This is a Discussion. Please provide examples, and please do not use outside sources. Please only use the sources that I am providing and respond to all questions. Thank you. Topic: Women’s Rights and the Revolution Purpose We will explore how the American Revolution and the revolutionary ideals of individual rights affected the status and rights of women. For context, you will read a few paragraphs that provide you with the necessary background to understand the primary sources. Then, you will read excerpts from a selection of primary sources (sources written during and soon after the American Revolution). You will be asked to address a set of questions using examples and direct quotations from the primary sources. Text and primary sources for this discussion are adapted from Women’s Rights in the United States: A History in Documents. Work Cited: Boylan, Anne M. Women’s Rights in the United States: A History in Documents. Oxford University Press, 2016. Historical Context First, read the paragraphs below. They will introduce you to the topic and provide you with historical context to understand the primary sources. Revolutionary Ideals and Realities Historical Context: In the Declaration of Independence (1776), when Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal” and that it was “self-evident” that they possessed “certain unalienable rights,” he made claims that were radically new for the time. In a republic, people would be equal citizens, not a monarch’s subjects. France’s “Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen” (1789) stated flatly that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights” while Haiti’s 1805 Constitution “irrefutably established…equality before the law” for all citizens. Historians argue about whether women- or even “all men”- were included in Jefferson’s statements, but the basic principles that he and his counterparts articulated represented a significant new departure in thinking about human rights and human equality. If monarchy as a system of government was to be rejected because it created inequality and hierarchy by setting one individual, by virtue of birth alone, above all others, then what justification was there for other systems of hierarchy, including the hierarchy of slave and master and the hierarchy of gender? Girls and women were among those who took to heart the American Revolution’s principles of independence, freedom, liberty, equality, and rights by raising questions about how universal the principles were. As they did so, they invoked new concepts, especially “woman’s rights” and “the equality of the sexes.” At age twenty, Phillis Wheatley, African-born and about to be released from slavery, engaged Revolutionary ideas to proclaim her love of freedom, while a still-enslaved woman in her forties, Elizabeth Freeman, used them to argue for her right – and that of all slaves in Massachusetts – to be free people. Abigail Adams had the rights of married women in particular on her mind when she asked her husband John to “remember the ladies” in the “new code of laws” that would be written after American “independancy” was declared; “remember all Men would be tyrants if they could,” she wrote. And in 1779, the writer Judith Sargent Murray argued explicitly for “the equality of the sexes” in an essay that she eventually published in 1790. But the meaning of concepts such as equality in the new republic was open to debate. It remained unclear what rights women would have and what “equality of the sexes” entailed. Free women might be citizens of the new republic, but it was not at all obvious what sort of citizenship they would enjoy, and which women would gain access to new rights or new versions of equality. (Boylan 41-42) Recommended (but not required) instructional videos on women and the revolutionLinks to an external site. (20 minutes). Watch these 4 videos to a total of 20 minutes for more context on women’s rights and the revolution. Description of the videos: “The Revolution transformed the role of women in American society. Law and custom in colonial America reflected the idea that women were morally inferior to men. Mothers bore and nursed their infants, but the task of teaching children right from wrong fell, at least in principle, on their fathers. Professor Berkin reveals how the Revolution encouraged the view that women are morally capable and transferred to mothers the role of teaching their children to be responsible citizens of the American republic.” Required Readings: Read all the primary sources below. Read all three lettersLinks to an external site.. (Note: they are all located in one Google Doc.) Abigail Adams to John Adams, Braintree, March 31, 1776 (primary source) John Adams to Abigail Adams, April 14, 1776 (primary source) John Adams to James Sullivan, Philadelphia, May 26, 1776 (primary source) A Poem by Phillis WheatleyLinks to an external site. (a primary source) and a short biography, included right after the source in the Google Doc. Excerpt from Judith Sargent Murray’s EssayLinks to an external site., 1790 (a primary source) and a short biography, included right after the source in the Google Doc. Instructions You should provide at least one well-developed paragraph for each question. Use at least two examples to support your statements per question. At least one of the examples in each answer should be a direct quotation from the assigned sources. Your answer should contain the questions and the response under each question. The entire response should be at least 250 words, and there will be no penalty for going above 250 words. Read the responses of at least ten classmates and comment on two of them. For your in-text citations, use MLA style. General Requirements for Discussion Posts Read the general requirements for discussion posts. Scoring Rubric The following scoring rubric will be used to grade discussions. Questions to Address: What arguments did Abigail make in her letter in regard to women’s rights? How did John Adams respond to Abigail’s request? What argument did he make in his letter to James Sullivan? How did the revolution affect enslaved women based on Phillis Wheatley’s poem? Discuss the ideas in it and the provided short biography. To what factors did Judith Sargent Murray attribute women’s unequal status? In what respects did she consider men and women equal? Based on the provided sources, what generalization can you make about the effect of the American Revolution on women’s status and rights? Important Note: All the examples in your answers should come from the provided primary and secondary sources. No external sources and/or AI-generated content is permitted. If you use AI, you need to provide a reference. Any AI-generated content will not be counted toward your grade. How to Make Discussion Posts in Canvas? You will have to post first before you can see your classmates’ posts. Click on “reply.” Type the title of the topic: “Women’s Rights and the Revolution” You can use “bold” or “underline” to distinguish your title from the rest of the text. Then, type or “copy” and “paste” each discussion question of your choice and your answer under it, and then click “post reply.” You are strongly advised to write your answers first in Word or any other text editing program and then “copy” and “paste” the final message in Canvas. Example of a discussion post: Discussion Topic: “Slavery and the Constitution” 1. What arguments did Abigail make in her letter in regard to women’s rights? How did her husband respond to her request? What argument did he make in his letter to James Sullivan? Answer: your answer goes here…. 2. How did the revolution affect enslaved women based on Phillis Wheatley’s poem? Discuss the ideas in it and the provided short biography.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|