Question

Discuss the impact of Reconstruction on Womanhood in the United States.

Answer 1

Reconstruction has included more than emancipation. Women have also tried to redefine their national and local positions. Around the same time, the abolitionist and women's rights movements converged and started clashing. In the South, both black and white women tried to make sense of a world of violence and transition. In Reconstruction, leading women's rights advocate Elizabeth Cady Stanton saw an unparalleled opportunity to gain political rights for disenfranchised groups women as well as African Americans, northern and southern

In 1863 Stanton founded the Women's Loyal National League, petitioning Congress for a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was a triumph not only for the cause of antislavery but also for the Loyal League, showing the political strength of women and the prospect of revolutionary reform. Now, as Congress discussed the meanings of freedom , equality and citizenship for former slaves, women's rights leaders also saw an opening to advance transformations in women's status. On May 10, 1866, just one year after the war, New York City's Eleventh National Women's Rights Convention was held to discuss what many agreed was an extraordinary moment.

Southern women were still struggling with the war's consequences. The distinctions between sophisticated white womanhood and impoverished enslaved black femininity were not so well defined any longer. Furthermore, during the war , southern white women were called upon to do the conventional work of man cutting wood and running businesses. Although white southern women wanted to return to their former status and how to do so, African American women welcomed new freedoms and a redefinition of womanhood.

Suicide and divorce became more acceptable for white families while the opposite happened for black families. Since the whole of the South suffered economic devastation, many families became impoverished and fell into debt. Southern women had trouble restoring peace on poor soil. All Southern women were faced with economic hardship, suffering war trauma and experiencing racial tensions.