Victor Appleton - "Tom Swift in the City of Gold"

W. Gilmore Simms - "Confession"

Fred W. Ward - "The 23rd (Service) Battalion Royal Fusiliers (First Sportsman's)"

Theodor Fontane - "Effi Briest"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Susan B. Anthony

A >> Alma Lutz >> Susan B. Anthony




It never occurred to her in her eagerness to bring women into a new
occupation that she might be breaking the strike. She saw only women's
opportunity to prove to employers that they were able to do the work
and to show the Typographical Union that they should admit women as
members. Labor men, however, soon let her know how much they
disapproved of her strategy. She tried to explain her motives to them,
that she was trying to fit these women to earn equal wages with men.
She reminded these men of how hard it was for women to get into the
printing trade and how they had refused to admit women to their union;
and she called their attention to her whole-hearted support of the
lately formed Women's Typographical Union.

Some of the men were never convinced and never forgot this misstep,
bringing it up at the National Labor Union Congress in Philadelphia in
1869, which Susan attended as a delegate of the New York
Workingwomen's Association. Here she found herself facing an
unfriendly group without the support of William H. Sylvis, who had
recently died. For three days they debated her eligibility as a
delegate, first expressing fear that her admission would commit the
Labor Congress to woman suffrage. When she won 55 votes against 52 in
opposition, Typographical Union No. 6 of New York brought accusations
against her which aroused suspicion in the minds of many union
members. They pointed out that she belonged to no union, and they
called her an enemy of labor because she had encouraged women to take
men's jobs during the printers' strike. They could not or would not
understand that in urging women to take men's jobs, she had been
fighting for women just as they fought for their union, and they
completely overlooked how continuously and effectively she had
supported the Women's Typographical Union. Her _Revolution_, they
claimed, was printed at less than union rates in a "rat office" and
her explanation was not satisfactory. That it was printed on contract
outside her office was no answer to satisfy union men who could not
realize on what a scant margin her paper operated or how gladly she
would have set up a union shop had the funds been available.

Not only were these accusations repeated again and again, they were
also carried far and wide by the press, with the result that Susan was
not only kept out of the Labor Congress but was even sharply
criticized by some members of her Workingwomen's Association.

"As to the charges which were made by Typographical Union No. 6," she
reported to this Association, "no one believes them; and I don't think
they are worth answering. I admit that this Workingwomen's Association
is not a _trade_ organization; and while I join heart and hand with
the working people in their trades unions, and in everything else by
which they can protect themselves against the oppression of
capitalists and employers, I say that this organization of ours is
more upon the broad platform of philosophizing on the general
questions of labor, and to discuss what can be done to ameliorate the
condition of working people generally."[230]

She was not without friends in the ranks of labor, however, the New
England delegates giving her their support. The New York _World_, very
fair in its coverage of the heated debates, declared, "Of her devotion
to the cause of workingwomen, there can be no question."[231]

* * * * *

The activities of the Workingwomen's Association had by this time
begun to irk employers, and some of them threatened instant dismissal
of any employee who reported her wages or hours to these meddling
women. Fear of losing their jobs now hung over many while others were
forbidden by their fathers, husbands, and brothers to have anything to
do with strong-minded Susan B. Anthony.

To counteract this disintegrating influence and to bring all classes
of women together in their fight for equal rights, Susan persuaded the
popular lecturer, Anna E. Dickinson, to speak for the Workingwomen's
Association at Cooper Union. This, however, only added fuel to the
flames, for Anna, in an emotional speech, "A Struggle for Life," told
the tragic story of Hester Vaughn, a workingwoman who had been accused
of murdering her illegitimate child. Found in a critical condition
with her dead baby beside her, Hester Vaughn had been charged with
infanticide, tried without proper defense, and convicted by a
prejudiced court, although there was no proof that she had
deliberately killed her child. At Susan's instigation, the
Workingwomen's Association sent a woman physician, Dr. Clemence
Lozier, and the well-known author, Eleanor Kirk, to Philadelphia to
investigate the case. Both were convinced of Hester Vaughn's
innocence.

