From: Marci Lewis
Date: 2/22/00
Time: 7:57:29 AM
Remote Name: 205.188.197.48
What was the place of Women and Blacks in the New Republican?
Women and Blacks in the New Republican were mistreated by the white men of that time. In my opinion, Blacks mistreatment was a little more severe than the women. Blacks in the Northern states though fought for their freedom. They were slowly, state-by-state, being freed. Two blacks, Phillis Wheatley and Benjamin Banneret, became very famous and proved that blacks can hold their own as a free citizen. Phillis Wheatley was a poet and her book became the first book published by a black author. Benjamin Banneker had many scientific accomplishments. Of course, the abolination of slavery in the Northern states didn’t mean that the whites accepted the blacks as equal. Blacks were limited to rights such as voting, juries, and military duties. In the Southern states, slavery disturbed white republicans also, but slavery was not abolished. Slave owners justified slavery by saying the their wee-being depended on slave labor. The opening up of the Mississippi and Alabama frontier supported the argument. Some slave owners freed their slaves. Women in the New republican was expected to stay under their husbands. The husbands had the power to do and treat their wife and children however they wanted. Women didn’t not work, they were considered as wife, mother and homemaker. Not all was educated as the men, and the one’s who were didn’t pursue a career but returned home and back to their regular routine By the men having these powers, some would mistreat their wife very bad. They would physically abuse their wives. Women decided that they weren’t putting up with the abuse, and they got a divorce. This was very unusual because usually the men divorced the wives. Most women who were granted a divorce got the chance to start over with their lives and didn’t go back to the traditional ideas of house wife and homemaker.