-~ ---

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~

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s T I

VRON WARE is a

journalist and feminist

design consultant.

Series Editors: Michele Barrett, Annette Kuhn, Anne Phillips,

Ann Rosalind Jones (USA)

ISBN 0 86091 552 2

\' VERSO

UK: 6 Meard Street London W 1V 3HR

USA: 29 West 35th Street New York NY 10001 -2291

0 N ~ 5 VJ F E M I N I s

BEYOND THE PALE White Women, Racism and History

VRONWARE

In this pioneering study , Vron Ware looks at the role

of ideas about white women in the history of racism.

Her tvvo principal themes are the ne·ed to perceive

white femininity as a historically constructed cat­

egory, and the importance of understanding how

feminism has developed as a political movement

within racist societies. Her' goal is to explore political

connections between black and vvhite women by

dissec:ting the different meanings of femininity and

womanhood.

Written in a variety of voices and styles, Beyond

the Pa'/e discusses contemporary racism and femin­

ism, developments through the nineteenth century

such as the anti-slavery movement, and the British

campaign against lynching in the United States . The

result is a major contribution to a growing body of

anti-racist work which confronts the historical mean­

ings of whiteness and tries to overcome the moral­

ism that so often infuses anti-racism.

Beyond the Pale argues powerfully for a political

and theoretical shift in the terms and tone of

current debates:~bout race and gender. Eloquent

and innovative, its writing cuts across existing

genres to;focus those past and present moments so I

painful <J.hd complicated for contemporary feminism.

;CORA KAPLAN, Rutgers University

Vron Ware's book is a fascinating and engaging

blend of biographical, autobiographical, and

historical narratives, a combination which results in

an incisive critique of, and provocative challenge to,

our thinking about feminism and women's

movements.

HAZEL CARBY, Yale University

Cover designed by Paul Elliman Illustration: Marriage of Maharajah's daughter, India

©Harald Lechenperg 1932

M

___.,-·

QUESTIONS FOR FEMINISM

Edited by Michele Barrett, Annette Kuhn, Anne Phillips and Ann Rosalind Jones,

this socialist feminist series aims to address, in a lively way and on an international

basis, the wide range of political and theoretical questions facing contemporary

feminism.

THE POLITICS OF DIVERSITY Feminism, Marxism and Nationalism

edited by Michele Barrett & Roberta Hamilton

UNEQUAL WORK by Veronica Beechey

THE WEARY SONS OF FREUD by Catherine Clement

FFMALE SEXUALIZATION A Collective Work of Memory

f,v h·i.~.~ct Haug et al.

SI;A U IANGES Culture and Feminism by Cora Kaplan

W< )M FN AND THE NEW GERMAN CINEMA by julia Knight

CONSUMING FICTION by Terry Lovell

THE PIRATE'S FIANCEE Feminism, Reading, Postmodernism

by Meaghan Morris

ABORTION AND WOMAN'S CHOICE The State, Sexuality and

Reproductive Freedom by Rosalind Pollack Petchesky

FEMALE SPECTATORS Looking at Film and Television

edited by E. Deidre Pribram

SECRETARIES TALK Sexuality, Power and Work by Rosemary Pringle

READING THE ROMANCE Women, Patriarchy and Popular Literature

by janice A. Radway

GRAFTS Feminist Cultural Criticism edited by Susan Sheridan

BEYOND THE PALE White Women, Racism and History by Vrrm Wr~rt

PI.AYING TilE STATE Ausrrali;rn Fcminisr lnrawnrion,;

,.,;;,, . .~ /•)' .\·,;,;,,,. \\'~''"'"

Beyond the Pale White Women, Racism and History

.A. ....

VRON WARE

v \I It', tl

I .,,,.j,,,, II. o•otl

First published by Verso 1992 © Vron Ware 1992 All rights reserved

Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, London WI V 3HR

USA: 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001-2291

Verso is the imprint of New Left Books

British Library <;;:ataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is availabiP

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available

ISBN 0 86091 336 8 ISBN 0 860') I ))2 2 l'hk

Typc-.;ct in ( ;,,LIIIIOIId hy Yod~ llt~ll'.c 1\'I'CI)'.LIJdllt I I• I. I ondon

I )c'.ll'.ll t tlll',ldLuH \ l'11d I !loll Ill

l'tlldt ,J .I flo I J>HI!IIol ill 4 d< 11 lt1 d HI! 1.\

n •. ldJ, I !·I ( -H!J.IIonol HHII llq I '"'

For Paul (your turn now)

and

Katie Impey, who deserved more and better

~

Contents

Acknowledgements lX

,,A ,, Introduction Xl

l'dll One The White Woman's Burden? 1 Race and Gender in Historical Memory

l'.111 lwo An Abhorrence of Slavery 47 Subjection and Subjectivity in Abolitionist Politics

I '.111 I hree Britannia's Other Daughters 117 Feminism in the Age of Imperialism

I ·. 11 1 I <>II r 'To Make the Facts Known' 167 Racial Terror and the Construction of White Femininity

I' Ill IIIII, Taking the Veil 225 Towards a Partnership I(Jr Change

lnd<"x 257

Sources

Illustrations are courtesy of the following:

Dak bungalow: author's collection, courtesy of Harald Lechenperg.

'Europe Supported by Africa arid America': from john Gabriel Stedman's

Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam,

newly transcribed from the original 1790 manuscript, edited, and with an

Introduction and Notes, by Richard and Sally Price, Johns Hopkins

University Press, Baltimore and london 1988 (by permission of Richard

and Sally Price). Annette Ackroyd: by permission of The British Library.

Josephine Butler: Mary Evans Picture library. Women of the Ku Klux

Klan: Charles Moore/Black Star/Colorific. Ida B. Wells: Department of

Special Collections, the University of Chicago library. Catherine Impey:

author's collection. Jerry Hall: Ford Models Inc., and Jerry Hall.

Acknowledgements

This book seems to have been growing with me for most of my adult life. It

would be impossible even to remember everyone who has contributed or

helped along the way. I am happy to have this chance to thank my parents,

'l'olll and Elizabeth Ware, for their trust and tolerance.

My gratitude goes especially to Cora Kaplan, Kate Pullinger, Olivia

::11111 h for their enthusiasm and encouragement all the way through, and

1<>1 H·ading chapters and making suggestions; to Tricia Bohn, Miranda

I l.,v~<·s, Hermione Harris for talking and listening; to Rosa Ainley, Mark

'\ ''' j, ·y, Karen Alexander, Valerie Amos, Pete Ayrton, David A. Bailey, Jos

I',.'\''>, Sue Cavanagh, Max Farrar, Beryl Gilroy, Paul Hallam, Shaheen

1 I ·''I' H', Franc;ois Lack, Benita ludmer, Angela McRobbie, Derrick Saldaan

f\J, I l1nlock, Sarah Martin, Bridget Orr, Pratibha Parmar, Ann Phoenix,

I J,, I l{ohin, Fleming Rogilds, Cynthia Rose, Joe Sim, Lynne Tillman,

• ·" <>lllw Ware, Val Wilmer, Patrick Wright for all kinds of support and

, "' "IILI,I',<'llll'llt (and sometimes babysitting); to Isaac Julien for buying me

I"" .1 ., .Ill.! helping me out with some tricky bits; to friends who have died:

J.,, ,, ' l.ti<lmer, who helped me find direction in 1977; Peggy Snow,

· 1 ....... ''·''llilcm:ss and wit is so badly missed; Sarah Baylis, who once rightly

. , ,J, f, • I Ill<' lor describing the book as 'just a .. .'

I ""111,1 lik,· 1o 1hank Barbara Taylor, Catherine Hall and laurence

I " I""' I <>I pass i 11,!~ 011 valuable references and information; the Clark

1 ","I 1 .II, I" v< ·~. i 11 S1 rei' I for 1 heir kind co-operation; Amana Gibson, Chris

.,J.,,II _,,,f l{111h Slllilil f(lr exira special childcare; Annette Kuhn and

·. "'" I 'I 11 11'1 ... lor 1lw1 r <'IJiltllsi;Jsln f(lr rhe book in the first place and their

1 ,, ,, "', '" "'·"'"'·''· lo1 11 111 '"'i'l"·n; a!ld S1cphcn Morland for a new r ••• ••• l·.l1qf

I, ,.,,. '" 11,. II:,;\''··'"' Ill<'''"' 1111,,. '" l1111\l' 1lw i>11ok: I will always be

, "' 1111 1" IJ.~,, I I·"''\' 111>1 1"',1 1.,1 ·,, 11111111>111!' liw l11ul ,fr;dl, h111 lor

1 .. II''"''" .• 1 "I' I• "'1''"·"\ I'''"'' 1l" '' "'111 J!,. J,. IJ'"J 1\11< l~.wllkllllill,P, ' I I ' I I I I ' I I ~ I I I 4 I I I I \ I ) I I I I ~ I I I I ''""1.1 .! ... 1,1' 1" 11 .. ,,1 1"•1111, ;\1·,·,•·11

II! llff,.,,j_ljt.l ,,,,, ( ldl"''l' .,<I' I dl\ f," lit• II llj•J>1!ll Ill IH 111 1' J•.IIIIJI'.,

••~ 1 L, 1,, 11·• rl, '' ,,.,, 111 'II\ '''''''''I,,,. I .1, · 11 '"'' 111 '' , , Hllllltl• Ill• I Iii\

[~ }

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I' ,, I I I • I ~ I I I I 1 I I I I ' ', I I

! t Jill i lllll( II .II I( ·, I ),111.1 .')I 111.111 ,Ill~ I ( 'It )j 1.1 \\ ·,, r I Ill . 1 ••. I !• ll I r' ' , I I 1.11 1 '.1 II I\

\\',11.J1oJw < II',IIIV..iy .1:, well .c. Ill)' lliliHI

Maru1:; and (:ora each gave llll' a new purpos•· .Ill• I·''".,, 1f1\ ''""Ill Willi·.

in. Some of my best ideas happened in their comp<lll)', l''"lul>iy hnat~:.,·

they always gave me good reason to stop working, or mayllc llecausc thur

energy and creativity occasionally rub off.

Thanks is not enough for my two collaborators and friends who really

made this book begin and end, who gave me guidance and inspiration all

the way through, and whose ideas were incorporated at every stage:

Mandy Rose, whose own thinking and political integrity have contri­

buted massively to this project, who co-wrote the original outline for the

book after we had jointly unearthed much of the material in Part four, and

who then, amongst many other things, suggested and researched Annette

Ackroyd as a case study.

Paul Gilroy, whose immense knowledge, integrity and insight has

enriched my own writing and thinking beyond measure; and who, by

sharing everything else from broken nights to the word processor, turned

this book into a joint endeavour without ever writing a word of it.

lull o·dnt. hun

• "'""''~""·· '·'" ""'Y lw ILucd :.o !.11 lwlw•· iiH"y begin to be politically .I.,,., 1<>11'. 1'<11 •·x:11npk, lew while ll·minists have explored how our

, "" J, 1·.1 ·" ,, 1"'!'.:. of ,1'.'''" In rei at ions, self, and theory are partially constituted

", ·'"'' ''"""!'.h 1lw •·xpericnces of living in a culture in which asymmetric

, ,, , 1· 1.11 "11c. '"" " central organizing principle of society.

Jane Flax1

• '"' 1111',111. 1waring the end ofwntmg this book, I happened to catch the

1 , .J • "'I ol :1 ( :onscrvative Party political broadcast on television. Thinking

, 1," I w.1·. walching an unscheduled horror movie I was at first puzzled by

11 .... ,rl•l ol" lone baby lying in its cot in the dark while a violent storm

1 '", ·'''''~"'I 1o pull the house from its foundations. Suddenly the film cut to

• ''"""'" in hn nightclothes kissing a very pink and cheerful baby.

1 .~.~.111.dly I realized the connection between the two images. The mother

··.I.'" lwr lll?,htclothes because she had just woken up from a nightmare in

.... I"' l1 lw1 hthy was being threatened by the destruction of the environ­

""'" 1\i',:IIIISI a background of dreamy New Age music and repeated shots

.. 1 II" I ,. ... o11 ··d mother and her child, a man's voice assured listeners that

1l" ( "ll',,.lvalivc Party had placed the task of saving the environment on

1. 'I, • >I 11·. ·'·''.<'IHia. ln a crescendo of images and music (the father appeared at

' I" . 1 '"1111 , lull y dressed, to allay fears that the mother might be a single

l'·"'"ll 1lw commercial ended with the reassuring message that the

• , ,I,.,, • v.lllvt· Party was going to stop the threat of destruction which hung

1 1' , 1 'u·.' , d I.

\\'l1.11 llli<T('stcd me first about this propaganda was the way that the

"'·'"'"'-.1"1' lll'rwccn the woman and her baby was being used to signify

~-1·.•· .. d><1111 horh 'nature' and nation. On one level it might seem very

.. J,, 1.,,., 1o rl·ad the narrative as an attempt to make the ideology of the

1" I• J, .11 !.11" ily imlispensahk 1 o 1lw s11rvival of the 'natural' world. A great

.f, . .J "' ,.,,v1rollllll'III:dis111 ,., .!<-.1" .111·.! 1o saving the world for 'our

. I,J.J,. ,· .. 11111 ilwr<' 1s 11111 111 • • ·.· .. 11 d1 .1111'11"".1' . .J,dHolls about this. Yet on

'""'I", kv• I. 1lw 11.1'.""' "''I'' • ,,,,1.,11 ,J,f\ ,,.,II """'"1lwr wllh her blue-

~

'·ycd baby, exhibiting all the right maternal instincts, was a mor<· 'OlllJ .I' '

figure who was likely to have a different effect on different groups ol

people, and it seemed important to work out how the imagery mighr lw

interpreted.

