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Crash Course 16 - Women in the 19th Century

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Crash Course episode 16

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hi I'm John Green this is Crash Course u.s. history and today we're going to talk about wonder when we get to the history of the United States turn the lens of Marvel Comics superheroes me from the past you sniveling little idiot Wonder Woman is from the DC Universe so this is the study of history means a constant reexamination and read definition of what it means to be a hero and in the case of this episode it's about taking the first steps toward acknowledging that not all heroes worthy of his vocal recognition or men as they fought to improve prison schools decreased public drunkenness and end slavery edible fighting for Change and justice for others American women discovered that the prisoners children and slave they were fighting for weren't the only people being oppressed and marginalized in the American democracy who won the colonial era most American women of European descent live lives much like those of their European counterparts they were legally in socially subservient to men and trapped with Anna patriarchal picture lower and working-class when we're actually more equal to Men of their own classes but only because they were like equally poor as usual it all comes back to economics route world history the higher the social class the greater the restrictions on women although high-class women have traditionally had the lowest mortality rates which is one of the benefits of you a doors and extra lifeboats and whatnot so at least you get to enjoy that oppression for many years as previously noted American women did participate in the American Revolution but they were still Acton to marry and have kids rather than like pursue a career under the legal principle of coverture actually husband's held authority over the person property and Choi is up there wanted to own property and property ownership was a precondition for voting they were totally shut out of the political process citizens of the new Republic how for definitionally mail but women did still improve their status by the ideology of Republican Motherhood women were important to the new Republic because they were raising children especially male children who would become the future voters legislators and honorary doctors of American women couldn't themselves participate in the political process but they need NBA educated song because they were going to potty train those who would later participate in the political process what's that there were no parties really apparently instead of parties they had typhoid play was a result of not having pain even without rights in the Republican access to education so that they could teach their children also when provided they weren't slaves were counted in determining the population of a state for representation purposes so that was at least acknowledge that they were at like 5:15 and then the market Revolution Shanghai profound effects on American women too because its production shifted from homes to factories it shifted away from women doing the producing this led to the so-called Cult of Domesticity which like most called I am opposed to that's right I'm opposed to the Blue Oyster Cult the cult the cult of personality by In Living Color and the three remaining shakers when are we getting you know watching you too busy dancing The Cult of Domesticity decreed that A Woman's Place was in the home so rather than making stuff the job women was to enable their husbands to make stuff by providing food and the clean living space but also by providing what are favorite historian Eric foner called non-market names like love friendship and mutual obligation which is the way we talked about puppies these days play American women's magazines like woman of being to come home to and woman Man's Best Friend documents from woman man's best friend the rules here are simple either give the author the mystery document right there eagle or I get shocked woman is to win everything by when do love by making herself so much respected as steamed and love that to yield to her opinions and to gratify her wishes will be the Free Will offering of the heart but the how much woman begins to feel the promptings of ambition or the thirst for power her Aegis of defense is gone all the sacred protection of religion all the generous promptings of Laurie all the Poetry of romantic gallantry depend upon woman's retaining her place as dependent and defenseless and making no claims and Main no right but what are the gifts of honor rectitude and well it was definitely a dude and I have no idea which dude so I'm just going to John C Calhoun because he's a bad person now well what can you do add held all of those opinions so so I assume stand brought up Harriet Beecher Stowe sister to point out that it wasn't just men who bought Into The Cult of Domesticity how many between men and women with so radical that almost no one embraced it like despite the economic growth associated with the market economy women's opportunities for work women only very well-paying work was available to them and in Most states they couldn't control their own wages if they were married but still poor women did find work in factories or his mestic servants are seamstresses some middle-class women found work in that most disreputable of fields teaching but the Cult of Domesticity held that a respectable middle-class woman should stay at home the truth is most American women had no chance to work for profit outside their houses so many women found work outside traditional spheres in reform movements stock bubble open to women partly because if women were supposed to be the center of the home they could also conscience of the nation out of the ordinary for women to become active in the movement to build asylums for the mentally ill for instance as Dorothea Dix was or to take the lead and so bring the men of America many of them famous advocates for legally prohibiting the sale of alcohol in the US were women like Carrie Nation attacked bars with a hatchet and not because she had a few too many this somewhat less radical this Wayward founded the women's Christian Temperance Union in 1874 which would be one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the United States by the end of the 19th century and women gave many temperance trees featuring horror stories of men who rather than seeking Refuge from the harsh competition of the market economy in the loving Embrace of their homes found solace at the bottom of a glass worth end of a beer hose and by the way yes there were bars that allow you to drink as much beer as you could from a hose for a nickel today these establishments are known as houses Temperance electors would tell if men spending all their hard-earned money on