FREDERICK DOUGLASS AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE
Author(s): S. JAY WALKER
Source: The Black Scholar, Vol. 4, No. 6/7, BLACK WOMEN'S LIBERATION (March-April 1973),
pp. 24-31
Published by: Paradigm Publishers
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FREDERICK DOUGLASS
AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE
the afternoon of the 20th of
Februaryin 1895, Frederick
Douglass,a massive,leoninefigure,his burly
six feet capped by an unrulymass of white
hair, strodeinto a meetingof the National
Council of Women at Metzerott Hall in
D.C. No one, includinghimself,
Washington,
knew preciselyhow old he was, perhaps77,
perhaps78; recordshad notbeen keptofslave
birthsin Marylandduringthe second decade
ofthecentury.But he carriedhishonors-the
honors of more than sixtyyears' fightfor
liberty-likea monarch,and likea monarchhe
was received.
SusanB. Anthony,
his old friend,and sometimes enemy, from Rochester, and the
ReverendAnna H. Shaw escortedhim to the
whereMaryWrightSewell,presidplatform,
invited
him to speak. He declined,acking,
the
nowledging standingovationonlywitha
bow, but took his seat and remained
theproceedings.
throughout
It was his last public appearance. He died
that eveningof a heart attack at his home,
Cedar Hill,in Anacostia.
As Mrs. Sewell pointedout, in adjourning
theeveningsessionuponreceiptofthenewsof
his death,it was an historiccoincidencethat
Douglassshouldhave spenthis last day in enIt had
couragingthecourseofwomansuffrage.
been one of his deepest concernsfornearly
halfa century.1
FrederickDouglass' reputationis so inextricablylinkedwith the abolitionof slavery
and the achievementof fullfreedomforthe
emancipatedblacksthatwe forgethow wideand interests.
The
rangingwerehissympathies
pages of the pre-CivilWar NorthStar,later
Frederick Douglass' Weekly, championed
causeswhosetimehad notyetcome,and nota
few whose time has still to come. He campaigned for the abolitionof floggingin the
Navy,forthe UniversalPeace Movement,for
Temperance, for land reform,and for the
abolitionofcapital punishment.2
In 1870,two
decades before the massacre at Wounded
Knee, he urged the disbandingAnti-Slavery
Societyto take up the cause of "the Indian,
whoseconditiontodayis the saddestchapter
inourhistory."He supportedJaurezofMexico
and opposedthe"Coolie Trade," all ofit consonantwithone ringingstatement:
PAGE 24
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I cantakenopartinoppressing
orpersecuting any varietyof the human family.
in Russia,Germany,
Whether
orCalifornia,
is withtheoppressed,
be he
mysympathy
Chinaman
orHebrew.3
Butthecause whichmostattractedandheld
his attention,second only to that of Black
Liberation,was Woman'sRights,a fieldforhis
endeavorsfromthe mid-1840'sto the day of
his death. Late in his life he was to say,
theWomen'sSuffrage
Association:
addressing
I havedonelittlein thisworldin whichto
gloryexceptthisone act-and I certainly
inthat.WhenI ranawayfrom
glory
slavery,
it was formyself;
whenI advocatedemanit was formypeople;butwhenI
cipation,
stoodupfortherights
ofwomen,
selfwasout
ofthequestion,
andI found
a littlenobility
in
theact.4
YetthecourseoflovebetweenDouglassand
the Woman's Rightsmovementdid not run
and it is odd to notethatin
entirelysmoothly,
some of the historiesand memoirsof that
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MARCH-APRIL, 1973
S. Jay Walker is Director of the Black Studies
Programand Professorof English at Dartmouth
College in New Hampshire.A nativeof New York
City,Dr. WalkergraduatedfromCity College of
New Yorkand laterearneda Ph.D. in Englishfrom
ColumbiaUniversity.
