From Abolition to Equal Rights
The
multiple movements for moral and humanitarian reform, which swept through
the United States in the first decades of the nineteenth century, are
a prime example of the strength of the anglicizing impulse in American
life. The strength of this impulse is especially remarkable in that
it flourished against a background of intense political animosity that
produced the War of 1812 and at other times created acute tension between
Britain and the United States.
Almost all of the so-called benevolent
societies -- the Bible societies, the tract societies, the missionary
societies, and the societies fighting prostitution and vice -- that
were such a conspicuous feature of American life in the first half
of the nineteenth century were copied from British models. So too was
the preeminent moral movement of the era, which intersected with many
of the other moral reform movements -- the crusade to abolish slavery.
American abolitionism mimicked the British anti-slavery movement, borrowing
wholesale its tactics and symbols and looking to its leaders, such
as George Thompson, for advice and approval.
After World War II the modern civil rights
movement -- the movement to integrate America's black population fully
and equally into the nation's life -- gathered force in the United
States. In a reversal of the roles played in nineteenth century abolitionism,
British civil rights leaders employed American tactics and symbols
and looked to American civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King
as models. And even the British opponents of minority rights modeled
themselves after American extremist groups.
The American woman suffrage movement was
spawned by the abolition movement. At its inception it looked to Britain
for inspiration, although Americans such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony quickly established their credentials on both
sides of the Atlantic. The woman suffrage movement evolved over the
course of the nineteenth century simultaneously with the power and
prestige of the American nation, which by the end of the nineteenth
century approached the power and prestige of Great Britain. Therefore,
woman suffrage became a reciprocal enterprise in which American and
British leaders such as Cary Chapman Catt and Millicent Garrett Fawcett
cooperated as equals and contributed to the ultimate success of each
others' goals.
After World War II the modern civil rights
movement -- the movement to integrate America's black population fully
and equally into the nation's life -- gathered force in the United
States. In a reversal of the roles played in nineteenth century abolitionism,
British civil rights leaders employed American tactics and symbols
and looked to American civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King
as models. And even the British opponents of minority rights modeled
themselves after American extremist groups.
Paper
currency
of varying denominations, issued in Liberia
in 1834, 1837, and 1864.
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (98A)
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The American Colonization Society
The American Colonization Society
was founded in 1816 to encourage the "colonizing of the
free people of color of the United States" in West Africa,
taking as its model the British effort in Sierra Leone.
The first American blacks arrived in West Africa in 1821.
In 1847 the black settlers severed their links with the
Society and established the independent nation of Liberia.
Shown here is currency issued by the Society and by the
independent Liberian state.
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Abolitionist Book for Children
British abolitionists produced literature
for all ages depicting the horrors of slavery. Here is
an illustrated children's book, showing the inhumane
conditions in a packed slave ship. American abolitionists
addressed themselves to children as well, using British
material seen here.
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Amelia Opie.
The Black Man's Lament;
or How to Make Sugar.
London: Harvey & Darton, 1826.
Page 2
Early Printed Collections, The British Library (100)
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British West Indian Emancipation
So influential were the fortunes of
the British anti-slavery movement among American abolitionists
that the Americans celebrated August 1, 1834 as an unofficial
holiday -- the anniversary of Britain's emancipation
of the slaves in the West Indies. Here is an address
that Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), delivered at Concord,
Massachusetts, August 1, 1844, to celebrate the anniversary
of West Indian emancipation.
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Ralph
Waldo Emerson.
An Address Delivered at the
Court House in Concord, Massachusetts, on 1st August,
1844.
Boston: J. Munroe and Company, 1844.
Miscellaneous Pamphlet Collection,
Rare Book and
Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(105)
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Frederick
Douglass.
Draft Copy of Farewell Address
Given upon Leaving England,
March 30, 1847.
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (106)
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A Black Abolitionist in Britain
In August 1845 Frederick Douglass
(1817-1885), an escaped slave who had become one of the
most powerful American apostles of anti-slavery, visited
Britain to avoid the danger of capture by his owner and
to express to British abolitionists their American brethren's "deep
appreciation" for their assistance. Here, in Douglass's
farewell speech to British supporters on March 30, 1847,
he praises the racial justice he experienced in Britain,
where he says "the very dogs . . . know that I am a man."