With the aid of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's courageous editorials in _The
Revolution_, Susan made such an issue of the conviction of Hester
Vaughn that many newspapers accused her of obstructing justice and
advocating free love, and this provided a moral weapon for her critics
to use in their fight against the growing independence of women.
Eventually her efforts and those of her colleagues won a pardon for
Hester Vaughn. At the same time the publicity given this case served
to educate women on a subject heretofore taboo, showing them that
poverty and a double standard of morals made victims of young women
like Hester Vaughn. Susan also made use of this case to point out the
need for women jurors to insure an unprejudiced trial. She even
suggested that Columbia University Law School open its doors to women
so that a few of them might be able to understand their rights under
the law and bring aid to their less fortunate sisters.

* * * * *

Under Susan's guidance, the Workingwomen's Association continued to
hold meetings as long as she remained in New York. In its limited way,
it carried on much-needed educational work, building up self-respect
and confidence among workingwomen, stirring up "a wholesome
discontent," and preparing the way for women's unions. The public
responded. At Cooper Union, telegraphy courses were opened to women;
the New York Business School, at Susan's instigation, offered young
women scholarships in bookkeeping; and there were repeated requests
for the enrollment of women in the College of New York.

Living in the heart of this rapidly growing, sprawling city, Susan saw
much to distress her and pondered over the disturbing social
conditions, looking for a way to relieve poverty and wipe out crime
and corruption. She saw luxury, extravagance, and success for the few,
while half of the population lived in the slums in dilapidated houses
and in damp cellars, often four or five to a room. Immigrants,
continually pouring in from Europe, overtaxed the already inadequate
housing, and unfamiliar with our language and customs, were the easy
prey of corrupt politicians. Many were homeless, sleeping in the
streets and parks until the rain or cold drove them into police
stations for warmth and shelter. Susan longed to bring order and
cleanliness, good homes and good government to this overcrowded city,
and again and again she came to the conclusion that votes for women,
which meant a voice in the government, would be the most potent factor
for reform.

Yet she did not close her mind to other avenues of reform. Seeing
reflected in the life of the city the excesses, the injustice, and the
unsoundness of laissez-faire capitalism, she spoke out fearlessly in
_The Revolution_ against its abuses, such as the fortunes made out of
the low wages and long hours of labor, or the Wall Street speculation
to corner the gold market, or the efforts to take over the public
lands of the West through grants to the transcontinental railroads.
Her active mind also sought a solution of the complicated currency
problem. In fact there was no public question which she hesitated to
approach, to think out or attempt to solve. She did not keep her
struggle for woman suffrage aloof from the pressing problems of the
day. Instead she kept it abreast of the times, keenly alive to social,
political, and economic issues, and involved in current public
affairs.


FOOTNOTES:

[220] Feb. 18, 1868, Anna E. Dickinson Papers, Library of Congress.

[221] _The Revolution_, II, Sept. 24, 1868, p. 198. L. A. Hines of
Cincinnati, publisher of Hine's Quarterly, assisted Miss Anthony in
organizing women in the sewing trades.

[222] _Ibid._, p. 204.

[223] Harper, _Anthony_, II, pp. 999-1000.

[224] _The Revolution_, II, Oct. 1, 1868, p. 204.

[225] _Ibid._, p. 200.

[226] _Ibid._, Oct. 8, 1868, p. 214. A Woman's Exchange was also
initiated by the Workingwomen's Association.

[227] _Ibid._, June 24, 1869, p. 394.

[228] _Ibid._, March 18, 1869, p. 173.

[229] _Ibid._, Feb. 4, 1869, p. 73.

[230] _Ibid._, Sept. 9, 1869, p. 154.

[231] _Ibid._, Aug. 26, 1869, p. 120.




THE INADEQUATE FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT


The Fourteenth Amendment had been ratified in July 1868, but
Republicans found it inadequate because it did not specifically
enfranchise Negroes. More than ever convinced that they needed the
Negro vote in order to continue in power, they prepared to supplement
it by a Fifteenth Amendment, which Susan hoped would be drafted to
enfranchise women as well as Negroes. Immediately through her Woman's
Suffrage Association of America, she petitioned Congress to make no
distinction between men and women in any amendment extending or
regulating suffrage.

