American Equal Rights Association

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The American Equal Rights Association ( AERA ) was founded in the United States in 1866 . In accordance with the constitution, its purpose was to “secure equal rights to all American citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color or sex.” (German: “to secure equal rights for all American citizens, especially the law.” on voter turnout regardless of race, color or gender. ”) Some of the better-known reform activists of the time were members, women and men, blacks and whites.

AERA was established by the eleventh National Women's Rights Convention , which transformed itself into this new organization. Some women in the women's movement had suggested before that if their movement merged with the American Anti-Slavery Society, something similar could come about, but that society did not accept their proposal. Lucretia Mott was elected President.

AERA carried out two main campaigns in 1867. In New York State , which was in the process of revising the state constitution, AERA sought petitions for women's suffrage and the abolition of ownership requirements for voting. In Kansas , they campaigned for referendums that included voting rights for both African Americans and women. Both goals could not be reconciled, because the abolitionists believed that the desire for women to vote was a direct obstacle to achieving the right to vote for blacks. There were also different views on this in the women's movement.

AERA continued with its annual meetings, but the growing differences made cooperation difficult. The disappointment with the proposed 15th Amendment was particularly great because the expression "gender" was not taken into account. The AERA meeting in 1869 signaled the end of the association and led to the establishment of two competing women's rights organizations, the AWSA and the NWSA . And in the years that followed, the bitter disagreements that led to the death of AERA continued to influence the women's movement.

Lucretia Mott, President of AERA

history

Leaders

The people who played an important role in AERA are among the best-known reform activists of the time. Many of them knew each other as "veterans" of the anti-slavery movement and the women's rights movement:

  • Lucretia Mott, President of AERA, was an abolitionist who was prevented from attending the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840 because she was a woman. She was the main character and one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls Convention , the first women's rights convention .
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton attended the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840 as an observer, accompanied by her husband Henry B. Stanton, who had worked as an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society . There in London, Stanton and Mott became friends and vowed to organize a women's rights conference in the United States. Stanton was an organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention and the lead author of the Declaration of Sentiments approved there .
  • Lucy Stone was a pioneer for women's rights and an organizer of the first National Women's Rights Convention in 1850. She was paid to represent the American Anti-Slavery Society since 1848 , with an agreement that she could speak for women's rights without pay .
  • Susan B. Anthony became a paid representative to the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1856 ; with their consent, she was allowed to continue to campaign for women's rights.
Frederick Douglass
  • Frederick Douglass was a former slave and abolitionist leader who had played a special role in the Seneca Falls women's rights convention. He and Anthony both lived in Rochester, New York and were close friends.
  • Abby Kelley Foster and her husband Stephen Symonds Foster were abolitionists who encouraged Anthony to become active in the Anti-Slavery Society .
  • Henry Browne Blackwell , who was married to Lucy Stone, worked against slavery and for women's rights.

prehistory

The relatively small women's suffrage movement had grown in the years before the civil war ; The opportunity for women to be active in society in the abolitionism movement had helped . The American Anti-Slavery Society , led by William Lloyd Garrison , especially encouraged those who cared about women's rights. During this period, the women's movement was only loosely structured, a small group that acted out of personal drive, organized legislative campaigns or lecture tours. An informal coordinating committee took care of the National Women's Rights Conventions . There were also only a few state associations and no formal national organization. The movement largely disappeared from the public eye during the Civil War (1861–1865) as suffragettes put their energies into the campaign against slavery. In 1863, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony organized the Women's Loyal National League , the first national political organization in the United States to campaign for an "Amendment to the Constitution" to abolish slavery.

The letter that Stanton, Anthony, and Stone sent around calling for petitions opposed to the 14th Amendment to introduce the word "male" into the United States' Constitution.

After slavery was abolished by the 13th Amendment in 1865 , Wendell Phillips was elected President of the Anti-Slavery Society and began to direct all of his efforts toward gaining political rights for blacks. He told women campaigners that he would continue to support women's suffrage, but that he thought it best to put that demand on hold until the electoral rights were secured for African American men.