In just a few minutes the film was able to connect her womanness with

vulnerability, sensitivity, passion, security, danger, dependence, mother­

hood. These qualities and attributes were suggested primarily by her

gender, but her 'race', her 'whiteness', was also working in less visible ways

to reinforce the racist and masculinist ideology that informed the making

of the commercial. How differently would the message have read if either

of the parents or the baby had not been white? It would have immediately

transformed the size and constituency of the world that was being

threatened by destruction. As it was, the nuclear family could be read as

the cornerstone of the nation, defined in a racially exclusive way. The baby

represented the future- it was 'white'. The father stood for authority- he

too was 'white'. The mother both symbolized 'nature' and stood as the link

between the 'natural' world and man's attempts to live in harmony with it.

By being 'white' her image was able to convey complex messages about race

and gender which defied a simple explanation.

This book is predicated on a recognition that to be white and female is to

occupy a social category that is inescapably racialized as well as gendered. It

is not about being a white woman, it is about being thought of as a white

woman. In other words I have concentrated on the development of ideas

and ideologies of whiteness rather than analysing what it actually means to

grow up white in a white supremacist society. I understand 'race' to be a

socially constructed category with absolutely no basis in biology; the term

'racism' encompasses all the various relations of power that have arisen from

the domination of one racial group over another. This accounts for the way

I have referred to black and white people throughout without specifying

the obvious diversity of either category. In the ideological framework that I

discuss, what matters is that a person is either white or non-white, even

though the implications of their particular kind of blackness, or non­

whiteness, is fundamentally affected by their ethnic or cultural origin. At

the same time I recognize that this diversity exists and creates its own

politics, but that is not my concern here.

In my search to unravel the different meanings of white womanhood I

was forced to become a historian, searching for significant moments in the

past which would explain how this category was produced. My two central

Xll

L. I I I!• II•' I I'

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I.' I.., 1"1" .I

1.1. , .. 1, .1 .. 'I''' I It •I 1·, fl1.11

I.' l111 • j, 11111111111\ I l11 ,(1•11• .dl\

'II• I I 1,, Ill I"' II• \ I ,j llllllt I',( .I~ II II II}'. II( \\A'

I l'"''''' _d II HI' j IIIII II Ill .I I.H L'.( .\()( l<'ly.

1•.11· .• '" ,J,,.,, 111'.1<>11<.11 <ILIJ•Icrsarcdcrived

...... ,, ·"'" .. '""'I l'"l111• .d ld•· 1lwy .11c q1ws1mns rhat persist into

1, ., '" .1.11"' I .11·.• "'·'> how p.llll< ular English women dealt

. 1. . .I,", .I .I til. , , "', wlw11 1lwy <'IH <HIIIll'ITd wo1ncn in India a hundred

1 ... ,, ,,. ''"I ell'. IIIII' •. llll<>llg km111ists that continue to survive in

. "", 1 1, , , """ \' I I 101 v< · used the word 'feminism' throughout to

.. ·I·· I"''"'' d 1••1111.111<>11111<~1 grcwoutoftheearlynineteenth-century

.. , ... I 1 .. , '" '"""· •• 11_1',hls, ami which continued to oppose and redefine

••> 1 1! 1 111 ,,. ,,., .. 1 wl1.11 <onstituted 'womanhood'.

1.1, .. ,, 1, 11.<11~<•1 wlillln a British context, I think that both these

.11 I" 1<'kv;l111 in any country where structures of white supre­

' ·"' .<11•l lll<d(' dominance continue to affect people's lives. The

, ", "1 d \' w r 111m in England but finished in the US which not only

11 . I , , ,. 1,, 1<-..J , loser to some of the historical material but also gave me

, .. ,, .1"'' 1 ·,,.11sc of the likely political currency of my argument in

1.11. ,, '" 1 ,1,,, ,., I Mrivcd in New York just in time to read about the highly

1 .. 1 1 ,, ' .. I "~od Ill 1 hrcc black teenagers accused of raping and beating an

.,11 ... "' I'""'·''· whire woman who had been jogging in Central Park. The

""'' ,, .. II .111•l subsequent police action had quickly become symbols of

, 1. . .,,, ... ,., 111.dHiity of New York, a city widely seen to be disrupted by

, .. 1. '"' .11" I r.11 ial tension. Before and during the trial different voices

""I '"I, .1 ~.~, 1s111 to different sources: to the accused young men for

1, .... "" • ..• w l1 i 1 c victim; to the police who had arrested them and others

.... I .. 1 o1.11 1wd , onfcssions; to the media; to the people who defended the

. ""·'" .. 11rhr to jog alone in Central Park. Comparisons were made

I .. '.,,' 11 1111s, asc and the police and public response to recent racist assaults

.. ,. I-I.•• 1. p<'oplc: particular analogies were drawn with the case of Tawana

1 1, , "1.. y . , 1 young black girl who claimed to have been the victim of a gross

, ,, "I .11ul sexual assault. Here the femininity of both victims was used to

I· .. "·· ll11 rlw racism entailed in the different ways that their cases were dealt

· "I' I 'Y 1 he authorities, but there was apparently no attempt to connect

''"'· 1.11 islll with the fact that both women claimed to have been victims of

,,,J,· violence. The whole case of the Central Park rape showed up once

'.''.fill 1 he difficulties of composing an anti-racist feminist response to the

·I"'' liT of the rape of a white woman by black men and then making that

Xlll

V<>H ,. lw;ud above the cacophony of sexist and racist babble rlw1 """·'· "''"" the crime became public.

I wrote this book in an attempt· to understand the links between rac1srr1

and male dominance so that bei-ng against one form of oppression involv('s

the possibility ofbeing agai-nst the other, with nothing taken for granted. I

quickly found that while there is one set of problems involved in knowing

what to say about this interconnection, there is another in knowing just

how to talk about it. Throughout the book I have repeatedly had to address

the difficulties involved in finding a language that would express the links

between race and gender without prioritizing, without oversimplifying.

Partly in response to this, and also as a way of connecting all the different

strands of history, I move between a tmmber of voices and styles through­

out the book. For instance, 1 have used straightforward historical accounts

and biography where I feel that the information is relatively unknown;

rurning to autobiography, both my own and others', not only to bring

political dilemmas alive but also to underline the importance of recogniz­

ing different sorts of narratives within the history of feminism itself. But to

suggest that this is from start to finish a book about history would be

misleading: where1 break off to describe and analyse images that I have run

into on the train, at the dentist's, on the television, it is to remind myself as

much as the reader that I am talking about ideologies that surround and

influence us now. I feel what 1 have written is, in a sense, provisional; I

cover a lot of ground but at the end I am only just ready to start talking

about theoretical questions and political strategies that follow on from my

initial argument.

The book takes the form of a series of interconnected essays which are

best read in the order in which they appear. Parts r and 5 both deal with

contemporary feminism and racism while the three middle sections deal

with history. Each of these is based on primary sources, supplemented by

background reading on women's history, black history and histories of

slavery, abolition or imperialism. The notes are intended either as refer­

ences or suggestions for further research, and sometimes for making points

that seem tangential to the main argument.

Part r, which was written as a series of discussions using the different

voices that I have described, begins by identifying various images of white

womanhood embedded in familiar racist discourses, focusing on two

important political arenas: crime and education. It considers the reasons

why white feminists have managed to avoid dissecting these cultural and

XlV

IIi I 1· I H >I" I !1 •I I

1'\ 1 ··ro· 111 .. 1 \111· r. ,,,,,.~,.~," I It I ~ ' ' 1 I I ' I, I I • I I I - 1 \ 1 I ' I I i ) I i I t I • I >1 ·'. ( - I I i )

I,,, I I" "Ill' II Jj I· • I" I) d'l>lll !1 •. II l.lt l.lli.tll .llltl ,1',1 IICI('It'd

I " 1 t 11 1 1! '!1 tl' I 1j ''1\ I H II

Iii· I 1\llljl.lll \\ l111 iLl'. , .. t ll

' ' ~ ' I Iii

1 " I" lJ , ·," '1. 11,. 111 \':,,.II ho 1 h as a

J><dlil•.dly l'll!',agnl with anti­

.JdiH 11i1ws of talking about the l'q!]\ ,I I'··IHHI.,I (O ll1c

], ',, ,J I·"'"".·"'· ·"' .llf<'IIIJII 111 avo1d over-generalizing and

,, "" J, lull ,.J <>liwl \\'<>llwll.illll 11 Jsalsoastraightforwardaccount

1 ,., • '""1. "" 111 I<> ·., .... d ... dHHII 1lws1' issues. It leads up to the point at

1, 1.1 J, ,.," I•• I• I• 111dy 1lw 111'<'d for hisroricalresearch. My argument for

" ",,. , 1 •I, 1 .111,11, ol 111.',1 my llt'gi 1is with recent feminism in Britain and

. 1, 1 1 , , , .. I 1l ,, 1, I• ">k:; I >a< k over l(>ur hundred years to the beginning of

"I I '' ' I \

1 • , , "''·''·''"I:, 1 hal rhc politics of anti-slavery is an appropriate starting

.. ' '.. , .. 111111 w 1 hl' problematic nature of the category 'woman' in

..... , , I" . 1 <~I 1< a I rl'search. AI though the maio part of this essay concerns

1 ,, , .. ,, -"' :~s ;111 organized political movement, I first introduce the idea

·'·" .,,,.,,,.·:~ liler<tture prior to and d_uring this period contained a

"' •I "'·''·, l1s1 oursc on the relationship between the white woman and the

1 · ·""'' ri11ng which needs to be taken into account when considering

1., , .. I,, .• 1 , <>IIIH'ctions between race and gender. 1 then take two abolition-

1. ""I ·ld>'l s written by different women's groups as a basis for thinking

.1 .. '"' 1lw II Illusiveness of womanhood as a category intersected by race as

II ·' . , J.,.,,~. In looking at the separate histories of abolitionism and of the

. 1, '"''"'.!'. ll'lalions of gender and class I found that I was moving between

" .• d ,,,., 1s that continue to be intensively researched and debated by

.loJJ, ,, 111 groups of historians, but which are not normally connected to

. ,, I, "'lwr. I suggest here the importance of race and class and gender as

1 ,,J . 1" analyse and comprehend the overall shifting social and political

. 11 ,~,,11," s of the period. This chapter also charts the effect of abolitionism

, '" 1IH' <'merging women's rights movement in Britain, which I discuss

1 , '" ""I y in terms of language and tactics and in the context of individual

., "" wn's political lives.

1·111' relationship between feminism and imperialism forms the core of

11" 1hird part of the book, and concerns the extent to which feminists

, I.Juwd womanhood against or in line with dominant ideologies of Empire,

"'''" h demanded particular roles of'white women. Recognizing that

l<'ltllnism has never been a homogeneous political grouping, I focus on two

1 '·' rl icular English women's connections with social reform in India as a

XV

~ ,)'

I ~ I '. I ~ 'l"l I I I I I I · I . /\ I I ·

means of exploring the relationship between black and white women m 111,

Empire, and discussing how feminism was incorporated into its proj('( 1 111

bring civilization to the outer reaches of the globe.

Part 4 also deals with the relationship between feminism and impcri:1

lism, but from a perspective aimed at discovering connections betwee11

anti-racist and anti-imperialist politics and the different feminisms of late

nineteenth-century Britain. It gives an account of the British campaign

against lynching in America in the r 89os, a campaign initiated and mainly

organized by women. At the centre of this grouping was Ida B. Wells, an

African-American woman who toured Britain giving lectures on the

political and economic dynamics of racism in her country at the invitation

of Catherine Impey, editor of the anti-racist journal Anti-Caste and a

woman whose militant contribution to the anti-imperialist movement

seems to have gone unrecorded except in Ida B. Wells's autobiography,

( :mJddc ji1rjmlire.

W dIs" s analysis of lynching as a form of racial terror centred on a critique

ol ilw ,,leology of white womanhood, which legitimated lynching as an

·'i'l""'""lly spontaneous response to the alleged rape of white women by

I 'I." k llll"ll. This Part considers the impact of her arguments on feminist

. F.'""i''llgs at that time, showing how conflicting definitions of female

... ,.x ''al11 y and thus of femininity itself were inextricably tied to ideologies of

race and class. When I first encountered this episode I was enormously

Intrigued by the narrative of the anti-lynching campaign but quite at a loss

as to how to represent it. At that time I felt that there was no context for

discussing Catherine Impey's work, her friendship with Ida B. Wells and

her political relationship to feminism and that there was a danger of

elevating her to heroic status. This came home to me when I once gave a

one-off, rather experimental talk about the history of white women and

racism, and spoke, among other things, about Catherine Impey's life as

reflecting a particularly female tradition of opposing racism which femi­

nists needed to explore. I was roundly condemned at the end for having

tried to prove that white women had not always been racist. This was a

good lesson to learn, for although I felt misunderstood, my enthusiasm for

this woman with whom I felt an almost intimate connection was over­

shadowing my attempts to be analytical. The effort and eventual satisfac­

tion involved in finding out what actually happened during the course of

Ida B. Wells's visit also made it harder for me to distance myself from the

material in order to extract the most important questions. It was mainly

XVI

! " "' I' "' ,.]. I 1 II •. ] I II J II I'... .l "' I I' I ·( II!' Ill ,( (, 1111111 _j II Ill tii.H

I ' I I I I I I ' ' ' I I I I ' ' I I I I I I ' • . I I I I I I . ' ' I I I ' I I ' 1 ' t l I I I I I I \ I ~ ' 1 I I I ~ .' ' I I I I It I ' ' : •

I I I H 1111] tIt I I ,J \" I II 111 iii '[til. I 1 Ill I "'II'. I d I tl 11111( Ill 1\IJLIJ II.

