What Was The Link Between Abolitionism And The Women's Right Movement

What was the link between abolitionism and the women’s rights movement
Name
Institutional Affiliation
According to the National Park Service, the link between the abolitionist and the women rights movement traces its origin in 1833 when the Liberty editor, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott among others, formed the American Anti-Slavery Society. The society comprised of both men and women who went ahead to establish subsidiary branches of the groups such as the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society that fought for racial and gender equality (National Park Service, 2015, Feb 26). Women in the 1820s and 1830s were involved in the abolition movement through circulation of antislavery literature and hiding fugitive slaves. As the movement gained momentum, they became editors, organizers, and fundraisers for the antislavery fight, and gained recognition in the struggle.
The objective of the society was to push the southern states to abolish slavery just as the northern states were doing. The abolitionist movement gave women an exclusive platform where they expressed themselves, pushed for abolition and attended numerous abolitionist meetings that provided experience in political and social activism, bringing together like-minded individual for the fight for the end of slavery (The Pluralism Project, 2017). Women’s involvement in this abolitionist movement gave them a step outside the traditional roles the society had relegated them to as homemakers, mothers, and obedient wives.
Nevertheless, as the movement continued to gain popularity, and opposition to their calls began mounting backlash particularly towards the women, the leaders of the movement started disagreeing particularly of leadership roles for women. Thus, the society split into three, and in 1848, women met in Seneca Falls, New York, where they launched the Women Rights Convention. As a cry for fairness and equality from what was seen as discrimination by men in the abolitionist movement, the women read and signed the Declaration of Sentiments. The Declaration, authored by Elizabeth Stanton and Mary M’Clintock pushed for various rights to women such as the liberty to vote, own property and join professions such as medicine among other (Dudden, 2016, 2-3). The conventi...