a drink leaving wives and children there were always children Starving in the freezing because in the world of the Prince lecture it was always winter because one and two it's the only time we had to amend the Constitution to be like play about that other Amendment but it's worth remembering that back then people drink way more than we do now and also that alcohol is probably a greater public health issues in some Recreation drugs that remain illegal but regardless the temperance movement made a huge difference in American life because eventually male and female supporters of temperance realized women would be a more powerful Ally against alcohol if they could vote thanks. convert the suffragist might have remained for another Century a scattered group of intellectual cranks for women to vote in the alcohol-related they wanted the saloons closed down or be regulated by one of the right to own property and to Shield their family's Financial Security from the prophecy of drunken husbands they wanted the what's a divorce those men into have them arrested for wife beating and to protect children from being terrorized by them to do all these things they needed to change the laws that can sign women to the status of chattel and to change those laws they needed to vote many women were also important contributors to the anti-slavery movement older they tended to have more subordinate rules like krishna's Maria Stewart was the first African American woman to lecture to mixed male and female audiences Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the terrible but very important Uncle Tom's Cabin friend Angela Grimke Daughters of the South Carolina slaveholder converted to quakerism and became outspoken critics of slavery Sarah Grimke even publish the letters on the equality of the Sexes name 38 which is pretty much what the title suggests by the way you could have made Sarah grimke's letters the mystery document I would have gotten that's what I want to say one more thing about Harriet Beecher Stowe there's a reason we read Uncle Tom's Cabin history classes and not in literature ones but Uncle Tom's Cabin introduced millions of Americans to the idea that African American people were people at least in 19th century here's Uncle Tom's Cabin humanize slave to such a degree that it was banned throughout most of the sound so many women involved in the Abolitionist Movement when studying slavery notice that there was email abolitionists notably Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison became supporters of women's rights but ultimately the male leaders of the anti-slavery movement denied women demands for equality believing that any calls from women's rights would undermine the cause of abolition and they may have had a point because slavery only existed in parts of the country where as women in did it all of it in fact one of the arguments used by pro-slavery forces was that equality under the law for male slaves might need to a slippery slope ending with like a quality for Raymond and out of this emerging consciousness of their own subordinate position the movement for women's rights was born the most visible manifestation of it was the issue of women's suffrage raised eloquently at the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 where Elizabeth Cady Stanton Lucretia Mott and many others wrote and published The Declaration of Sentiments modeled very close on the Declaration of Independence in the Declaration of Independence point out about the 19th century movement for women's rights First International movement American feminist travelled abroad take movement of other advocates for social justice like Florence Kelley and w e b Dubois second lead for the most part like other reform movements the women's movement was primarily a middle-class or even upper class most of the delegates at Seneca Falls for instance were from the middle-class there were no representatives and play cotton Mills but this didn't mean that 19th century feminists didn't acknowledge the of working women like Sojourner Truth probably the most famous black woman abolitionist spoke eloquently of the plight of working-class women especially slaves and she been one until 18 reset another women recognize the women needed to be able to participate in the market economy to gain some economic freedom of course all the women who wrote about the moral evils of 19th century America lower spoke out or took hatchets to saloons we're doing what we would now recognized as work they were not being paid Google for women to easily participate in economic activities because of their crazy clothes so she popularized a new kind of clothing featuring a loose fitting tunic trousers and eponymous undergarment set and Boomer and her pants were ridiculed in the press and in the streets and this brings up the third important thing to remember about the 19th century women's movement face strong resistance patriarch eat like the force is strong which is why Luke and Yoda and Darth Vader and Obi Wan and whoever Samuel Jackson put all dude by the way why did they train stop and not Princess Leia who was cooler and had more to fight for and was less screwed up patriarchy many women's rights Advocates were fighting to overturn not just laws but also attitude some of goal such as claiming greater control over the right to regulate their own sexual activity and whether or not to have children wear Twisted by critics to claim the women advocated free love it sing to note that the United States ended slavery more than fifty years before granted women the right to vote and that although much of the March toward equality between the Sexes has been slow and steady the rights amendment despite being passed by Congress was never ratified by taking leading roles in the reform movements of the 19th century and not just when it came to Temperance and slavery but also prisons into women were able to enter the public Sphere for the first time in these great women change the world for better and For Worse just as great men do and along the way they turn the women question part of the movement for social reform in the United States and in doing so American women chipped away at the idea that A Woman's Place must be turn the home that might not have been a presidential election or a war but it is still bringing real change to our real lives on a daily basis thanks for watching I'll see you next week directed by Stan Miller our script supervisor is Meredith Danko the association by my high school history teacher and myself and our graphics can just captions for the libertad please do so in comments we could also ask questions about today's video that will be answered by our team of historians watching crash course in my hometown don't forget to be awesome

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Crash Course 16 - Women in the 19th Century

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