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Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Historical Contexts. "Is Miss Dinah at Home? " c.1828.
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"Is Miss Dinah at Home? " c.1828 This cartoon, originally drawn by Edward Williams Clay as one of fourteen in a series called "Life in Philadelphia," satirized the social conventions adopted by Philadelphia's blacks.In the cartoon, a well dressed black man converses with a black woman, who holds forth a tray from a cellar door.He asks, "Is Miss Dinah at home?She replies, "Yes sir but she bery potickly engaged in washing de dishes."He says, "Ah! I'm sorry I cant have the honour to pay my devours to her. Give her my card."
COMPOSITE IMAGE: left: T. Rice as Jim Crow,Courtesy Harvard Theatre Collection, The Houghton Library;right: Topsy, illustration from Uncle Tom's Cabinby Hammatt Billings, Clifton Waller Barrett Collection.
The Hutchinson Family—HunkerismThe North Star 27 October 1848 Frederick Douglass The circumstances attending the visit paid last week to our youthful and beautiful city, by these mountain songsters, makes it deserving of special notice. The pro-slavery and narrow-souled demon had preceded them.—Old Hunkerism, filled with pride and selfishness, dreaded the presence of these high-souled mountaineers in Rochester. It had no taste for their soul-enlarging and heart-melting melody. To defeat what it could not enjoy, was its first object. The Hutchinsons were described as poor performers; their popularity was said to be on the wane; abolitionism had ruined them. Other modes were meanly adopted to disparage them in the estimation of the people of Rochester. In this mean work of detraction, we scarcely need say that the miserable dough-face who edits the Cass paper in this city, and through whom our daughter was basely excluded from "Seward Seminary," on account of her complexion, very appropriately took the lead. This self-elected umpire of taste in the city of Rochester, claims as much skill in matters relating to the harmony of sounds, as he assumes with respect to the harmony of colors. We warn the good people of Rochester against attending either seminaries or concerts, on pain of being expelled from respectable and refined society, should they venture to do so before obtaining the opinion of this "most learned judge" whose word is sufficient to set at defiance and veto the wishes of a whole seminary of young ladies and misses. We believe he does not object to the "Virginia Minstrels," "Christy's Minstrels," the "Ethiopian Serenaders," or any of the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow-citizens. Those performers are undoubtedly in harmony with his refined and elegant taste! Then those beautiful and highly sentimental songs which they sing, such as "Ole Zip Coon," "Jim Crow," "Ole Dan Tucker," "Jim along Josey," and a few other of such specimens of American musical genius, must spread over his spirit a charm, and awaken in his bosom a rapture only equalled by that celestial transport which thrills his noble heart on witnessing a TREMENDOUS SQUASH!
Dwight's Journal of Music Unsigned ReprintAlbany State Register 24 July 1852 "NEGRO MINSTRELSY." We confess to a fondness for negro minstrelsy. There is something in the plaintive "Dearest May," in the affectionate "Lucy Neal," and in the melodious "Uncle Ned," that goes directly to the heart, and makes Italian trills seem tame. It is like Ossian's music of memory, "pleasant and mournful to the soul." "Dearest May" has become classic—a sort of Venus Africanus, with "Her eyes so bright they shine at night,When the moon am gone away." And "poor Lucy Neal," the Heloise of darkies, her very name has become the synonym of pathos, poetry and love. The whole world is redolent of the sweet and plaintive air in which her charms are chanted; and the beauty of her shining form often comes over us like a pleasant shadow from an angel's wing. "Oh if I had her by my side,How happy I would feel." And as for poor "Uncle Ned," so sadly denuded of his wool, God bless that fine old colored gentleman, who, we have been so often assured, has "Gone where the good niggers go."
