to technology advancements and the presence of raw materials in the country. Many people applied for jobs in factories, including women. However, they were not given the same treatment as their male counterparts. Their average wages were lower, and they had fewer opportunities for promotions, training, seniority benefits, and overtime pay compared to men. The labor regulations did not concentrate on women’s rights. Other issues women faced include sexual harassment, as well as the absence of maternity leave and childcare subsidies. Hence, the labor law greatly favored the masculine worker (Gottfried 143). The lack of maternity leave placed women at a disadvantage since it increased their likelihood of being fired due to absenteeism as they nursed their children and took time off work to heal after childbirth. In the Romanticism Era, men were against the entrance of women in the labor force because they said that women provided moral guidance to their families. Therefore, they should stay at home and perform domestic chores. For this reason, men in leadership positions, including factory heads, made regulations that prevented women from equal economic prosperity as men. The use of the Bible to domesticate women and demand submission was an excuse to prevent them from achieving equality.

The Women’s Movement was responsible for the improved treatment of female factory workers (Stevenson 742). The growing popularity of the Feminist Movements in American households and the political scene made employers wary of how they treated women at the workplace due to the fear of backlash. The Women’s Movement fight against slavery made it appealing to Americans of all races, as black people constituted the majority of the slaves. Employers were forced to revisit their regulations concerning significant female issues such as sexual harassment and the provision of maternity leave.

Works Cited

Blackwell, Marilyn S. "Women were Among our Primeval Abolitionists: Women and Organized Antislavery in Vermont." Vermont HIstory 82.1 (2014): 13-44. .

Gottfried, Heidi. "Why Workers’ Rights Are Not Women’s Rights." Laws 4 (2015): 139–163.

Humble ISD. "Abolition and Women's Rights." 2014. .

Lochhead, Joyce A. "Turning the World Upside Down: Women Abolitionists and the Women's Rights Movement." North-West Missouri State University, 2014. .

Stevenson, George. "The Women's Movement and ‘Class Struggle': Gender, Class Formation and Political Identity in Women's Strikes, 1968–78." Women's History Review (2015): 741-755.