PALO ALTO COLLEGE
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Susan B. Anthony & Elizabeth Caty Stanton HISTORY 1301
Theme Ten: Women's
Changing Roles 		Sojourner Truth
Robert R. Hines
Assistant Professor of History

Reading Assignments:


Flyover Text, Chapters 24 & 25
Howard Zinn, Chapter 6: The Intimately Oppressed
The Solitiude of Self, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
The Cult of True Womanhood, by Barbara Welter.

Internet Required: (A), (B), (C) and (E) are REQUIRED.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Women's Rights Activist, with her daughter Harriet

 

Instructor's Introduction:
Reform: to change, perfect, improve a situation or place.
The decades long-drive to secure for women the right to vote polarized Americans.  Most men, and not a few women,  believed that women were intellectually inferior to men.  Many believed that a woman's brain was smaller than a man's brain.  This same belief was used to justify the enslavement of black people.  The mere thought of giving women the vote sounded ludicrous to even well-educated people. Thus, the significance of the women's suffrage movement should not be lost upon the student or teacher of history. At stake were the ideals of the revolution - of Jefferson, Paine, and Madison, both James and Dolly. The suffrage movement, like the African-American civil rights movement, would force the nation to look itself in the mirror. Did we believe our rhetoric about equality and liberty, or was it just for show?

 

(A) Go to the Martha Ballard Essay Exercise.
Complete all of the questions here in one essay. (1-2 pages)

Short Essay: What are Howard Zinn's main points in his chapter The Intimately Oppressed?

Susan B. Anthony, Leader of the Women's Suffrage Movement in the United States

 

(B) Go to the PBS website Not For Ourselves Alone.
Using the website above, answer the following essay questions:
1) What was the relationship between the Temperance Movement and the Suffrage Movement?
2) Lucretia Mott, Martha C. Wright, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Ann McClintock authored the Declaration of Sentiments for the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. What was the difficulty they faced in writing the Declaration?
3) What was the distinction between the views of Suffragists and Women’s Rights Advocates?
4) How did Susan B Anthony’s life resemble that of Quaker women of her time and
why was it contradictory to the Cult of True Womanhood?

WorldMarch 2000

 

(C) Please read Elizabeth Cady Stanton's essay Solitude of Self, delivered to the United States Senate in 1892. She was fairly old by this time, and not in good health. But no matter. What were her main ideas? What do you think she is trying to accomplish? Are there ideas in her essay that hold meaning for us today? Which ones? Why?

 

(D) I'd like you to do an analysis. By now you are familiar with the issues facing women of the nineteenth century: suffrage, temperance, slavery, education, etc. What are the important issues facing women in the early 21st century? They are obviously different, given the times. But they are often the same! Yes, some of the issues facing women today are similar to those 150 years ago. Go to home page for the The National Organization for Women. Granted, this is a political organization with its own particular goals. But this web page does a fair enough job of summarizing the problems facing women in today's American society. In a one-page essay, what does NOW see as the most important issues? Where do they stand on these issues? Which ones do you feel are the most important, and why? What do you think could be done? How?

For Further Study in the History of Significant American Women, visit Historical Figures: Women in History I like this site because it gives you not only a quick background on the person, but some decent links for more detailed information.

 

(E) Dying of Breast Cancer in Early America

No disease creates more fear and confusion for American women than breast cancer. Read Chapter 25 of the Flyover History Text. Answer the following in ONE essay: What factors contributed to Nabby Smith's breast cancer being a virtual death sentence? How did Nabby and her family react to the disease? Why was Nabbys' surgery performed in such horrific conditions? What eventually happened to her?

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