Collection of Short Primary Sources

From Failure is Impossible By Rosemary H. Knower

Abigail Adams, in letter to her husband and Founding Father, John Adams (1776) John, in the new code of laws . . . remember the ladies. . . . Do not put such unlimited power in the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. . . . We . . . will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1848) We felt as helpless and hopeless as if we had suddenly been asked to construct a steam engine. Women did vote in America at the time the Constitution was adopted. If the Framers of the Constitution meant they should not, why did they not distinctly say so? The women of the country, having at last roused up to their rights and duties as citizens, have a word to say. . . . It is not safe to leave the "intentions" of the [Founding] Fathers, or of the Heavenly Father, wholly to masculine interpretation. Mr. President, Abraham Lincoln immortalized himself by the emancipation of four million slaves. Immortalize yourself by bringing about the complete emancipation of thirty-six million women. Abolitionist Frederick Douglass in his newspaper, The North Star (1848) In respect to political rights. there can be no reason in the world for denying to woman the elective franchise. Susan B. Anthony (1865) Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less. We represent fifteen million peopleone-half the entire population of the countrythe Constitution classes us as "free people," yet we are governed without our consent, compelled to pay taxes without appeal, and punished for violations of law without choice of judge or juror. You are now amending the Constitution, and . . . placing new safeguards around the individual rights of four million emancipated slaves. We ask that you extend the right of suffrage to womenthe only remaining class of disfranchised citizensand thus fulfill your constitutional obligation. Sojourner Truth (1867) I . . . speak for the rights of colored women. I want to keep the thing stirring, now that the ice is cracked. . . . You have been having our rights for so long, that you think, like a slaveholder, that you own us. Wyoming Legislature (1890) "We will remain out of the Union a hundred years rather than come in without our women!" Woodrow Wilson (1918) This is a people's war. They think that democracy means that women shall play their part alongside men, and upon an equal footing with them. If we reject measures like this, in ignorant defiance of what a new age has brought forth, they will cease to follow us or trust us. Carrie Chapman Catt (1926) Down the roll-call, name by name, droned the voice of the Clerk. Mann of Illinois and Barnhart of Indiana had come from hospital beds to vote for suffrage; Sims of Tennessee came, in agony from a broken shoulder, to vote yes; Hicks of New York came from his wife's deathbed to keep his promise to her and vote for suffrage. YesNoname-by-name came the vote. It was close, but it was enough. Ours has been a movement with a soul, ever leading on. Women came, served, and passed on, but others came to take their places. Who shall say that all the hosts of the millions of women who have toiled and hoped and met delay are not here today, and joining in the rejoicing? Their cause has won.

Exerpt from: The Declaration of Sentiments

Seneca Falls, New York, 1848
Notes, Questions, Comments hitherto until this time impel - force to do self-evident obvious without explanation or proof endowed provide with something desirable (worth having) When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government

The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of inalienable impossible to take man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny away over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. allegiance loyalty; devotion He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.

usurpation unlawful taking of He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. power candid honest; open franchise right to vote compelled forced civilly relating to government and/or society depriving to prevent someone from having something facilities means or way of doing something degradation the act of humiliating somebody, causing him or her a loss of status, reputation, or self-esteem aggrieved to cause somebody pain, trouble, or distress fraudulently not honest, true, or fair, and intended to deceive people He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns. After depriving her of all rights as a married woman, if single, and the owner of property, he has taxed her to support a government which recognizes her only when her property can be made profitable to it. He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her. Now, in view of this entire disfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation--in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of the United States.

Exerpt from: The Declaration of Independence

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1776

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.. In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States.

Aint I A Woman?
Speech given by Sojourner Truth Delivered To The Women's Convention In Akron, Ohio December, 1851
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman? Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full? Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them. Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

Name: ______________________ Chapter 19 - Section 3 Worksheet Primary Sources from the Womens Suffrage Movement 1. How did historical events change the tone of the speakers in the fight for womens suffrage over time? (For example, what new code of laws was Abigail Adams referring to? How did the events at that time influence her writing?)

2. Why did the writers of the Declaration of Sentiments copy the style of the Declaration of Independence?

3. Why does Sojourner Truth ask Aint I a woman? repeatedly? What message is she trying to send? (List specific examples from the Aint I a Woman? Speech)