Video
Women of Suffrage: Frances E.W. Harper
Transcript
♪ Women have reared all the sons of the brave. ♪ ♪ Women have shared in the burdens they gave. ♪ ♪ Women have labored this country to save, ♪ ♪ and that's why we are wanting to vote. ♪ Pardon me if I may be so bold to speak a word. Most of my life has been spent battling against wrongs as a colored woman. But I've used my pen to write about the injustices suffered by my people. And I make the proud claim that I am the first black woman to publish a short story. My name is Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Some years ago I stood within the shadows of my home. A great sorrow had fallen upon my life. My husband had died suddenly, leaving me a widow with four children, one my own and the others my stepchildren. I tried to keep my children together, but you see, my husband died in debt and before he'd been in his grave for three months they had swept the very milk crocks and wash tubs from my very hands. You see, I was a farmer's wife and I was making butter for market. But what could I do? When they had swept all the way. They did leave me one thing though. and that, was a looking glass. Now, had I died instead of my husband, how different would have been the result? No one would have gone into his house, broken up his home and taken away his means of support. Justice is not fulfilled so long as woman is unequal before the law. No nation can gain its full measure of enlightenment and happiness, if 1/2 of it is free and the other half of it is fettered. We are all bound up in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without feeling the curse of its own soul. Proclaim liberty and justice. Equality for women? Why that means, equality for all! ♪ Women have reared all the sons of the brave. ♪ ♪ Women have shared in the burdens they gave. ♪ ♪ Women have labored this country to save. ♪ ♪ and that's why we are wanting to vote. ♪ ♪ Oh dear, what can the matter be? ♪ ♪ Dear dear, what can the matter be? ♪ ♪ Oh dear, what can the matter be? ♪ ♪ Why should men get every vote? ♪
Description
Learn about the women's suffrage movement through the eyes of Frances E.W. Harper, who fought for racial and gender equality.
Duration
3 minutes, 20 seconds
Date Created
04/01/2021
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