Frances E. W. Harper's Enlightened Motherhood

Malala Yousafzai, an advocate for education for women in underdeveloped countries, once said, “The extremists are afraid of books and pens, the power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women.” (Claire). In the past, women had always been seen as the “weaker class”. A notion was present that women did not have the intellectual ability to learn and process information. Overtime, society has begun to generally accept that women are able to perform the same tasks as men, but this idea of acceptance did not occur overnight. It took many years, and massive feminist movements to unite society and display the great value of women. During the time period of various minority rights movements in the 1800’s, in “Enlightened Motherhood”, Frances …show more content…
Harper is a notable African American reformer for women’s rights and activist against slavery. Harper was born in 1825 in Baltimore, Maryland where she was raised by her aunt and uncle, who were abolitionists (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Until the age of thirteen, she attended her uncle’s school, William Watkins Academy for Free Negro Youth (Cullen-DuPont, Frost-Knappman). In 1850 she left Maryland to become a school teacher in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, Harper became very active in the Underground Railroad, a network of safehouses that blacks used to escape their hard lives of slavery in the American South (Encyclopedia of World Biography). A law was passed in 1853 which stated that free blacks could become imprisoned or enslaved if they entered the state. She quit teaching and turned her focus on the abolitionist movement when she heard a free black man was thrown in jail after entering Maryland, which was the state he was from (Cullen-DuPont, Frost-Knappman). From that moment on, she became a renowned activist for African Americans, women, and abolitionists. In 1892 she presented her speech, “Enlightened Motherhood”, to the Brooklyn Literary Society. She spoke about the need for women in society, and how they must be valued. Her past and the events she previously endured in her life contribute to the reasoning behind her theme of the speech. Because she grew up in an abolitionist household, she was exposed to different ideas of the time, …show more content…
By the 1850’s, the dominant issue in politics was slavery, which led into violent debates over whether it should be allowed or not (Bates). A minority group of abolitionists emerged in the North, who wanted to immediately abolish slavery in the United States. Eventually, the abolitionist movement became a widespread sectional issue. While the slavery issue prolonged, other minority groups began to seek equality for their rights. Women, both white and black, were one of these minority groups. In 1837, the Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women was held in New York City. At this convention, women of both races agreed on political ideas, and even attempted to gain one million signatures to petition the abolition of slavery (Senker). Frances Harper gave her speech, “Enlightened Motherhood”, in the late 1800’s in front of the Brooklyn Literary Society. This was during the period of time when equality movements for African Americans and women were emerging. The ideas circulating at the time affected her purpose of the speech, which was to encourage women to take up a new role in society than what was previously expected of them. Harper’s speech carries a demanding tone, which helps stress her purpose for giving the speech. Harper states, “...the home is an institution older than the church and antedates schools, and that is the place where children