1],. l111 cl 1 1\ I; ell 1,.1 ,,,. J, 1"'1\ .. 1 l'I"J"'' "''111 "'"l<"illporary

·"'1!1 1!11!11'-'-1'\\.t\·· 1·11',[ ~~-.~~:·.~·.· .t· 11~,.r .I'.J_!',Ililll.llliiiiJJnherofwhite

"J, ""'"·'·· ILI\T 111<111•·· I''-!"'""''. ol <lliOillaliSIIl through their

I· o11J! I• .111·1 'I'"" i\11-. 1."1"' '""1.1 l)("<lllll<' a potential resource for

I I, .. ·" '·''· , "'" ,.., ''"11·. I >I' I wn·11 race a11d gender. Second, I argue that the

•I• wl11, 1, l11;.1oll< :d lllnnory is solicited by contemporary_ cultural

, .. 111 "''l'mLllll htll neglected site of struggle over the different

'""'·'"'· "' wlllll"IH"SS and womanhood, which feminism badly needs to

..... ''''.'" .. 11<". I move on to consider basic theoretical questions about the

• 1 •I "'"'·"IJ' bet ween racism and male dominance before drawing together

, 1 •• 111.1111 1 hcmcs of the book. As in Part r, I discuss contemporary images

•· I" 1 < · kminini ty, this time in the context of the environmental

, 1111'111. During the period in which the book was written I became

",. • • .l'·"'gly involved in ecological politics, and aware of the need to

, , •. , ''I >I 1rate issues of race, class and gender into a new understanding of the

, . 111 '""ship between human beings and their environments .

l•v111g in Britain and the US in the 1990s it is hard to predict what will

J, '1'1''"'' to feminist politics in those parts of the world. Postmodernist

1 ,J,dosophy has encouraged many theorists to ask basic questions about the

.. " 1.d relations of gender, which also includes, as Jane Flax suggests,

''""king about how we think about them as well. These inquiries are often

I I II ilfvated by the desire tO fracture the traditional Category of 'women' and

•" 1111derstand how male dominance is reproduced in different societies.

Ill<' effect of such radical rethinking on feminist political action has yet to

I,. seen, but there is a danger that such philosophical uncertainty will make

" even harder to find a basis of political unity among women. In my

'onclusion I argue that blackness and whiteness are both gendered categor­

"·s whose meanings are historically derived, always in relation to each other

hut rarely in a simple binary pattern of opposites. It is partly through

disassembling these meanings that important political connections

between women are able to emerge. These connections may indeed be

'politically dangerous' but they will help to ensure that feminism has a

future as a radical movement that can unite women across existing

divisions of class, race and culture. What we need now, as June Jordan has

XVII

~

I BEYOND THE PALE

written so powerfully, is to move away from partnership in misery towards

partnership for change.

Finsbury Park, London I Guilford, Connecticut

November 1990

Note

1. Jane Flax. 'Postmodcrnism and Gender Relations in Feminist Theory'. Sigm, vol.

12, no. 4., 19il7.

Part One The White Woman's Burden? Race and Gender in Historical Memory

There is a story circulating in London about a white English woman who

:iecided to stay in New York as part of her vacation. Nervous about

:ravelling as a single woman and alarmed at the prospect of being in a city

renowned for violent crime, she booked into an expensive hotel where she

:bought she would be safe. One day she stepped into an empty elevator to

;o up to her room, and was startled when a tall black man accompanied by

~ large ferocious-looking dog came in and stood beside her just as the lift

:Jars were closing. Since he was wearing shades she could not be sure

"··hether he was looking at her, but she nearly leapt out of her skin when she

:-.eard his voice: 'Lady, lie down'. Terrified, she moved to obey him,

:raying that someone would call the elevator and rescue her in time. But

:-.stead of touching her the man stepped back in confusion. 'I was talking

::,my dog,' he explained, almost as embarrassed as she was. Fortunately,

::-;e elevator had reached her floor and she was able to scramble out without

~.:.rther explanation. The following day, the English woman was due to

. ~2xe the city. She went to check out of her hotel and was astonished to be

-: ~d not only that her bill had already been paid but there was also a huge

= .:.nch of flowers waiting for her. There must be a mistake she told them,

= .:.r the hotel official assured her that they were meant for her. She took the

:=: wers and read the card: Thank you for the most memorable event of my

. =-~, Lionel Ritchie.'

This is more or less the version of the story that I first heard, related by a

:C".iable friend about a friend of a friend. The details made it sound

= .2.:1sible- the woman in question was a social worker in her early sixties

.., :10 was travelling on her own for the first time. I was even told where she

_·:::d in London. I discussed the anecdote with another friend, who

:= :ounted it at a party, only to be told by another woman present that she

.-. .d read a similar version in a book about urban myths. The name of the

c.:::.ger and the age of the woman varied, but the structure of the story

:~:nained basically the same, involving a white woman from England

::xountering a black man in New York.

Urban myths presumably circulate as long as they correspond to

__ :-~temporary preoccupations and fears, allowing for different emphasis in

:_-,e telling and retelling. This story turns on the white woman's racist

:-~:ltasies, but in the version that I first heard the listener was invited to

,-·:npathize or even identify with her up to the moment ofher humiliation.

-:-~e intimidating demeanour of the innocent black man is offset by his

:.-.. urn and generosity, which is in turn transformed by the knowledge that

3

I ;i

I

l ~

' i l

II I· ., I I I•JI I II II· I 't\ I I·

II<' ~~.;I rt< h ;111<1 Lllttous stngn ol romantic soul ballads, 1l11ts occupying an

entirely different class position from the one the woman had supposed. His

dog, a Dobermann pinscher, although first encountered as an extension of

his masculinity, turns out to have been tamed and feminized by him. The

location is significant because while it removes the object of the racist

fantasy to a foreign city associated with black crime, the protagonist

carried with her fears nurtured in her own society.

What makes this story work, enough to elevate it to the status of a myth

whose origins are lost in the sands of time? Why is the woman white and

the man black, and what is it about the way that racism works that makes

the relationship between these two figures fraught with sexual and racial

tension? This essay is an attempt to address these and other related

questions and to dissect the imagery brought to life in this story from a

il'tninisr perspective. I shall argue that the mythic quality of this anecdote

, .111 on I y I w l[d ly ttndl'rsrood in the light of the long histories first of slavery

.11 to I tlwn ol , olont;tltsJtt which have produced ideologies about race, gender

·"'''' J.,.,s 1h.11 <WIIIJIItl' 1o aiTect social relations between black and white,

111.1/• ·""I i1·t1""''· in posl industrial societies. I hope to demonstrate that

rl,. • <~tt•,IJII< ltott ol while lcmininity- that is, the different ideas about

wlt.rt 11 It watts robe a white female- can play a pivotal role in negotiating

'"~<ltttainraining concepts of racial and cultural difference. This particular

couplet figuring the vulnerable white woman and her fantasy of the

aggressive black man represents one important facet of an ideological

relationship, expressed most effectively in the politics of crime and public

order. In this context, particular ideas about white and black femininity

work against each other in relation to black and white masculinity to

legitimate different types of power and domination which affect everyone.

However, in other political arenas white femininity can take on altogether

different meanings which contradict those I have already described; later in

this section I explore contemporary debates in education to demonstrate

some of the ways in which gender and race intersect to reinforce notions of

cultural difference and cultural superiority.

White Woman as Victim

'l•:r)',itl \'l .. lr\ ,I)',< I Ill .1 1<'.\jH'I f,d)JI· '.{11'1'{ Ill \\"•d\ • 1/1 ••••1 ,j,dl I II•Hr.t· \\',IS SO)d

,,, ,I Ill .!'Ill 1'·-Jtl\\' llttl\· ()Ill',,.,,,,,. (,I \\11/11111 ,,J I f! r! 1 • >l i• I ) /1 \'1 ·•• tiJ( 'r('.

II II I II II •' I I I ! 1•1 I

llol J,, I . l•ll\ I Jll ..... I,.. I· 1'. . II ,,, .... ,, I; 1\ ' I . "I I I I""' I '

I'''' I. 1'.1\1 !It\\ j•tJ\\~ I Ill II,, 11111 1 -, .. 1 lilt Jdtlll.dlll I ll[t'Jly \\'IIJI('

• •I 11.1 II \ I• I IIIII. ~··I ,Ill• I ],,,lit• • I J '\ Ill 1l1o II 1 ''''I ,J, J l11 I)\ I)'.JHJtll ill(' IH'XI

11 ,J, 1 .t.lt ·. 1l1t l"t 1 tilt ,.j ,,,,.,\'lift I 111 l1· 1 I,, 1 .lr·.JtHit·,ll~v l<·.tt, < ()JII inued

I"'" IIIII td illi 11111',1 Jltllt'lll ·.yJtdHd·. Ill l 1oJIII',It 1.11 1',111 " .'-l,l',lt r hat the

.1 HI I''' ·,cJ~t ,. ''' d1<' JIIJH'I, ''H ... ,, .. , ... 111 1111\\'.lltlc•llttiiiJ.~.Jon on a sacred but

,J, w .1 \' ul I tic

I· .11l1· ltli<Tit Y"'"s ;tiJ,·r l'ow•·ll'-. .,1"'~'' It, .1 Stll;lli unobtrusive-looking

1 "" 1 -I .J, 1 "'"·'' 1 ,,j ,J1sl wd hy 1lw S;~lt~l ,., ry (;roup, which represented the so­

, 11 .. I lkw I( l_l',lll, a pol i r ical lonnar ion r hat emerged after the 1979 Tory

1 .• 1'"" 1'1< 1ory. Called 'lfx Old Peojlie o/ l"al!lheth, it was an illustration of

, 1 •• · "'" "'"111g resilience of this particular set of racist imagery.2

Inter-

will I ('ldnly white men and women on subjects such as 'crime', 'the

.J,,' 1111111igrarion' and 'politics' returned again and again to the same

I,"" 111 1lt.11 si nee the war these people had suffered a dramatic change in

,1, 'I"·"" y of Iii(:, particularly since blacks had been allowed to come and

,. , .. , .. , 1lt~·111 in their own neighbourhoods: 'The native population of

1 •1111" 1l1 l•·l'is link natural sympathy with the West Indian arrivals.

·" "J,.,,l lt.1vi ng any arrogant or dogmatic theory of racial superiority, the

, .1.1 1" ''I de ol Lambeth can see with their own eyes that they are surrounded

I., 1" "I de IIIOIT primitive than they, who lack their respect for law and

I" 1• ·'' y ;\ 1 ndy Lnglish and harmonious way of life had apparently given

.. , 1 1,, ·' , , lltsr ;Ill I sl arc of siege. 'They are afraid all the time they are awake;

,,.1 II LillY ol rltc1 n cannot sleep because they are frightened.' The final

1 · "·'.1·1 ·'I .11 ol 1 he pamphlet stressed the patriotism of the old people

",,, 1 ,. ww•·· I. Jlll'ir devotion to the Royal Family, their memories of not one

I '"I I" •Ill worl< I w;~rs, and rhci r readiness to work, raise families and to obey

11 .. 1."'' ';\11.! y('l, wirhottl any provocation on their part, theyfindmostof

• I" 1 1,, ".".'· 11 wy valtw IH'}',I•·n ('(I or raken away. As one old man said simply,

11 ·""I <<HlltiiY"Itdottr<)•w•·lt. Whyshouldwcbeafraidtogoout?"'

111 I" >1l1 1lw·><· n;111 q ,J..~ ol r;11 1s1 1111agcry th<: combination of old age and

1. "'"""" \' wotl.-. 1o' <>ltv•·y 1lw IHlW<TI<·sslti'SS and physical frailty of a white

, """""""\' tlt~•·.H•·tw•l l•v ilw l•.1rh.11t:dtt of 1lt(' ttltWaitlnl black 'immi­

. 1.<111' 1\'IH> II< 1111<'1 lllt<l<'l'.l.llt<llll>l ILt\'<' 1<"·1'''' I lor II II' V;titii'S of' civiJiza-

lr•JII Jt,JI]J·,tf',(d lllLI_l'.•-··••-rJtl•~•·•-rlwr•l'.tflt.ll wltJf•"JH'(Jjd(' lll<·naliOil

l1 "' .1, I HI".• 11 .11· •. d H•llf .1 \\',1\ qj ld• \'\ Ill• l1 r·. f la11 .tf•·rll·,l l1y ( lo•,t· 1 olll<l< I

I! II I •Ill. I• I.!·, lit• l.IIIJ'ILI]'I Ill \\ Ill• It ill\! I\ I" 'd I .I• (',Ill J', ( · .... , tl("',',('t I 1,',

I I ' I I I I I II I . ' I ' I \ '\ ~ I I. I I l ' I I I ' I I I ' I I I I I I I ' ' I I I' I ! I I I I ' " I I I ' I I ' I I ' I ( . . \ ' I I I I l I ' I IH

BEYOND THE PALE

invasion of defenceless property, the ever-present threat of violence that

intimidates the physically weak. In this discourse England reverts to being

an island besieged by aliens and the violence begins at the point of

immigration. When, for example, many families from the Indian subcon­

tinent attempted to enter Britain before the new visa restrictions came into

effect in November 1986, papers like the Sun, the Star and the Mail fell

back on the same wartime analogies which had been evoked during

previous immigration crises in the early r96os: the situation at Heathrow

airport was variously described as a siege or an invasion, with floods or

hordes of immigrants trying to pour into the country on false pretences.

