CATHARINE E. BEECHER

Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism, with Reference to the Duty of

American Females

1837

Not everybody thought that the public role of women before abolitionist meetings was a positive thing.  An association of Congregationalist ministers specifically denounced the practice.  Not even all women agreed with their behavior.  Responding to Angelina Grimke's Appeal to the Christian Women of the South (1836), Catharine Beecher vigorously defended different forms of fe­male power.

Beecher was the daughter, and sister, of prominent ministers, and her sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, would write Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  He was herself an educator and writer, but she was a publicist for a distinctive sphere for women.  Her goal of feminizing the teaching profession led her to pro­mote women's power within the family. Opposing slavery, but fearful of civil war, Beecher promoted more acceptable avenues for change through slow reforms and education.

One might think of Beecher as the most prominent national spokesperson for a more traditional vision of women’s useful role.  She wrote this piece as a public response to Grimke’s statement.

MY DEAR FRIEND:

Your public address to Christian females at the South has reached me, and I have been urged to aid in circulating it at the North. I have also been informed, that you contemplate a tour, during the ensuing year, for the purpose of exerting your influence to form Abolition Societies among ladies of the non-slave-holding States.

 

Our acquaintance and friendship give me a claim to your private ear; but there are reasons why it seems more desirable to address you, who now stand before the public as an advocate of Abolition measures, in a more public manner.

 

The object I have in view, is to present some reasons why it seems un­wise and inexpedient for ladies of the non-slave-holding States to unite themselves in Abolition Societies; and thus, at the same time, to exhibit the inexpediency of the course you propose to adopt. ...

Now Abolitionists are before the community, and declare that all slav­ery is sin, which ought to be immediately forsaken; and that it is their ob­ject and intention to promote the immediate emancipation of all the slaves in this nation.... Reproaches, rebukes, and sneers, were em­ployed to convince the whites that their prejudices were sinful....

[T]he severing of the Union by the present mode of agitating the ques­tion ... may be one of the results, and, if so, what are the probabilities for a Southern republic that has torn itself off for the purpose of exclud­ing foreign interference, and for the purpose of perpetuating slavery? ...

 

Heaven has appointed to one sex the superior, and to the other the subordinate station, and this without any reference to the character or conduct of either. It is therefore as much for the dignity as it is for the in­terest of females, in all respects to conform to the duties of this rela­tion.... But while woman holds a subordinate relation in society to the other sex, it is not because it was designed that her duties or her influ­ence should be any the less important, or all-pervading. But it was de­signed that the mode of gaining influence and of exercising power should be altogether different and peculiar....

 

Woman is to win every thing by peace and love; by making herself so much respected, esteemed and loved, that to yield to her opinions and to gratify her wishes, will be the free-will offering of the heart. But this is to be all accomplished in the domestic and social circle.... But the mo­ment woman begins to feel the promptings of ambition, or the thirst for power, her aegis of defense is gone. All the sacred protection of religion, all the generous promptings of chivalry, all the poetry of romantic gal­lantry, depend upon woman's retaining her place as dependent and de­fenseless, and making no claims, and maintaining no right but what are the gifts of honour, rectitude and love.

 

A woman may seek the aid of co-operation and combination among her own sex, to assist her in her appropriate offices of piety, charity, ma­ternal and domestic duty; but whatever, in any measure, throws a woman into the attitude of a combatant, either for herself or others­ whatever binds her in a party conflict-whatever obliges her in any way to exert coercive influences, throws her out of her appropriate sphere....

 

If it is asked, "May not woman appropriately come forward as a sup­pliant for a portion of her sex who are bound in cruel bondage?" It is re­plied, that, the rectitude and propriety of any such measure, depend en­tirely on its probable results. If petitions from females will operate to exasperate; if they will be deemed obtrusive, indecorous, and unwise, by those to whom they are addressed; ... if they will be the opening wedge,

that will eventually bring females as petitioners and partisans into every political measure that may tend to injure and oppress their sex ... then it is neither appropriate nor wise, nor right, for a woman to petition for the relief of oppressed females....

In this country, petitions to congress, in reference to the official du­ties of legislators, seem, IN ALL CASES, to fall entirely without the sphere of female duty. Men are the proper persons to make appeals to the rulers whom they appoint, and if their female friends, by arguments and persuasions, can induce them to petition, all the good that can be done by such measures will be secured. But if females cannot influence their nearest friends, to urge forward a public measure in this way, they surely are out of their place, in attempting to do it themselves....

 

It is allowed by all reflecting minds, that the safety and happiness of this nation depends upon having the children educated, and not only in­tellectually, but morally and religiously. There are now nearly two mil­lions of children and adults in this country who cannot read, and who have no schools of any kind. To give only a small supply of teachers to these destitute children, who are generally where the population is sparse, will demand thirty thousand teachers at the moment and an addi­tion of two thousand every year. Where is this army of teachers to be found? Is it at all probable that the other sex will afford even a moderate portion of this supply? ... Men will be educators in the college, in the high school, in some of the most honourable and lucrative common schools, but the children, the little children of this nation must, to a wide extent, be taught by females, or remain untaught. ... And as the value of education rises in the public mind ... women will more and more be fur­nished with those intellectual advantages which they need to fit them for such duties.

 

The result will be, that America will be distinguished above all other nations, for well-educated females and for the influence they will exert on the general interests of society. But if females, as they approach the other sex, in intellectual elevation, begin to claim, or to exercise in any manner, the peculiar prerogatives of that sex, education will prove a doubtful and dangerous blessing. But this will never be the result. For the more intelligent a woman becomes, the more she can appreciate the wisdom of that ordinance that appointed her subordinate station.

 

But it may be asked, is there nothing to be done to bring this national sin of slavery to an end? Must the internal slave-trade, a trade now ranked as piracy among all civilized nations, still prosper in our bounds? Must the very seat of our government stand as one of the chief slave­markets of the land; and must not Christian females open their lips, nor lift a finger, to bring such a shame and sin to an end? To this it may be replied, that Christian females may, and can say and do much to bring these evils to an end; and the present is a time and an occasion when it seems most desirable that they should know, and appreciate, and exer­cise the power which they do possess for so desirable an end....

 

In the present aspect of affairs among us, when everything seems to be tending to disunion and distraction, it surely has become the duty of every female instantly to relinquish the attitude of a partisan, in every matter of clashing interests, and to assume the office of a mediator, and an advocate of peace. And to do this, it is not necessary that a woman should in any manner relinquish her opinion as to the evils or the bene­fits, the right or the wrong, of any principle of practice. But, while qui­etly holding her own opinions, and calmly avowing them, when con­science and integrity make the duty imperative, every female can employ her influence, not for the purpose of exciting or regulating pub­lic sentiment, but rather for the purpose of promoting a spirit of candour, forbearance, charity, and peace.