Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
“We as a class, are tired of one kind
of protection, that which leaves us everything to do, to dare, and to suffer,
and strip us of all means for its accomplishment. We would not tax man to take
care of us. No, The Great Father has endowed all his creations with the
necessary powers for self-support, self-defense, and protection. We do not ask
man to represent himself. So long as the mass of men spend most of their time
on the fence, not knowing which way to jump, they are surely in no condition to
tell us where we had better stand. In pity for man we would no longer hang like
a mill-stone round his neck. Undo what man did for us In the dark ages, and
strike out all special legislation for us; strike the words “white male” from
all your constitutions and then, with fair sailing, let us sink or swim, live
or die, survive or perish together”
What I believe Stanton is trying to
say here is Women are tired as a whole being responsible for everything such as
taking care of their husbands, their children, and working hard and not being
recognized for it and not being respected for their feelings or opinions. God
or the creator of all things has already embedded certain aspects with every
person such as ability to gather certain necessities for self support,
self-defense and protection. Men in comparison to women should not be allowed
to control women because the majority of men lack a since of direction without
the woman’s influence. The way this passage relates to the theme of the lecture
is Stanton was addressing the people in order to bring about change for women.
She was trying to not only resolve the issues of women being inferior to men
but she was also helpful in abolishing slavery. I chose this passage because it
shows both sides of what Stanton was standing up for, the rights of women and
slaves.
Frederick
Douglas
“He should place himself, as it were, in the position of
the slave, and advocate those principles and measures which, judging from his
stand-point, he would deem just and advisable. Now we hold that there is but
one class of men and women in the land, who stand upon the slaves platform, and
advocate the principles and measures which he would had the opportunity.
Abolitionism in this country is a sort of heterogeneous compound. It is composed,
too of certain elements the one for the other and the lack of homogeneousness
must in some way be supplied before a perfect fusion, or commingling of the
elements can be effected.”
I believe that Douglas is trying to say that slave owners
should look at what is happening from the slaves point of view in hopes that
there is a group of people that will stand up for slaves other than the slaves
themselves. The process of abolishing slavery seems like nothing is working
out. He compares it to a heterogeneous compound where in chemistry it is a
compound that appears uniform but it is actually different at the microscopic
level. Slavery seemed like a normal way of life but when you look deeply into
how the slaves are being treated by their masters it is another story. This
passage relates to the theme of the lecture because Douglas points out what is
really going on during slavery and paints a picture in the readers mind that
things does not look the way it seems. Slavery needed to come to an end and in
order for that to happen a group of people other than the slaves has to support
them. I chose this passage because it pointed out a good idea that everyone
needed to come together in order for slavery to be abolished and it should not
only be the slaves.
