Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Early 16th century first African slaves brought to America by the Spaniards and
Portuguese; 1619-1620 African slaves brought to Jamestown by
Dutch vessel; at first, most black slaves treated as servants;
1662 first Virginia Slave Laws; e.g. all children shall be held bond or free only
according to the condition of the mother;
1688 first official protest against slavery by a few Quakers from Germantown,
Pa. on religious and moral grounds;
American Transcendentalism
American Transcendentalists:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mr. America, the central consciousness and theoretician of
transcendentalism; Nature, the manifest of transcendentalism (1836); The
American Scholar (1837); Essays First Series (1841); Essays Second Series
(1844); Representative Men (1850);
Post-Reconstruction Era
Knights of Labor (f. 1878, peak year: 1886, on the wane by 1887, its end around
1895) transformation of national labor organization:
-Structure: welcome all workers, not just skilled artisans with craft-oriented
activities
Sherman Antitrust Act (1890) consumer oriented; declaring illegal any trusts
violating free market competition laws
Peoples Party Platform (1896): nationalization of railroad and communication
corporations; gradual income tax; 8-hour workday; direct election of the
president, vice-president, and senators;
The Progressive Era
Sarah and Angelina Grimkes Letters on the Equality of Sexes and the
Condition of Women (1838); focus on education, complicity of church and
slavery;
The Declaration paralleled the Decl. of Independence and placed women in
colonists shoes
Margaret Fullers Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1844) considered
proto-feminist; less radical
After the Civil War, womens movement focused on the right to vote
Religious
A: Eve created from Adams rib, hence mens superiority + husband as ruler over
wife in Bible
Biological (physical/mental)
Sociological
S: taxation-without-representation,
The Gibson Girl (early 20th c.) succeeded by the flapper of the roaring
twenties, a fashionable, but exclusive model of womanhood
Rosie the Riveter: women play greater role in U.S. society and economy
during WWII;
Second wave of feminism: Betty Friedans The Feminine Mystique (1963)
Audience: middle-class housewives; womens need to be provided national
educational programs for veterans to be able and balance household
responsibilities and professional career
Third wave feminism (1980s): reflective, academic following the creation of
womens studies departments
Booker T.