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin by
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) has been described
as "the premiere anti-slavery novel of the ante-bellum
period." First published in serialized from, June 5,
1851 to April 1, 1852, in a Washington, D.C., newspaper,
the novel enjoyed phenomenal success on both sides of
the Atlantic. British sales are said to have reached
one and a half million. Visiting Britain shortly after
the book was published, Mrs. Stowe was lionized by all
segments of British society.
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Harriet
Beecher Stowe.
Uncle Tom's Cabin.
London: John Casell, 1852.
Rare Book and
Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(107)
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George
Housman Thomas.
Sketches for London edition
of
Uncle Tom's Cabin,
1852.
Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress (108)
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Illustrations for Uncle Tom's Cabin
Numerous British publishers produced
editions of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Here are
sketches of the illustrations for N. Cooke's 1852 London
edition, drawn by George Housman Thomas (1824-1868),
an English artist who had lived in the United States
and who, therefore, was able to draw the personalities
in the novel with some fidelity rather than as mere caricatures.
The most prominent figure represented in these sketches
is, of course, the villain, Simon Legree.
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American Slaves Freed
Progress toward the great and consuming
goal of American and British abolitionists -- the total
abolition of slavery in the United States -- was set
in motion by Abraham Lincoln's (1809-1865) Emancipation
Proclamation, the first draft of which, July 22, 1862,
is seen here. Lincoln disappointed many Abolitionists
by decreeing the abolition of slavery only in those areas
not under Union Army control, but with this document
the President placed the"peculiar institution" on the
road to extinction.
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Abraham
Lincoln.
Draft of Emancipation Proclamation,
July 22, 1862.
Page 2
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (109)
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Giants of the American Woman Suffrage Movement
Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady
Stanton (1815-1902) were life-long friends and partners
in the suffrage movement. Both devoted their lives to
the crusade because they believed that, as Anthony put
it: "failure is impossible." Neither lived to see the
Nineteenth Amendment that gave women the vote passed
in 1920, but the amendment was known as the"Anthony amendment."
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Susan
B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, ca. 1870s
Copyprint.
Manuscript Division, Library
of Congress (112)
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John
Stuart Mill.
Suffrage for Women.
New York: National American Woman Suffrage Association,
1867.
Reprint.
Y.A. Pamphlet Collection,
Rare Book and
Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(114)
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John Stuart Mill on Woman Suffrage
The distinguished British political
philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was the most
prominent male supporter of woman suffrage of his generation.
Mill's speech to the House of Commons on "the Admission
of Women to the Electoral Franchise," delivered May 20,
1867, was reprinted by women's groups in Britain and
the United States under varying titles, as was Mill's
better-known work, The Subjection of Women.
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An American Suffrage Leader in London
As the woman suffrage movement developed,
cooperation between British and American women became
frequent and fruitful. Here is the handwritten draft
of a speech delivered by Elizabeth Cady Stanton at a
meeting at Prince's Hall in London on June 25, 1883,
held in honor of her and Susan Anthony. Stanton's topic
was the "social, educational, religious and political
position of women in America."
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Elizabeth
Cady Stanton.
Draft of Speech at Princess
Hall, London,
June 25, 1883,
pp. 1 and 4.
Page 2
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (115a,b)
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Henrietta
Briggs-Wall.
"American Woman and her Political
Peers, 1893."
Hutchinson, Kansas: Henrietta Briggs-Wall, 1911.
Postcard.
Manuscript Division, Library
of Congress (116)
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Women and Their Political Peers
This image, copied in Britain without
the use of the American Indian, made the point that,
in being denied the vote, respectable, accomplished women
were reduced to the level of the disenfranchised outcasts
of society.