Contemporary Reception UNCLE TOM'S CABIN. 50,000 COPIES IN EIGHT WEEKS! A SALE unprecendented in the history of book-selling in America. On the 20th of March the first sale was made of the unparalled book, and in sixty days, 50,000 copies, making 100,000 Volumes, have been sold. Editors of Newspapers, Magazines, and even the staid Quarterlies, have vied with each other in their eulogistic notices. The ordinary style of book notices has been laid aside, and instead of puffs of half a finger's length, the press has sent forth column after column—literally hundreds of columns—of stronger and heartier commendations than were ever bestowed upon one book; and with well-nigh one voice, it has been pronounced to be: The Greatest Book of its Kind ever issued from the American Press. In thrilling delineation of character, and power of description, it is without a rival; and will be read and re-read in every intelligent family in America, and produce an impression never yet made by any similar work. From a thousand notes we cull a line each from a few: We will frankly say that we know of no publication which promises to be more effective in the service of a holy, but perilous work than this.—Christian Examiner. A book over which 20,000 families are alternately crying and laughing, in spite of philosophy or dignity, within a month after its publication. * * * * In fact, among all classes of people, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is having, and is destined to have, a success and a circulation almost unexampled in our literature.—Rev. Mr. Huntington, in Unitarian Magazine. "Spread it round the world!" is the feeling which comes first, the instant, urgent, inevitable impulse, as one rises from the perusal of this fascinating book,—and, thank God! it bids fair to become as familiar as household words, East, West, North and South.—The Independent. It is a thrilling tale, exemplifying a masterly genius, and a profound knowledge of the human heart.—N. Y. Evangelist. The greatest work of its kind which has appeared in half a century.—Providence Mirror. These volumes will be read South as well as North, and find response in every honest heart. It is a work of most absorbing interest.—Albany Spectator. We wish to commend this tale to all with whom we have any influence, as one of the most admirable stories ever written.—Evening Traveller, Boston. This work exhibits the most consummate skill, and will be read by almost everybody.—Puritan Recorder, Boston. We welcome the work as amongst the most powerful agents that human genius has yet produced for the removal of the one fearful curse that rests upon our country.—Christian Register, Boston. We look upon the writing of this book as providential, and as the best missionary God has yet sent into the field.—Congregationalist, Boston.
The National Era Unsigned Review [Gamaliel Bailey]Washington, D.C.: 15 April 1852 UNCLE TOM'S CABIN; BY MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. In two volumes of 312 pages each. For thrilling delineation of character, and power of description, this work is unrivalled. It has been denominated, and with truth, THE STORY OF THE AGE! The fact that ten thousand copies have been sold in two weeks is evidence sufficient of its unbounded popularity. Three paper mills are constantly at work, manufacturing the paper, and three power presses are working twenty-four hours per day, in printing it, and more than one hundred bookbinders are incessantly plying their trade, to bind them, and still it has been impossible as yet to supply the demand. Testimonials of the strongest kind, numerous enough to fill a volume, have already appeared in the public journals. We have room only for the following, from the Congregationalist of the 2d inst.: "We conceive, the, that in writing 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe has done more to diffuse real knowledge of the facts and workings of American Slavery, and to arouse the sluggish nation to shake off the curse, and abate the wrong than has been accomplished by all the orations, and anniversaries, and arguments, and documents, which the last ten years have been the witness of. Let nobody by afraid of it because it does not claim to be a memoir, or a table of statistics. It is the interlacing of a thousand memoirs, and the very quintessence of infinite statistics. It takes no extreme views. It does not seek to seize upon the most horrible atrocities, and brand the whole system as worse than it is. It is fair, and generous, and calm, and candid. A slave-holder might read it without anger, but not easily without a secret abhorrence of the system which he himself upholds. It brings out, quietly and collaterally, those incidental features of servitude which are usually little thought of, but which are the overflow of its cup of abominations. We look upon the writing of this book as providential, and upon it as the best missionary God has yet sent into the field to plead for his poor and oppressed children of the South. Such a book was a necessity of the age, and had to be written, and we are grateful to God that he put the writing of it into the hands of one who has interwoven Evangelical influences with every page of its narrative, and compressed many a Gospel sermon into its field and fireside converse. Its appeal to our sympathies is genuine. It artlessly pictures facts, and the facts make us feel. We have never read a story of more power. We doubt if anybody has. The human being who can read it through dry eyes, is commended to Barnum."
