I’m persuaded that when the minds of women and men grow to be emancipated from the thralldom of superstition and ‘traditions of males,’ the sentiments contained in the Pastoral Letter will likely be recurred to with as much astonishment as the opinions of Cotton Mather and different distinguished males of his day, upon the subject of witchcraft; nor will or not it’s deemed less great, that a physique of divines would gravely assemble and endeavor to prove that lady has no proper to ‘open her mouth for the dumb,’ than it now is that judges would have sat on the trials of witches, and solemnly condemned nineteen individuals and one canine to loss of life for witchcraft. When the mild, dependent, softening influence of lady upon the sternness of man’s opinions is fully exercised, society feels the effects of it in a thousand methods.’ Nobody can want extra earnestly than I do, that lady might transfer precisely within the sphere which her Creator has assigned to her; and i consider her having been displaced from that sphere has launched confusion into the world.
If he has not given us the rights which have, as I conceive, been wrested from us, we shall soon give evidence of our inferiority, and shrink back into that obscurity, which the high souled magnanimity of man has assigned us as our acceptable sphere. It says, ‘We invite your consideration to the dangers which at present appear to threaten the Female CHARACTER with large-spread and everlasting harm.’ I rejoice that they’ve known as the eye of my sex to this subject, because I imagine if woman investigates it, she will soon discover that hazard is impending, thought from a totally totally different supply from which the Association apprehends, danger from those who, having long held the reins of usurped authority, are unwilling to permit us to fill that sphere which God created us to move in, and who have entered into league to crush the immortal thoughts of woman. All I ask of our brethren, is that they are going to take their charge from off our necks, and permit us to face upright on that floor which God designed us to occupy. Rattles will in all probability be your child’s first gifts. In order that her quenched gentle, according to their judgment, will be of extra use than if it were set on the candlestick.
Abraham and Sarah each assisted in making ready the meals which was to be set before the three males, who visited them in the plains of Mamre; but though their occupations were related, Sarah was not permitted to enjoy the society of the holy visitant; and as we learn from Peter, that she ‘obeyed Abraham, calling his Lord,’ we might presume he exercised dominion over her. A city that is about on a hill can’t be hid. The spirit of that age was not favorable to mental enchancment; but as there have been sensible males who formed exceptions to the overall ignorance, and had been destined to information the world into more advanced states, so there was a corresponding proportion of smart ladies; and among the Jews, in addition to other nations, we find a robust tendency to consider that girls were in additional quick reference to heaven than males.’ L. M. Child’s Con.
The cupidity of man soon led him to regard girl as property, and therefore we discover them offered to these, who wished to marry them, as far as appears, without any regard to those sacred rights which belong to girl, in addition to to man in the choice of a companion. I thank him for rating us with the oppressed; for I shall not discover it troublesome to point out, that in all ages and countries, not even excepting enlightened republican America, woman has kind of been made a way to advertise the welfare of man, without due regard to her personal happiness, and the glory of God as the top of her creation. In her history, we find one other striking illustration of the low estimation by which lady was held. The lust of dominion was in all probability the primary effect of the fall; and as there was no different clever being over whom to exercise it, lady was the primary sufferer of this unhallowed ardour. The success of that first memoir spurred Angelou to put in writing six more autobiographies, as well as to a few books of essays, a number of books of poetry, performs, screenplays and even two cookbooks.