The women's movement began to revive as proposals began to circulate for a 14th Amendment to secure African American citizenship (but not yet the right to vote). Some of these proposals also wanted to introduce the term “male” into the constitution for the first time, which begins with the words, “We the People of the United States”. Stanton said, “if that word 'male' be inserted, it will take us a century at least to get it out.” (German: “If this word is inserted, it will take us at least a century to get it out again. “) Stanton, Anthony and Lucy Stone , the most famous figures of the women's movement, circulated a letter at the end of 1865 calling for petitions against all formulations that excluded women. A version of the amendment that referred to “persons” instead of “men” passed the House of Representatives in early 1866 , but was not passed in the Senate .

The version that Congress eventually approved and sent to the states for ratification contained the word "male" in three places. Stanton and Anthony opposed the amendment, while Stone supported it as a step forward to universal suffrage . Frederick Douglass declined because it allowed states to prevent blacks from voting if those states were willing to accept reduced federal representation. The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868.

Wendell Phillips

At a meeting of the Anti-Slavery Society in January 1866, Stone and Anthony proposed that this organization be merged with the women's rights movement to create a new association that would advocate for the rights of African Americans and women, including the right to vote for both. The proposal was blocked by Phillips, who once again argued that the primary immediate objective was the right to vote for African American men. Phillips and the other abolitionist leaders hoped that securing the right to vote for the former slaves would help them achieve victory over the slave-owning states in the civil war. No such effect could be expected from the struggle for women's suffrage. And the effort it would take to campaign effectively for it would, in their opinion, jeopardize the chances of gaining the right to vote for African Americans. But your strategy didn't work as planned. Although the 1870 constitution added that race could not prohibit voting, violence and legal maneuvers prevented most of the South African Americans from voting. It wasn't until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that this changed.

AERA was founded in 1866

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony convened the eleventh National Women's Rights Convention , the first since the beginning of the Civil War, held in New York City on May 10, 1866. In a variant of the idea previously proposed by the Anti-Slavery Society , the assembly voted to transform itself into a new organization called the American Equal Rights Association (AERA), which will fight for both women's and black rights, and that for both groups Should secure the right to vote. The new association elected Lucretia Mott as president and created a board that also included Stanton, Anthony and Lucy Stone. AERA began lobbying and petitioning campaigns in several states in the hope of creating a strong enough current to do so the Anti-Slavery Society would accept the goal of universal suffrage.

Brief history of AERA

Annual meeting 1867

AERA held its first annual meeting on May 9, 1867 in New York City. Opinions turned out to be very different as to whether more men, namely African-Americans, should be given the right to vote. Some leading women's rights activists, Mott and Stanton, believed that these new voters would not change the situation of women and their lack of voting rights. Others disagreed. Abby Kelly Foster said that the right to vote is much more pressing for black men than for women. Henry Ward Beecher, a well-known pastor, said that he was in favor of universal suffrage, but that he believed the movement would at least achieve partial victory by demanding the right to vote for blacks as well as women.

Campaign in New York State

Susan B. Anthony

New York State organized a congress in June 1867 to reform its constitution. AERA activists prepared for this by holding meetings in over 30 locations around the state and collecting over 20,000 signatures on petitions demanding women's suffrage and the removal of ownership requirements for elections that specifically discriminated against black voters. The Congressional Suffrage Committee was chaired by Horace Greeley , a prominent newspaper editor and abolitionist who was a supporter of the women's movement. His committee approved the removal of discriminatory property requirements for black voters, but rejected the proposal for women's suffrage.

Greeley had previously bumped into Anthony and Stanton because he had insisted that their New York campaign focus on African American rights and stay away from women's issues. When they refused, he threatened to stop his newspaper supporting their work. When Anthony and Stanton got Greeley's wife into the argument, they lost Greeley's friendship and the powerful support of the New York Tribune for their cause.

Campaign in Kansas

Two referendums were put before voters in Kansas in 1867 , one to extend the vote to black men and one to extend the right to vote to women. Kansas had experience in the fight against slavery and had the toughest laws protecting women's rights outside of New York. AERA focused its efforts on this campaign, very hopefully winning both referendums, which would have greatly increased the chances of winning black and women suffrage at the national level.

