Jacksonian Women Not Surprisingly, American Term Paper

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In fact, Cady Stanton had a significant problem with the role of women as wives, because, once a Jacksonian woman wed, she lost her individual identity: women could not own property, testify against their husbands, sue in their own names, or even be held accountable for crimes committed in their husbands' presences. (Cady Stanton, p.). Most significantly, women have no legal rights regarding their children, despite the fact that women are the ones responsible for rearing and raising children.

Of course, not all women had the same perspective as Cady Stanton, because not all women came from the same position as Cady Stanton. Mary Paul did not voice concerns about suffrage or other esoteric aspects of equality. On the contrary, her letters detailed a very hardscrabble existence. She worked extensive hours for very small amounts of pay. In fact, she was concerned about receiving the pay that she was promised, and was also very concerned about the cost of her boarding house. Having the financial wherewithal to sustain herself was Mary's overriding concern, and it accounted for taking employment at the mill. While Mary Paul may not outlined her concerns, her descriptions of her life seem so similar to Sojourner Truth's statements, that one cannot help but understand that, lacking the ability to meaningfully support oneself is as much of a deprivation of liberty as lacking the right to vote.

Of course, Sojourner Truth's perspective provided the clearest and most honest glimpse of what women wanted during the Jacksonian era. Truth's speech was the perfect compliment to Cady Stanton's, because it highlighted the ugly underbelly of chivalry.

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Cady Stanton complained about the "protected" status of women, but in her noted "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, Sojourner Truth made it absolutely clear that there was nothing protective about society's attitudes towards women. She highlighted the atrocities that women experienced in slavery, such as tremendous physical labor, having children sold from them, not having enough to eat, and being whipped.

However, the most striking aspect of Truth's statements is that they do not differ substantially from the complaints raised by Cady Stanton. At the heart of both women's speeches was the fact that women were deprived of their liberty. Of course, that deprivation was much more apparent in Truth's case, because, as a slave, she was the literal legal property of a man. The example of watching her children being sold away from her highlighted this fact. However, Truth's statements made it clear that, as a woman, she was not seeking to be elevated onto a pedestal by white men, nor was she seeking for them to recognize her as an equal. On the contrary, she was merely asking that they recognize her right, as a human being, to govern herself......

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