The Liberator Unsigned, William Lloyd GarrisonBoston: 26 March 1852 First, let the author speak for herself, as she does in her Preface:—"The object of these sketches is to awaken sympathy and feeling for the African race, as they exist among us; to show their wrongs and sorrows, under a system so necessarily cruel and unjust all to defeat and do away the good effects of all that can be attempted for them, by their best friends, under it. In doing this, the author can sincerely disclaim any invidious feeling towards those individuals who, often without any fault of their own, are involved in the trials and embarrassments of the legal relations of slavery." In the execution of her very difficult task, Mrs. Stowe has displayed rare descriptive powers, a familiar acquaintance with slavery under its best and worst phases, uncommon moral and philosophical acumen, great facility of thought and expression, feelings and emotions of the strongest character. Intimate as we have been, for a score of years, with the features and operations of the slave system, and often as we have listened to the recitals of its horrors from the lips of the poor hunted fugitives, we confess to the frequent moistening of our eyes, and the making of our heart grow liquid as water, and the trembling of every nerve within us, in the perusal of the incidents and scenes so vividly depicted in her pages. The effect of such a work upon all intelligent and humane minds coming in contact with it, and especially upon the rising generation in its plastic condition, to awaken the strongest compassion for the oppressed and the utmost abhorrence of the system which grinds them to the dust, cannot be estimated: it must be prodigious, and therefore eminently serviceable in the tremendous conflict now waged for the immediate and entire suppression of slavery on the American soil. The appalling liabilities which constantly impend over such slaves as have "kind and indulgent masters" are thrillingly illustrated in various personal narratives; especially in that of "Uncle Tom," over whose fate every reader will drop the scalding tear, and for whose character the highest reverence will be felt. No insult, no outrage, no suffering could ruffle the Christ-like meekness of his spirit, and shake the steadfastness of his faith. Towards his merciless oppressors, he cherished no animosity, and breathed nothing of retaliation. Like his Lord and Master, he was willing to be "led as a lamb to the slaughter," returning blessing for cursing, and anxious only for the salvation of his enemies. His character is sketched with great power and rare religious perception. It triumphantly exemplifies the nature, tendency and results of CHRISTIAN NON-RESISTANCE. We are curious to know whether Mrs. Stowe is a believer in the duty of non-resistance for the white man, under all possible outrage and peril, as well as for the black man; whether she is for self-defense on her own part, or that of her husband or friends or country, in case of malignant assault, or whether she impartially disarms all mankind in the name of Christ, be the danger or suffering what it may. We are curious to know this, because our opinion of her, as a religious teacher, would be greatly strengthened or lessened, as the inquiry might terminate. That all the slaves at the South ought, "if smitten on the one cheek, to turn the other also"—to repudiate all carnal weapons, shed no blood, "be obedient to their masters," wait for a peaceful deliverance, and abstain for all insurrectionary movements—is every where taken for granted, because the VICTIMS ARE BLACK. They cannot be animated by a Christian spirit, and yet return blow for blow, or conspire for the destruction of their oppressors. They are required by the Bible to put away all wrath, to submit to every conceivable outrage without resistance, to suffer with Christ if they would reign with him. None of their advocates may seek to inspire them to imitate the example of the Greeks, the Poles, the Hungarians, our Revolutionary sires; for such teaching would evince a most unchristian and blood-thirsty dispostion. For them there is no hope of heaven, unless they give the most liberal interpretations to the non-resisting injunctions contained in the Sermon on the Mount, touching the treatment of enemies. It is for them, though despoiled of all their rights and deprived of all protection, to "threaten not, but to commit the keeping of their souls to God in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator." Nothing can be plainer than that such conduct is obligatory upon them; and when, through the operations of divine grace, they are enabled to manifest a spirit like this, it is acknowledged to be worthy of great commendation, as in the case of "Uncle Tom." But, for those whose skin is of a different complexion, the case is materially altered. When they are spit upon and buffeted, outraged and oppressed, talk not then of a non-resisting Saviour—it is fanaticism! Talk not of overcoming evil with good—it is madness! Talk not of peacefully submitting to chains and stripes—it is base servility! Talk not of servants being obedient to their masters—let the blood of tyrants flow! How is this to be explained or reconciled? Is there one law of submission and non-resistance for the black man, and another law of rebellion and conflict for the white man? When it is the whites who are trodden in the dust, does Christ justify them in taking up arms to vindicate their rights? And when it is the blacks who are thus treated, does Christ require them to be patient, harmless, long-suffering, and forgiving? And are there two Christs? The work, towards its conclusion, contains some objectionable sentiments respecting African colonization, which we regret to see.