She and Elizabeth Stanton also persuaded their good friends, Senator
Pomeroy of Kansas and Congressman Julian of Indiana, to introduce in
December 1868 resolutions providing that suffrage be based on
citizenship, be regulated by Congress, and that all citizens, native
or naturalized, enjoy this right without distinction of race, color,
or sex. Before the end of the month, Senator Wilson of Massachusetts
and Congressman Julian had introduced other resolutions to enfranchise
women in the District of Columbia and in the territories. Even the New
York _Herald_ could see no reason why "the experiment" of woman
suffrage should not be tried in the District of Columbia.[232]

To focus attention on woman suffrage at this crucial time, Susan, in
January 1869, called together the first woman suffrage convention ever
held in Washington. No only did it attract women from as far west as
Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, but Senator Pomeroy lent it importance
by his opening speech, and through the detailed and respectful
reporting of the New York _World_ and of Grace Greenwood of the
Philadelphia _Press_ it received nationwide notice.

Congress, however, gave little heed to women's demands. "The
experiment" of woman suffrage in the District of Columbia was not
tried and nothing came of the resolutions for universal suffrage
introduced by Pomeroy, Julian, and Wilson. In spite of all Susan's
efforts to have the word "sex" added to the Fifteenth Amendment, she
soon faced the bitter disappointment of seeing a version ignoring
women submitted to the states for ratification: "The right of citizens
of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude."

The blatant omission of the word "sex" forced Susan and Mrs. Stanton
to initiate an amendment of their own, a Sixteenth Amendment, and
again Congressman Julian came to their aid, although he too regarded
Negro suffrage as more "immediately important and absorbing"[233] than
suffrage for women. On March 15, 1869, at one of the first sessions of
the newly elected Congress, he introduced an amendment to the
Constitution, providing that the right of suffrage be based on
citizenship without any distinction or discrimination because of sex.
This was the first federal woman suffrage amendment ever proposed in
Congress.

Opportunity to campaign for this amendment was now offered Susan and
Elizabeth Stanton as they addressed a series of conventions in Ohio,
Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Press notices were good, a
Milwaukee paper describing Susan as "an earnest enthusiastic, fiery
woman--ready, apt, witty and what a politician would call sharp ...
radical in the strongest sense," making "radical everything she
touches."[234] She found woman suffrage sentiment growing by leaps and
bounds in the West and western men ready to support a federal woman
suffrage amendment.

* * * * *

With a lighter heart than she had had in many a day and with new
subscriptions to _The Revolution_, Susan returned to New York. She
moved the _Revolution_ office to the first floor of the Women's
Bureau, a large four-story brownstone house at 49 East Twenty-third
Street, near Fifth Avenue, which had been purchased by a wealthy New
Yorker, Mrs. Elizabeth Phelps, who looked forward to establishing a
center where women's organizations could meet and where any woman
interested in the advancement of her sex would find encouragement and
inspiration. Susan's hopes were high for the Women's Bureau, and in
this most respectable, fashionable, and even elegant setting, she
expected her _Revolution_, in spite of its inflammable name, to live
down its turbulent past and win new friends and subscribers.[235]

She made one last effort to resuscitate the American Equal Rights
Association, writing personal letters to old friends, urging that past
differences be forgotten and that all rededicate themselves to
establishing universal suffrage by means of the Sixteenth Amendment.
She was optimistic as she prepared for a convention in New York,
particularly as one obstacle to unity had been removed. George Francis
Train had voluntarily severed all connections with _The Revolution_ to
devote himself to freeing Ireland. She soon found, however, that the
misunderstandings between her and her old antislavery friends were far
deeper than George Francis Train, although he would for a long time be
blamed for them. The Fifteenth Amendment was still a bone of
contention and _The Revolution's_ continued editorials against it
widened the breach.

The fireworks were set off in the convention of the American Equal
Rights Association by Stephen S. Foster, who objected to the
nomination of Susan and Mrs. Stanton as officers of the Association
because they had in his opinion repudiated its principles. When asked
to explain further, he replied that not only had they published a
paper advocating educated suffrage while the Association stood for
universal suffrage but they had shown themselves unfit by
collaboration with George Francis Train who ridiculed Negroes and
opposed their enfranchisement.

Trying to pour oil on the troubled waters, Mary Livermore, the popular
new delegate from Chicago, asked whether it was quite fair to bring up
George Francis Train when he had retired from _The Revolution_.

