Synopses & Reviews
The right to cast a ballot from a feminine hand occupied the attention and efforts of hundreds of women for more than a century in the US. In these two volumes, Campbell provides a basic understanding of two processes: the development of the rhetoric used by the women who argued for equal rights, and the constraints and sanctions applied to those women who affronted the norms of society's expectation that true women were seldom seen and never spoke in public. The first volume lays the foundation for the analysis of rhetorical style and content by its fine introduction and by a succession of chapters organized chronologically, with biographical sketches and excerpts from speeches. It includes a chapter specifically addressed to issues of sex, race, and class faced by African American women. Volume 2 is not a continuation of the first, but contains the texts on which the first volume is based. The biographical and historical sections are gracefully written and well organized, but the greatest value of the set lies in the actual words of the feminist leaders and Campbell's skillful analyses. Every women's studies program must have this available.
ChoiceThis collection of key speeches by national leaders provides a vivid and accurate documentary history of American woman's rights and suffrage movement from its beginnings in the 1840s through 1920. Offering many rare and previously unpublished selections, it brings together the work of fifteen notable reformers who played central roles in shaping and directing the movement and in articulating the diverse issues and viewpoints that characterized it. The discourses reveal the strategies used by early woman's rights advocates in adapting their appeals to varied audiences, responding to opposition, and advancing their cause in the political arena.
Each of the twenty-six selections is annotated to supply historical information that is likely to be unfamiliar to contemporary readers. The earliest speeches deal primarily with anti-slavery platforms and the repressive patriarchal laws that gave men complete control over property, women, and children. Several speeches by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth follow; Susan B. Anthony is represented by her famous speech in defense of her vote. Racial issues--especially lynching and Jim Crow laws--are addressed in speeches by Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell. Speeches by Anna H. Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt--leaders in the fight for woman suffrage--are also included. The volume ends with an address by Crystal Eastman laying out a feminist agenda that is pertinent today. This work and its companion volume make a significant contribution to our knowledge of the early woman's rights movement and the persuasive message it brought to the American people. It is a valuable source book for an introduction to women's studies or courses in American Public Address, women's rhetoric, and U.S. women's history.
Synopsis
"The right to cast a ballot from a feminine hand occupied the attention and efforts of hundreds of women for more than a century in the U.S. In these two volumes Campbell (University of Minnesota) provides a basic understanding of two processes: the development of the rhetoric used by the women who argued for equal rights, and the constraints and sanctions applied to those women who affronted the norms of society's expectation that true women were never seen and seldom spoke in public. The first volume lays the foundation for the analysis of rhetorical style and content by its fine introduction and by a succession of chapters organized chronologically, with biographical sketches and excerpts from speeches. It includes a chapter specifically addressed to issues of sex, race, and class faced by African American women. Volume 2 is not a continuation of the first, but contains the texts on which the first volume is based. The biographical and historical sections are gracefully written and well organized, but the greatest value of the set lies in the actual words of the feminist leaders and Campbell's skillful analyses. Every women's studies program must have this available. Upper division undergraduates and above." Choice
About the Author
KARLYN KOHRS CAMPBELL is Professor of Speech-Communication at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Maria W. Miller Stewart, Lecture Delivered at the Franklin Hall, 1832
Address, Convention of Anti-Slavery Women, 1838
Angelina Grimke [Weld], Address at Pennsylvania Hall, 1838
Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, 1848
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Speech at the Seneca Falls Convention, 1848
Lucretia Coffin Mott, "Discourse on Woman," 1849
Sojourner Truth, Speech at the Woman's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio, 1851
Ernestine Potowski Rose, Speech at the National Woman's Rights Convention, Worcester, MA, 1851
Clarina Howard Nichols, "The Responsibilities of Woman," Second National Woman's Rights Convention, Worcester, MA, 1851
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Address to the Legislature of New York, 1854
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "A Slave's Appeal," Speech to the Judiciary Committee, New York State Legislature, 1860
National Woman's Rights Convention Debate, New York City, 1860
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "On Divorce," Speech before the Judiciary Committee of the New York Senate, 1861
Sojourner Truth, Two Speeches at the American Equal Rights Association Convention, 1867
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Kansas State Referendum Campaign Speech at Lawrence, Kansas, 1867
Susan B. Anthony, "Is it a Crime for a U.S. Citizen to Vote?" 1872-73
Frances E. Willard, A White Life for Two, 1890
Matilda Joslyn Gage, "The Dangers of the Hour," Women's National Liberal Convention, 1890
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "The Solitude of Self," 1892
Ida B. Wells, "Southern Horrors, Lynch Law in All its Phases," 1892, with Mary Church Terrell's, Introduction, 1893
Mary Church Terrell, "What It Means to be Colored in the Capital of the United States," 1906
Anna Howard Shaw, "The Fundamental Principle of a Republic," 1915
Carrie Chapman Catt, Presidential Address, 1902
Carrie Chapman Catt, "The Crisis," Atlantic City, NJ, 1916
Carrie Chapman Catt, "Address to the United States Congress," 1917
Crystal Eastman, "Now We Can Begin," 1920
Index