He has taughtat the Univer-
sityof Alaska and at Tuskegee Institute.He also
wroteand narrateda 27 episode televisionseries
entitled"Black AmericanLiteratureand Thought"
whichwas producedand distributedby the State
ofNew York.Currently
he is workingon
University
a televisionspecial on FrederickDouglass whichis
tobe shownin Rochester,N.Y.
by S. JAY WALKER
and
movement,
particularlyWomanSuffrage
Politicsby Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie
RogersShuler,thenameofFrederickDouglass
almostvanishes,appearingonlyonce,in a list
ofthosemenwho,"armsfolded,"ignoredthe
1867woman'srightscampaignin Kansas.5
J.Nfact, however, just as the presentday
Women'sLiberationmovementgrewlargely
outoftheCivil Rightsmovementand adopted
many of its attitudes and techniques (the
clenched fist, "right on!" sit-ins, mass
confrontations),and as many of today's
feminist
activistswere bloodiedin Selma and
in the "MississippiSummers,"so it was with
the woman'ssuffrage
movementof the nineteenthcentury.Then as now thewomenwho
tookup thefight
fortherightsoftheirownsex
in
began, manyinstances,by throwingthemselvesintothebattleto liberateblacks.6
The Anti-Slaveryand Woman's Rights
movements
grewup so closelyas to be almost
in theirearlierperiod. The
indistinguishable
same libertarianimpulseswhichgave rise to
the AbolitionistMovementwere the firstto
recognizethe degradedpositionof womenin
society.It is farfromsheercoincidencethat
FrederickDouglassdeliveredtheeulogyat the
funeralofSusanB. Anthony's
fatherin 1862,or
thattwo of the Anthonybrothersfoughtwith
JohnBrownin Kansas. Part of Douglass' inducementto settleand begin his anti-slavery
newspaperin Rochesterhad been the strong
influence
of the anti-slavery
HicksiteQuakers
in thatcity,and conspicuousamongtheHicksite faction were the family of Susan B.
Anthony.7
THE BLACK SCHOLAR
ThroughoutAbolitionistcircles,fromthe
Garrisonians
in New England to the western
womenplayed
outpostsoftheIowa Territory,
a crucialrole. They providedfunds.Without
the AnnualFairs of the BostonFemale AntiSlaverySociety,withoutthe small-townorganizationsliketheLynnAnti-Slavery
Sewing
Societyand the West BoxfordFemale AntiSlavery Society, the strugglingAbolitionist
Movementwouldhave starved.8
There would
havebeen fewersubscriptions
to TheLiberator
or The North Star, no fundsfor Douglass,
Remond, and the others to stump the
provincesin the famous"Hundred Conventions,"no food,clothing,or suppliesforthe
runawaysbeing spiritednorthwardalong the
Railroad.
Underground
But if women supportedthe Abolitionist
Movement,the Movement supported,and
more important,trained women. In 1848,
despitethe presenceof figureslike Lucretia
Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton,the first
Women's RightsConventionwas forced to
choosea male chairman,sinceall the women
"were still humiliatinglyunfamiliarwith
parliamentary
procedure."9The Anti-Slavery
which
voted,in a precedent-setting
Society,
to
"all
seat
step,
persons"(not all males) as
delegates,10
graduallyprovidedthat skill.By
the end of the Civil War, Susan B. Anthony
was more than able to hold her own against
in thecountry.
anyparliamentarian
The techniquesofthe two movements,
too,
were almost identical: fairs, petitions,
publications, conventions. And the clear
illogicofAmericanracismwas made to playa
rolein both.Justas the polishedperformance
ofFrederickDouglasson an Abolitionist
plat-
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PAGE 25
formreduced Garrison'srhetoricalquestion,
so
"Is thisa manora chattel?"to an absurdity,
it was the rude and powerful speech of
SojournerTruthto the Woman's RightsConventionat Akronin 1851 which demolished
the chivalrousargumentthat women were
subjugatedfortheirown protection:
Thatmanovertheresaythata womanneeds
to be helpedintocarriages
and liftedover
ditches, and to have the best place
Nobodyeverhelpedme into
everywhere.
orgivesmea
orovermudpuddles,
carriages,
bestplace
Andain't I a women?[sic]
Lookat me.Lookat myarm!I haveplowed
andplantedandgathered
intobarns,andno
mancouldheadme.. . . Andain'tI a women?
as muchandeatas muchas a
I could[work?]
manwhenI couldgetit,andbearthelashas
well Andain'tI a woman?
I haveborned
children
andseenthemmostallsold
thirteen
offintoslavery.