Where crime is concerned- particularly crimes involving violence- the

racist vocabulary of the press is similarly precise. Words like 'savage',

'monster', 'beast', 'fiend', nearly always accompanied by photos, combine

to evoke a particular response from the white reader. Brutal attacks on

white women, old or young, which have been allegedly committed by a

black man, often employ these epithets and visual images to suggest innate

savagery and evil tendencies. The more horrific the incident, and the

greater the violence inflicted on the woman or child, the more the reader is

drawn into sharing a racist consensus about black men, and consequently

black people generally. Crimes against black women or black children

carried out by white men rarely receive much attention in the media, while

violence allegedly inflicted on black women or children by black men is

frequently relayed to the public as further proof of black deviancy. These

kinds of images are further influenced by the wider political climate in

which particular types of crime can become symbols of crime in general; if

there is a heightened awareness of rape, child abuse or street robbery, for

example, this will also affect the social meaning and implications of an

individual incident. I am not disputing that such crimes take place, but

emphasizing that in Britain today the race, gender and class of both the

victims and the perpetrators are likely to become significant factors both in

the way that crime is reported and in the manner in which it is handled

throughout the legal institutions. In fact this would be true in almost every

society that I can think of since the dynamics of race, class <1 nd gender are to

be found everywhere. My concern here is to int•·rr".!'.'"'. 1lw signil1cance

attached to r;~ce and gender in an ;111<'1111'' I<>'"''' 11" • "'"" · 1 "'"" h('twcen f;j( ISIII ;l!id lllal·· ""111111;111< ('Ill ill< ',(1< II 1\ Ill •.•I«· II I II·

['.Jill''" I 1111<'11.1 I() ',11.!'.,!'.'"·1 IlLII ,,1. I II"'"' d· 1 \ ,Ill' ( lc1 J \1('( I

I q "' I\ l11 H II II,, I,[, •I;' \\1111,,111 I• I tt•l , ' . "I I H i fi II I ,. II 1',

THE WHITE WOMAN'S BURDEN?

worth looking in some detail at different interpretations of women's

vulnerability in relation to men. The threat to women's safety stems from

the idea that women are more likely to be victims of male aggression and

less likely to be able to defend themselves. This is a complex subject which

continues to provokeintense discussion among feminists. Women are told

repeatedly from childhood by parents, school, the media and other

influential sources that it is unsafe for them to be in certain places at certain

times, unless they are accompanied by a man, despite the evidence that

suggests that they are actually more at risk from violence in the home.

While women deal with this threat to their safety in many different ways,

often depending on their mobility, race, income, class, age, sexuality and

other aspects of their personal experiences, surveys show that on the whole

women are vastly more afraid than men to go out, particularly at night. 3

Women's ability to move around freely at all times is severely restricted by

1 he knowledge that they might be risking their lives in doing so- and, if

an attack does happen, be blamed for inviting it. This means that the

1najority of women are simply denied access to a range of activities which

111ost men take for granted.

One of the problems in quantifying the actual threat to women's safety

111 public places is that fear itself cannot be measured and is a factor in its

'1wn right, whether or not it corresponds to the likelihood of being

.If tacked. Crime statistics, particularly relating to rape and street crime,

1 >l.1y a significant role in increasing levels of fear, and they are frequently

·,, 11sarionalized by the media. In fact in this case statistical calculation is a

1 ,, "•r guide because if women do not go out because they are scared, they are

'I".,' ·f(lrc less at risk from certain types of attack. The images of vulnera-

1 ·d 11 y and defencclcssness involved in many discussions about women's

.. II< ·1 y in the city often f(Td into racist assumptions about who are the

'' 1 1111s and who arc the per pet rarors of crimes against women. Sensational

,,,1 :.onwtinws inac1 lJLlll' r!'portrng in the press has given the impression

IiLII .ll!'as wlwn· tlw11· ar•· sr;.,·al>lc hlack populations are particularly

11"-''.' .,, ",; '"' wolll<'ll. '"·!'''' 1.11! v rl w ,.1, lnly. Thai is no I" ro say that crime does

, .. o~ lo.q•l"''l ilw"· '"'' 11 ,., ol1,., "'l'""·'''lf<·d 111 s111h a way t-har it confirms

,, ""'VI""· "I 'l''"dl' 1>1." I.' llllllll.d·. l'".l'"'.!'. <~11 IH'II'I('ss white wornen.

( •II• •d fl1• IJLIJ••I • •11111•. 11ou·. l~~·f\\'tTII t Iiiii<' .lit~ I P''hll< ord<"r is the

r ••11' J•l• lo1 • •ll~flol • d 1 ~~~~ ,J,. '·I f,H • lllltHil'liolll ~~~~- ,.,;-). ,., 1.11 f',f ,,!colo?.Y

" It 1 .lrl11 I· I• 1 rla11 riH 11111• 1 • 11 H \'·' I• 110 .. d• I,. • .llr.• tiLl I \\'.1·. wiH 11 tliCl',f

I .1 •. I 11'"1 •• ,.lrJ,, 1·111 •.• rll' Ill I P I • II\ l H 1 .IIIII .I H lj I]~. •••• I I Ill I 1.. I .II I

I

1\I·:Yt>NI> '1'111·. l'i\LI'

problem'. This was particularly evident during the election cover;'.!'.<' ol

1987 when the expression was on almost every politician's lips. Turn Ill,!',< 111

the TV one night, we were treated to a wordless definition of 'inner c i1 y',

expressed through images of Handsworth, an area of Birmingham asso

ciated with controversial policing practices and local resistance. Dramar i<

documentary footage showed buildings being set alight (blacks rioting)

followed by a picture of an elderly white woman who had been beaten abour

the face (blacks mugging). Where the imagery of the decaying heart of the

city suggests the breakdown of community life, the crime and lawlessness

that appears to have taken its place demands tough action from the police

to restore a sense of order. What I am interested in here is the way that

certain ideas about white femininity work to legitimate that 'tough action'

which can then lead to a greater repression of the population as a whole,

regardless of race, gender or class.

A political broadcast for the Labour Party, made in 1986 at the height of

a wave of public concern about law and order, demonstrated how an image

of white female vulnerability could be used to convey a specific political

agenda on crime and police protection. It provided an example of the way

that racism can lurk like the proverbial mugger behind the murky shadows

of political discourse without ever seeming to show its face. A young white

woman- a girl, in fact, seen later (or is it earlier?) in school uniform in the

bosom of her nuclear family outside their newly built home - walks

hurriedly along a deserted street at night, passing under an unlit bridge.

The sound of approaching footsteps, belonging unmistakably to a man,

imply that she is being pursued. As the tension builds up, the girl passes a

street sign which signifies that she is in southeast London. Just as you think

that she is about to be attacked, she runs straight into the arms of a man.

(We see his legs before we see his face.) Like her we almost cry with relief,

he is a policeman, a friendly, cheery sort who will take her back to the

station for a cup of tea while he rings her parents. Or perhaps he will escorr

her home, telling her mum and dad that she ought not to be out alone in

such an area, not with the sort of things that happen to decent folk thes<:

days especially in South London.

By placing a representative of the most symbolically vulnerable section

of society- a white female child- somewhere in the inner city- where the

majority of black people live - the makers of this propaganda were able 1 < >

conflate powerful messages of a crime rate that has got out of control, tlw

ever-present threat of male violence against women, the dangers of bcinr,

8

II II Ill I I \'< >f\1.1 I I IIIII' I >I II

'rl .. ••••111 'If\ ,II r•r,·l•r \\·l•111 Jf r·. ,1,,,1, .111,111H llLdcvulcnt llflStTil

·llui l1111. """"l"'l"''l·.ii<Tic. TlwcxJ>Ii<JI.Illll w;ls<lcarlynlcantto

.1 ... il" l.d'""' 1'.11iy '''""l'll'"''""rt'J><>I)(<'Jll rhcsrrcctswhichwould

.... ''' . .I I y '"""'' · any "·aso1whlc law-abiding person feel safer. Viewed

1 u·, I,·,Jon<al context there was no sense that the police represented

• 1 .. , '·'' ol l1n than the benign forces of law and order. However, when I •I• lw.l this statement I was horrified by what I felt was the Labour

• ·'I" t 11lat ion to racism, even though I had no illusions about its past

. I hv<' y1·ars earlier, riots had erupted first in Brixton, South London,

' • 1. 11 .d I over the country, in protest at the racism of the police, which

I ll<>wlcdgcd by the Scarman Report that followed. The broadcast

.. .j,. ()(dy months after riots in Handsworth, Tottenham and again in

'', I oil owing the serious wounding of one black woman and the death

· lwr as a result of police activity, and where both blacks and whites

I 1 o r he often brutal policing of their communities. The context in

'. '1 "I >peared made it almost impossible to refer to public order issues

. 1 a I so addressing either the documented racism of the police force or

· '1''1'1 ion that black youth were predominantly responsible for public

1 1 By choosing to ignore recent history the broadcast tried to

I' difficult and contentious problems, but failed to do so because the

'" the film were themselves replete with racist associations.

·.d images of black and white men and women can be invested with

·II racial, sexual or class meanings according to where they are

I 111 relation to one another. As the political climate constantly shifts

.. ,ll,·st details can become disproportionately significant. By chance I

., 1' >ss an interesting example of this in the promotional paper

.,;, I )ght Railway News (jobs special issue). 4 The middle page spread

1 •• ,wd 'Now here's what WE want and what we can offer You'.

.·.\drawings illustrated the range of jobs available and the tasks that

, , 1 ·Ills would be expected to perform, along with details of qualifica-

. '"I salaries. One of the drawings, captioned 'Traffic supervisors will

, 1 .. , t all is well at all of our stations' showed a kindly blue-uniformed

· ·.d I r he uniformed figures are white), equipped with radio control,

, '",''· .1 young while W<Hill'll buying a ticket at an automatic dispenser.

.. ,, lnH'asuiT," \'' "''''' wl >If ,.J, 1\' w;~s seen walking along the pavement

• 1 1,,,, L,l'.r<>lll~< I .•.. ·' ·,,,., f 1,,f f '" ·" ... 1 would be safe for unaccompanied

• ,,, "lnllll<'•ll.•f•l\ 1 .. 1.,.,.1.1, .... .,,.!,.If lheticketmachinelurkedthe

II ,I I d.H I Ill. III,.' II 1•1• 1 . ''". I,..,,,] turned in the direction of

il!li

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I f; I ~1

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i

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I

BEYOND THE PALE

the white woman. Both his posture and his shades combined to suggest

that all would not be well if the traffic supervisor was not on the scene. In

the context of popular racist conceptions about the criminal tendencies of

black men, the reader was invited to share an interpretation of the scenario

which accords with a kind of'common-sense' thinking. Meanwhile, as if to

demonstrate the flexibility of the different codes attached to race, class and

gender, the same spread portrayed a happy equal-opportunity-style cameo

of a traffic assistant inside the train sharing a joke with a black man, who is

sitting in a carriage with a white woman and a man in a wheelchair,

observed approvingly by a middle-class couple in the background.

Several months after collecting this particular gem I came across a later

issue of the same paper where the same images were used but for quite

different purposes. 5 The picture that had showed the possible hazards of

buying a ticket for the railway was now used on the front cover to illustrate

how easy it was to buy one. It was tempting to interpret the scenario as an

indication that it was so easy that even a woman or a black person could

understand the process, especially with the help of a friendly traffic

supervisor. The problem was that it was still not clear what the black man

was doing lurking in the background. Over the page, the equal opportun­

ity picture had been turned into an illustration warning passengers not to

fiddle the fares. Instead of sharing a joke with the black man, the traffic

assistant now appeared to be checking a suspect's ticket. The fact that

everyone in the picture was smiling rather invalidated the stern warning

given in the accompanying article, but it was significant that the reader

was again invited to identify the black man as a possible deviant.

These illustrations are interesting not because they set out to represent

an explicitly racist point of view but because they allow racism to be

expressed through familiar, everyday imagery. They are rarely challenged,

but if they were, the publishers would surely deny that any racism was

intended. The reason that these particular interpretations invited by the

juxtaposition of black and white, male and female can be so readily

overlooked is because they correspond to certain ideas about race, class and

gender which have passed into the realm o(colnlnorr S<'IIS<'. I 11 other words,

for many people ir is rhought to lw s<·ll •·v1•l•·nr 11 .. 11 wonrcn need

prot<'< I ion (rolll 111al1· viol<'fl< ,. a1r.l 1l1.11 I ,J.,. L 111• 11 -"' ld' 1\' lo lo;orl>olfr

C fjllllll.ll IIJICIIII<Hl',

i\t dw · .. IIIIC IIIII("' d • .- \\'.1\' tlul i!H .1" I d ,. 111 '"" l.q'. u/ "· d I. 1,1( ('.II HI

)'.• lltll It t>Jiti•IIH f••J•ItHIIt• t Ill• .1111111' !II tl!, ' 1111 '' • ''\ II" ~II' .111-. f1 ~-,1.