Southern Press Review Unsigned 1852 "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is an anti-slavery novel. It is a caricature of slavery. It selects for description the most odious features of slavery—the escape and pursuit of fugitive slaves, the sale and separation of domestic slaves, the separation of husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters. It portrays the slaves of the story as more moral, intelligent, courageous, elegant and beautiful than their masters and mistresses; and where it concedes any of these qualities to the whites, it is to such only as are, even though slaveholders, opposed to slavery. Those in favor of slavery are slave-traders, slave-catchers, and the most weak, depraved, cruel and malignant of beings and demons. It is a little curious, that the two works on slavery that have attained the largest circulation since the Wilmot proviso was proposed, have both emanated from Cincinnati. The first, the lecture on "the North and the South," by the senior editor of this paper; the other, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Of the lecture, about three hundred thousand copies were printed in pamphlets and newspapers. The novel will probably reach an equal circulation. It deserves to be considered that the defense of the South was a documentary argument, consisting chiefly of a collection of all the evidence on the subject which existed in an authentic shape. The attack on the South is a novel—a romance. The system of the South relies on fact—the sentiment of the North flies to fiction. This is significant. For some time before, the North, the practical, calculating, unimaginative North, claimed the facts. But since the appearance of "the North and the South," that pretension has almost been abandoned. We have been struck by the almost total abstinence of the northern press from all allusion to the results of the last census, when discussing the slavery question. That census has vindicated triumphantly the positions of the lecture on "the North and the South." Now, what is the value of a work of fiction in this controversy? What would be its value even if even incident it contains were founded on fact, as the writer intimates? Why, just nothing at all. Every man who is accustomed to reason is familiar with the artifice of a discomfitted antagonist. When refuted in argument, when overwhelmed with evidence, he insists on relating an anecdote, or telling a story—he retreats into fiction, or cites a particular instance—although everyone capable of reasoning knows that any proposition can be maintained, or any institution be overthrown, if the citation of particular incidents is accepted as argument. Government, society, law, civilization itself would fall in an hour, if we were to listen to the stories of the wrong and ruin that incidentally or exceptionally attend them. Do not murderers escape—are not the innocent sometimes put to death under the administration of criminal law? And yet, who would abolish it, even if hundreds of novels were written to illustrate its defects, or under pretence of exposing its enormity? Do we not find bad men with wealth, or good men in want—then why not have a novel to prove it and to insist on the abolition of property? Nay, there is religion itself, whose institutions cannot be divested of superstition, hypocrisy and fanaticism. How many romances could be written and have been written to illustrate these latter? Yet must we abolish religion? Mrs. Stowe may have seen, during her residence in Cincinnati, in the arrival and departure of emigrants, and in the trade and navigation of the Ohio and Mississippi, more families separated forever; she must know that from that single city more husbands, brothers, sons and fathers have gone voluntarily, as she calls it, from wives, mothers and children, and, in the pursuit of trade, met with untimely death by fevers and cholera on the river, or in the wilderness, leaving their families to suffer from want, their children to perish from neglect, than probably all who have been separated by the slave trade. Why don't she write a romance against emigration, and navigation and commerce? They are all permitted by our laws. But Mrs. Stowe complains that slavery gives to one man the power over another to do these things. Well, does not freedom, as she calls it? Cannot the landlord of Cincinnati turn out a family from his dwelling if unable to pay the rent? Cannot those who have food and raiment refuse them to such as are unable to buy? And does not Mrs. Stowe herself virtually do these very things? Suppose a poor man were to present himself to her and say, "Madam, I am a poor man with a large family, and we are destitute. And unless you prevent it, I shall be compelled to-morrow to hire myself as a hand on a flatboat to New Orleans, and besides exposing myself to the cholera and yellow fever, leave my wife in delicate health, my oldest daughter to the dangers of a large city without a protector, and my young ones to the diseases that depopulate the infancy of this place every summer. Now, I have read your novel, and I understand that you have already received a large fortune by the copy-right of it. Now, we are equals—except that I have none of your education, and that is not my fault. Yet somehow or other the laws of this freesoil State allow you to keep thousands of dollars in bank which you do not need, whilst I, for the want of a small part of it, am doomed to separation from all that I hold dear." We doubt whether Mrs. Stowe would recognize the cogency of this argument. But if she would, the laws of this country do not.