AndwhenI criedoutwitha
mother's
nonebutJesus
heard.. . . And
grief,
ain'tI a woman?11
simply,knew injusticewhen he saw it and
potentialallieswhenhe saw them,and he had
heardrathertoo muchofsociety'sviewsofthe
"natural inferiority"and the "God-given
place" of the Sons of Ham to be at all
impressed by those arguments applied,
to theGentlerSex.Asa
howeverbenevolently,
the
National
to
NegroConventionin
delegate
Clevelandin 1848,he succeededin amending
a resolution
delegatesso thatit would
defining
"
be "understood 'to include women,9 an
amendmentthat was carried "with three
cheersforwomen'srights!"15
J5ut perhaps the high-water mark of
Douglass' involvementwith the woman's
rightsmovementwas reachedin Seneca Falls,
New York,on 19 and 20 July1848. The convention,called jointlyby Lucretia Mott and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton,adopted smoothly
enougha seriesof resolutions
denouncingthe
to "defectof
visited
women
due
wrongs
upon
Perhapsonly an organizationas outre,as
sex."18Mrs. Stanton,however,wished to go
accustomedto scornas weretheAbolitionists,
further.Seeking redress, she proposed a
couldhavesupportedsucha movement.It was
radicaladdition:
no easy thingfora male to espouse woman's
thatitis thedutyofthewomenof
rightsin the nineteenthcentury.Those who
Resolved,
did riskedbeingtabled"AuntNancyMen" or
thiscountry
to secureforthemselves
their
sacredright
totheelectivefranchise.
worse.12The New YorkHerald describedone
conventionof theEqual RightsAssociationas
The additionshockedeven her supporters.
composedof
LucretiaMott,theQuaker preacherwho had
faceddown angrymobs in the cause of antiLong-haired men, apostles of some
inexplicable emotion or sensation.. . .
slaveryand a woman'srightto thepulpit,was
andshort-haired
sinners,
Negroworshippers,
aghast."Why, Lizzie," she cried. "Thee will
women.. . . Womenin Bloomerdressesto
make
us ridiculous
Thee moves too fast.
showtheiranklesand theirindependence;
We mustgo slowly."17
womenwhohatetheirhusbands
andfathers,
andhateful
womenwanting
husbands
... alDeliberate speed was precisely what
themostlong-necked,
together
grim-faced,
ElizabethStantondid not want. But she was
dyspeptic, Puritanical, nasal-twinged
unable to talk her allies over; even her husofismseverassembled.
agglomeration
band,otherwisewarmlysupportive,declared
that he would have nothingto do with the
and another,even morehysterically,
as
unseemlyproposal and left town.18Of the
males attendingthe conference,
a gathering
of unsexedwomen.... Is the
thirty-seven
worldtobe depopulated?
Aretheretobe no
one alone supported her, and that was
morechildren?Or are we to adopt the
FrederickDouglass.
Frenchmode,whichis too well knownto
He not onlysecondedthe motionfromthe
needexplanation?13
floorbutspokeforitwithsucheloquencethat,
Thusit tooka certainamountofcouragefor
despitethe misgivingsof Mrs. Mott and the
FrederickDouglass to open the firstissue of
others,it was carriedby a smallmajority.19
The NorthStar(December 3, 1847) with the
It was, in fact,stillto be a long,slow road.
of a centurywere to
words,"Rightis of no sex."14Douglass,quite
Nearly three-quarters
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MARCH-APRIL, 1973
pass and all the principalsat thatmeetingto
be dead beforewomenvoted throughout
the
UnitedStates.But there,in the Seneca Falls
Wesleyan Chapel in 1848, Stanton and
Douglasshad sealed a bondbetweentherights
ofwomenand the rightsofblacksthatwas to
be shaken,but neverentirelybroken.
Shaken,and shakenbadly,it was, by two
post-CivilWar ConstitutionalAmendments,
theFourteenthand Fifteenth.
The Thirteenth
Amendment,endingslaverythroughoutthe
UnitedStates,had receivedvirtually
universal
from
the
women's
The
support
organizations.
Fourteenth,conferring
citizenshipupon the
soundeda warningnote.For while
freedmen,
the women, generally, favored black citizenship, they were troubled by the inthreetimesinthesecondsectionof
troduction,
the Amendment,
of referencesto the vote of
"male" citizens.20
Josephine Griffing,the originator of the
Freedman'sBureau;and thatmostremarkable
ofall, thefugitiveslave HarrietTubman,who
had not onlyheaded the IntelligenceService
of the Union'sDepartmentof the Southbut
who actuallyled troopsin battle22-these,it
to put an end for
seemed,shouldhave sufficed
all timeto theconceptofwomen'sinferiority.