To this Stephen Foster sternly replied, "If _The Revolution_ which has
so often endorsed George Francis Train will repudiate him because of
his course in respect to the Negro's rights, I have nothing further to
say. But they do not repudiate him. He goes out; but they do not cast
him out."[236]

"Of course we do not," Susan instantly protested.

Mr. Foster then objected to the way Susan had spent the funds of the
Association, accusing her of failing to keep adequate accounts.

This she emphatically denied, explaining that she had presented a full
accounting to the trust fund committee, that it had been audited, and
she had been voted $1,000 to repay her for the amount she had
personally advanced for the work.

Unwilling to accept her explanation and calling it unreliable, he
continued his complaints until interrupted by Henry Blackwell who
corroborated Susan's statement, adding that she had refused the $1,000
due her because of the dissatisfaction expressed over her management.
Declaring himself completely satisfied with the settlement and
confident of the purity of Susan's motives even if some of her
expenditures were unwise, Henry Blackwell continued, "I will agree
that many unwise things have been written in _The Revolution_ by a
gentleman who furnished part of the means by which the paper has been
carried on. But that gentleman has withdrawn, and you, who know the
real opinions of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton on the question of
Negro suffrage, do not believe that they mean to create antagonism
between the Negro and woman question...."

To Susan's great relief Henry Blackwell's explanation satisfied the
delegates, who gave her and Mrs. Stanton a vote of confidence. Not so
easily healed, however, were the wounds left by the accusations of
mismanagement and dishonesty.

The atmosphere was still tense, for differences of opinion on policy
remained. Most of the old reliable workers stood unequivocally for the
Fifteenth Amendment, which they regarded as the crowning achievement
of the antislavery movement, and they heartily disapproved of forcing
the issue of woman suffrage on Congress and the people at this time.
Although they had been deeply moved by the suffering of Negro women
under slavery and had used this as a telling argument for
emancipation, they now gave no thought to Negro women, who, even more
than Negro men, needed the vote to safeguard their rights. Believing
with the Republicans that one reform at a time was all they could
expect, they did not want to hear one word about woman suffrage or a
Sixteenth Amendment until male Negroes were safely enfranchised by the
Fifteenth Amendment.

Offering a resolution endorsing the Fifteenth Amendment, Frederick
Douglass quoted Julia Ward Howe as saying, "I am willing that the
Negro shall get the ballot before me," and he added, "I cannot see how
anyone can pretend that there is the same urgency in giving the ballot
to women as to the Negro."

Quick as a flash, Susan was on her feet, challenging his statements,
and as the dauntless champion of women debated the question with the
dark-skinned fiery Negro, the friendship and warm affection built up
between them over the years occasionally shone through the sharp words
they spoke to each other.

"The old antislavery school says that women must stand back," declared
Susan, "that they must wait until male Negroes are voters. But we say,
if you will not give the whole loaf of justice to an entire people,
give it to the most intelligent first."

Here she was greeted with applause and continued, "If intelligence,
justice, and morality are to be placed in the government, then let the
question of woman be brought up first and that of the Negro last....
Mr. Douglass talks about the wrongs of the Negro, how he is hunted
down ..., but with all the wrongs and outrages that he today suffers,
he would not exchange his sex and take the place of Elizabeth Cady
Stanton."

"I want to know," shouted Frederick Douglass, "if granting you the
right of suffrage will change the nature of our sexes?"

"It will change the pecuniary position of woman," Susan retorted
before the shouts of laughter had died down. "She will not be
compelled to take hold of only such employments as man chooses for
her."

Lucy Stone, who so often in her youth had pleaded with Susan and
Frederick Douglass for both the Negro and women, now entered the
argument. She had matured, but her voice had lost none of its
conviction or its power to sway an audience. Disagreeing with
Douglass's assertion that Negro suffrage was more urgent than woman
suffrage, she pointed out that white women of the North were robbed of
their children by the law just as Negro women had been by slavery.

This was balm to Susan's soul, but with Lucy's next words she lost all
hope that her old friend would cast her lot wholeheartedly with women
at this time. "Woman has an ocean of wrongs too deep for any plummet,"
Lucy continued, "and the Negro too has an ocean of wrongs that cannot
be fathomed. But I thank God for the Fifteenth Amendment, and hope
that it will be adopted in every state. I will be thankful in my soul
if anybody can get out of the terrible pit....

