Men's studies scholars make shocking discovery: "Lincoln Did Not 'Free the Slaves' - The Little-known Story of How Feminists Ended Slavery." Oops! Word "feminism" dates to 1890 ... 27 years after eman

dungone · 2013-02-08T21:36:39+00:00

That article is written with willful ignorance of history and logic. The TL&DR of it is that feminists freed the slaves because Susan B Anthony stood up on a stage surrounded by a racist mob 2 years before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This kind of propaganda could only hope to convince those who are already well within the fold of feminism. And it devalues these women's actual role by misconstruing it.

He doesn't mention the fact that Abolition was an international movement comprised of many different groups, of which the women's movement was a minority, and that slavery was outlawed in other countries, as well as numerous US states, years before the US federal government ended it. And he doesn't mention that Lincoln's first priority was to do everything he could to avoid the Civil War, which ended up costing the lives of hundreds of thousands of men. This part doesn't seem to matter at all to this "men's studies" scholar.

He also doesn't mention that Susan B. Anthony was an incredible racist herself. She was against slavery on religious grounds, as a Quaker, but as a women's advocate she was livid at the idea that blacks should get the vote before rich white women such as herself, and that's where all the bigotry came out. She was far more influential in splitting the women's movement apart from what would otherwise be an egalitarian movement than she had been in actually freeing the slaves.

Ifgigmorskill · 2013-02-08T21:30:43+00:00

Just because there wasn't the word "feminist" at the time doesn't mean that women of that similar mindset didn't exist

AndrewLevin · 2013-02-08T17:49:52+00:00

You can see the origin of the word "feminism" here

Hirudin · 2013-02-08T21:35:50+00:00

Everyone who signed was asked to contribute one penny to help pay expenses; this appeal raised some $3000, and Susan Anthony raised the rest that was needed herself from lectures and contributions.

Miss Anthony spent 10 cents a day on her lunch, and frequently walked long distances on foot.

How could the institution of slavery possibly has survived in the face of this kind of dedicated opposition. All the men of the time were too busy getting killed by the hundreds of thousands instead of doing what really matters. /s

Barf.

jhunte29 · 2013-02-09T05:28:03+00:00

So I guess former slaves like Frederick Douglass had nothing to do with it. Also all the State governments that illegalized it long before the war. Also all the politicians who voted to amend the constitution and end slavery at the federal level. Abolitionism was a movement, and like any movement it had many people involved. This is like saying Catholic Priests singlehandedly brought about Civil Rights in the '60's because they're in some of the pictures.

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