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Maria Stewart’s Fight for Abolition, Racial, and Gender Equality. Anita Langston

Background

AS

I prepare to give my speech, ”Me thinks I heard a spiritual interrogation” who shall go forward, and take out the reproach that is cast upon the people of color? Shall it be a woman? And my heart made this reply, ‘If it is they will, be it even so Lord Jesus !’ ” ___________________________________________________ I dare to speak out because I am a woman. We have fought for this country’s freedom against the British. We were good enough to fight along side whites for their “life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness”. Oh! How soon we forget, the whites want their freedom, yet they leave my people of color in bondage. You treat us, whose free, a level above bondage. We want us rights to freedom.

Background Free blacks were not viewed any better than the southern slaves that were still being held in bondage. Free blacks did not have the same opportunity or rights as whites. Even though, some blacks was free, they could only work menial jobs. It was hard for a man or woman to take care of their families. Blacks were not afforded the chance at a good education in which an education would have given them opportunities at good jobs.

Background continued •“Look at many of the most worthy and most interesting of us doomed to spend our lives in gentlemen’s kitchens. Look at our young mens smart, active, and energetic with souls filled with ambitions fire, if they look forward, alas! What are their prospects? They can be nothing but the humblest laborers, on account of their dark complexions; hence many of them lose their ambitions and become worthless…”

Background continued US

people need to have the same opportunities as whites to get a good education. Us, as a people of color, need to come together and demand us political rights and rights for a good education, even if us have to use force. I responded to William Lloyd Garrison call for women to support the abolitionist cause. I took him my collection of political tracts, Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality. He published all my works, in his newspaper the Liberator.

Abolitionist I

, was “ the first Black feminist-abolitionist in America”. Even though there were other female evangelist and missionaries, I was the first woman political speaker. In those times, women were condemned for speaking in public on political issues or in public in general. I delivered four speeches before retiring. I led the way for other great abolitionist such as, Fredrick Douglass, Sojourner Truth and decades later, W.E.B. Dubois. I commonly used metaphors and rhetoric to make my arguments. Some have regarded my rhetoric as the “black jeremiad”. In my Masonic Hall address, I challenged black men to speak up for themselves and to raise their children free from the subservient constraints of servitude and degradation. As a woman, I was not to speak out, so the men became angry at me, but yet they were being disrespected by whites.

Speeches

Women Rights •African

American women worked menial jobs just as the men did of those times. Black women worked in the homes of white masters cleaning, cooking, and washing their clothes. After a long day of working, black women had to go home and complete the exact same chores at their own homes. I encouraged black women to get an education and move to the forefront on issues in the community. I encouraged black women to become business women and aspire jobs beyond those of domestic origin. ________________________________________________

“Let our girls possess what amiable qualities of soul they may; let their characters be fair and spotless as innocence itself; let their natural taste and ingenuity be what they may; it is impossible for scarce an individual to them to rise above the condition of servants”. I put forward a challenge to my white counterparts as they were seeking women rights for themselves as well. I challenged them to speak up and be silent no longer for what they wanted regardless of what men of thought.

Women Rights I ask you, “Am I not a Woman and a Sister?” Us all are fighting for the same women rights. Employ my sisters of fairer skin, show us how to get our own business. Educate us, so we can do better for ourselves and family.

Women Rights

I

have not received the recognition like others from my era of fighting for Black American rights. Even though I only gave four speeches, the movement I began in those days gave way to the “Black lives Movement” of today. As I see today, my people of brown skin are still fighting the same fight of equality, oppression, and fair treatment for people of color. Will our struggle ever end?

Together How can you have one without the other (racial and gender equality)? They both go hand in hand. In order to move forward in the fight of equality for all, we must constantly remove the barriers that block change. As an African American woman, it is my job, or should I say duty, to work non stop to make sure that our towns, communities, and neighboring cities embrace the equitable and intersectional measures that appreciates the fact that everyone's’ lives matters.

IN a time when racial and gender discrimation is at its highest point, we must stand together as one regardless of the color of our sisters’ skin. Our voices will carry a stronger sound if we all are heard as one united voices working together to stump out racism and gender bias. NO longer will we stand by and witness our violated, oppressed, and discriminated sisters drop their heads in humiliation as they have for so many years before-- both past and present. We must face these issues head on without fear in hopes of creating a unified world where everyone reaps the benefits of equality.

Bibliography ❖ Blackpast. (1832) Maria W. Stewart, “Why Sit Ye Here and Die.” Blackpast. 24 Jan.2007. o https://blackpast.org/African-American-history/1834-maria-w-stewart-why-sit-ye-here-a nd-die/ ❖ Voices of Democracy. Lecture Delivered at Franklin Hall. Lynchburg College. 27 Sept 2006. o https://www.voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/....