THE WHITE WOMAN'S BURDEN?

fiwy become altogether different if the narrative is changed. Consider, for

, ,.unple, a portrait of the world-famous black boxer Frank Bruno and his

wdc, Laura, who is white. As long as Bruno is represented as the gentle

1· "'llt who combines patriotism, humility and a respect for the family, his

111.11Tiage to a white woman is likely to signify his wish to become

. '""pletely British. In any society, however, where there are social

l111 rarchies based on race and gender, let atone class, there is a wide range of

l'"·,o;1hle readings of images of black and white couples who are confessed

1 .. ,.,.,s_ White women, for example, who are seen with black men might

'I ·1 ,, ... , to be socially or sexually deviant; while a white man with a black

"""'II might be regarded as having a taste either for sexual adventures or

I· ·• .1 submissive partner, depending on her ethnic or cultural origin.

·"'"I."IY a black woman wHo has a white partner might conceivably be

. , 11 ·'" wanting to turn her back on black men in general because of ideas

.1 .. ·111 1 heir behaviour or, alternatively, as providing a kind of sexuality that

1 .. 1. women are unable to match.

. \' 1l~<· beginning ohhis Part I explained that I wanted to track down the

"". ' ·. of the different meanings attached to white womanhood in an

.. • · "'I" 1 o understand and so refute their ideological power. It is clear that

'" .J,,. J•roject gender on its own cannot be a useful analytical tool, and

. ',I" 1 1 an race; black men, black women, white women, white men are

.11 • "'!'.ories that have both racial and sexual connotations which can be

' .. ,'I,, , 1 1 ansformed or complicated by class. In the next section I look at

.. " .. 1 ilw ways in which race, gender and class intersect in ideologies of

..1 ... 1 d .lrlh:rence.

White Woman as Symbol of Civilization

• 1 •. • "'" 1 ' 11 y riots of r98r and 1985 helped to keep issues of public order,

", -"''I pol icing central to the political stage during the r98os, but

1 ... ""'" l~oos since become another equally important focus for racial

•• 11 ,, ' 1\ l1l"" '}',h debates about public order and education both centre on

1 ' • I \, "1' lo. 11 is the struggle around racism in schools that has seen

1. " '"'' .. 1 11.1knlly biological racial difference transformed into that of

. '"'""d ddfni'IIC<'. Bdor" ] .... 1·.1111'. a1 rlw way in which different ' '

.,J l'""'""'ly.liii<IILII<'<IIIilll.d ·'"'''·'11' I ·.lo.dll1r•;1 ollllini'SOIIH'Of

1. I l·ll'IPIIH~Iro tl1c Lit 1.d ltnljft• .,j • .lt .. ''l"ll

U l \ l \/ I"! I J l ll lli · I\ I 1U

The attempts of the Conservative government to reform public cd u ~: 11

cion have led to a new agenda of racism which aims to control prcviou,

radical or liberal methods of dealing with discrimination and differc r1ce.

Throughout the previous decade educationalists - in so far as they

recognized there was a problem - favoured the multicultural approach

which tried to raise awareness of other cultures represented in schools

without actually changing the curriculum. This approach soon came under

attack from the anti-racists, who felt it was ineffective in dealing with

racist teaching materials, out-of-date curricula and staff who were not

trained to recognize and tackle racism wherever they met it. But multicul­

turalism- which covers a number of ways of acknowledging the different

cultural backgrounds of students - also produced waves of reaction from

the traditionalists, who saw white British children as martyrs in a system

which apparently preferred to recognize alien tongues and religions instead

of English and Christianity. Ray Honeyford, the Bradford head teacher, for

example, became notorious for his insistence that the Asian children in his

school leave their own culture at the school gates. 6 Shortly afterwards

parents of white children in Dewsbury staged a protest rather than send

them to H eadfield, the local, predominantly Asian, Church of England

school. On this occasion one of the main complaints was that the children

had made chappatis instead of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. The school,

however, defended Headfield's policies, pointing out that 'Christmas was

observed, the Christmas srory was rold, cards were sent and a party was

held'. 7

The protesting parents' cause was taken up enthusiastically by the press:

they were cited as claiming that their children's 'cultural upbringing'

would be at risk if they were so outnumbered. It is worth noting here that

white women have been at the forefront of parents' attempts to intervene in

debates on race and culture in education. In this instance one mother was

quoted as saying: 'There is a strong chance that my son will grow up

learning Urdu- confusing him. I am sure it will affect his education.'8

Although the headlines invariably carried the word 'race' in large letters,

the parents appeared ro be unanimous that their concern to redirect their

children's education did not spring from racism; indeed several were

adamant that their protest was not against Asian people themselves. The

main issue was establishing the right to choose which school their children

went to.

While the I 980 and I 988 Education Acts allow parents a choice of

!2

ltlllll • l''"vlilllll\ lr dtH '• 111•1 lttlttllll wltlt tlw ttt lllltttll y'M ' t•llll lt• !lt wu• ol

, ' '''' rrl trllttii N hrw ludrldH '' l1111il t•dtttllliotlllttthol'l ry lron"l 11111 tillY till whit h tlllt N iilttlt ~ll lll t i r d di iKI'i lllintHio n . Shortly after

lilJ nr '"-' '''' y 1111 ldt•flt, Clt•vt·hllld Cou11ci l ng r·ecd ro transfer a white child lfilltl 11111 Mtll1111 l 111 IIIIOt iH't' whe 11 her mothe r complained that she was

It IIIII/I l'tti .IN trlltl ', Mttr lill invcsc igacion by t he Commission for Racial

ptitllt y luu!IIIIIIH l t lwt 1 he Council had behaved unlawfully, the secretary

I till 1111 t'dttntt ion ~ k'crccd chat a parent's right to choose should override

11•• 11 htt lllllH lrtw , The decis ion was welcomed by the Parental Alliance for

! !11 tit t In ll.tiu(ttr·ion, the body which provided legal advice for the

i It .. rlttll y jll ll't' ll l s and backs parents in similar disputes with local authori-

ifll 1111'11 Npokcspcrson was able to repeat the familiar litany: 'It has

!!Ot illll/1 10 do with race but with culture', and, as if by way of proof, 'In

P!! "NII\IIY lliUSiim parents supported the right of white parents to remove

I ttl I tld ldn·n from school' .9 The movement for separate Muslim schools is

h•1ltlf vl t11h ly cited as evidence that cultural segregation is desired on both

I· h·• 11 ! t l ~ ' t' which is somehow supposed to prove that there is no question

,j l;lt l~nl. llowever, the cultural separatism expressed in the demand for

tm llitl Nl hoo ls also underlines the complexity of the issue: there seems to

1 piithlcm when Asian children are in the majority in British schools,

!1111 dtl 'l'< ' is also an explicit concern that black children educated outside

ilu lltlll111uli system will not be exposed to the social and cultural values of

ll!tll 11dnprcd country. Itt 111 dt'l' co make sense of these localized debates about the cultural

till Ill 111 ol' children's education, it is essential to ask what motivates those

h11 t hti111 their non-racist desire to keep their cultures separate. I believe

11iill 11 11•11S about the relative status of women in different communities feed

tlulr llllxicty, although this is not always expressed directly and it cannot

lu itidltn•J to a simple problem of parents not wanting their own children

i•t !11• ln il uenced by gender relations of which they disapprove. Of course

I IIIII ' II I'C varying structures of male dominance operating within different

111111111111tities whether they are formed around ethnicity or class, and it is

jtl 1 Ct •l t l y understandable that many people are opposed to laws and social

111 111 lit cs that they associate with societies other than their own. However,

II II' 1 o11 fli ct produced by the wearing of the hajib, or headscarf, in schools

l1y Muslim girls, which is discussed in more detail in Part 5, is one example

11l how modes of femininity are made to speak for wider cultural values.

t ~IIW, however, I want to examine ways in which representations of white

1.3

fcmi ni11 ity articulate powerful , if subt le, rac ist messages chn1 conlll'lll 11 111

only cul tural difference bur also cultural superiority.

The case of the two Birmingham schoolgirls whose father sold them inw marriage while on holiday in his native North Yemen provided nn

opportunity for commentators to lament the fate of Muslim wornen

compared with that of their European counterparts. Many people in Bri tain

were understandably outraged to learn that girls who had been born and

educated in England could be forced to marry boys hardly older chan

themselves, bear their children and live in exile in remote mountain

villages. The mother's campaign to rescue her daughters was taken up as a

crusade by journalists, one of whom apparently risked her life by travelling

to North Yemen to interview them secretly. In her book, published after

one of the young women had returned to Birmingham, she contrasted her

own situation with that of women in the Yemen, often implicitly, often

through casual observations of the life she saw around her:

I also wore a long-sleeved blouse, buttoned to the neck, and had sunglasses

on. Pretty safe, I would have thought. I was only to learn from the British

Ambassador's wife at the end of the week that my problem was I tucked the

blouse into my trousers. I should have been wearing it outside. I got very fed

up with being touched, stared at and shouted at by men. The women, I

noticed, would turn away with a sort of scandalised sneer. 10

The reader is invited to share her evident distaste for a society in which

women appear to be simply bought and sold by their elders, and to view its

inhabitants with a rather more derisory sort of scandalized sneer. In this

way, the image of the Western 'liberated' woman, who enjoys equality

with men that is enshrined in law, together with the freedom to dress,

behave and work as she likes, is thrown into sharp relief by that of the

Muslim woman, forced into submission from girlhood and deprived of any

social, economic or political rights to independence. While the act of

comparing social and sexual relations in two different societies may seem

like pertinent journalism, the way it is done in this example conforms to a

broader ideologically charged survey in which the position of women in a

society indicates the level of civilization it has achieved. This is an idea that

appears through history in various permutations, and which I shall be

interrogating throughout this book. It has meant that the story of the

young Arab women's passage from civilization's inner city to its outer

14

II II I II I I l lllfllll' /1

ijliil41 (lllil I 1111 J il}lili ll I illl 111" \11' 1 lu• llllllllilli ' .J I I ~ II NJ II IJl i( • tllit of

illldhd .ltiplli II y 1111d httft 't lllltlll i l lli~ l iiuhll't',

llt{l 1\il)'td Jlilllilly Jut ~ piiiYII Jt•d IISdll l Yt: hk lcs (() I' reinforcing the image

ILu l wli111• Wlllllllll who is di st inguishable from her non-white

l111111 I lu lM t i1111 NINI t' t N by l it' I' cl<.:arly marked social and sexual freedom.

II :' "' '"I dl'tloiiN ol l'l'i nn·ss Din na visit ing the Middle Ease in 1986 were

pit id .-~. lttiplt • of tlds process. The Sunday Express writer Jean Rook said

dl ~· Itt tt • tllltlly 11tiH•1'S lcfr ir ro innuendo: 'The culture shock to a Briton's

i(tl l d1d11 '1 tt•td ly hitt unt il we bit th is dust where women are treated

!I r In- tlttlll 11 •••• But i I the Arabs are a culture shock to Diana, she is a

ii tld1y Hllllll k in the yashmak tO them.' Diana's clothes, her figure, her

' · ' t ~t tl IIIII , ht· r marriage, even the rims of her sunglasses became symbols

i illt 111111, sophisticated and , above all, liberated womanhood that marks

IIIH tllll tHtl as a n•orc civilized country. In contrast, Arab women were

jlllilliiYt 'd 11s being literally fettered with gold chains, smothered in

l!itlliliH 1111d deprived of conjugal rights, in a society where 'even second

lit -It ptl111 ~·sscs . . . are expected to sit down, sit still, shut up and put up.'

l ; itllllt~ IHwt these descriptions of the English princess, a rose to 'make

tlil lt d11Nf y, dry desert bloom', 11 different styles of femininity were being

itll ) 11111'd directly with each other. But other versions of aggressive,

!Iii "• tltd or merely active femininity can also be suggested in the absence of

t•t ltt 1 women. In a feature in the fashion journal Vogue on the film White

I ' II htt'/, set in the so-called Happy Valley in Kenya in the 1930s, images of

lft"l tlllni ss ive white femininity were constructed through reference to

hl•11 l 111t n and wild animals. 12 Greta Scacchi, for example, who played the

li llhdt · lead, appeared on a double page .spread flanked by two black actors

dtl '~~ ~ ·d ns Masai warriors. Staring straight into the camera, and wearing a

I II III Ii I red suit and hat, with bare arms and legs, she rested her hand on the

11111 11f one of the men as if to prove her power and their submission. The

lllltllllllCd 'warriors', who, the reader was told, were played by Sumburu in

tlu• ldm, were also dressed in red, covered with jewellery and holding full­

lttiJII h spears. They had become a symbol of the white people's rule over

tllf • ( ountry, and formed an exotic, but tamed, backdrop to the domestic

dlllllliiS of the colonizers. In another image that symbolized the taming of

till' savage, Geraldine Chaplin, who also played a leading role in the film,

Wl l'• photographed sitting in a haughty, nervous pose with a docile leopard

1111 11 leash and chain. Smaller pictures, which did not show famous film

~ ~ i ll'S in period costume, were captioned with a minimum of detail in the

15

llflT\ 1 1~ 1 1 • · r·-••Y •---n • jn

best ethnographical tradition: 'Scenes from the Kenyan lands<.:llpt : II HI IV! '

with zebroid (half zebra, half horse), and bougainvillaea'. The who it'

feature ended with a section called 'Travel Notes' which explained how to

get there, where to stay, which tour operators to contact - as thoug h clv•

Africa of the film still existed unchanged.

