How Did African American Women Start In The 1800s

As the industrial growth started in the 1800s many factory owners began to hire women. Majority of the women who worked in the factories were poor, young, unmarried or widows, women of the middle-class were privileged to stay at home to provide their domestic duties. Women were paid lower then men due to women were subordinate to them., it did not matter what kind of quality the women produced. Any income women received legally belonged to their husbands and with that status employers were able to keep women’s wages low. Eventually women created labor associations because they wanted to sort issues out such as the terrible working conditions, low pay, and longer hours. The Female Labor Reform met once a week to discuss conditions that needed to be improved. Even though they were doubted by many that they would not make any difference and would not be listened to, they never gave up.
African American women who were free dealt with gender and racial obstacles which restricted their opportunity for employment and education.
Prudence Crandall tried to open a school for young girls that were African American and white but the public did not welcome this idea. Prudence was put on trial for breaking the local laws in particular the one limiting education for African American students. Unfortunately she had to stop her plans for opening the school due to repeated badgering of her students and people trying to burn the school down. Also for African American families it was hard for husbands to support their families due to racism. They were not paid as much as white men and there were immigrants that worked for a much lower wage which made it easier to not pay them as much. Due to this African Americans would not be able to obtain a middle-class
status.

Although more and more women began to work in factories the opportunity for a better education improved for white women. Catharine Beecher wanted women to become school teachers. She did not believe that factories were the correct environment for women and thought that schools and home is where women belonged. She showed statistics that over one million adults could not read and write, also that there were over two million children who were illiterate. There was a demand for more teachers because some states had more schools than others and they were not even in the education system due to lack of teachers. Catharine believed that only men should be in factories and that women should be teaching in the schools. It was very important to her that the children were educated so they could build a better future for further generations. In the pre-Civil War era the expansion for women’s educational opportunity advanced. Women were obtaining college degrees, Wesleyan College in Georgia was the first in the nation to do so. Prior to the Civil War colleges were made up of white males, in 1833 Oberlin College in Ohio was the first co-ed school that granted limited degrees to white women as well as African American women.

Given the circumstances that women were in during the late 18th and early 19th century I think that they did progress and advance quickly. In the beginning things did start off slow but that had to do with women encouraging other women to stand up for their rights and that they had to stick together to be heard. The women that we did read about were very passionate about each of their topics that they focused on. Whether it had to do with working conditions, education opportunities, or the respect women deserved as a married women. There was a lot of support on each topic even though certain women did not agree necessarily with another woman’s opinion. As I continue to read more and more about these women it opens my eyes up to a lot of the sacrifices that these women did to get the advancements we have today.