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FREDERICK DOUGLASS ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS PHILIPS. FONER, EDITOR FREDERICDKO UGLASS ON WOMEN'SR IGHTS DA CAPO PRESS NEW YORK • Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Douglass, Frederick, 18177-1895. Frederick Douglass on women's rights I Philip S. Foner, editor.-lst Da Capo Press ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-306-80489-1 1. Women's rights-United States. I. Foner, Philip Sheldon, 1910. . II. Title. HQ1236.5.U6D68 1992 92-17609 323.314-dcZO CIP First Da Capo Press edition 1992 This Da Capo Press paperback edition of Frederick DouglASS on Women's Rights is an unabridged republication of the edition published in New York in Westport, Connecticut in 1976. It is reprinted by arrangement with Greenwood Press. Copyright© 1976 by Philip S. Foner Published by Da Capo Press, Inc. A Subsidiary of Plenum Publishing Corporation 233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013 All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United States of America No man,h oweveerl oquecnatn,s peafko rw omanas womanc anf ohre rself. NevertheIlh eoslstd,h atth icsa usiesn ota ltogeatnhde r exclusiwvoemlayn 'csa usIet.is thec ausoef h uman brotherhaso owde lasl thec ausoefh umans isterhood, andb otmhu str isaen df altlo gethWeorm.a nc annobte elevawtietdh oeulte vatmianng,a ndm anc annobted e pressweidt hoduetp resswiomnagn a lso. FrederDiocukg lasisna nu ndatsepde etcoh aW omanS uffraCgoen vention. CONTENTS PREFACE ix INTRODUCTION 3 1. THE WOMAN'S CAUSE 49 Woman, The North Star, May 26, 1848 49 The Ladies, The North Star, August 10, 1848 49 The Rights of Women, The North Star, July 28, 1848 49 The Only True Basis of Rights, The North Star, August 11, 1848 51 The Women's Association of Philadelphia, The North Star, June 15, 1849 51 Our Colored Sisters, The North Star, November 16, 1849 52 The Woman's Temperance Convention, Frederick Douglass' Paper, April 22, 1851 53 Woman's Rights Convention at Worcester, Mass., Frederick Douglass's Paper, October 30, 1851 55 The National Woman's Rights Convention at Syracuse, Frederick Douglass' Paper, September 17, 1852 55 Women and Politics-The Next Presidency, lite., Frederick Douglass' Paper, February 25, 1853 56 Antoinette L. Brown, Frederick Douglass' Paper, March 4, 1853 57 Woman and Her Wishes, Frederick Douglass' Paper, March 11, 1853 57 Some Thoughts on Woman's Rights, Frederick Douglass' Paper. June 10, 1853 58 Women's New York State Temperance Society, Frederick Douglass' Paper, June 10, 1853 60 The Just and Equal Rights of Women, Frederick Douglass' Paper, November 25, 1853 63 Woman's Rights: Circulate the Petitions, Frederick Douglass' Paper, December 25, 1853 65 Lucy Stone at Musical Fund Hall, Philadelphia, Frederick Douglass' Paper, February 17, 1854 67 Letter from Francis Barry, Frederick Douglass' Paper, March 17, 1854 70 Mr. Barry's Letter, Frederick Douglass' Paper, March 17, 1854 71 Address to the Legislature of the State of New York, Frederick Douglass' Paper, March 3, 1854 73 viii CONTENTS Lucy Stone and Senator Douglas, Douglass' Monthly, October 1859 74 The Vote, The Liberator, February 10, 1865 77 A Thought, The Woman's Advocate, January 1866 78 Equal Rights Convention for New York State, New York Tribune, December21, 1866 78 Memorial of the American Equal Rights Association to the Congress of the United States, Natioiral Anti-Slavery Standard, December 22, 1866 81 Resolution Adopted at First Annual Meeting, American Equal Rights Association, New York City, May 9-10, 1867 83 Proceedings of the American Equal Rights Association Convention, New York, May 14, 1868 83 To Josephine Sophie White Griffing, September 27, 1868 85 Proceedings of the American Equal Rights Association Convention, New York City, May 12, 1869 86 The Woman Question, The New Era, May 12, 1870 90 Woman Suffrage Movement, The New National Era, October 20, 1870 92 Woman and the Ballot, The New National Era, October 27, 1870 95 A Union of Hearts, The New National Era, November 24, 1870 99 The Constitution the Title Deed to Woman's Franchise, The New National Era, September 2\, 1871 100 Woman Suffrage in Austria, The New National Era, December 7, 1871 101 The Woman's Rights Convention, The New National Era, January 23, 1873 102 A Woman Assistant Editor, The New National Era, May 14, 1874 103 Why I Became A 'Woman's Rights Man," 1881 105 To L. M. Saunders, 1885 107 The Woman's Suffrage Movement. Address before Woman Suffrage Association, April 1888 109 Emancipation of Women. Speech at the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the New England Woman Suffrage Association, Boston, May 28, 1888 116 Address before Woman Suffrage Convention (undated) 124 Woman Suffrage Movement. Address before Bethel Literary Society (undated) 125 Address to Members of Women's League (undated) 128 Woman Suffrage (undated) 131 NOTES 147 2. TRIBUTES TO WOMEN 156 A Gallery of Anti-Slavery Women 156 Harriet Tubman 159 Myrtilla Miner 160 Ida B. Wells 162 Elizabeth Cady Stanton 163 The Merits of Lucy Stone 164 NOTES 167 APPENDIX: TWO BLACK WOMEN DISCUSS FREDERICK DOUGLASS AS A CHAMPION OF THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT 171 Mrs. Rosa H. Hazel at Douglass Memorial Meeting, St. Paul, Minnesota 171 Frederick Douglass by Mary Church Terrell 175 NOTES 182 PREFACE In their long, continuing struggle for equality, American women have had to rely primarily on their own resources. This is not to say, however, that men have not helped advance their cause. Throughout our history they have had the vigorous support of a group of men who lent their names and voices to the woman's movement in the face of ridicule and even violence. William Lloyd Garrison, Theodore Parker, Wendell Phillips, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Frederick Douglass, William Henry Channing, Henry Ward Beecner, Charles Lenox Remond, Henry B. Stanton, and Parker Pillsbury were among those active in the early woman's movement. According to woman's own testimony, foremost among them was Frederick Douglass. For when the American women who led the early movement were asked later in their lives to suggest the names of men who should be placed on an honor roll of male supporters, the list was invariably headed by this man who, having been born a slave in Maryland, had known oppression first-hand. "He was the only man I ever saw who under stood the degradation of the disfranchisement of women," said Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the pioneer of the American woman's rights movement. On July 25, 1919, the Atlanta Constitution re ported that in opposing the Georgia legislature's ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment granting woman suffrage, white suprema cist representative J. B. Jackson climaxed his argument with the statement: "Frederick Douglass is the father and Susan B. Anthony, who received the Negro in her home, is the mother of this amendment!" The writings and speeches of Frederick Douglass collected in this volume provide ample explanation of both the choice of names and the racist attack. Since suffrage was the major, though not the sole, concern of the nineteenth-century woman's rights movement, it is not surprising that Douglass frequently dealt with the issue of votes