Catharine Beecher

 Passage 1 is adapted from Catharine Beecher, Essay on

Slavery and Abolitionism. Originally published in 1837.

Passage 2 is adapted from Angelina E. Grimké, Letters to

Catharine Beecher. Originally published in 1838. Grimké

encouraged Southern women to oppose slavery publicly.

Passage 1 is Beecher’s response to Grimké’s views.

Passage 2 is Grimké’s response to Beecher.

Passage 1

Heaven has appointed to one sex the superior,

and to the other the subordinate station, and this

without any reference to the character or conduct of

either. It is therefore as much for the dignity as it is

for the interest of females, in all respects to conform

to the duties of this relation. . . . But while woman

holds a subordinate relation in society to the other

sex, it is not because it was designed that her duties

or her influence should be any the less important, or

all-pervading. But it was designed that the mode of

gaining influence and of exercising power should be

altogether different and peculiar....

A man may act on society by the collision of

intellect, in public debate; he may urge his measures

by a sense of shame, by fear and by personal interest;

he may coerce by the combination of public

sentiment; he may drive by physical force, and he

does not outstep the boundaries of his sphere. But all

the power, and all the conquests that are lawful to

woman, are those only which appeal to the kindly,

generous, peaceful and benevolent principles.

Woman is to win every thing by peace and love;

by making herself so much respected, esteemed and

loved, that to yield to her opinions and to gratify her

wishes, will be the free-will offering of the heart. But

this is to be all accomplished in the domestic and

social circle. There let every woman become so

cultivated and refined in intellect, that her taste and

judgment will be respected; so benevolent in feeling

and action; that her motives will be reverenced;—so

unassuming and unambitious, that collision and

competition will be banished;—so “gentle and easy to

be entreated,” as that every heart will repose in her

presence; then, the fathers, the husbands, and the

sons, will find an influence thrown around them,

to which they will yield not only willingly but

proudly....

A woman may seek the aid of co-operation and

combination among her own sex, to assist her in her

appropriate offices of piety, charity, maternal and

domestic duty; but whatever, in any measure, throws

a woman into the attitude of a combatant, either for

herself or others—whatever binds her in a party

conflict—whatever obliges her in any way to exert

coercive influences, throws her out of her

appropriate sphere. If these general principles are

correct, they are entirely opposed to the plan of

arraying females in any Abolition movement.

Passage 2

The investigation of the rights of the slave has led

me to a better understanding of my own. I have

found the Anti-Slavery cause to be the high school of

morals in our land—the school in which human

rights are more fully investigated, and better

understood and taught, than in any other. Here a

great fundamental principle is uplifted and

illuminated, and from this central light, rays

innumerable stream all around.

Human beings have rights, because they are moral

beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral

nature; and as all men have the same moral nature,

they have essentially the same rights. These rights

may be wrested from the slave, but they cannot be

alienated: his title to himself is as perfect now, as is

that of Lyman Beecher:1 it is stamped on his moral

being, and is, like it, imperishable. Now if rights are

founded in the nature of our moral being, then the

mere circumstance of sex does not give to man higher

rights and responsibilities, than to woman. To

suppose that it does, would be to deny the

self-evident truth, that the “physical constitution is

the mere instrument of the moral nature.” To

suppose that it does, would be to break up utterly the

relations, of the two natures, and to reverse their

functions, exalting the animal nature into a monarch,

and humbling the moral into a slave; making the

former a proprietor, and the latter its property.

When human beings are regarded as moral

beings, sex, instead of being enthroned upon the

summit, administering upon rights and

responsibilities, sinks into insignificance and

nothingness. My doctrine then is, that whatever it is

morally right for man to do, it is morally right for

woman to do. Our duties originate, not from

difference of sex, but from the diversity of our

relations in life, the various gifts and talents

committed to our care, and the different eras in

which we live.

1 Lyman Beecher was a famous minister and the father of

Catharine Beecher.