PERSIA ABOLISHED SLAVERY IN 539 BC

Thanks to Cyrus the Great, slavery was ended and the captives were sent home to Israel. Cyrus even helped them rebuild their homeland. A replica of the stone cylinder where this edict was written hangs in the UN headquarters, as an example of an ancient act of human rights.
I would hope that modern day Iran and Israel would take note.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_slavery_timeline

MRS. STANTON’S SENTIMENTS ON EQUALITY IN LIFE

Even in the 1840’s Elizabeth Cady Stanton was raising the issue of double standards of behavior for men and women. In many situations, the burden still seems to be on women to expect or even demand civility and respect from men. Sadly the media supports the “fun” in reversion as soon as women’s backs are turned. Thank you to the men who ALWAYS love and respect women.

“Resolved, that the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of behavior that is required of woman in the social state also be required of man, and the same transgressions should be visited with equal severity on both man and woman.”

http://www.usconstitution.net/sentiments.html

SINGLE WOMEN WERE REALLY NEEDED

Men had been struggling in overseas missionary work for over fifty years, and they had to admit that it was not going as well as it should. A missionary in China admitted that the need for work among women was necessary to help their predicaments of childbirth, childhood arranged marriages and prevention of any education. Meanwhile women had organized their own Missionary groups to support single women in the mission field. Women in the field did not threaten pagan men, and they were thus more open to listen to the Gospel message. Their humility and benevolence won the day in foreign lands, like men could not.

http://www.ucc.org/about-us/hidden-histories/womens-work-and-womens.html

TODAY MARKS 200 YEARS OF FOREIGN MISSIONS

When the General Association of Massachusetts listened to a group of young seminary students, the course of the Congregational Church [a combination of Puritans and Pilgrims] took a revolutionary turn. Three days later, these young men dedicated their lives to God and foreign missionary work. The church required them to be married before they went. Many of the wives invested themselves as much as they could and still care for their husbands and children, but by the 1860’s it was even obvious to men that the work was not going as well as it might.
Since the beginning of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, local women’s groups had financially supported the work. They were not content to just pay for the work. There were those who also wanted to make it their own life’s work. [more tomorrow]

http://www.ucc.org/about-us/hidden-histories/womens-work-and-womens.html

HUMAN RIGHTS AS MRS. STANTON SAW THEM

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;” from the Declaration of Sentiments, written by Eliz. Cady Stanton for the First Womens' Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, NY on July 19th and 20th, 1848.

This was patterned after the Declaration of Independence. Many would wish that the original document had included women in those rights.

“He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God.”
http://www.usconstitution.net/sentiments.html

WOMEN COULD VOTE IN WYOMING TERRITORY

The first paragraph of the 14th Amendment would seem to grant rights to ALL citizens. However this is a federal document and the right to vote is up to the several states. Even though it says the states may not deprive anyone, they spent decades trying to do just that. Women found ways of exploiting local laws that did not prohibit their voting, until the laws were then changed. The Wisconsin Territory, however allowed women the vote in 1869. Colorado men voted in 1893 to allow women to vote. Utah and Idaho followed in 1895 and 96. Large groups of women worked in local communities and states to raise awareness and very slowly sentiments changed.
http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am14.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_States

WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND ABOLITION TOGETHER

Many of the women and men, who worked for the establishment of women’s rights, were also committed to abolition and the establishment of human rights for slaves. [See 6/13 &14] So it is appropriate and poignant that the 14th Amendment advanced the rights of both groups. However, during the work for the 15th Amendment there came a time when some women had to choose between women’s suffrage and advancing the rights of former slaves. Unfortunately, the climate was not right for advancing the rights of both.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

DESIRE FOR LOVE AND ACCEPTANCE

Beyond anything else, we all have the basic need for love and acceptance from someone. For some of us, that need is fulfilled by God and the grace that is offered. But we also need recognition from people around us. When our basic human rights are not recognized by others, and more importantly not even by our own country, the heart and soul cries out for justice.
That may help us all understand why women joined the fight against slavery, and abolitionist men and women joined the fight for women’s rights!
It is this basic human need for acceptance that gay and lesbians folks desire from both their country and its citizens today.

