Shianne Santiago March 15, 2020

Reading Guide
Freedom for All

Read: Reading Guide

1. As you read, complete the last two rows of the Nineteenth Century Reform Movements chart in the Reading
Guide from the previous lesson.

Nineteenth Century Reform Movements

Reform Movement Reformer(s) Goal(s) Obstacles and Achievements
abolition of slavery William Lloyd Garrison abolition of slavery  Founded Liberia for former
Theodore Weld slaves
Sarah and Angelina Grimké  Published newspapers in
Sojourner Truth support of abolition
Harriet Tubman  Great postal campaign
Frederick Douglass  Helped spur the women’s
movement
 Southerners convinced postal
service to stop carrying anti-
slavery literature.
 Angry mobs that opposed the
abolition of slavery attacked
abolitionist speakers.
women’s rights Lucretia Mott  equality for women  Seneca Falls Convention and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton  education of women Declaration of Sentiments
Emma Willard  Many people did not support
the Declaration’s proposals and
opposed the women’s rights
movement (including many
women).
 Founded a girls’ boarding
school and a seminary where
women could study
mathematics, philosophy,
geography, history, and
sciences.

2. Was America’s division over slavery a relatively new issue or an old issue in the early 1800s?

 The issue was as old as the institution of slavery itself.

3. What were reformers who fought for the end of slavery known as?

 Abolitionists
4. List six inequalities women faced in the early nineteenth century.

 Women could not:

 vote
 own property (if married)
 file a lawsuit
 control their own money
 enter into contracts
 gain custody of their children after divorce or separation
5. Which document was written for the Seneca Falls convention to express the views of many women’s rights
activists?

 the Declaration of Sentiments

6. The abolition movement of the first half of the nineteenth century failed to attain its goal of the abolition of
slavery. Why do you think that was?

 Answers will vary. Some students might suggest that slavery had become a large part of life in the South or that the
economy of southern states depended too much on the use of slaves.
Document Analysis: Ain’t I a Woman?
1. Is this a primary or secondary source? Explain your answer.

 primary; It is the actual text written and delivered at the convention.

2. According to Sojourner Truth, what groups of people were looking for more rights in 1851?

 women and negroes; “I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights…”
3. Many people of the time believed that inequality between the sexes actually put women at an advantage, because
it obligated men to care for them. What did Sojourner Truth think about this argument?

 She didn’t believe it, because men did not care for her. “Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or
gives me any best place!”
4. What argument or justification, based on religion, did some men use to justify men having more rights than
women?

 Women shouldn’t have as many rights as men, because Christ wasn’t a woman. “Then that little man in black there, he
says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman!”