They were not; and many of the angry
women,feelingbetrayed,desertedby their
black and Abolitionistsupporters,faced the
upcomingFifteenthAmendmentwith more
mein. If women were not
uncompromising
offered
the vote,togetherwithblacks,in that
to prevent
Amendment,
theyweredetermined
itspassage.
The breakwas perhapsinevitableonce the
immediate priorities of the two groups
diverged,but it carriedall the acrimonyof
friendsbecome enemies. To Douglass, the
FifteenthAmendmentwas of overridingimIt was a more significant
inclusionthan it
portanceto the verysurvivalof the newlynow seems.Priorto the FourteenthAmend- freedslaves. Only the ballot, he felt,could
ment,the Constitutionhad not specifically shieldthem fromthe wrathof theirformer
excludedwomenfromthefranchise;nowhere masters;onlythe ballot could provideaccess
to education;onlytheballotcould guardtheir
had therebeenanyreference
to sex;
previously
economicfoundations;
it seems simplyto have been assumed that
painfully-won
onlythe
womenwouldnotvote.The new Amendment ballot could provide protection from the
into Constitutional terrorist
was, in effect,solidifying
organizationswhich were springing
the formerConfederacy.That
law whathad previously
been merecustom.
up throughout
he was rightis evidenced by the fact that,
The women closed ranksto fight-not the
between1882and 1900,afterblackvotinghad
but the inclusionof the odious
Amendment,
adjective in it. Appeals, speakers,petitions been effectuallycurtailed by hostile local
criss-crossed
the country;meetingswere held
governments and an indifferentFederal
morethanfourthousandblacks
and legislatorslobbied.All to no avail. There
government,
were
was a politicaland emotionaltide runningin
lynchedand morethanten thousandin
additionwerekilledin riots.23
favorof black citizenship;therewas no such
Thatlay in thefuture,
butDouglassforesaw
tidefavoring
fullcitizenshipforwomen.21
thefutureofhispeople as clearlyas he did that
The feministswere embittered by the
FourteenthAmendment,
and understandably oftheIndians.PleadingwiththeEqual Rights
Associationin 1869,he stressedthe problems
so. The servicesof women duringthe Civil
ofthefreedmen:
War- AnnaElla Carroll,who had workedout
the Tennessee River strategy (for which
Whenwomen,
becausetheyarewomen,
are
GeneralGranttookthecredit,theauthorities
fromtheirhomesand hungupon
dragged
feelingthatit would be unseemlyto have it
whentheirchildrenare torn
lamp-posts;
knownthatUnionstrategy
was beingplanned
from
theirarmsandtheirbrainsdashedout
whentheyareobjectsof
by a civilianand a femaleone at that!);Drs.
uponthepavement;
insultandoutrageat everyturn;whenthey
ElizabethBlackwellof the SanitaryCommisare in dangerofhavingtheirhomesburnt
sionand MaryWalker,armysurgeon;Nurses
downovertheirheads;whentheirchildren
Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton; Anna E.
are notallowedto enterschools;theywill
Dickinson,whose campaigninghad been eshaveanurgency
toobtaintheballot.
sential to Lincoln's re-election in 1864;
Whena personin theaudienceshouted,
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PAGE 27
"Is thatnotall trueaboutblackwomen?"
Douglasreplied:"Yes,yes,yes,it is trueof
theblackwoman,butnotbecauseshe is a
womanbutbecausesheisblack.24
-Nonetheless, many of the women were
determined that blacks should not be
enfranchisedbefore they. Shortlyafterthe
Civil War, Susan B. Anthony startled
TheodoreTiltonand a groupof Abolitionists
out herarm,
by striding
up to them,thrusting
and exclaiming,
Lookat this,all ofyou.Andhearmeswear
thatI will cut offthisrightarmof mine
beforeI willeverworkforor demandthe
ballotfortheNegroandnotthewoman.25
Shewas as goodas herword,andsheclashed
withDouglassin open debate:
Mr. Douglasstalksof the wrongsof the
Negro;but withall the outragesthathe
he wouldnotexchange
hissex
todaysuffers,
andtaketheplaceofElizabethCadyStanton.
[Douglass:]I wantto knowifgranting
you
theright
ofsuffrage
willchangethenature
of
oursexes?