Fashion pictures often situate models against a background of ethni~,

primitive, or even 'savage' femininity or masculinity in order to achieve a

range of impressions, from strength to vulnerability. The recent spate o

high budget films set in the context of Empire, of which White Mischief was

just one example, is often directly connected to nostalgic fashion imagery

which expresses particular aspects of colonial memory. In this way codes of

femin inity help to reconstruct a historic past through images which are

both made and interpreted in the light of contemporary ideologies. In a

fashion series in the Observer colour magazine which coincided with the

release of Out of Africa in 1986, the model and her crew were flown to the

Ivory Coast courtesy of British Caledonian to capture the spirit of the

moment. 13 In one full-page shot the model adopted a virginal pose, with

hands clasped and eyes lowered, wearing a completely white outfit down to

her shoes and stockings. In the background, walking behind her, was the

blurred image of an African woman in brightly coloured 'native costume',

with child on her hip and basket of fruit on her head. Another page showed

the same model, again clothed in a long white dress, but with a dark

jacket, matching shoes and hair ribbon, holding a large straw hat. In

complete contrast to the cool unperturbed Englishwoman in the first

picture, this time she appeared to be hurrying, her head, with hair

dishevelled, turned back over her shoulder as if she were aware of danger.

In the background and on a level with her eyes, the very blurred figure of a

black man could be seen emerging from the bushes at the side of the road.

Black children are sometimes employed to highlight a particular aspect

of a fashion 'look' . In a clothes advertisement in another fashion magazine

several young black boys wearing outsize men's shirts appeared alongside a

white model similarly dressed. 14 The backdrop of sandy desert combined

with the image of a lone white women to produce an effect of independence

and androgyny. During the same summer, a trend appeared in the shops for

clothes patterned with dancing black figures, symbols of the exotic, the

ethnic and the cosmopolitan. I was struck by a more up-market version in

an expensive department store window: fabri c pri nted with photographic

16

II II I II 1"1 111 n l"f fi I! I I I\ 1 111"r(

llil•lj\' • 111 11 ~!'l it d 111tl tJ I! lld ' lltt 1il111 ti1J.I1Idld 111 l l l ~ i tt lld HI! 'V 111111 whit"

ldtlf!ll_,j 1111 ltlllll Willi lltl i: t•d pl llll ll 'l lltlltlt •l,

lll tll 1· Wll lllt 11 " ' " lotlt 'l t ~ lit jl l y vtsthlt• us lttshion lllode ls in their own

i lj\ltt, wltli It llttlk tilt 'll I111W ttlt•t tlltdlOt ll wh:11 i1 can mean co be a black or

ltil1 Wll lthtll Nl11i1 111 tlu• pt'I'IWtuo l set••·ch for images offemininity that are

lliilid 111 Jlilii! ' IIIN 111 plt'asurc and consumption. The Observer colour

ltllllll' lttt • 11111 11 .~ I ll t't ld l(•tuu ring purple fabric and vases to coincide with the

11111 11111)1111 lilt' ldnt oi' Alice Walker's novel The Colour Purple. In one shot a

hl,l• I Wll lt ll lll w: •s shown m1ked from the waist up, in profile, appearing to

tltliil il!lltl 11 t't'(.'Jrt n,4 ular g lass vase. In another, titled 'African violet', a

ltl ,u l WW lllltJ 's silhouecce , her head in profile and glass bowl resting on her

11111 ddl't 1 tOll jured up images of enslavement. In 1989 the international

, l 11 lllf'~ (()II) pany Benetron ran a major European campaign promoting

llrtl 11 'tl Co lors of Benetron' which featured a naked white baby held

' 'll•li JI NI 11 naked black woman's breasts. A television commercial for a

do III MI' Ci troen model cut repeatedly between different angles of a black

111111111 in African dress striding in bare feet and the car gliding along the

li 111 .! 1 h01 h in the same barren landscape.

I Nt•kn these images because I want to emphasize that we are surrounded

l1y 1 11111pl icated and contradictOry messages about many different aspects of

ltlllllllll identity . I am focusing on images of white women primarily in

ol ltlt •• 1 o analyse the components of a specifically white femininity, but this

111 Ji y nmkes sense in the context of ideas about black women as well . Yet

II ll ' lt ' is a significant difference in the way that black and white feminists

ltiivt• so far approached the whole subject of femininity. Black feminists

ltoiVI' mainly dealt with the deconstruction of imagery of black womeri

1lt1 ough an understanding of race, class and gender relations, recognizing

il u1 1 in a racist society it would be totally inadequate to discuss images of

11!111 white people without considering ideas about race . Pratibha Parmar,

1!11 t•xample, has argued that the representation of Asian women in Britain

ltlllllOt be divorced from the social and political relations that sustain

1111 ism:

Depending on the political motivation and climate, specific images of Asian women are mobilised for particular arguments. The common sense ideas about Asian female sexuality and femininity are based within, and deter­

mined by, a racist patriarchal ideology. Women are defined differently

according to their race. 15

17

Wit~ I t• "'' " li i •II «' IIIC' III llllk lll Nt't' llt p~· ,· k·u ly tlltljti •dllt • wht· n upp l ~t • cl 111

11 ll llfii'N ol hlut k won It' ll , 1 he ways in wh icb race Ii i-\ u1·cs in the in ccrprtt 11 t lou nl l ti HII\tN of' whitc pc.:op lc is rarely discussed . Feminism, for cxampl<:, lw

lt'111kd to dc.:a l with the representation of white women in terms of gcndcr·,

t l.tss nnd sexuality without also acknowledging the dynamics of race. W hy

ts ir that there have been so few studies by white feminists of whit'·

lt·mininity? In a predominantly white society it is hard to get away from

rlw assumption that to be white is to be normal, while to be not-white is t

ot t 11py a racial category with all its attendant meanings. Moving beyond

IIIIIIJ.Il'S and ques tions of representation to broader issues of political theory

ilnrl nt 1 ion, it is time to consider the awkward question of the white li111inist rc.:sponse to racism.

Feminism and Racism

lint h~tlknged, racism ultimately will be the death of the women's move­lllt'J\1 in England, just as it threatens to become the death of any women's utovcmcnt in those developed countries where it is not addressed.

Audre Lorde 16

In 1 he recent history of feminism, that is, from the identifiable days of the

'Women's Movement' in the late sixties and early seventies, racism has

proved to be an inescapable problem for white women: of all the different

litctors that have divided feminists over the last twenty years, few have

·aused so much bitterness and resentment. To begin with, there was

almost an assumption among many women that as feminism was a

progressive, even revolutionary force, it contained within it an automatic

anti-racist position, which was often expressed through solidarity with

national liberation struggles. The absence of black women in any large

numbers and the increasing preoccupation of many women with political

splits and tensions within feminism meant that race and racism were low

on the agenda in the first decade. In 1978, however, groups of feminists all

over Britain began to organize specifically against racism, in conjunction

with various other local and national radical and liberal forces, in response

to the greater visibility of fascist groups such as the National Front and

Bri tish Movement. This Women Against Racism and Pasc ism (WA'RF)

network did not survive as a national alliance, bL1r some local groups

\ contributed to new ways of thinking about gendc•· 1111d race. One such

_ r8

llli f l, In ~iJIII• ill 'lil f'l , Wltlll 11 i '' if "J ltu '' l••ll lljild tl '''"' tl J:i/ol/1/,t: N.tll'lll

l 'uwtMII I' wil l• h w11~ flllllitlli.d l•y 11 tlll kld '' "'' 'tlfV« '. '1'111' 1111 11 of th"

f'tlllljl ftitl Wll" lll iii HIII ' !11111 wititl ' lll 'lljlfl' I'N fWt 11 tff y pi'Of<.'SS~d anti -racists

ltt 11 dd I Hit • ll 'llflll t l ~ ihllly lw ilu•ir•ow 11 I'll< 1sm nnd nnri -Semit ism, and it

tll fYI II il l I'd IIIII ~I IIHI N III 'SN rHiSJ il ,4 in t\I'O UJ'S llS tl way of'dealing with' what it

11illed pt 'INOJII il 1111 iN 111 . 'l'hc WARF paper described how one group of

W!l llll 'll Nl' l 11h01 11 ' looking ac racism within ourselves'. By the end of the

I!.H' IIINI' I ht.•y t'OIIcludcd:

W lt1t1 wCJ did is reall y only a beginning in confronting our own racism. We huw to go on, making use of what we've learnt. The fight against racism has 111 go on in ou rselves, in our work and in our communities, and at the level of

nstil'utionalised racism - discrimination in housing, education, the immig­l'lll'ion, laws . We see all levels as equally important. They're all part of the sumc th ing - what we do in one area should help us in another. 17

'l'hc.: technique of sharing personal problems and working out feelings

t•t•.ned an appropriately feminist way of approaching questions of race

Nrncc it appeared to extend the interpretation of personal politics that

Nt'parated feminist practice from that of most left groups. In other words,

lor many people it confirmed the importance of changing consciousness

lrom within, rather than concentrating on external structures of power.

When the Manchester document first came out many white women

welcomed the fact that it pointed towards something different they could

tccually do about racism as feminists- as opposed to going on demonst­

rations or organizing petitions. It was to be a significant contribution

towards anti-racist practice over the next few years, although the insistence

of the Manchester group that the racism of individuals was inseparable

from other more public forms went largely unheeded, and the quest to

uncover personal racism was frequently elevated to a supposedly political

end in itself.

Meanwhile, changes within feminism produced other ways of thinking

about racism, and in particular the relationship between black and white

women. By the early eighties the women's movement had acquired a far

more respectable public face with developments such as the founding of

women's publishing companies and the greater visibility of women officers

and feminist issues within local government. During this same period,

I9

I• I ll•

"''hll Ill' 111'1 IIIII! I III IIIIM ,,, j lll jilll ll l CIIIIIII O Wl[ lllll "'" Iii I ~ llllt ' l l'd "" '

ll!llll lhiiiOit ol ht •l11 11 tlu • N<'<llltd 10 IIIN f Hid IJt Ill )' • 1 , ~ ~~ l•t lu• i. INMt•d , H.~ wt•ll HS 1110dc ru1c h ul Wl 1111 felt like llCVC I'•Clld inH Ht 'll t•, 11 11d ltt y Ndl •l' t'S IJCCI' on ly survived because [ was thought co be clever. lis<:HJllllf.l into books and

studying provided a place in m y mind where 1 co uld shur out all th"

unpleasantness of the reality around me . I emerged wi th a sense of myself as

being 'different', of being able to go where no other girls like myself would

dream of going and where I would be able to prove my difference from

them. I realized this would mean I would be likely neyer to have the things

they would have, like a husband, and children; but at the time it never

occurred to me that I would ever actually wane them. For a while latin and

Greek were the only outlet for my urge to know how other people lived and

spoke. French hardly counted as it was taught so woodenly. One vivid

memory stands out from my last year at school, indicating that I had

already formed opinions of what was going on in the outside world: one of

the students in my Greek class came in one day full of admiration for a

speech made the day before by Enoch Powell. 'He is right, ' she claimed,

'He is the Cassandra of our times, and he will be proved right just as she

was.' For all my ignorance about the politics of race at that time I was

deeply disturbed, both by the 'Rivers of Blood' speech and by this support it had received around me.

Later, when I left school and began to live more independently, I could

never, unlike my elder sister, engage with any kind of organized politics,

preferring to dream about exile in more exotic and remote pares of the

world . The first stage of my plan was to give up studying the so-called

classics and change to 'oriental languages'. This led to a trip with a

schoolfriend to Iran in 1971, as I had chosen Persian, with Arabic, as my

main subject . At that time, there was scarcely anywhere else in the world so

obscured by exotic mumbo-jumbo as Iran. Behind the screen of ignorance

in the West, which at that time associated 'Persia' with carpets, walled

gardens and Omar Khayyam, it was ruled by a dynasty of mi litary

dictators, who were intent on frog-marching the country from a rural

peasant economy to an industrialized and polluted polke stnr<:. The

education I received during my first visit was of li ttle use t.'O rnc bnck in the

:Jassroom at Cambridge. Almost all my teachers, in b011t Persian and

'Arabic , were hostile to the idea of relating our stud ies in M idd lt Eastern

language and literature to the Jiving cultures which h11d f!I 'Odll rt·d them.

We were expected to trudge through the old medi<.·vul st•l I looks , perfect

2 2

IIII I W illi I

IIIII Wlllllj ll jllllllllll ill 111111 I lllll j 1 111 till 11 1111 •1 I 11tl 11/j ~I ll IHit t•d N< ltolitrN of

lttll' llt t d l ~ "' 'I'll•• wt l)' 1 '"'~ 1 "' t l t•ll tld "'''' '''I nt ym•ll l ll 1his w1•s w become 11 jiiiii i'MHIII, NIII Y Hl111111• tllld • lllltll t•NH, '''H I llp(•fld every vacation riding

111111 1!111 111 i l l!' dt•rit'tf , l itlt't•udy lu1d il tnod i.• lln th(; professor who had written

III II f-1111 11111 \111' hooks, who I'C jl~ll (;d l y did jLISt that .

Al'tt•r till ll~onizing exisccncial crisis I moved on again, this time to

lllll lll·opology , which was presented to me in a crash course along with the

t•udimcncs of sociology . My motives this time were clear: I remember

suyi ng that I wanted to know how other people lived and organized

1 hcmsclves. The firs t book I bought myself for the new course was Other

;,tfture.r by John Beattie. Disillusionment with academic study set in fast

this time as I failed to find any anthropologists who actually seemed to have

been affected , in any way, by their experiences of living in another culture

aod that was really part of what I was curious about. It was at this point

that I first encountered feminism, in a women and anthropology group,

definitely the most rewarding moment of my college days ~ It seemed to me

at that time that the project of finding out how other women lived,

particularly in relation to men, in other parts of the world, was extremely

worthwhile . The questions that were being asked in the group related

largely to how we built up this knowledge of women's experiences and

what we said about it . Was it right to impose value judgements on social

systems that seemed to oppress women, or even privilege them? I cannot

remember what the consensus was, but looking back it was one of those

crucial questions that were asked a lot in the early days of feminism and

then forgotten as other issues closer to home eclipsed them.

