“Roughly 1 million slaves were imported to the colonies before the American Revolution.” By the time of the American Revolution, slaves made up 40% of the population of Southern jurisdictions. When considering African slaves and Native Americans, many colonists were afflicted by racism. Benjamin Franklin feared that African people would “darken” the people of America, who could, by excluding Africans and Native Americans, increase “the lovely White.” And Jefferson advocated the removal of Africans from America so that the New World would be a “sanctuary” for European immigrants and their progeny. Moreover, Congress in 1790 enacted legislation that restricted citizenship to whites—legislation that was used to deny citizenship to Asian immigrants in the 19th century and later.
Discuss how slavery in colonial America and the racism expressed by colonial leaders permeates American life and racism today.
The “cult of domesticity,” which consigned women to household and familial functions while reserving the professions and business to males, grew stronger in the 19th century. “Whereas children in the colonial period had often been regarded as little adults who were to begin full-time work at the age of 11, they were increasingly viewed as requiring extended moral education and socialization within the family. Although this child-rearing could have been shared equally by both parents, Americans in the early 19th century developed the notion that women were uniquely equipped to perform this function. Sometimes perceived as immoral temptresses in the colonial period, women came to be portrayed as morally superior to men—and consequently as best suited to inculcate moral character into the nation’s youth.”
How did this perceived “superior moral compass” limit women? How does it continue to limit women? How did this sentiment limit the suffrage movement? What historical events in the 20th and 21st centuries echo these sentiments? On a whole, do people in the 21st century still believe in the “cult of domesticity”? And does it depend on a woman’s role?