It will changethe pecuniary
[Anthony:]
ofwomen.It willplaceherwhere
position
shecanearnherownbread.Shewillnotthen
be drivento suchemployments
onlyas man
choosesforher.26
The debates went on, producingless light
than heat, and effectuallyunanswerableon
both sides. Douglass, supportingwoman's
neverthelessknew that a peculiar
suffrage,
combinationof circumstancesthe end of a
the
a
the
assassination
of
war,
President,
great
between
and
the
Radical
struggle
Johnson
Republican Congress, the fact that the
southernstates were out of the Union and
could be coerced intoratification
as the price
of re-admission-all these created a unique
fortheenfranchisement
ofblacks.
opportunity
The northern
stateswere eitherrelativelyindifferent,
havingat the timetoo smalla black
populationto pose any threatto theirpower
or Republicqn-dominated,
structures,
scenting
the power of two million new, almost auvoters.
tomatically-Republican
On the otherhand,Douglass knewthatthe
essentialnorthern
statesfeltstrongly
aboutthe
PAGE 28
proprietyof women voting,and he feltthat
wouldresult
theinclusionofwoman'ssuffrage
inthelossoftheAmendment,
thusdenyingthe
vote to women and blacks alike. He wrote
of Miss Anthony
sadly to JosephineGriffing
and Mrs.Stanton:
Their principleis: that no Negro shall be
enfranchised
whilewomanis not.Now,considering that white men have been
enfranchised
always,and coloredmen have
not, the conduct of these white women,
whose husbands,fathers,and brothersare
voters,does notseemgenerous.27
was nottheorderoftheday.On
Generosity
and Elizabeth
15 May 1869,SusanB. Anthony
from
Stanton
led
the
exodous
of
militants
Cady
theEqual RightsAssociationand intotheNational Woman SuffrageAssociation,whose
sole purpose was to achieve the vote for
women.28And the initial objective of the
WomanSuffrage
Associationwas defeatofthe
Fifteenth
Amendment:
Resolved,That whilewe rejoicein everystep
towardan end, on the Continent,ofan aristocracyof color,we repudiatethe Fifteenth
Amendment,because by its passage in
Congressthe Republican Partypropose to
substitutean aristocracyof sex, the most
incitizenshipthathas ever
odiousdistinction
yetbeen proposed.. . .
Mrs. Stanton carried on the attack in editorials:
All wise womenshouldoppose theFifteenth
Amendment
fortwo reasons:1st,Because it
is invidiousto theirsex.Look at it fromwhat
pointyouwill,and in everyrespectitreflects
the old idea of woman'sinferiority,
her subject condition.. . . 2nd, We should oppose
the measurebecause men have no rightto
pass it withoutourconsent.29
The resolutionand its explanationcarrya
certainlogic, but not a total one. The FifteenthAmendment
did notsubstitutean aristocracyofsexforone ofcolor;ratherit failed,
whilestriking
downthearistocracy
ofcolorto
attack that of sex as well. The Fifteenth
unlikethe Fourteenth,
does not
Amendment,
ofsex;itsimplyassumes
carrythespecification
thatvoterswill be male. Mrs. Stantonrecognizesthiswhenshesaysthatit "reflects
theold
idea." It was truethattheAmendment
was to
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MARCH-APRIL, 1973
add millionsof male voterswhilekeepingthe
door closed on theirwivfs,sisters,mothers,
of
anddaughters.Butso did thenaturalization
its
unaffected
families,a process
by
immigrant
passageor defeat.
oftheeditorial,too,is
The secondstatement
to
a
The
conceptof"consent
logicalup
point.
of the governed"¿naywell justifyopposition
to laws in which the governedhave had no
voice. Yet one mightwell ask whetherthis
oppositionshouldnot logicallyhave been extendedto everylaw passedin theperiod,every
tarriff,
everytaxation,everyschoolbill,every
electionin which,again, womanhad no say;
whetherit shouldnotlogicallyhave called for
a moratorium
on naturalization.
was
the
Why
concept to be focusedsolely
on thedefeatoftheAmendment
enfranchising
blacks? In part, as suggestedearlier,it was
and itsattendantbitterness.
