wokeculture:The Problem With Seneca Falls by Sam Slockbower. Seneca Falls has long been lauded as
wokeculture: The Problem With Seneca Falls by Sam Slockbower. Seneca Falls has long been lauded as the birthplace of the feminist movement; it’s written in every textbook on the subject and taught as the undeniable truth. However, this movement was not birthed at Seneca Falls, nor was it ushered forward by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. The feminist movement had a long and rich history before Stanton and Anthony entered the stage. As early as the Renaissance, women like the philosopher Mary Wollestonecraft were calling for the reform of a woman’s place in society. In fact, it isn’t until the late 1800s that the concept of a specific origin of the feminist movement was endorsed and capitalized on. During the reconstruction era post-Civil War, there was a massive political upheaval as people tried to define what freedom really meant, and as the now free Blacks struggled to gain a political foothold. Suffragists saw this period of unrest as an opportunity to further their agenda and push through an amendment that would allow women to vote. Fights began to break out within the movement over priority- particularly whether or not free black men had priority over women to be awarded the right to vote. On one side of the argument stood Stanton and Anthony, firm in their belief that women deserved the right to vote over the “uneducated” black man. On the other side stood Lucy Stone, arguing that black men ought to first have the right to the vote. Lucy Stone and her supporters buttressed the 15th Amendment, agreeing that political equality for black men was more pressing than political equality for women. In contrast, the 15th Amendment incensed Stanton and Anthony. They saw Black men as inferior and undeserving of the right vote because of their lack of education- education that was withheld by white supremacists. This began the divide that would characterize the suffragist movement in the 19th century. This split began the fight to be on the “right” side of history between Stanton and Anthony and Stone- a fight that resulted in the creation of the myth of Seneca Falls. During the Second Decade convention in 1870, held to celebrate the suffragette convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, prominent feminist Paulina Davis quoted Garrison Lloyd Write, “I doubt whether a more important movement has ever been launched, than this in regard to the equality of the sexes.” The significance of this quote is apparent when noted that Write was coined the forefather of the Abolitionist movement. When Davis uttered this quote in 1870, she effectively severed the suffragist movement from the abolitionist movement and denied the importance of the crusade to free the millions of Black people who were enslaved in America. This celebration was backed and organized by none other than Susan B. Anthony, who worked closely with Davis to ensure its success. After the Second Decade convention, Stanton and Anthony began working on an origins story for the feminist movement, one that heralded back to the meeting at Seneca Falls rather than the more well-known Worcester Convention. This creation myth removed Lucy Stone and any other suffragist who was not present at Seneca Falls from history. Ironically, Susan B. Anthony herself was not present at Seneca Falls, yet her connection to Stanton allowed her to fill the role of the narrator of this myth. The creation of the myth of Seneca Falls also whitewashed the feminist movement, narrowing its creation to a handful of upper middleclass white woman. Within the 11 grievances outlined in the document drafted at Seneca Falls, none of them addressed issues faced by women of color. Rather, the document exhibits the classism and xenophobia displayed by Stanton and Anthony. Written into the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments is the following: “He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men – both natives and foreigners.” Stanton and Anthony therefore became the ‘rightful heirs’ of the feminist movement, now a whitewashed and watered down tale used to recruit new members to their movement. Stanton and Anthony effectively created a feminist movement that ignored its birth from abolition and ignored those black men and women who had supported their cause. Sources: Tetrault, Lisa. The Myth of Seneca Falls. The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. -- source link
#history#feminism