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"The Stomach Tube"
"Forcible feeding" of British suffragists,
engaged in hunger strikes in British prisons, aroused
great sympathy for the women's movement in both Britain
and the United States. "The sensation is most painful," reported
a victim in 1909. "The drums of the ears seem to be bursting
and there is a horrible pain in the throat and breast.
The tube is pushed down twenty inches; [it] must go below
the breastbone." The prisoners were generally fed a solution
of milk and eggs.
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"Torturing
Women in Prison. Vote Against the Government."
London: National Women's Social and Political Union,
ca. 1909.
Color Lithograph.
Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress (117b)
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Harriot
Stanton Blatch Hanging Posters for Sylvia Pankhurst
Tour,
December 29, 1910.
Copyprint.
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (118)
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British and American Suffragists
Seen here is Harriot Stanton Blatch
(1856-1940), daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, hanging
posters in New York in December 1910, to advertise
a speech by the militant British suffrage leader, Sylvia
Pankhurst.
Blatch and Pankhurst's mother, Emmeline, became close
friends when Blatch lived in England.
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Carrie
Chapman Catt.
Letter to Millicent Fawcett,
October 19, 1909.
Holograph letter.
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (122a,b)
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Moderates versus Militants
In the fall of 1909 the American suffrage
movement was threatened with a schism into moderate and
militant wings. Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947), leader
of the moderates the supporters of "evolutionary methods" here
urges Millicent Fawcett (1847-1929), leader of the British
moderate wing, to hasten to New York to counteract the
influence of Emmeline Pankhurst's American lecture tour. "If
anyone can save us from the deluge of suffrage anarchy," it
is you, Catt tells Fawcett.
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Souvenir
of the Hyde Park Demonstration,
June 21, 1908. Paper napkin.
National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection,
Printed Ephemera Collection,
Rare Book and
Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(124)
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Marches, Demonstrations
By the beginning of the First World
War marches and demonstrations were acceptable to most
members of the British and American suffrage movements,
provided the appropriate permits were obtained. Among
the most significant mass public meetings was the "Great
Demonstration" at Hyde Park, London, June 21, 1908.
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Woman Suffrage Parade
To dramatize nation-wide demand for
a constitutional amendment to enfranchise women, a suffrage
army 8,000 strong marched in grand procession in the
nation's capital on March 3, 1913, the day before President
Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. Ill treatment of the suffragists
led to a congressional investigation and brought new
support for the suffrage cause.
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Official
Program, Women's Suffrage Procession,
Washington, D.C., March 3, 1913.
Manuscript Division, Library
of Congress (125)
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David
Pitt and Julia Gaitskell.
C.A.R.D. Flyer,
May 3, 1967, London.
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (129)
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A C.A.R.D. Vigil
C.A.R.D. (the Campaign Against Racial
Discrimination) faithfully followed Dr. King's model
of non-violent, mass protests. Here is a C.A.R.D. flyer,
calling for a nation wide vigil, May 3, 1967, at the
Prime Minister's residence, from the papers of Bayard
Rustin (1910-1987), the American civil rights and pacifist
leader and associate of Dr. King. Rustin was present
at the creation of C.A.R.D. and helped shape its philosophy
of non-violence.
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A British Black Power Movement
American Stokely Carmichael (1942-1998)
is seen here addressing a Black Power rally in London
in 1970. Pictures of the American leader, Malcolm X,
are on the wall behind Carmichael. Sitting on Carmichael's
right is a disciple of Malcolm X, Michael De Freitas,
also called Michael X.
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Stokely
Carmichael Addressing Meeting.
Horace Ove.
"Black Power." The Arrivants: A Pictorial Essay on Blacks in Britain.
London: Race Today Publications,
March, 1987, p. 40.
General Collections (130)
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A
British Movement Demonstration in London, 1980.
Chris Steele-Perkins.
Copyprint.
Magnum Photos, Inc. 1980
Chris Steele-Perkins (131)
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The Stars and Bars in Britain
The British civil rights movement
galvanized opponents who took their cue from racist groups
in the United States. Here members of the so-called "British
Movement," flying the Confederate flag, demonstrate against
West Indians and Asians in London in 1980.
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