Women's Role In The Reconstruction Era

Before the Women 's Rights reforms, American women were discriminated in society, home life, education, and the workforce. As a result of the Women 's Rights Movement, women gained the right to vote, access to higher education and opportunities to enter the workforce, overall changing the femmine life for the better. Women in the 1800s were stripped of their voice, not only were they unable to vote, they were often kept from speaking openly in public. Their lack of rights left them dependent on men (Bonnie and Ruthsdotter). The American Women were voiceless, they had no say in society, however the reform movement would change that.

For example, women weren’t allowed to vote, if they were married they had no property rights, they couldn’t gain education because no colleges or universities didn’t want women students, and women were made totally dependent on men. The women’s suffrage movement took place in the middle of the 19th Century. During this time, women struggled to vote and run for office. The problem was that women weren’t being treated as equals. “Deep cultural beliefs in male/female differences in attitudes and abilities supported this situation and giving the women the vote posed a direct threat to male powers and privileges” (Cooney Robert Taking a New Look - The Enduring Significance of the American Woman Suffrage Movement).

This lead to black codes which were laws passed by southern states in 1865 and 1866 in the United States after the American civil war with the intent and the effect of restricting African Americans’ freedom ,and of compelling them to work in the labor economy based on low wages or debts.On February 3, 1870 the 15th Amendment granted African Americans the right to vote. Blacks were scared of the Ku Klux Klan, which used violence, such as lynchings to scare African Americans from voting. This was a hate group in the southern U.S. who was active for several years after the civil war, which aimed to suppress the newly acquired rights of black people and to oppose carpetbaggers from the North, and which was responsible for many lawless and violent

Many of the social changes involved the South because the Union had been fighting for emancipation of slaves, so the social changes weren’t as drastic. Meanwhile, in the ex-confederacy, they were still fighting to keep slavery alive and still viewed blacks as property. Near the end of the Civil War, when it looked like confederates were losing anti-black groups started forming. In fact, in Harper’s Weekly in 1874, an image was featured and it depicted two people, one from the kkk and one from the white league, holding a banner that had black in fear and said worse than slavery. Their audience were those who agreed with emancipation, and more specifically blacks who had just been free.

Have you personally been substandard before or have seen people treat individuals horrible just because of their race or for the simplicity of their sex? Back in the day citizens were judge on a daily basis prior due to the color of their skin. During the Civil War Slavery was divided into northern and southern states. The northern states fought for the idea of freedom and equality, which means they wanted no more slaves and the Southern states wanted to keep slaves for economical purposes. Also, women were not treated right , at the time men were bias to the idea of equality for women 's rights.

Paul was still not satisfied, she spent the rest of her life working on a new Constitutional Amendment, known as the Equal Rights Amendment. This Amendment’s goal was to make sure that every person would have rights and equal opportunities. Alice Paul’s She dedicated her time to think of others and their rights. Paul’s actions had a long lasting effect on history, and because of her, all American women now have a voice in politics. Without Alice Paul’s advocation towards the nineteenth amendment, the United States would not allow women to vote, and the nation would not have a woman candidate running for president.

However, despite their aggressive action for reform, women were frequently hindered as their rights were stripped and their positions were taken for granted. African American women were bound to the institution of slavery, which continued to prevail as a prominent condition of society as the colonies entered the Civil War. Married white women were bound to their husbands by colonial law; their treatment was more humane than African American women, but their rights were still limited by the system. Between the 18th century and the 19th century, the ideology of American womanhood experienced changes which would become crucial to the founding and expansion of the Women’s Rights Movement beginning in 1848.

So people in court saw that as an insult. To put it differently, Mayella Ewells had power but, she had power in many differents ways. Her most powerful was her race. Her race had helped her out a lot due to Tom being African American. But for gender Mayella has power but no power.

One main accomplishment that began before the Civil Rights Movement was the registration of black voters. Douglass understood this after the end of the Civil war, when blacks were treated just as poorly by whites in the south, and through the passage of the Jim Crow laws and segregation. However, he instead of fighting for the black vote, supported women’s suffrage. He even spoke on several occasions for Suffragette and friend Susan B. Anthony. Douglass understood that with more voters out there, albeit white, female, voters, this would pave the way for the eventual black

In the midst of the war, over 179,000 African American soldiers served in the Union’s branches such as the navy, army, and support (Freeman and Jean). Many served as they believed this was a way to repay the Union in setting them free and possibly in the future could grant citizenship to them. Before the enlistment of African American soldiers, many laws prohibited the enlistment of African Americans (Freeman and Elise). This is surprising as many African American soldiers served in previous wars such as the American Revolution. Soon after President Lincoln gave his speech on the Emancipation Proclamation, he allowed many slaves to enlist in the Union military (Freeman and Elise).

The KKK was a group against equal rights throughout African Americans. Other groups supported the Reconstruction such as Freedmen, African Americans who were freed during the war, and Carpetbaggers, people who went south to help the reconstruction in the south. There was much tension in the Reconstruction. The north killed Reconstruction in the south because the government frauds took away all President

Women, like black slaves, still could not vote as well as legally be beaten by their overlord. The newly established market economy was the main cause for separating the sex into extremely distinct economic roles. Women were being view as physically and emotionally weaker compared to men but also considered

Although the Women’s Rights Movement is widely known to have started in New York, there is no doubt that the women of Texas fought great battles in order to gain civil liberties. Even though women were seen as partners in land labor and expected to contribute during the settlement of Texas, women were seen as unfit and too frail to partake in politics. Orestes Brownson, a religious author and activist of those times stated “We do not believe women . . .

Reconstruction is during which the United States began to rebuild the Southern society after they lost to the civil war. It lasted from 1865 to 1877, and it was initiated by President Lincoln until his assassination in 1865. President Johnson continued Lincoln’s agenda to continue the Reconstruction. Throughout the process of Reconstruction, one of its main purpose was to guarantees for equal rights for all people, especially for the African Americans. Even though slavery was abolished after the civil war, many Southerners were still against the idea of equal rights for all black people, such as the Republicans.

A group called the Ku Klux Klan was formed, the members of the KKK waged an underground campaign of intimidation and violence directed towards white and black Republican leaders. The Southern people are not so welcoming towards African Americans, they wish that they would either return to being slaves or go back to Africa or where they were taken from. These laws affected both the north and the south. The North had a big hand in helping the South