http://www.deepspring.org/library_books/library_books_aaron/Aaron_32.html

THE FIRST WOMAN MISSIONARY, Part 2

Today is the anniversary of the arrival of Ann Hasseltine Judson and her husband Adoniram in Calcutta, India, in 1812. They were not welcomed by the government, and having been asked to leave, instead went to Rangoon, Burma, now Myanmar. She was a writer and felt she was living out her own calling to ministry. She helped her husband translate the Bible into Burmese, and strived to educate women, who had no rights other than the ones their husbands would grant them. The Baptist’s Judson Press and a number of Judson Colleges are named after her husband but one is named after Ann. Their Bible translation is still used today in that country.

http://www.historyswomen.com/womenoffaith/AnnJudson.htm

THE FIRST WOMAN MISSIONARY, Part 1

Ann Hasseltine, born in 1789, grew up in my husband’s home church, First Church of Christ, Congregational in Bradford, Massachusetts, where her father was a deacon. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the first group in the US to send missionaries overseas, began in that church building in 1810. She was a part of the event because her father was the host. Attending were young seminary students from Andover Theological Seminary, [where my husband also went.] Probably Ann and her future husband met then, because on Feb. 5, 1812 they were married and left for the mission field of India. It would take them more than 4 months to make the voyage. [More tomorrow.]

http://www.judson.edu/content.asp?id=84653

THE FIRST ORDAINED WOMAN MINISTER

Antoinette Brown expressed interest in ministry at the age of 9. When she entered Oberlin in 1846 women were not allowed to walk with the opposite sex or speak in public. When she finished her studies in theology she was allowed to preach but was not given a diploma. While at school she became a life-long friend of Lucy Stone, another suffragist and abolitionist. Three years later, in 1853, she was ordained to serve a Congregational Church in NY state. In 1908 Oberlin conferred on her an honorary Doctor of Divinity. She and others helped to refute the idea that women had neither the intellect nor the disposition for learning.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/biography/antoinette-brown-blackwell

See this reference also: Friends and Sisters: Letters between Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown Blackwell, 1846-93 (Women in American History)Amazon

OBERLIN COLLEGE – AFRICAN AMERICAN AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Oberlin was the first to regularly admit African American students in 1835 and women in 1837. Mary Jane Patterson was the first African American woman in 1862 to earn a B.A. degree.

The college was active in the Underground Railroad. In 1858 they were involved in the rescue of a fugitive slave that was nationally covered in the press.

Clearly the ministers that developed Oberlin College set up an institution with a passion for justice.

SUPPORT FROM A FORMER SLAVE

It took the persuasion of Frederick Douglas, a former slave, abolitionist and editor of the Rochester [NY] North Star newspaper to convince the body at the 1848 meeting in Seneca Falls to pass the resolution on Women’s Suffrage. It was a new and very controversial idea that many ministers preached against from their pulpit. A few days later, the press reported on the proceedings. Mrs. Stanton reacted that it was still getting the ideas out there, despite their negative treatment. It would still get women and men thinking about these new ideas. I doubt she imagined it would take so long. She did not live to see their victory.

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902)

http://www.npg.si.edu/col/seneca/senfalls1.htm

The Denial That Began the Fire For Change

The real inspiration for increasing women’s rights may have begun in London in 1840. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were both attending the World Anti-slavery Convention, with their husbands. Mrs. Mott and other women wanted to be seated as delegates, but were prevented. The denial had the effect of firing up some of them. It was the start of a profound change in the lives of women.

http://www.npg.si.edu/col/seneca/senfalls1.htm

Alliances for Human Rights

The 14th was ratified during reconstruction, which W. E. B. Dubois called "a splendid failure." Former slaves had demonstrated their ability to be full citizens, and thus upset the stereotype of white citizens that slaves were sub-human. Some believed they were unable to learn. Similar misconceptions existed regarding women being less intelligent. Just as abolitionists and women’s suffragists had formed alliances before the Civil War, women and former slaves during Reconstruction found mutual self-interest in working together for the adoption of amendments to the Constitution that supported human rights.

http://www.amazon.com/Forever-Free-Story-Emancipation-Reconstruction/dp/0375702741/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276222840&sr=1-1

She Tried To Vote

If you read the second sentence of the 14th Amendment below you may think, as Susan B. Anthony did, that it at last allowed former slaves and women the right to vote. So as a test she voted in the presidential election of 1872. She was promptly arrested, tried before a judge, and convicted. She refused to pay the fine, and the case was never taken to a higher court.