THE MOTHER'S LOVE BY MRS. ELLISGodey's Lady's Book February, 1852 If the love of a mother be considered as an instinct which pervades all animated nature, it is not the less beautiful when exhibited in the human character, for being diffused throughout creation; because it proves that the Author of our being knew that the distinctive attributes of humanity would be insufficient to support the mother through her anxieties, vexations, and cares. He knew that reason would be making distinctions between the worthy and unworthy, and prematurely consigning the supposed reprobate to ruin; that fancy would make selections, and dote upon one while it neglected another; that caprice would destroy the bond of domestic union; and that intellectual pursuits would often take precedence of domestic duties. And therefore he poured into woman's heart the same instinct which impels the timid bird to risk the last extremity of danger for her helpless young. Nor let any one think contemptuously of this peculiar capability of loving, because under the extinct it is shared with the brute. It is not a sufficient recommendation to our respect that it comes immediately from the hand of our Creator -- that we have no power to control or subdue it -- that it is "strong as death" -- and lastly, that it imbues the mind of the mother with equal tenderness for her infirm, or wayward, or unlovely child, as for him who gives early promise of personal as well as mental beauty?. But for this wonderful provision in human nature, what would become of the cripple, the diseased, the petulant, or the perverse? Who would be found to fulfil the hard duties of serving the ungrateful, ministering to the dissatisfied, and watching over the hopeless? No. There is no instance in which the providential care of our Heavenly Father is more beautifully exhibited than in that of a mother's love. Winding its silken cords alike around every natural object, whether worthy or unworthy, it creates a bond which unkindness cannot break. It pursues the wanderer without weariness, and supports the feeble without fainting. Neither appalled by danger, nor hindered by difficulty, it can labor without reward, and persevere without hope. "Many waters cannot quench" it; and when the glory has vanished from the brow of the beloved one, when summer friends have turned away, and guilt, and misery, and disgrace have usurped their place, it steals into the soul of the outcast like the sunbeams within the cell of the prisoner, lighting the darker dungeon of the polluted heart, bringing along with it fond recollections of past happiness, and wooing back to fresh participation in the light and the gladness that still remain for the broken and contrite spirit. If the situation of a wife brings woman to a right understanding of her own character, that of a mother leads to a strict knowledge of her own principles. Scarcely is any one so depraved as to teach her child what she conscientiously believes to be wrong. And yet teach it she must, for its "clear, pure eyes" are fixed upon hers to learn their meaning ,and its infant accents are inquiring out the first principles of good and evil. How, with such a picture before her, would any woman dare to teach what she did not implicitly, as well as rationally, and from mature examination, believe to be true? In a few days -- hours -- nay, moments, that child may be a cherub in the courts of Heaven. What if a stain should have been upon its wings, and that stain the impress of a mother's hand! or if its earthly life should be prolonged, it is the foundation of the important future that the mother lays. Other governors in after years may take upon themselves the tuition of her child and lead him through the paths of academic lore, but the early bias, the bent of the moral character, the first principles of spiritual life, will be hers, and hers the lasting glory or the lasting shame. There is no scene throughout the whole range of our observation more strikingly illustrative of intellectual, moral, and even physical beauty than that presented by a domestic circle, where a mother holds her proper place, as the source of tenderness, the centre of affection, the bond of social union, the founder of each salutary plan, the umpire in all contention, and the general fountain of cheerfulness, hope, and consolation. It is to clear up the unjust suspicion that such a mother steps forward; to ward off the unmerited blow; to defend the wounded spirit from the injury to which it would sullenly submit; to encourage the hopeless, when thrown back in the competition of talent; to point out to those who have been defeated other aims in which they may yet succeed; to stand between the timid and the danger they dread; and, on behalf of each, and all, to make their peace with offended authority, promising, hoping, and believing, that they will never willingly commit the same fault again.