"I believe," she admitted, "that the national safety of the government
would be more promoted by the admission of women as an element of
restoration and harmony than the other. I believe that the influence
of woman will save the country before every other influence. I see the
signs of the times pointing to this consummation. I believe that in
some parts of the country women will vote for the President of these
United States in 1872."

Susan grew impatient as Lucy shifted from one side to the other,
straddling the issue. Her own clear-cut approach, earning for her the
reputation of always hitting the nail on the head, made Lucy's seem
like temporizing.

The men now took control, criticizing the amount of time given to the
discussion of woman's rights, and voted endorsement of the Fifteenth
Amendment. Nevertheless, a small group of determined women continued
their fight, Susan declaring with spirit that she protested against
the Fifteenth Amendment because it was not Equal Rights and would put
2,000,000 more men in the position of tyrants over 2,000,000 women who
until now had been the equals of the Negro men at their side.[237]

* * * * *

It was now clear to Susan and to the few women who worked closely with
her that they needed a strong organization of their own and that it
was folly to waste more time on the Equal Rights Association. Western
delegates, disappointed in the convention's lack of interest in woman
suffrage, expressed themselves freely. They had been sorely tried by
the many speeches on extraneous subjects which cluttered the meetings,
the heritage of a free-speech policy handed down by antislavery
societies.

"That Equal Rights Association is an awful humbug," exploded Mary
Livermore to Susan. "I would not have come on to the anniversary, nor
would any of us, if we had known what it was. We supposed we were
coming to a woman suffrage convention."[238]

At a reception for all the delegates held at the Women's Bureau at the
close of the convention, this dissatisfaction culminated in a
spontaneous demand for a new organization which would concentrate on
woman suffrage and the Sixteenth Amendment. Alert to the
possibilities, Susan directed this demand into concrete action by
turning the reception temporarily into a business meeting. The result
was the formation of the National Woman Suffrage Association by women
from nineteen states, with Mrs. Stanton as president and Susan as a
member of the executive committee. The younger women of the West,
trusting the judgment of Susan and Mrs. Stanton, looked to them for
leadership, as did a few of the old workers in the East--Ernestine
Rose, always in the vanguard, Paulina Wright Davis, Elizabeth Smith
Miller, Lucretia Mott, who although holding no office in the new
organization gave it her support, Martha C. Wright, and Matilda Joslyn
Gage who never wavered in her allegiance. Lucy Stone, who would have
found it hard even to step into the _Revolution_ office, did not
attend the reception at the Women's Bureau or take part in the
formation of the new woman suffrage organization.

[Illustration: Paulina Wright Davis]

Aided and abetted by her new National Woman Suffrage Association,
Susan continued her opposition in _The Revolution_ to the Fifteenth
Amendment until it was ratified in 1870.

So incensed was the Boston group by _The Revolution's_ opposition to
the Fifteenth Amendment, so displeased was Lucy Stone by the formation
of the National Woman Suffrage Association without consultation with
her, one of the oldest workers in the field, that they began to talk
of forming a national woman suffrage organization of their own. They
charged Susan with lust for power and autocratic control. Mrs. Stanton
they found equally objectionable because of her radical views on sex,
marriage, and divorce, expressed in _The Revolution_ in connection
with the Hester Vaughn case. They sincerely felt that the course of
woman suffrage would run more smoothly, arouse less antagonism, and
make more progress without these two militants who were forever
stirring things up and introducing extraneous subjects.

* * * * *

During these trying days of accusations, animosity, and rival
factions, Mrs. Stanton's unwavering support was a great comfort to
Susan as was the joy of having a paper to carry her message.

In addition to all the responsibilities connected with publishing her
weekly paper, advertising, subscriptions, editorial policy, and
raising the money to pay the bills, Susan was also holding successful
conventions in Saratoga and Newport where men and women of wealth and
influence gathered for the summer; she was traveling out to St. Louis,
Chicago, and other western cities to speak on woman suffrage, making
trips to Washington to confer with Congressmen, getting petitions for
the Sixteenth Amendment circulated, and through all this, building up
the National Woman Suffrage Association.

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