My education thankfully over, I set off for the East again, this time for

India where I hoped to find my mission in some kind of development work.

Within days of arriving I realized that the whole idea of travelling out to

'help' people in an underdeveloped country with no useful skills to offer was

highly suspect, a feeling which was certainly confirmed by the friends I

made while I was there. Back in England again, I accepted a friend's

invitation to live in Birmingham, a sprawling industrial city, hoping to

find some work with 'immigrants' who I felt needed as much support as

they could get in fighting off racism. Besides, I was fed up with racist

bigots I met hitch-hiking around the country who always brought every

conversation round to 'Them' and who denied anyone who had not lived

near 'Them' to have alternative opinions. Within a few months I was filling

in as education officer for Birmingham Community Relations Council,

2 3

\

)1.111\ ll lN oi' WllllH'II WI I hill I lit' lllll VI' Illt 'lll Wli ll h li lillll j' lii Iii -,;d 111l ill 11111111

of thtit· dHs~. tNt' Ot' st•x tutltt y IH'/-11 111 111 111/ltllil ' f' t lltlltiHIIIIIIIt ~ l y 111111 In

challenge the author ity or the wh it<; llliddl t• ' ' " ~~ Will Il l II wlt n " "'Y fr ll li ll d

dominated feminism up co char point . 'J'h<.:st• ~ llllltgt'N , 1 ()11\hi tH:d with 11

greater awareness of racism chat resulted partly CJ'Om the 1981 rio ts,

contributed to a new agenda in women's politics which stressed the

differences between women within a far more uneasy framework of mutual

support. Breaking down women's experiences according to race, age,

disability, class, sexuality or any other basis of identity, either chosen or

imposed from outside, meant that a very fractured and far more complex

network of women-identified politics emerged. One of the problems that

emerged out of this fragmentation was that new and rigid dogmas were

developed in an attempt to mediate between the different facets of women's

experiences. For example, there was often great hostility towards any

woman who tried to speak about a condition or identity of which she did

not have direct experience . There was a confusion between claiming

knowledge of another woman's life and speaking on her behalf on the one

hand, and addressing the social relations that produced the oppression or

discrimination on the other.

It is hard to go beyond these generalizations about how and why racism

has been dealt with by feminism in this country, especially since it has

affected so many women's lives so deeply. It is also the case that racism has

deeply affected many other aspects of British social and political life, of

which feminism is just a part. This book is not an attack on feminism,

although it was born out of a deep frustration with it. However, it is one

thing to be able to agree that racism has always been a difficult issue for

British feminism, and quite another to analyse why this is so. Rather than

go on trying to compress what I think is a history of the race question in

recent feminism, I want to ask myself a few questions: Why do I care, what

do I know about it, what exactly is the problem?

The Political and the Personal

I believe that white feminis ts today, raised white in a racist society, arc often ridden with white solipsism- not the consciously held belief that one race is

inherently superior to all others, but a tunnel-vision which simply docs not see nonwhite experience or existence as precious or significant, Llnl css in

20

~~-~-----

1 . , ~ ,llil •_ ,,, tn1r"'' l " l 11 ~~~~~ it iiHH• 111 " li" v' '"''' tu '"' '""li 111111 ,

l lllliliilllllj lillllllllll\1111111 ruolil !ild II •' f11l111 Adllt 'tllll ' lti t h111

I Wi l ~ lu1111 111111 11 lo1111l y th111 t' lljnyt •d 11 lutl'i y typi<.:n l rnixwrc of middle­

'' ' ' ~~. lllttii Wt'iilll 'lh ·tl' l\! lii'Y ut lo11hil tonnec tions. On one side we were hlll'llllllt'd hy 11101\l'Y ndsed in the imperial t rade between Britain and India;

1111 tlw 01 h<.' l' we I(.: I r a more immediate connection to the old Empire

tllltHI/-I h my Cather's experiences in the Indian Army. We lived in a small

vt llit ,~o~e , but we ll before I was sent off to boarding school at the age of eleven

I l111d gained a sense of my family having lived in or been part of worlds far

lwyond the one I knew. My father rarely talked of India, which we knew

WitS something co do with the horrors of The War, but whenever he did it

1tlways seemed remote and unreal-like, for example, when he talked about

his prowess on the saxophone in a jazz band in the officers' mess -

Nornething we found as hard to imagine as the idea of being encamped on a

hill station in charge of a battalion of Indian soldiers. When I -;as ten he

provided me with more tangible evidence of the world that lay waiting to

be explored: he went out to Iran co take part in an archaeological expedition

with an uncle and was away for six weeks. I do not remember his absence so

much as getting up early to drive co the airport to meet his plane. He

appeared suddenly through the crowd, looking sunburned and slightly

unfamiliar. It was the presents he brought that intrigued me: old metal

bracelets, a length of printed cloth, two metal stirrups that looked as if

they could have belonged to Ghenghis Khan, and odds and ends he had

bought in bazaars. I appropriated his Teach Yourself Persian and duly taught

myself to write the first ten or twelve characters of the alphabet. Growing up in a landscape full of privately educated, publicly conserva­

t ive families, the seeds of contrariness blowing in the wind of 1968 found

fertile ground in our house. My mother has often told me that she was

criticized for not being stricter with us, although I suspect this would not

have made much difference. We were not much in contact with rebellious

ideas and subversive organizations, although we were certainly taught at

home to question authority and to have a firm sense of justice. I would

rather have died than got intO trouble at school, until my mid-teens at

least, and I could not have had a more sheltered life ifl had tried: living in

the country, attending an all-girls convent school throughout adolescence,

with no access either to the town on the other side of the walls or the TV,

21

#

llitll \\'i!N IIIII ···lloll I hold lit ilillld , 111ol1 fttlt diHiltl!ljl lilli_lltllltllil tldt

IIIHiild · iltJ\IIIItltilll illlrod I ~ lllloil ioll", I ~H f lltloill\ ' ' fitt llt i tltill! . oti WIIYH Wl' lll

W illi!~ 111 t l 11 • illllolll ' ll did IIIII lljljll 'l ll II) Ill' lllli ' ll 'li lt 'd l ilt tltt • IINIII I ('I INOIIN,

< >111' ol till' 1/II<'N itons I w11s n l w1 t y~ uskc.:d wit H It I Wtl~ Wt ll m·d ttho ut I

rl111~<· who ltud t40 11~· hd()l·e,: me.: was why llindu ,l{od .~ h11d more chan Oil "

p111r ol' hands. I managed co ext ricate myself fai rly graccli.dJ y from the job, 1111 I I'C.: t u rnetl to Ll!lern ployment and disillusion once more.

fly then it was 1977, the year when the emergence of fascist groups first

rt·ally came to my notice. After a few months of floundering about I decided

I had to 'do something' and settled on the idea of working for an anti-racist

paper, as I wanted to combine writing with my growing obsession with

r.tcc issues. Someone told me about Searchlight, at that time a small but

pioneering anti-fascist publication based in Birmingham. For six years I

Will h·d with the magazine, graduating from office girl to editor. It was in

''""'Y ways and for all kinds of reasons a thankless, depressing and ltll~fntting job. But it also provided a base from which to meet and work

with jWOplc I respected enormously and to gain an understanding of the

ttdt• lllld dimensions of racism from the late 1970s onwards. It was at this

I IIIII ' that the support for the tiny fascist parties that was expressed both

""''"1-1 elections and on the street shifted towards the right wing of the

( onsnvative Party, encouraged by the populist racism being voiced in

'tt'S jH:ttable' circles. Working with Searchlight gave me the feeling that I

w11~ able to challenge directly certain expressions of that racism, and see

.~llii1C results in doing so. Whether it was hiding behind pillars taking

t lnndesrine shots of real fascists meeting closet ones, or endlessly trying to

sort out muddles in the subscription lists, I was working as part of a 1110vement at a crucial time.

Partly because of the nature of the investigative work, which was often

dangerous and potentially violent, and partly because of the distinctive

ca maraderie that developed among male anti-fascists, I found myself quire

isolated as a woman working in this field. I was forced to develop my own

sec of priorities, both to deal with everyday working condi tions, and to

respond to the information I was receiving through the research . Feminism

provided a very unreliable form of support. I could nor find a way of

combining my commitment to anti-racist politics with the priorities and

perspectives of the local and national women's movement. I t was li terally

like having a foot in two camps. Of course it wasn 't ju .~ l my pr·ohlcm, and

the splits and arguments that took place during those y~·1u·s ldi· CO L111tless

24

llltllll It rliiiJ : oli~i lltl ~ llllllol 1 111d lilotlj ' ill iltllilll wlu tl1 illt •t illi ll 'Willllt' tl '

IIIIIVIIIII 'lll ' 1\111 I ltl'l'th d ~ ''I 'I IIIII litlltl 11 i111r WIJIIII' II 111 iiH• work I was

dii/11}\ 1 ill Willi It I Wil li VI' I Y i ~ lll t lli ' d , iiH Wt' li llll NWJH' S(' IISl' th ilt th e different

illlllfiM tlttil l t'illt 'ti ldll) \11 llltllll 'tli 'tlttp wr11t ell<.:h Ot her·.

' l 'ltt• t•HJ'iy dnys of' th e.: W0 111en A!-111insc Racism and Fascism groups did

ptovldt• ho t It the support and the connections. In Birmingham we wrote

lt•i dlt•t s, held jlrmble sales, film shows , public meetings, street stalls and

~ t't tl'llti paint-outs, and commissioned a spectacular multi-racial women's

han ncr. When I was asked by Maurice Ludmer, the editor of Searchlight, to

wrice a pamphlet on women and the National Front, several of us worked

1 ogcther on the ideas and first drafts before it was published. Without

;laim ing them to be the happiest days of my life, I certainly remember a

(eel ing of optimism and collaboration that made my life and work a great

deal more enjoyable. However, the tensions and frustrations were quickly

apparent. We never could quite answer the question, What exactly has

racism got to do with white women? Fascism, on the other hand, provided

fairly easy ground for making connections. It threatened to remove any

independence that women might have gained, returning them to the

kitchen and making them into breeders for the white race. Another

question that was constantly asked was: How do we actually meet and work

together with black women?

As time went on and neither of these questions ever got nearer to being

answered, apathy set in. The Tory election victory in 1979 was the kiss of

death. A contingent of socialist feminists turned up to the last big meeting

to argue that the Tories had in mind precisely what the fascists had been

calling for: forcing women back into the home, restricting rights to

abortion and closing nurseries. Nothing about racism, nothing about the

immigration laws and the promised nationality bill. This was a reaction

common throughout the left at this period; the National Front had been

defeated and racism was evidently no longer a priority. Our local WARF

group staggered on for another year; racism had become a special interest

for individuals who chose to make it that. Several rather depressing

incidents brought home to me the futility of expecting anti-racism to be an

active component of feminism.

One was an abortive WARF meeting on immigration for which we

mailed over thirty women and not one turned up - even though, as we

explained in our letter, white women were among those who stood to lose

out under the new regulations . Another was trying to find other women to

25

111 11 if "lll1l 1 III I I ' 11 11 l •l' I IIII\ 1 1111111'1 1 tl :11111 ltl! ~ ill ! ii iHJ, j ; 111i11 i 111 w l 11 11

l ' "'"d "t ~d 11 11 11 lt ldll lll l il wlf lwnd dt • lllllll ~ ll i ll fllll l i)• l • l •·l · I""'"' ••H•ti nMI

••W lt iiii i ~M II II ' III Wt• lio1d ly luul )li N I 1 wo \VI A HI' fU I•fi '' ' 1111111 VI'" " " N<' VN II I

' '"''' ' ltH tciN l10n1 1\ inni ng lmlll . It was v ~· 1 y t lt'lll 1h•ll 11 11 tO II N III\I l' ll ~Y ol Wllllll ' fl who hud previously been active in che 11 1111 hi'H INI t lllllp:d g n s of' tlv•

l11 1c• SI'VI' III i~·s where I I ived ac least - felt that they l111d 1 o pr iori ti:£e orh<.: r

1\, llt'S which rh <.:y fe lt co be more directly relevant co thei r lives.

Another incident was cbe last national socialist feminist conference,

whid t wns held in London on the theme of imperialism. There were many

problems and conflic ts over that weekend, not least the arrest and

dt•l ell! ion of two Irish women who bad been travelling over co attend the

1 ou lercnce. During the one workshop I attended some women discussed

1 lw diffi culties of supporting peoples or struggles which seemed to oppress

women. J remember one woman saying she had read a book about a South

Amnican Indian tribe which was being slowly destroyed. Her feelings of

cnlf i•IRe and concern were, she said, greatly undermined when she read

' INt•where of their 'barbaric' treatment of women. The logical conclusion of

wh.ll she was saying - that selective genocide might be acceptable -

'1'1 ll' llll'd to have escaped her. The conversation inevitably touched on

lll illlj.\t'd 111 arri ages' , a topic which has consistently raised problems in

lt lllfii iNI dist'uss ion. During the same workshop, another women expressed

111w 1 1h11 1 we were discussing imperialism at all, asking what it had to do

wiil1 ww nen :Lnyway.