Lucy Stone

However, both referenda were unsuccessful and the AERA campaign ended in a mess and mutual blame. The Kansas campaign divided those who worked primarily for African American rights with those who primarily fought for women's rights. And it also created divisions within the women's movement. These disagreements and arguments also included the contentious use of donated funds, controversial views of men and women of the movement and the cooperation with dubious advocates of the women's movement,

The History of Woman Suffrage formulated the conclusions drawn by the wing of the women's movement that Anthony and Stanton were a part of:

“Our liberal men counseled us to silence during the war, and we were silent on our own wrongs; they counseled us again to silence in Kansas and New York, read we should defeat 'negro suffrage,' and threatened if we were not, we might fight the battle alone. We chose the latter, and were defeated. But standing alone we learned our power ... woman must lead the way to her own enfranchisement. "

(German: “Our liberal men advised us to remain silent during the war, and we were silent at our expense; they advised us again to remain silent in Kansas and New York so that we would not endanger the 'Negro right to vote' and threatened ourselves, if we weren't, we could fight the fight alone. We chose the latter and were beaten. But while we were alone we realized our power ... The woman must walk the path to her own liberation and to the right to vote. ")

Disagreement and argument

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

After the Kansas campaign ended in November with this mess, the AERA increasingly split into two wings, both of which sought universal suffrage, but with different approaches. One wing, the leading figure of which was Lucy Stone, was willing to allow black men to vote first, and wished to maintain close ties with the Republican Party and the abolitionist movement. The other wing, whose leaders were Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, insisted that women and black men be allowed to vote at the same time, and worked towards a politically independent movement that was no longer supported by the abolitionists would be dependent.

The disagreement was particularly evident in the proposed 15th Amendment, which was supposed to prohibit denial of the right to vote on the basis of race. In theory at least, it would guarantee the right to vote for almost all men. Anthony and Stanton were opposed to allowing this amendment unless it was accompanied by a 16th amendment that would guarantee women's suffrage.

Congress passed the 15th Amendment in February 1869, and the states ratified it a year later.

Many in AERA disagreed with Anthony and Stanton's activities, but especially in the case of Lucy Stone, the disputes during that period led to a personal rift that had important ramifications for the women's movement. To counter the initiatives of Anthony and Stone, a planning committee was created in May 1868 to create a pro-Republican women's suffrage organization in the Boston area to support the proposal to give black men priority to vote. The New England Woman Suffrage Association was finally formed in November 1868. Several participants in the new organization were also active in AERA, for example Lucy Stone, Frederick Douglass and the Fosters.

Annual meeting 1868

During 1868, AERA did little except hold the annual meeting on May 14th. This was marked by hostilities. During the meeting, speakers criticized the Republican Party in Kansas and in general, while Frederick Douglass defended it in that it was more supportive of the right to vote for both blacks and women than the Democrats. Disgruntled by Stanton's and Anthony's ties to the dubious George Francis Train and the hostilities it generated, Lucretia Mott resigned as president of AERA that month. She said she had considered that trying to unite the movements of women and abolitionists was a mistake. She recommended the dissolution of AERA.

Annual meeting 1869

At the last annual meeting of AERA on May 12, 1869, the dispute over the 15th Amendment continued and the differences deepened. Stephen Symonds Foster opposed the re-election of Stanton and Anthony as board members, he referred to the Train affair and he accused them of seeking "the right to vote for the educated" and thereby violating the AERA principle of "universal suffrage" . Henry Blackwell replied, “Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton believe in the right of the negro to vote. We are united on that point. There is no question of principle between us. "(German:" Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton believe in the Negro's right to vote. We agree on this point, there is no fundamental difference between us. ")

Stone supported the 15th Amendment while emphasizing the importance of women's rights by saying:

"But I thank God for that XV. Amendment, and hope that it will be adopted in every State. I will be thankful in my soul if any body can get out of the terrible pit. But I believe that the safety of the government would be more promoted by the admission of woman as an element of restoration and harmony than the negro. "

(German: But I thank God for this 15th Amendment and hope that it will be adopted in every state. I will be deeply grateful if anyone gets out of the terrible hole. But I believe that the security of the Government would be promoted better than by admitting negroes by admitting women as an element of healing and harmony. ")

The split and its aftermath

Split in the women's movement for 20 years

The meeting in 1869 already signaled the end of the "American Equal Rights Association", which then held no further annual meetings (its existence formally ended on May 14, 1870).

