born a slave in Mississippi, was a pioneering activist and journalist.
first hand point of view from someone who actually experienced slavery
7 Matching Annotations
- Oct 2018
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www.americanyawp.com www.americanyawp.com
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www.americanyawp.com www.americanyawp.com
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the singular prosperity and growing strength of that people ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.
Prosperous (adj.): Successful in material terms; flourishing financially. America has been successful up unto this point due to men being superior to women but also due to women helping out in their households.
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As for myself, I do not hesitate to avow that although the women of the United States are confined within the narrow circle of domestic life, and their situation is in some respects one of extreme dependence, I have nowhere seen woman occupying a loftier position;
Women have important responsibilities (i.e. clothing, cooking, taking care of household) but it is unheard of for a woman to hold a high position in society.
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In no country has such constant care been taken as in America to trace two clearly distinct lines of action for the two sexes and to make them keep pace one with the other, but in two pathways that are always different.
America is the only country where the duties of men and women are divided so distinctly and so unevenly.
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American women never manage the outward concerns of the family or conduct a business or take a part in political life; nor are they, on the other hand, ever compelled to perform the rough labor of the fields or to make any of those laborious efforts which demand the exertion of physical strength.
Because men have been seen as superior to women for so long, women in 19th century America did not even seem to want more responsibilities or want the responsibilities that men traditionally had.
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They hold that every association must have a head in order to accomplish its object, and that the natural head of the conjugal association is man.
Men is superior to women; and therefore they should be in charge of decision making and running the business. However, women are seen as "naturally better people" and are sometimes moral guides of household.
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Thus, then, while they have allowed the social inferiority of woman to continue, they have done all they could to raise her morally and intellectually to the level of man; and in this respect they appear to me to have excellently understood the true principle of democratic improvement.
Democratic improvement is seen as helping or aiding women in social interactions because they are seen as inferior to men in this category as well as others.
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