disappointment
Unfortunately, the biographies and
recordsoftheperiodindicatethat,in addition
to thedisappointment,
the FifteenthAmendthe
mentconstituted
a particularhumiliation,
humiliationof seeing black males offereda
role in governmentstill denied to white
females.Workingto freethe poor, enslaved
blackwas one thing;givinghimconstitutional
predominance was another. Mrs. Stanton
wroteaboutthe"insultto thewomenwhohad
laboredthirtyyearsforthe emancipationof
theslave" and "thedeep-seatedindignation
of
the woman at the propositionto place the
negro[sic]above theirheads."30
The feministnewspaper,The Revolution,
publishedby Mrs. Stantonand Miss Anthony
duringthis period,took on an openly racist
to
tone,theabstractblackvoterbeingreferred
as "Sambo," terminology
for
almostuniformly
whichDouglasstookMrs.Stantonto taskat a
meetingoftheEqual RightsAssociation.31
beforeemancipation
thenegroeshad been
for
brought
upinalmost
respect
superstitious
whitepeople,especially
whitewomen,
who
wereas farabovethemas theplanets.Since
thecollapseof theConfederacy
muchresWhat
pectforwhitemenhad disappeared.
wouldnowbe awakenedin
savageinstincts
whentheyweretaught
ex-slaves
revengeful
thatthelaw madethemtheciviland polioftheirformer
mistresses?32
ticalsuperiors
THE BLACK SCHOLAR
The Revolutionpurportedto answer that
question with a screamingheadline: OUTRAGE BY A NEGRO IN TENNESSEE HE IS HUNG BY A MOB, followedby an
Elizabeth Cady Stantoneditorialsuggesting
that black rape is the result of not giving
womenthevote.Elsewherein thesame issue,
"Have Saxon
Mrs.Stantonaskedrhetorically,
womenno wrongsto right,and will theybe
betterprotectedwhen black men are their
masters?"33
The "southernstrategy"tone of the newspaper, the deliberate attempt to conjure
visionsof savage blacks unleashedupon the
whiteladiesofAmerica,is obvious,and nearly
ofthatstrategy.
as obviousis theinspiration
The Revolution began publication in
Januaryof 1868. In 1867, Miss Anthonyand
Mrs. Stantonhad spent a greatdeal of time
stumpingKansas withGeorge FrancisTrain,
an erraticmillionairewho,havingcompleted
at leastone residencyin a lunaticasylum,now
aspired to live in the White House, and of
whomWilliam Lloyd Garrisonwrotedisgustedly,
have
Thecoloredpeopleandtheiradvocates
nota moreabusiveassailantthanthissame
Train, especially when he has an Irish
to
audiencebefore
him,towhomhedelights
ringthe changesupon "nigger,nigger,
of
nigger"ad nauseam.He is as destitute
as he is ofsense.. . . He maybe of
principle
an audience,butso woulda
usein drawing
a gorilla,
ora hippotamus.34
kangaroo,
It is thiscampaign,incidentally,
which Mrs.
Catt and Mrs. Shuler denounce Frederick
Douglassforfailingto join.
Trainmusthave been odd companyforthe
two women who had gathered,duringthe
Civil War, 300,000 signatureson a petition
calling foran end to slavery,but theywere
insensatewithrage: they"could notbear the
idea of 'boostingthe Negro over theirown
heads/"35
It was "this same Train" who proposed,
named,and financedTheRevolution.36
It is good to recordthatthereweregracious
exceptionson both sides. RobertPurvis,the
ofPhiladelphia,longa
blackAbolitionist
fiery
Railroad,stood
keyfigurein theUnderground
by the cause of women,announcingthat he
"demandedforhis daughterall thathe asked
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PAGE 29
forhis son and himself."37
On the otherhand,
notable feministssuch as Julia Ward Howe
announced,"I am willingthattheNegroshall
gettheballotbeforeme."38
Dut the exceptions were rare. Probably
more indicativewas the action of Henry B.
Blackwell, husband of Abolitionist and
SuffragistLucy Stone, who despatched an
open letter,"What the South Can Do," to
southern legislatures, arguing that the
enfranchisement
ofwomenwouldincreasethe
combinedwhitevotesufficiently
to defeatthe
combined black vote in the formerConfederacy:thus"the Negroquestionwould be
forever
removedfromthepoliticalarena."39It
houroftheallianceofblacks
was notthefinest
and women.