Two competing women's suffrage groups were created as a result. Two days after the meeting, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton founded the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA). In November 1869, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, and others founded the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA).

The attitude towards the 15th Amendment was a key difference between these two organizations. But there were other differences too

Rivalries continue

Events cleared the basis for two major issues between the competing women's organizations. In 1870, the debate on the 15th Amendment became irrelevant when it was officially ratified. In 1872 the government's disgust for corruption led to a massive fall of abolitionists and other social reformers from the Republicans to the short-lived Liberal Republican Party. Despite these events, the rivalry between the two groups of women was so bitter that it seemed impossible for 20 years to go together.

It was not until 1890 that the NWSA and AWSA merged into the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), with Stanton, Anthony and Stone as their top representatives. Anthony was the key figure in the new organization, Stone, who was nominally chairman of the executive committee, was only marginally involved in practice.

Reaching women's suffrage only in 1920

Women's suffrage, a main goal of AERA, was achieved in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment , popularly known as the "Susan B. Anthony Amendment".

Despite the adoption of the 15th and 19th amendments, the aim of the AERA to ensure equal rights for all citizens, especially the right to vote, has not yet been fully achieved. Although Puerto Ricans were United States citizens before the law, Puerto Ricans women were denied the right to vote until 1929. And southern African Americans were largely banned from voting until 1965, nearly 100 years after AERA was founded.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), p. 173
  2. ↑ Cullen-DuPont (1998), p. 168, "Mott, Lucretia Coffin"
  3. ^ Gordon (1997), pp. Xxix
  4. ↑ Kerr (1992), pp. 49, 52, 58
  5. ↑ Barry (1988), p. 110
  6. ↑ Dudden (2011), p. 22
  7. ↑ Harper (1899), Vol. 1, p. 63
  8. ↑ Venet (1991), p. 14
  9. ↑ Million (2003), pp. 109, 121
  10. ^ DuBois (1978), p. 53
  11. ^ Judith E. Harper: Not for Ourselves Alone: ​​The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony . PBS (Public Broadcasting System).
  12. ↑ DuBois (1978), pp. 56, 59
  13. ^ Letter from Stanton to Gerrit Smith, Jan 1, 1866, cited in DuBois (1978), p. 61
  14. ↑ Cullen-DuPont (1998), pp. 11-12, "American Equal Rights Association"
  15. ↑ Dudden (2011), pp. 78-79
  16. ↑ Dudden (2011), p. 86
  17. ↑ DuBois (1978), p. 63.
  18. ↑ DuBois (1978), pp. 57, 59
  19. ↑ Introduction To Federal Voting Rights Laws: Before the Voting Rights Act . US Department of Justice (Ed.)
  20. ↑ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), pp. 152-153
  21. ↑ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), pp. 171-174
  22. ↑ DuBois (1978), p. 65
  23. ^ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), p. 183
  24. ^ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), p. 214
  25. ↑ Dudden (2011), p. 98
  26. ^ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), p. 216
  27. ^ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), p. 219
  28. ^ DuBois (1978), p. 87
  29. ↑ Dudden (2011), p. 92
  30. ↑ Dudden (2011), p. 102
  31. ^ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), p. 269
  32. ↑ DuBois (1978), pp. 79-81
  33. ↑ Dudden (2011), pp. 10, 107
  34. ↑ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), pp. 267-268
  35. ↑ DuBois (1978), pp. 80-81
  36. ↑ DuBois (1978), pp. 174-175, 185
  37. ↑ DuBois (1978), p. 99
  38. ↑ DuBois (1978), pp. 164-167
  39. ↑ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), p. 309
  40. ↑ DuBois (1978), p. 185
  41. ↑ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), pp. 311/312
  42. ↑ Faulkner (2011), p. 189
  43. ↑ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), p. 381 - The first issue of their newspaper, The Revolution , declared that it would advocate "Educated Suffrage, irrespective of Sex or Color" (German: The first issue of their newspaper The Revolution declared that it would represent "the right to vote for the educated", regardless of gender and color ")
  44. ^ Stanton, Anthony, Gage (1887), p. 382
  45. ↑ Harper (1899), pp. 348-349
  46. ↑ DuBois (1978), p. 189
  47. ↑ Cullen-DuPont (1998), p. 13
  48. ↑ DuBois (1978), pp. 166, 200
  49. ↑ Cullen-DuPont (1998), p. 174, "National American Woman Suffrage Association"
  50. ↑ Kerr (1992), p. 227
  51. ↑ Kerr (1992), p. 232
  52. ↑ Heinemann (1996), p. 30
  53. ↑ Sneider (2008) pp. 121, 136

