Notes on Davis’ Women, Race and Class
The legacy of slavery, standards for a new womanhood
In this chapter, Davis encourages historians to explore “the multidimensional role of Black women within the family and within the slave community as a whole.” But she did show that Herbert Gutman did acknowledge the black woman and how “the [black] family’s vitality proved stronger than the dehumanizing rigors of slavery.” Gutman also “dethroned the Back Matriarch thesis” that placed the blame for family and community dysfunction at the feet of black women who supposedly usurped black men’s authority. Gutman would not long be the only historian making such arguments.
The anti-slavery movement and the birth of women’s rights
Davis here explores the dialectical link between slavery and female oppression, this was also acknowledged by the Grimke sisters: “They are our countrywomen- they are our sisters and to us, as women, they have a right to look for sympathy with their sorrows, and effort and prayer for their rescue” and how originally, industrialization led middle-class white women to have more leisure time, therefore getting involved in politics but many of these original feminists were still racist but wanted suffrage, etc. Davis also named some key figures- Prudence Crandall started the first all-black school as a black woman and didn’t back down on her beliefs even though people rioted and attacked her and her students. Lucretia Mott helped slave women escape and later became a key figure in the abolitionist movement.
Class and race in the early women’s rights campaign
The Seneca Falls convention/movement was undeniably white privileged women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a racist who wanted to focus on white women to not scare away southern women (white, rich women). But because of their privilege, when working conditions were too dangerous, these white women were removed and replaced with black, lower-class women who had no choice, showing the need for intersectionality. Davis also mentions Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a woman” speech: “I have ploughed and planted and gathered into barns and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne 13 children and seen them most sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And Ain’t I a woman?” Overall, the women’s rights movements saw society as perfect, with male supremacy just being one blemish on this otherwise perfect society, when of course the people they were defending were the people who the system was perfect for, everyone else, they were blind to the struggle of the lower classes. This led to the equal rights association dying out, and the loss of what could be a strong bond- female and black liberation. Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass both acknowledged this and opposed the E. Cady Stanton view. Ida B. Wells also fought actively as an anti-lynching activist as well as a feminist.
The meaning of emancipation according to black women.
Being free from slavery was not emancipation for the black woman in America. The economic opportunities they were offered were not much better than slaves- many black women worked in agriculture, often on the same farms that previously were worked by their slave ancestors. 60% worked in domestic services. These jobs were the lowest-paid jobs around and domestic services were no better than house slaves. The majority of post-slavery domestic servants were sexually assaulted by the “man of the house”. “One Interview symbolizes the racist ideology prevalent in post-slavery USA- “I hire black slaves because they look like slaves” showing that, although free from slavery, Black women were not at all emancipated from the chains of racist ideology.”
Education and Liberation: Black Women’s Perspective
Here Davis shows some unity, unity between black people and white women in their fight for education. Davis draws attention to that previous slaves had an “unyielding commitment to gaining knowledge”. Even as slaves, there are multiple records of slaves stealing books, learning from them in a group- the “websters spelling book” was universally used by most slaves as a way to learn to read. Prudence Crandall comes up again- a white woman who made a school for black children, Margaret Douglas did the same thing. This shows that both Women and Black people were united in their fight for education and both understood the need for education and its relation to liberation. Access to education is not the point of emancipation, but it unites over a shared desire for knowledge again showing the need for intersectionality.
Women Suffrage at the turn of the century: The rising influence of racism
This is a further argument for intersectionality Susan B. Anthony was anti-racist and voiced this opinion. But her feminism was not truly intersectional and racism grew in the Suffrage movement as E. Cady Stanton and her racist beliefs grew in popularity but in turn, neglected a huge number of black women that could’ve united for one cause and would’ve been far more successful. Davis summarises this with this quote: “There was not a word about the defeat of male supremacy at this point… It was not women’s rights or women’s political equality but, rather, the reigning racial superiority of white people which had to be preserved at all costs”
Black Women and the club movement
Throughout this chapter, the underlying point is that the black women’s clubs movement grew out of shared oppression, whereas the white women’s expanded due to leisure. “It was in response to the unchecked wave of lynchings and the indiscriminate sexual abuse of Black women that the first Black women’s club was organized… For black women, it was politically necessary to challenge the double-binds of racism and sexism.”
Working Women, Black Women and the history of the suffrage movement
In this chapter, Davis shows the way in which wealth and class structured the women’s suffrage movement, Susan B. Anthony came from a bourgeoise background and her racist points that were built on bourgeois ideology proved this. She and her movement constantly rejected their black alternatives even though they had the support of black men. It is clear that Susan B. Anthony sees race and gender as two completely separate entities from this quote, and this point can only be made from a blind, privileged position: An oligarchy of wealth, where the rich govern the poor; an oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant; or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex which makes father, brother, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household; which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects — carries discord and rebellion into every home of the nation.
Communist Women
In this chapter, Davis writes about many inspirational, communist women. Mother Bloor is noted as one of the first to notice a link between socialism and racism, this link was then developed by Claudia Jones who was arrested for her radical views. Anita Whitley is noted for speaking out against lynchings even when other white “liberals” did not and Elizabeth Flynn who was a prominent feminist and communist figure and was speaking publicly since she was 16.
Rape, Racism and the myth of the black rapist
The myth of the black rapist came after slavery, during slavery, a different stereotype was found, the stereotype of allowing white men to rape black women was quickly switched. “The pattern of institutionalized sexual abuse of Black women became so powerful that it managed to survive the abolition of slavery.” This same ideology victimized all black men and served as an excuse to uphold white supremacy and the patriarchy. This myth was utilized to start and excuse the mass wave of lynchings that happened in the reconstruction era. Although Davis notes black men could rape just as much as any other man, this myth was specifically just to uphold white supremacy and the masculinity of the white man.