thehourofstresspassed.On 30
Fortunately,
March 1870, PresidentGrant declared the
Fifteenth
Amendmentratified;thebattlewas
over, and amidst the general rejoicing,
FrederickDouglassbegan the painstaking
job
ofhealingthe woundsleftby it. TactfullyignoringMissAnthony's
waspish"Let thequestionofwomanbe broughtup firstand thatof
the negrolast," he called forthe immediate
opening of a campaign for a Sixteenth
Amendment,to enfranchise women.40In
Januaryof 1870, Wendell Phillips,an Abolitionistand a supporterof women'srightsfor
more than thirtyyears,refusedpublicly to
shakehandswith Mrs. Stantonwhen she appeared ("uninvited") at the Boston AntiIn Octoberofthesameyear,
SlaveryFestival.41
FrederickDouglass swungthe weightof his
new Washingtonnewspaper, The New National Era, behind woman's suffragestating
thatthe questionsof rightof freedomforthe
slave and rightofballot forwomenwere one
and the same, both opposed by "priestcraft,
and superstitution."
bigotry,
... we knowof no truthmoreeasilymade
tohumanthought
thantheright
appreciable
ofwomantovote,or,inotherwords,
tohave
a voiceintheGovernment
underwhichshe
livesandtowhichsheowesalliance... itis
aredivested
of
plainthatwomenthemselves
a largemeasureoftheirnaturaldignity
by
theirexclusionfromsuchparticipation
in
Government.
Poweris thehighest
objectof
. . . We pitytheimpotent
and resrespect.
PACE 30
To deny
pect the powerfuleverywhere.
womanhervoteis to ... depriveherof a
certainmeasureofself-respect.
. . . Woman
herself
losesin herownestimation
by her
enforcedexclusion fromthe elective
franchise
justas theslavesdoubtedtheirown
fitness
forfreedom,
fromthe factof their
beinglookeduponas onlyfitforslaves.42
It was as powerfulan indictmentof the
as
psychologicaleffectof sex discrimination
was to be heardfora century.
Graduallythe alliance and the friendships
re-formed.
One strawin the windhad certain
comic-operaovertones.In 1872,the irrepressible Victoria Woodhull's National Radical
Reformer'sPartynominatedMrs. Woodhull
forPresidentand Douglass forVice-President
of the United States.Douglass was too busy
campaigningforGrant'sre-electioneven to
botherdeclining,but it made littledifference.
Mrs.Woodhull,as ithappened,spentelection
day in jail, chargedwith slanderforhaving
accusedHenryWardBeecherofalienatingthe
wife.43
affections
ofanotherAbolitionist's
The more serious friendshipsendured.
Withina fewyears,Douglass,ElizabethStanton,and SusanAnthonywere again on cordial
terms,and it is noteworthythat when the
stormofobloquy,frombothblacksandwhites,
howledabout Douglass upon the occasion of
his second marriage, in 1884, to a white
and particularly
woman,mostofthefeminists,
Mrs.Stanton,stoodloyallybyhisside- though
SusanB. Anthonythoughtit politicnotto invitehimto be a memberoftheplatform
comof
the
Namitteeat the annual conference
tionalAssociationofWomen.44
In his last decade, wealthy,honored,"The
Sage of Anacostia,""The Elder Statesman,"
Douglass foundenduringexcitementin the
woman's suffragemovement.The pleadings
and the petitions,the expostulations
and the
the rehearsalsofwrongs,theurexhortations,
gencyof crusade,the sheerappeal to justice:
all thesetookhimback to otherdecades,other
campaigns,and he roseto theAssemblies,the
Councils, the Conferences,like an old war
horsescentingbattle.In 1885 he wroteto an
old friendoftheAbolitionist
period,
I am takingmuchinterest
justnowin the
WomanSuffragequestion,and findthe
THE BLACK SCHOLAR
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MARCH-APRIL, 1973
forthe
meetingsforthispurposea substitute
old anti-slavery
meetings.45
And in the 1892 edition of his auhe devotedmorethanhalfofhis
tobiography,
retrospective chapter, "Honor to Whom
Honor,"to the womenwho had workedwith
himforEmancipationand withwhomhe had
workedforWomanSuffrage.46
His funeral, in Washington and in
Rochester,was a semi-stateaffair,and before
he was laid to restin MountHope Cemetery,
Susan B. Anthony read a eulogy from
American women, prepared by Elizabeth
Cady Stanton.47
Many years later, in Seneca Falls, New
York,a memorialtabletwas unveiled.It commemorateda time when a woman, seeking
justiceand abandonedin thequestby friends,
and husband,foundone man, a
co-workers,
and
an outcast in his own land, to
fugitive
standbesideher.It reads:
On thisspotstoodtheWesleyanChapel
WherethefirstWomen'sRightsConvention
in theWorld'sHistorywas held
July19 and 20, 1848.