literature

  • Baker, Paula (1990): “The Domestication of Politics: Women and American Political Society, 1780–1920.” In: Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in US Women's History , Ellen Carol DuBois and Vicki L. Ruiz (Eds.), Pp. 66-91. New York: Routledge.
  • Barry, Kathleen (1988): Susan B. Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist . New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-36549-6
  • Brown, Olympia (1911): Acquaintances, Old and New, Among Reformers . Milwaukee, WI: Olympia Brown (SE Tate Printing Company).
  • Buhle, Mari Jo; Buhle, Paul (Ed.) (1978): The Concise History of Woman Suffrage. University of Illinois. ISBN 0-252-00669-0
  • Cullen-DuPont, Kathryn (2000): The Encyclopedia of Women's History in America , 2nd ed. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-4100-8
  • DuBois, Ellen Carol (1978): Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America, 1848–1869. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-8641-6
  • DuBois, Ellen Carol (1998): Woman Suffrage and Women's Rights . New York, New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-1901-5
  • Dudden, Faye E (2011): Fighting Chance: The Struggle over Woman Suffrage and Black Suffrage in Reconstruction America . New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-977263-6
  • Faulkner, Carol (2011). Lucretia Mott's Heresy: Abolition and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4321-5
  • Foner, Eric (1990): A Short History of Reconstruction, 1863-1877 . New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0-06-096431-6
  • Giddings, Paula (1984): When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America . New York, William Morrow. ISBN 978-0-688-14650-4
  • Gordon, Ann D., (Eds.) (1997): The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Vol 1: In the School of Anti-Slavery, 1840 to 1866 . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-2317-0
  • Gordon, Ann D., (Eds.) (2000): The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Vol 2: Against an Aristocracy of Sex, 1866 to 1873 . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-2318-7
  • Harper, Ida Husted (1899): The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony, Vol 1 . Indianapolis & Kansas City: The Bowen-Merrill Company.
  • Heinemann, Sue (1996): Timelines of American Women's History . New York, Berkley. ISBN 0-399-51986-6
  • Humez, Jean (2003): Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories . Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0-299-19120-6
  • Kerr, Andrea Moore (1992): Lucy Stone: Speaking Out for Equality . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-1860-1
  • McMillen, Sally Gregory (2008): Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement . New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-518265-0
  • Million, Joelle (2003): Woman's Voice, Woman's Place: Lucy Stone and the Birth of the Woman's Rights Movement . Westport, CT: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-97877-X
  • Rakow, Lana F. and Kramarae, Cheris, (Eds.) (2001). The Revolution in Words: Righting Women 1868–1871 , (= Volume 4 of the Women's Source Library ). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-25689-6
  • Sneider, Allison L. (2008): Suffragists in an Imperial Age: US Expansion and the Woman Question 1870-1929 . New York, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532117-3
  • Stanton, Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B .; Gage, Matilda Joslyn, (Ed.) (1887): History of Woman Suffrage, Vol 2 . Rochester, NY, Susan B. Anthony.
  • Venet, Wendy Hamand (1991): Neither Ballots nor Bullets: Women Abolitionists and the Civil War . Charlottesville, VA, University Press of Virginia. ISBN 978-0-8139-1342-1

Web links

  • "Manhood Suffrage," Elizabeth Cady Stanton's six-point explanation of her opposition to the Fifteenth Amendment. It was first published in The Revolution in December 24, 1868, and is reproduced in Gordon (2000), pp. 194-199.
  • "Proceedings of the 1867 AERA meeting," from the Library of Congress