from Essay on Slavery and AbolitionismCatharine E. Beecher 1837 ... It is Christianity that has given to woman her true place in society. And it is the peculiar trait of Christianity alone that can sustain her therein."Peace on earth and good will to men" is the character of all the rights and privileges, the influence, and the power of woman. A man may act on society by the collision of intellect, in public debate; he may urge his measures by a sense of shame, by fear and by personal interest; he may coerce by the combination of public sentiment; he may drive by physical force, and he does not outstep the boundaries of his sphere. But all the power, and all the conquests that are lawful to woman, are those only which appeal to the kindly, generous, peaceful and benevolent principles. 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. There let every woman become so cultivated and refined in intellect . . . so unassuming and unambitious . . . so "gentle and easy to be entreated," as that every heart will repose in her presence; then, the fathers, the husbands, and the sons, will find an influence thrown around them, to which they will yield not only willingly but proudly.... But the moment woman begins to feel the promptings of ambition, or the thirst for power, her aegis of defence 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 defenceless, and making no claims, and maintaining no right but what are the gifts of honour, rectitude and love. ... If these general principles are correct, they are entirely opposed to the plan of arraying females in any Abolition movement; because . . . it brings them forward as partisans in a conflict that has been begun and carried forward by measures that are any thing rather than peaceful in their tendencies; because it draws them forth from their appropriate retirement, to expose themselves to the ungoverned violence of mobs, and to sneers and ridicule in public places; because it leads them into the arena of political collision, not as peaceful mediators to hush the opposing elements, but as combatants to cheer up and carry forward the measures of strife. ... 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 by 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. ...
Excerpts from the Southern Literary Messenger ReviewUnsigned; probably John R. ThompsonRichmond: October 1852 ....[W]e beg to make a distinction between lady writers and female writers. We could not find it in our hearts to visit the dulness or ignorance of a well-meaning lady with the rigorous discipline which it is necessary to inflict upon male dunces or blockheads. But where a writer of the softer sex manifests, in her productions, a shameless disregard to truth and of those amenities which so peculiarly belong to her sphere of life, we hold that she has forfeited the claim to be considered a lady, and with that claim all exemption from the utmost stringency of critical punishment.... ...Possessed of a happy faculty of description, an easy and natural style, an uncommon command of pathos and considerable dramatic skill, she might, in the legitimate exercise of such talents, have done much to enrich the literature of America, and to gladden and elevate her fellow beings. But she has chosen to employ her pen for purposes of a less worthy nature. She has volunteered officiously to intermeddle with things which concern her not--to libel and vilify a people from among whom have gone forth some of the noblest men that have adorned the race--to foment heart-burnings and unappeasable hatred between brethren of a common country, the joint heirs of that country's glory--to sow, in this blooming garden of freedom, the seeds of strife and violence and all direful contentions. Perhaps, indeed, she might declare that such was not her design--that she wished, by the work now under consideration, to persuade us the horrible guilt of Slavery, and with the kindest feelings for us as brethren, to teach us that our constitution and laws are repugnant to every sentiment of humanity. We know that among other novel doctrines in vogue in the land of Mrs. Stowe's nativity--the pleasant land of New England--which we are old-fashioned enough to condemn, is one which would place woman on a footing of political equality with man, and causing her to look beyond the office for which she was created--the high and holy office of maternity--would engage her in the administration of public affairs; thus handing over the State to the perilous protection of diaper diplomatists and wet-nurse politicians. Mrs. Stowe, we believe, belongs to this school of Women's Rights, and on this ground she may assert her prerogative to teach us how wicked are we ourselves and the Constitution under which we live. But such a claim is in direct conflict with the letter of scripture, as we find it recorded in the second chapter of the First Epistle to Timothy-- "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence."...
HOW AMERICAN WOMEN SHOULD VOTE. "Editors' Table"Godey's Lady's BookApril, 1852. -- "I control seven votes; why should I desire to cast one myself?" said a lady who, if women went to the polls, would be acknowledged as a leader. This lady is a devoted, beloved wife, a faithful, tender mother; she has six sons. She knows her influence is paramount over the minds she has carefully trained. She feels her interests are safe confided to those her affection has made happy. She trusts her country will be nobly served by those whom her example has taught to believe in goodness, therefore she is proud to vote by her proxies. This is the way American women should vote, namely, by influencing rightly the votes of men.
