Women`s Rights in the Colonies and During American Revolution - Essay Example

Women`s Rights in the Colonies And During American Revolution A new part of history of the country began with bourgeois revolutions, among which an important place belongs to the American Revolution of XVIII century. It ended with the collapse of the rule of England in thirteen colonies of North America and with the formation of a bourgeois republic called the United States of America. The apologists of the American Revolution of the XVIII century represent it as a model of democratic development, stating that the result of this revolution was winning of the unprecedented freedom and the people received unprecedented rights. Freedom and human rights are among the most important problems, which are now causing the sharp ideological disputes. The American Revolution proceeded under the anti-colonial struggle for freedom. This was its specificity. However, its victory became possible only because the resistance of the metropolitan policy took on a mass character. The liberation struggle was combined with the movement for social and economic reforms and the elimination of the old order in all spheres of life of the colonies. This movement proceeded under the division of American society into different social groups and classes, the position of which was determined by its characteristics, nature and results. We should refer to the more important issue, whether the revolution has given the right for people - the great mass of poor, the blacks, whether it equated the rights of women, as all of them hoped that the revolution would bring change for the better into their lives. According to estimates of J. Main, about one-third of the US population was accounted as white and black “proletariat” (Main 272). Of course, the term, applied to the social structure of American society at that time, is very conventional, but one-third of the American population really were oppressed and marginalized slaves, poor farmers, artisans, and so on. Modern historiography of United States, represented by S. Lind, argues that the American Revolution did not fulfill the most important socio-economic transformations. The history is able to give us information about the women, who in most early time participated in unofficial capacities in the American Revolution, and their role. It was necessary to provide services and support the troops, feed soldiers and wear the Army. They could defend person and property occasionally and also when it was demanded to serve as spies and soldiers. We have an example of Molly “Pitcher”, who “became the second known woman to man a gun when her husband fell in battle” (“Early Years: the American Revolution” web). It happened at the Monmouth battle in 1778. This was a precedent that would repeat again in the Civil War, until the military would agree with the necessity of woman`s appearing in the Army (1901) and Navy (1908). General George Washington understood this problem. He needed medical support for his soldiers, which grew day by day, and it is not a secret that at that time very few men had skills to serve as medics and nurses. Under the circumstances he was going to find useful employment for women`s groups in soldiers` encampments. Washington decided to use services of some women and attach them to the Continental Army as nurses, laundresses, cooks, and water bearers. Usually this work was done by male soldiers, so they became the first women who supported the Army legally. The medical corps was able to employ one nurse for each ten people, who were sick or wounded. The nurses got salary; at first they got two dollars per month and a daily ration. Some historians think that womens participation in the American Revolution led to the expansion of different opportunities for women, including education. Of course, their participation was a small but significant value in the war efforts of the nation. Summarizing, we can say that women were one of the most important groups in question to support the Continental Army. In a situation of lack of political rights, they found an acceptable way for them to help the patriotic forces through charitable organizations. In several states having different associations appeared which have greatly helped the cause of achievement of independence. These organizations were among the first womens associations, through which the American women tried to enter the political sphere of activity. However, these are the unique precedents and representatives. Usually the roles of women, living in colonies, were determined by their status, wealth and religion. In the early Colonial America women`s life was extremely difficult. Time passed, and despite helping colonists in a variety o hard work in order to survive, Colonial women returned to their traditional roles, which meant running the house, raising the children and farming. “The men dominated the lives of Colonial women. Colonial women would be married by the time they were twenty and bore large numbers of children” (“Early Years: the American Revolution” web). It was normal to nave eight children but as the child mortality rate was high, practically five of them were dying before they reached the age of teen-agers. It was true that traditional attitude, which the colonists brought with themselves about the proper status and women`s role in the society, did not change. “Women were considered to be the “weaker vessels,” not as strong physically or mentally as men and less emotionally