art two part assignment WK 5
Hyssop2016
actions_for_week_5_1.docxRUNNING HEAD: WEEK 5 ACTIONS 1
WEEK 5 ACTIVITIES 4
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DQ 1
Feminism is described as the advocacy of the rights of women on the grounds of social, economic, and political equality to men. It is the pursuit of equality in terms of women’s rights. Truth was both a women’s activist and an abolitionist. She was a powerful figure and travelled around the Midwest and east, campaigning for human rights. When she adopted the name Sojourner Truth, she travelled as a peripatetic preacher and focused on working against injustices and preaching the truth. She spoke forcefully about the abolition of slavery, suffrage and women’s rights, prison reforms, the rights of freed slaves, reforms in the prison system, and temperance. Though the advocacy for women’s rights was part of her agenda, her main goal was to ensure that there was equity among all the people: freed slaves and non-slaves alike. What had crippled the society back then was purely social injustice, particularly towards the African Americans.
Her approach, therefore, to her convictions about equality, cannot be said to be entirely feminist; she campaigned for the equality of rights of the freed slaves-members of the African American community. However, when specifically talking about the rights of women, her approach was entirely feminist. This is supported by one of the most famous speeches she ever gave, “Ain’t I a Woman”, which she delivered at the Akron women’s convention in the year 1851. She always asserted that women were justified to have the same rights as men because they had the same capabilities as men. She said, “I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? …and how Jesus came into the world? Through God who created him and the woman who bore him. Man, where was your part?” Her endeavors to seek the truth were accommodative of both genders, and as such her approach was not entirely feminist.
DQ 2
Both Walker's ‘Appeal’ and Stewart’s Franklin Hall lecture had a profound impact on the ongoing national debate on slavery. Rhetorically speaking, Walker bluntly criticizes the unchristian and harsh savagery nature of slavery. His writings gave voice to the revolutionary assault on racism and slavery’s overwhelming power or resistance during this particular time. His style challenged the minds of those fueling the racism and violence, behind the growing anti-black sentiments during the time. Different approaches yet, together on topic, Stewart’s lecture’s had the same goals in mind. As a woman, her works were shockingly unexpected and surprising, and this pause gave her more time and empowerment buildup from hype to further share her message regarding her personal about her truths and beliefs about events actively occurring at the time. Both Stewart’s lecture and Walker’s rhetoric style pushed the abolitionist movements in a direction that was uncharacteristically radical.
DQ 3
The Cult of True Womanhood
In her article, “The Cult of True Womanhood”, Barbara Welter dwells into the historical decades of the 19th century. She describes a critical phase, in terms of the expression of sexual typecasts. Her idea sought to proclaim that a woman’s virtue resided in purity, domesticity, submissiveness, and piety (Welter, 1966). She depicts piety, or religion, to be a woman’s strength, a fact which both Truth and Stewart agree with. However, the fact that a woman cannot truly live happily without being submissive or domestic, they vehemently disagree with. Welter’s idea of women being naturally pure and religious overstepped on the sexual freedom of the women during that time. They were expected to maintain their innocence till marriage while the men were free to bed a woman whichever number of times they wanted. For those ladies who lost it before marriage, they were treated as outcasts and avoided. This unfair treatment is what Truth and Stewart lobbied against. They also disagree with Welter’s notion of the submissiveness of women. In as much as it is naturally right for women to submit to their men, Truth and Stewart felt that women needed to be left to feel and act for themselves.
DQ 4
“Vashti”
Vashti appears in the book of Esther. She is a Persian princess who had an extraordinary and fragile beauty. Though her husband was king over several kingdoms, none of that mattered to her. All that was dear to her was her high character and self-respect. Rather than disgrace her womanly modesty, Vashti accepted dismissal and disgrace. The bible states that the king Ahasuerus sent for his wife so that she could simply “showcase her beauty” at a banquet that was being held. He had wanted the present intoxicated euphoric lords to feast their eyes on her exquisite body. What the king demanded of Vashti was that she surrenders her womanly honor, and Vashti could not agree to it, despite knowing very well the consequences of her refusal. She is said to have stood fearlessly in womanly self-respect, and refused to comply with the command.
As a consequence, she was divorced from the king and deprived of all the luxuries that came with being a queen. It was thereafter that Esther came to succeed her as queen. Though she was stripped of royalty, Vashti kept her integrity. By surrendering the crown of Persia, she put on a crown that gave her more power than any despot king could, the power of exalted womanhood. Three main allusions can be drawn from this incident in the bible: self-control, self-reverence, and self-knowledge, all of which have been properly infused into Harper’s poem. These allusions are of great significance because they enable the poet to deduce the motivational force behind Vashti’s decision to disobey her king husband. They also end up giving a lot of depth to the poem. For example in the poem’s last lines “…a woman who could bend to grief, but could not bend to shame…” this line, just like much of the poem, reflect the allusions that present themselves in the bible.
Maria Stewart, Christ, and her ideas of liberation
Just like Sojourner Truth, Maria Stewart was a strong believer. She always made references to the bible whenever she needed to drive a certain point home. For example, in her Franklin Hall lecture, Maria (1987) states that, “…my beloved brethren, just as Christ died in vain for those who do not accept of offered mercy, so will it be vain for the advocates of freedom to spend their breath in our behalf, unless with united hearts and souls you make some mighty efforts to raise your sons, and daughters from the horrible state of servitude and degradation in which they are placed…” she used direct verses and Christ’s teachings from the bible to stress her ideas about liberation.
Sojourner Truth, religion, and her ideas of liberation
When she was alone on her master John Dumont’s farm, Sojourner came up with her own ways of worshipping God. She constructed a brush temple in the woods, a native tradition which she had picked up from her mother. She always bargained with God as though He was an acquainted, and though she always worked hard to please her master, she strongly believed that it was God who called her to freedom. It was God who told her to walk away from slavery, and that is a fact that she could never forget. It was God’s spirit that gave her the power to rise above her fears and fight for what was rightfully hers. As such, religion was the building block for her conviction to fight for freedom and equality. Even her occasional references to God and Jesus showed her integral her religion was as part of her ideas. Whenever she spoke, she had to touch on God and the teachings of the bible. Religion preachers love among all and equality, which so happened to be her ideas of liberation.
(Titus, 1884)
References
Maria, W. M. (1987). An Address Delivered at the African MAsonic Hall. Maria W, Stewart: America's First Black Woman Political Writer, 58. Welter, B. (1966). The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860. American Quarterly, 18(2), 151-174. Doi: 1. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2711179 doi: 1
Frances E. W. Harper, (1895). Vashti
Titus, F. &. (1884). In Memoriam. Narrative of Sojourner Truth, 176-180.
RUNNING HEAD: WEEK 5 ACTIONS
1
Week Five Actions
Name
Course
Institution
Date
RUNNING HEAD: WEEK 5 ACTIONS 1
Week Five Actions
Name
Course
Institution
Date
