From: Jack D. Drummond
Date: 2/21/00
Time: 11:07:48 PM
Remote Name: 216.59.55.200
What was the place of women and blacks in the new republic? The period right after the Revolutionary War was a time of great social upheaval in the United States. In the interest of a republican society Americans had to do away with some of the leftover English influence and work towards creating new social roles for all people. After the War women began clamoring for more power within both the government and the home. Abigail Adams reminded her husband John to “remember the ladies” as he headed off to the Continental Congress. Lucy Knox, wife of General Henry Knox sternly reminded her husband that in their home “there is such a thing as equal command.” Women had a greater role in a republican society. An ideal republican society depended upon the “prudence, virtue, and economy” of its citizens. Women argued that it was their duty as mothers and wives to keep their children and husbands in line. While women were still locked within these familiar sex roles they did enjoy quite a bit more influence in making family decisions. Women also found it easier to get an education during this period because it couldn’t be denied that educated women could better complete their responsibilities within the family. However, many women felt that the education was going to waste in these traditional sex roles and it would be several hundred years before these roles were challenged. Blacks also found themselves in a slightly better position after the War. White America was beginning to see inconsistencies between the institution of slavery and the doctrine they were fighting for. During this time the intellectual accomplishments of free Blacks in the United States were dispelling the myth of the inferior Black race. This along with the relentless petitioning of slaves created an abolitionist fervor in the North. The number of free blacks increased dramatically. However, the freed blacks faced discrimination of all kinds, and slavery still ran rampant in the South. Like the women of this era, Black Americans would have to wait a long time for the liberty and equality promised by our revolutionary forefathers.