stable” (Sage 48). They had no legal right to vote, to hold public office; they had no opportunity to take part in legal matters according to their own desire. They had quiet limited opportunities outside the home. The society expected the woman to defer her husband, to obey him without question, but at the same time husbands were obedient to protect their wives from everything “even at the cost of their own lives if necessary” (Sage 48). A bit another situation was with attitude to the wealthy Colonial Women from Europe. Their lives look like those, they would expect in Europe. Their wealth protected them and gave a chance to live in big houses in the cities and colonial mansions. They were dressed into clothes of velvets, satins and silks. Still their life was concentrated around the house; they could permit servants and slaves, who were doing the everyday tasks. The social life varied with visiting other women for those who lived in towns and arranging their husbands in other social events, where men had a chance to talk with their contemporaries. Of course, the life of the indigenous female population was different from the lives of the rich European people. In fact, American historians attested, the first white woman, crossing the ocean, were sometimes stolen from the streets of London or even prisoners. Some of them were satisfied with such “relocation”, but not everyone. When they arrived in America, the women had to work out their own ransom and only after that they got a chance to have freedom, however, without a livelihood. For white women there was the special demand. Unscrupulous recruiters were sending invitations to the lonely girls, saying that in America heavenly life with rich bachelors, dreams of marrying is waiting for them. The first wave of the womens protest was after capitalist industrialization, movement for the abolition of slavery, the Civil War. Each of these social factors acted on its own. For example, industrialization with its machine production helped to break “home” nature of womens work, thereby pulling up the material basis of patriarchal authority. The massive use of hired female labor has become an urgent need for economic development, especially textile and clothing industries. There were still occasions for grief. The 13th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, which were abolishing slavery and granting the right to vote, refers only to black men – nothing was said about women. Why did it happen so? Black leaders did not dare to demand rights for women in fear to lose the adoption of the amendments at all. The white men, who played a prominent role in the movement for the abolition of slavery, represented mainly the interests of big capital. Undermining the power of the southern planters and opening the way for rapid capitalist development of the country, they have achieved their goals. So, they almost immediately came to terms with the vanquished, to stop the further struggle for the complete social and economic emancipation of former slaves. The next step was realized after American Revolution, that has moved responsibility for the state`s moral condition from the monarchy, a political contribution changes into the direction of good “republican” mothers, whose task was to raise children, who would become good citizens. Traditional womens work still had not lost its relevance, but there we can find examples of precedents, when the woman was granted with the economic and legal rights. Some of examples represent the womens rights to be occupied in business area. A lot of woman got a chance not to be just housewives. It was possible for them to take important and highly valued responsibilities in colonial society. Women became representatives in court, they conducted business, and they had a right to take part public affairs sometimes. Although they still could not be considered having equal rights with men, the situation in general got better than anywhere in the world in this question. Only decades passed from the American Revolution in 1848 a small group of women took actions in order to change their status of people of second-class. They created an idea of peaceful revolution, which had grown then into the globe Womens Rights Movement. Mary Ruthsdotter reminds that at the convention in New York “68 women and 32 men signed a Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions”. In this document they described more than fifteen life areas where the womens rights were infringed and they asked to finish inferior status of the women. Later feminist movement grew and divided into subgroups. So at the origins of liberal feminism, which operates within the structure of the main stream of society for the integration of women into this structure, reach back to the days of the American Revolution. His origins are Abigail Adams and Mary Wollstonecraft, who offered equal rights for women. Adams was sure that women should have a right to educate themselves and manage the household, using the intellectual affairs, as well as continue to be a moral example for the family. Today, America is feeling the great progress women have made, while the question of the true equality is not locked. Works Cited Main J.T. “The social structure of revolutionary America”, Princeton University Press, 1969. Print. “Early Years: the American Revolution”. History and collection. chnm.gmu.edu. web. Sage Henry J. “U.S. History I: United States History 1607-1865”. Third Edition, Lorton, Virginia, 2010. Print. Read More