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Ratified in 1868.


http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am14.html

Loss of Herself as an Individual

Until 1868, when a woman married she lost all her legal rights and even the distinction of being an individual. She became one with her husband and so was subject to what he would allow. [Some places like Virginia allowed widows some rights of property.] This is probably why, until recent years, women were only known by their husband's name and not their own. What happened in 1868? The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. More tomorrow. PEACE

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/property.html

When I became a minister's wife in 1964, everyone would only call me Mrs. and would not use my own name. I had to know someone for a long time before they would use my given name. For years in womens groups that I joined, they only used Mrs. and their husband's names. As I observed these women, some could find who they were as people, and others did not feel permission to dare to be an individual. The worst judgement usually came from other women.

How Old Is Your Wife?

If you are feeling sorry for yourself on any day, the article below talks about girls from the Roman Empire onward in time being MARRIED FROM THE AGE OF 12! Womens' political and property rights varied in different cultures, but generally they had limited or no right to own property and no right to vote. Thank you to... the women and, yes, men who secured those rights for us.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife

Failure Is Impossible

FAILURE IS IMPOSSIBLE As you can imagine history brought together some extraordinary people to win the right for women to vote. In 1995 The National Archives celebrated the ratification of the 19th Amendment with a script that brought together the voices of many who made it happen. PEACE

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage/script.html

Link for Posting below

http://www.npg.si.edu/col/seneca/senfalls1.htm

Mrs. Stanton's Level of Frustration

SHE found herself releasing "the torrent of my long-accumulating discontent, with such vehemence and indignation, that I stirred myself as well as the rest of the party to do and to dare anything." The quote is Elizabeth Cady Stanton's noted in the book THE LADIES OF SENECA FALLS by Miriam Gurko. This was the impetus for the convention in July of 1848 that began the fight for the rights of women – to vote, speak our minds, and determine the direction of our own lives. At this time women had few unquestioned rights. The laws varied, but social convention kept most women in check until the day that Mrs. Stanton’s frustration boiled over.



http://www.amazon.com/Ladies-Seneca-Falls-Studies-Women/dp/0805205454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275778550&sr=8-1

15th Amendment to the Constitution

It was in 1870 that the 15th Amendment granted African American MEN the rights of citizens to vote. However with poll taxes, literacy tests and in other ways most were prevented from registering to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Do you know when women won the right to vote? I say won because it was a long fight. Watch tomorrow to learn how long it took.

http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/15thamendment.html

A RULE OF THUMB

A RULE OF THUMB - is a general principle that night be applied in many and varied situations based on experience. It may not work across the board.

The reason I include it here is because of a mistake. There is a widely held understanding that it refers to an English law which allowed a man to beat his wife with a stick no bigger than the mans thumb. THIS IS NOT TRUE. THERE NEVER WAS SUCH A LAW!

A satirical cartoon from 1783 seems to have fostered this huge misunderstanding. Since that time it has justified cruelty and bad judgement. We should all know that there is NO reason to abuse another person.

Its always important to do research and learn the truth. It turns out it does not mean what I and a lot of others thought. IT IS A MISTAKE THAT HAS BEEN PASSED ON SINCE 1783. YIKES!!!

Please share ths with friends and family.

PEACE

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/rule-of-thumb.html

Welcome All

Welcome to my new blog, History of Hope. The goal is to share tidbits of history women should know - because it affects our lives today. It will include little known tidbits of history and forgotten stories of those who have gone before us - to whom we owe so much of what we have today.