Elizabeth Cady's Argumentative Analysis

Some women responded in opposition; they believed that it was a time of suffrage and social change. Elizabeth Cady Stanton proclaimed that “NOW’s THE HOUR- Not the negro’s hour” alone, but everybody’s hour” as a response to Douglass’s assertion in the precedence of black suffrage. Her perspective as a white woman does not allow for empathy for the black race. Although she has championed for their cause, she cannot be as passionate nor can it be as relevant to her as Frederick Douglass. Stanton’s anger at the 15th amendment is understandable, considering the support she had for the abolition movement. Important to note is Stanton’s limited ability to understand or sympathize with either black men or women. She fought for basic human rights but mainly focused on women like her, the ones she could identify with. Some of her comments were even racist including 'We educated, virtuous white women are more worthy of the vote.' This is not equality but arrogance. Her words does not distinguish herself from the white men who withheld the vote from all other groups. In one sense she is no better than they are about considering others viewpoints. African American women would not react well to Stanton’s arrogant attitude towards suffrage. She has alienated them.

Stanton fears black men receiving suffrage and assumes that they will oppress white women like herself saying, “What will we and our daughters suffer if these degraded black men are allowed to have the rights that would make them even worse than our Saxon fathers?” Her views of equal rights for white, middle-class women divides the movement towards equality for