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chapter 9 Reconstruction: The Making and Unmaking of a Revolution
MR. DOUGLASS: I come here more as a lis- (Applause.) I am in favor of woman’s suffrage in
tener than to speak and I have listened with order that we shall have all the virtue and vice
a great deal of pleasure. . . . There is no name confronted. Let me tell you that when there
greater than that of Elizabeth Cady Stanton in
were few houses in which the black man could
Project the matter of woman’s rights and equal rights, have put his head, this wooly head of mine found
but my sentiments are tinged a little against
a refuge in the house of Mrs. Elizabeth Cady
[her remarks in] The Revolution [a magazine].
Stanton, and if I had been blacker than sixteen
There was in the address to which I allude the
midnights, without a single star, it would have
been the same. (Applause.)
employment of certain names, such as “Sambo,”
Document and the gardener, and the bootblack, and the anti-slavery school says women must stand back
MISS [Susan B.] ANTHONY: — The old
daughters of Jefferson and Washington and
and wait until the negroes shall be recognized.
other daughters. (Laughter.) I must say that
I asked what difference there is between the
But we say, if you will not give the whole loaf of
suffrage to the entire people, give it to the most
daughters of Jefferson and Washington and
other daughters. (Laughter.) I must say that I
do not see how any one can pretend that there intelligent first. (Applause.) If intelligence, jus-
tice, and morality are to have precedence in
is the same urgency in giving the ballot to the Government, let the question of woman
woman as to the negro. With us, the matter is be brought up first and that of the negro last.
a question of life and death, at least, in fifteen (Applause.) While I was canvassing the State
States of the Union. When women, because with petitions and had them filled with names
they are women, are hunted down through the for our cause to the Legislature, a man dared to
cities of New York and New Orleans; when say to me that the freedom of women was all a
they are dragged from their houses and hung theory and not a practical thing. (Applause.)
upon lamp-posts; when their children are torn When Mr. Douglass mentioned the black man
from their arms, and their brains dashed out first and the woman last, if he had noticed he
upon the pavement; when they are objects of would have seen that it was the men that clapped
insult and outrage at every turn; when they are and not the women. There is not the woman
in danger of having their homes burnt down born who desires to eat the bread of dependence,
over their heads; when their children are not no matter whether it be from the hand of father,
allowed to enter schools; then they will have an husband, or brother; for any one who does so
urgency to obtain the ballot equal to our own. eat her bread places herself in the power of the
(Great applause.) person from whom she takes it. (Applause.)
A VOICE: — Is that not all true about black Mr. Douglass talks about the wrongs of the
women? negro; but with all the outrages that he to-day
MR. DOUGLASS: — Yes, yes, yes; it is true suffers, he would not exchange his sex and take
of the black woman, but not because she is a the place of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. (Laughter
woman, but because she is black. (Applause.) and applause.)
Julia Ward Howe at the conclusion of her great MR. DOUGLASS: I want to know if granting
speech delivered at the convention in Boston last you the right of suffrage will change the nature
year said: “I am willing that the negro shall get of our sexes? (Great laughter.)
the ballot before me.” (Applause.) Woman! why, MISS ANTHONY: It will change the pecu-
she has 10,000 modes of grappling with her dif- niary position of woman; it will place her where
ficulties. I believe that all the virtue of the world she can earn her own bread. (Loud applause.)
can take care of all the evil. I believe that all the She will not then be driven to such employ-
intelligence can take care of all the ignorance. ments only as man chooses for her. . . .

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