History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 28

History - Essay Example In the eleven states in the US that constituted the American South, slavery was an established social and legal institution that was an integral part of the agricultural economy of these states. The American abolitionists favored the end of slavery, even under the risk of jeopardizing the harmony existing between the Northern and the Southern states. The Abolitionist Movement was favored by many luminaries like William Lloyd Garrison, John Greenleaf Whittier, Fredrick Douglass, and Charles Henry Langston. The Women’s Movement in the United States intended to seek a more egalitarian and just life for the female citizens of the republic. It was motivated by a number of ways in which the women were discriminated against in the United States. In the 1848 America, women were subject to several institutionalized biases. Not only the women were denied the right to vote, but they were also required to be subservient to the laws, while having no active role in the making of those laws. The Women’s Movement intended to correct this injustice. These two movements immensely influenced each other in the sense that many of the female luminaries who stood for woman’s rights were also former abolitionists (Sklar 4). Initially the few people who openly spoke against slavery, which may include Sarah Grimke and Angelina Grimke, also happened to be committed feminists (Sklar 27). To a great extent, it was the participation of the women abolitionists in the anti-slavery activities like public speaking, working for the cause of abolition, organizing rallies and events, getting the petitions signed, planning and managing fundraising events, and drafting and mailing letters to the congressman that gave them a real, firsthand insight into the dynamics and mechanics of political activism, which the later exploited in supporting the cause of women’s rights. Actually it was the sidelining of women abolitionists in the 1840