Historical Analysis Essay Progress Check 2

Women have always fought to have equal rights as men. The fight over women’s suffrage extended from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, as women rallied to gain the right to vote. Women fought against the conventional views of a women’s place such as being looked down upon or maintaining the house, cooking, and tending to their families as their sole responsibility. Women had no voting rights and very little education. When women started to become part of the reform movement and start fighting for their rights was the start of ultimately succeeding in winning the 19th amendment which states ‘’The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.’’ Women known as the suffrages spoke up and joined the cause that eventually landed women their rights to vote. The woman fought for nearly 100 years for the right to vote and things would be extremely different today had women not gained that right. Although, the right to vote for African American women was nearly five decades away. African American women were deliberately kept out of the suffrage movement for the sake of keeping the support of many upper-class white southern women and not interfere with the disenfranchisement of African American women. This was not a campaign premised on women’s universal voting rights, but it is a campaign premised in the process of selective voting rights for white American women. Although the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, the first African American suffragist known as Isabella Baumfree who later changed her name to Sojourner Truth was a slave from upstate New York. Sojourner was born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter in 1826 and become the first African American woman to win a case against a white after going to court to reclaim her son in 1828. She traveled throughout the eastern United States and attended woman’s rights conventions as an outspoken proponent for woman’s rights and woman suffrage. She captivated her audience and even won over skeptics. She earned her money by selling the ‘’Narrative of Sojourner Truth’’. Written for her by Olive Gilbert. She also delivered a very powerful speech for women’s rights at the Ohio woman’s convention in Akron in 1851, titled ‘’Ain’t I a Woman?’’ This speech secured her reputation as a famous champion of the woman’s rights cause and in 1864, she traveled to Washington D.C where she was received by President Lincoln in the White House. She attended a meeting for the rights of the American Equal Rights Association where she supported the vote for black men and women. Sojourner died in 1883 in Battle Creek, Michigan where she lived. Through the years her fight inspired many other African American women to join the fight of the suffrage movement such as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Mary Church Terrell, Nannie Helen Burroughs, and Ida B. Wells. All women played significant roles in African American Women’s rights.