ElizabethCady Stanton
movedthisresolution
whichwas secondedby Frederick
Douglass
Thatit was thedutyof thewomen
of thiscountrytosecureto themselves
theirsacredright
4S
to theelectivefranchise.
Yet memorialtablets,the highschoolsand
college halls bearinghis name, the statuein
Rochester,the Douglass Home in Anacostia:
theseare notthetruemonuments
to Frederick
Douglass. His monumentis, in the wordsof
RobertHayden'spoem, "the lives grownout
ofhislife."
FOOTNOTES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
S. Foner, ed, Life and Writingsof
Philip
FrederickDouglass (New York:International
Publishers,1952),IV, 143 - 144.
Foner,II, 15 - 16.
Foner,IV, 45, 259, 262 - 266, 117.
Foner,IV, 452.
Carrie Chapman Catt and Nettie Rogers
Shuler, Woman Suffrageand Politics (New
York:CharlesScribner'sSons,1926),p. 55.
ShulamithFirestone,TheDialecticof Sex(New
York:BantamBooks,1971),p. 29.
THE BLACK SCHOLAR
7. KatherineAnthony,
Susan B. Anthony(Garden
City:Doubledayand Co., 1954),pp. 164,135,
87.
8. Foner,1,37 - 38, 186 - 187.
9. Constance Buel Burnett,Five for Freedom
(New York:The AbelardPress,1953),p. 69.
10. Foner,I, 42.
11. TheBlack Scholar,Ian. - Feb. 1970,d. 47.
12. Benjamin Quarles, FrederickDouglass (New
York:AtheneumPress,1969),p. 133.
13. Foner,IV, 41; Quarles,Douglass,p. 137.
14. Foner,I, 84.
15. Foner,II, 26.
16. Quarles,Douglas,p. 132.
17. Burnett,pp. 64 - 65.
18. Alma Lutz, Created Equal (New York: John
Day Company,1940),p. 46.
19. Lutz, pp. 46 - 49; Quarles,Douglass,p. 133.
20. Catt and Shuler,p. 41.
21. Catt and Shuler,pp. 32 - 48.
22. Catt and Shuler,pp. 35 - 36; Lutz, pp. 132 133; Earl Conrad, Harriet Tubman (New
York:Paul S. Eriksson,Inc., 1969),p. 169.
23. W. E. BurghardtDu Bois, JohnBrown(New
York:International
Publishers,1962),p. 402.
24. Foner,IV, 43.
25. Rheta Childe Dorr, Susan B. Anthony(New
York:FrederickA. StokesCo., 1928),p. 183.
26. Lutz, d. 175.
27. Foner,IV, 212 - 213.
28. Anthony,
pp. 235 - 236.
29. Lutz, p. 178.
30. Dorr,p. 208; TheRevolution,14 January1869,
p. 24.
31. Revolution,18 March 1869, p. 169; 20 May
1869,p. 306.
32. Dorr,p. 215.
33. Revolution,14 lanuary1869,pp. 40, 24.
34. Alice Stone Blackwell,Lucu Stone (Melrose,
Mass.:The Alice StoneBlackwellCommittee,
1930),pp. 209, 212.
35. Catt and Shuler,p. 35; BlackwelLp. 214.
36. Anthony,
pp. 210, 212.
37. Benjamin Quarles, Black Abolttiontsts
(New
York:OxfordUniversity
Press,1969),pp. 148,
168.201: Lutz n. 169.
38. Lutz, p. 175.
39. Foner,IV, 42, 529.
40. Elinor Rice Hays, MorningStar (New York:
Harcourt,Brace and World, 1961), p. 203;
Foner,IV, 44.
41. Anthony,
p. 218.
42. Foner,IV, pp. 231 - 232, 237.
43. Quarles,Douglass,pp. 263 - 265.
44. Foner, IV, 115 - 118, 410, 411; Quarles,
Douglass, pp. 298 - 300; Ida Husted Harper,
Life and Workof Susan B. Anthony(In-
45.
46.
47.
48.
dianapolis:Bowen - MerrillCompany,1898),
pp. 585 - 587.
Foner,IV, 427.
Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of
Frederick
Douglass (New York:CollierBooks,
1962),pp. 466 - 474.
Foner, IV, 146; ShirleyGraham,ThereOnce
Was a Slave (New York:JulianMessner,Inc.,
1947),p. 305.
Foner,II, 541.
MARCH-APRIL, 1973
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PAGE 31