I 1 w 1 1 ~ uround that time that a local women's magazine was started in

llill l lfllj{ h llm . A few of us went to early meetings to make sure that the

1 " '111 '1 1 ook an anti-racist position from the beginning and included news

111d c Ollt ributions from black women. This was welcomed although we

wc•tc· 11s ked co organize it ourselves. Since I was working as a journalist I was

1hlt• to supply several stories. One was about a strike by Asian women in a

f111 101·y in Handsworth where the workers were trying to set up a union. I

WIO i l' 1 he piece and finished by saying that a victory for these women would

t'IICOUI'age black women all over the country to fight for their rights as

worke rs. For some reason, which was later freely admitted to be ignorance,

1 he word 'black' was altered to 'coloured' which changed the tone from

bei ng supportive to patronizing. The first issue of the paper, which carried

1his item, did not show any other sign of interest in or commitment to the

lives of black women in Birmingham. It was totally exasperating. How­

·ver, the stresses and strains between the various factions of feminism were

26

i luli i1 W1!~ ,dlll ll 't l l nq •i•~• dil 1 111 ,,dl nwd tii iiii Vt 111 11 11 ' 1'1111 1111 1 IH"y l111d

l •( tll ll ll ll ji ~il \ 'i 1fi11 l if "lli\1 ti! ''' "Jlll tllt )' d d tl l\ ll 1• 1 '"J tu •l lt!lillt!! !1 11 It ltW II .I INI-11 111 11 1 p11l • hOW ·., 111 11 · Wll llll 'll l1 '1 illl'it' l11tir down to

lll l'tl ll ltlil ll lllll y 1,1,111 1'/1-111"11 11 1- 11 11 111 11 , ! 11 11 I Wt l ~ tt' l •t•t tf ing l'rOJn women's

pollll1 H. Allllllllllltih 1 I til l' !111 • H1•1 1,11111 1 lit • N 1 ~ ! 11 1ntt rc h was organized in

JII IIH'H I 111 llic• lll ilull ' ll lthc• pol li!• 10 ll ltt k down nrapist operating locally.

'l'ht· 111111'th wns 11 lcndui SI l llt iH that had previously provoked a lot of

d i~cu ss ion nnd criticism sin e.:<.: it usuall y involved a torchlit procession by

lilllin ly whire women rhrough inner city areas. This was thought to be

i11lirnidaring co the black people who lived there and open to racist

inr<.:rpretations, and many women were divided about the ethics of such

ltmbiguous activity. In this instance, however, the urgency of the rape

problem meant chat there was no room to talk about race, and it was quite

impossible to raise the implications of the rapist being a black man without

being made to feel very uncomfortable and divisive. But I took the easy way

out and kept away from these meetings as I had no energy left for

confrontation. I had become identified as a 'race' person, and I felt this

invalidated everything I might say. • Shortly after this I became the official editor of Searchlight, which had by

then moved to London. After Birmingham, I found it much harder to

become involved in local campaigns, and there was no network of friends

and feminists like the one I was used to there. For several months I was part

of a small group who met to write about and discuss the subject of white

women and racism, but it was difficult to engage with any form of wider

dialogue. However, as in Birmingham, it had become very hard to talk

publicly about racism and feminism, for a variety of reasons . I realized this I

when, in 1982, I was commissioned to write an article for Spare Rib, which

at that time had just employed its first black member of the collective in an

attempt to redress the imbalance of an all-white staff. The subject was to be

the racism of the Metropolitan Police, which had presented its annual

crime statistics with certain offences broken down along racial lines in

order to demonstrate the disproportionate involvement of black youth in

street robbery, or mugging, as it had come to be known. I wanted to make

two points which I felt were relevant to feminism at that time and which I

had discussed at great length with other interested and concerned women.

First, I wanted to show that the racist stereotype of the black 'mugger' was

almost always seen as a threat to white females, and that as a result of the

police action this image was indeed being projected by the media. In my

27

"- ~

1111111' , I dlltWI"tl ll 1111 iltl li filli~ l 1 , 111111 ~\' illll l o•l!i · tiit

l111111llltlltttltiltlt11l li tt ' tlfiii Y A ttlt ' t ill l il tltllltil oilll 'iflli ll.l , I IIIJ{III'd il lli l

fttl litl ~ ll 'll~ llll i t • ttlllli N I R \ll ll ljl l li ~ IIIII J-i ll f\i tiJINI 11 11 11 1• \'h dlll ll ~ ltlllli l l ll t ll kt • II

VI'IY t lt'll l fl1111 iltt•y Wl' IC l lilt Coll udirt ,U, in th is ilttl ~ l H II ' II 'Oiy p~·. I t.:VC II

IIJ-iJ-ii'Nii'd 1 h111 it was nn opporwnicy for women lO wkc an anti-racist

pm11 1011 us feminists .

'l'lll' linu l version of the article would not have earned me a prize for tact,

~~ 1 Itt· st•<.:o nd paragraph launched into a criticism of Spare Rib's reporting of

1 ht· pol icc statistics inc ident , using it as an example of the problem I was

1hout tO discuss. I wrote: 'To speak of sex, race and crime in one breath ,

without making or seeing any connection, betrays the white women's

lltOvcment's fai lure to bring an anti-racist perspective to our struggles

·~ainst male violence .' Unluckily for me, although I doubt I would have

1 hunged it had I known, the piece in Spare Rib had been written by a black

woman, who responded with an angry telephone call and two letters

rusligating me for my 'politics of nothingness' . The correspondence was

dl·eply depressing at the time, but as it turned out, also instructive in the

way that it helped me to clarify my own position on race and racism within

kminist politics.

The fact that it was a black woman who took it upon herself to respond

w my article was almost irrelevant, for she was apparently supported by the

co llective- I was told, however, that it was racist of me to assume that the

wmment had been written by a white woman. My main error had been the

way r criticized other women for their failure to deal with racism without

making any attempt to confess ritualistically my own personal racism,

which had become by then the only legitimate way for white women to

speak about the subject. I was also sent an article written by two American

white lesbian feminists who had initiated a consciousness-raising group in

an attempt to deal with their own racism as an example of white women

'who were really trying' . I had compounded my offence by addressing my

argument to white women, and by not discussing ways in wh ich black

women were affected by male violence. It seemed that it was invalid to

address race as a political problem for white women , us thoug h 'race'

somehow belonged to black people. I was found gui lty of Ol' iler fau lts too:

arrogance, impatience, being anti-women, playing hl:t \ k women off

against one another, failing to say anything construct ive;. In Inn I had it all

completely wrong .

28

111 ilu •w ll11u1 ll jt ' lilt ; ·· ~~•HIIrf ·· ,uilf' lllllllll llu llllit •t ti Vt ' 111 1111

lilt llljll Il l "1111 III II - 111111 11 1 t lt ol llli . llltdt t• l lllidlll/lM ' l 'ilt ' ll ' Wl' lt' NO !tow 111111 11M Ill WI' ill ' flllll lli I\ I 11 1 1 II IIIII IV 1' IN i11 l j lllilll N II~ II 11 ' 11111 li N I I I I l.ondOII l h itC it

IPII t p dit' di HJIII itlll/i iuiHI Vt ' ) 11 1111 t111 111L1 •d lw ' ' Y '''~ · I wos amazed by the

ti Hidll y Il l ti lt' g iltth • IIJ il l~ 111111 Wt' l t' ttp p tll 't' tl!l y invo lved in producing a

lt•Jt!itliNI II I'J.I llltlt ' lll , 'l'ht· t't WllS 11 SII'OIIg fcl ll' of gett ing things wrong, or at

lt ·u~l 11 01 p t·m~· t·din~ in a coll cct ivt.:ly agreed direction. At one point, I was

told 0 11 11 JI101' C kind ly note that the white women in the collective had not

yt• t worked out their anti-rac ist practice so they could not risk printing an

tll' l iclc Lhat might curn out tO be controversial. I believe that the incident

hnppened at a t ime when Spare Rib was buckling under the impossible

we ight of being a mouthpiece for the women's movement as a whole,

which no single journal could possibly bear. But it also represented to me

at the time the rigidity and dogmatic tendencies of mainstream feminism

as a political movement. Over the next few months I joined a new campaign looking at the

q uestion of women and policing, but it became dominated by one

particular group and so I gave up. However, my life changed completely a:t

this point because I became pregnant, and shortly before the baby arrived, I

was told that I could not have my job back as editor of Searchlight. Being a

new mother and unemployed at once gave me a very different perspective

on feminism. I joined a group of friends in founding our own disreputable

journal which enabled me to write a more considered version of my earlier

article, which benefited from a little more research. 19 In particular, I had

begun to think about the historical connections between white women and

black people, looking for patterns in the way women had responded to

racism in the past. This process had started when I was introduced to the

idea that American feminism had first emerged out of the campaign to end

slavery, and was then reborn in the r 96os out of the civil rights movement.

This discovery led me to ask about the connections in Britain between

feminist and black struggles . If feminism here in the late sixties was largely

inspired by what was happening in the USA, then what was the impact of

African-American poli.tics on the women's liberation movement in Bri­

tain? And to what extent was feminism made possible in the first place by

the struggles of black slaves for emancipation? It was these questions that

propelled me to find out more about the historical ,connections between

race, gender and class.

29

I I hi \I I' II li 'I' IIIIJ( fh 1if I' VI' II If ft Wl ' l l' li ' l fill 1tff I J iil ~ l i lilll "lltillll lllf I fil l I1J[illo1

1 Vl ' llfllll ll y 1lu •11 ' W111dd li iiVI ' lwt' ll ll Wontc•tt 'H I tiH 'IIIililll MII VI IIII ' ''' · ' l 'li t·l' '

ill ' <r'' Hdn lllillt'du l oh,crl ivc: cond itions d i!ll Wll llll ' ll W1111 ld ll uvc /o!O itl.: n

llllllt' und ll iOI'C upst' l 11 houc, nnd ic would h:w<: cxplodc·d 111 snmc point . Buc 1 ht• lite 1 of 1hc Civ il Rights Movement, and the Black Powcr Movement and 1 ht· A11ti W:tr Movem<:nt and the New Left, all made chat happen much f>INtt·r nnd helped shape the way it happened. It is hard to say for sure, but my own guess is that the Civil Rights Movement probably had the most profound impact on us. It began to crack the myth of the American Dream 1nd rhc promise of equality all round. Whether directly or not, it had a 1 l'l'mendous effect on the early consciousness of the Women's Movement.

Leslie Cagan20

lo 1111 interview on her memories of being an activist in the sixties,

An1t rican feminist, Leslie Cagan, summed up her feelings about the lt•lt·vance of that time for her politics today:

There is a social and political history to who we are. We need to share that history and those experiences with other people who were either too young 10 be involved at the time or, for whatever reasons, were just not touched by rhose movements. There are things buried in that past that will help us better understand the present, to say nothing of possibly shedding some light on the future. There is a tremendous amount that we have yet to know nbout the links that have existed between different struggles. 21

' l'he process of tracing the origins of different political movements is not

mere ly one of academic interest. Knowing where you have come from is as

important as knowing where you are going, when it comes to identifying

political goals and strategies. In many ways it is irrelevant to suggest, as

Les lie Cagan does, that a women's movement would have happened anyway

because the conditions that gave rise to the actual expression of discontent

nncJ militancy among women- either in the r83os or in the r96os - cannot

be disconnected from the political climate that produced the movement to

·nd slavery or the movement for civil rights. Similarly, political ideas and

strategies cannot be confined to national or geographical boundaries, and

this is as true of feminism as it is of struggles against racism and

imperialism. British feminism, in both the nineteenth and twentieth

30

-----------~•rn-t~n• t I II I 1114 I I IW"W"" Ht .--.,.-pr.-..,.,-~--------

llllllllli ;li, W 1 i ~ itl 'l j dt Gd iifld ilil111111 f d 1,\. , ,' 11111111 • 1 ff tlll ll llltl tit l' l Jloiii M ol

1!11 Wll rltl , Jlli l iltlllii li y Allilllt ol tlitol Htllll j ll , ilfll llll 111111 lOit ll'lbul<.:d 1,()

di •I HIII '" 1111 d d i ' VI ' III jllll l ' llf H 0 111 - ld 1• l ld l illll At lll ' l' i l 'll il lcminism has always

lulll II VI ' I Y illll l l111ljlUIIII Y l't•ft •Vtllll l' lw• WO IIl CII in IJrita(n, although the

lt iNI 01 y ol !I till d tii iOflliC itus of'! Cll llCC II lo rgotcen or obscured.

In lt' l'nlS oi' l' llt'l' , the connect ions between Britain and the USA and the

h-Nsoos 10 be leam t on both sides have a particularly long and painful

hi stOI'Y. 131nck and white abolitionists, male and female, traditionally

visi t<.:cJ Britain to campaign for support and to raise funds for abolitionist or

independent black projects. Debates about every aspect of race, equality,

•manc ipation and human rights were held across the Atlantic by means of

personal correspondence, journals, newspapers and pamphlets. Many of

the early British feminists were influenced by the ideas and language of

ab9litionism, which had radical implications for their own politics.

Over a hundred years later, the way in which American feminists were

inspired by the civil rights movement has been recognized, albeit

unevenly, as a crucial element in determining the direction and tactics of

the women's movement. As many women have since testified, feminism

owed its analysis of oppression, its reliance on autonomy and separati~m, its understanding of equality, to the emergence of black politics through­

out the sixties. Juliet Mitchell touched on this in her history of women's

politics:

Black Power, Student, Youth and Peace Movements all embodied values that, in one way or another, easily found expression in Women's Liberation. In the United States, black women found themselves the most oppressed within and without their race: their 1 political movement would only

recognise their position if they did . But of greatest importance to Women's Liberation, Black Power focused on general oppression rather than on economic exploitation alone, and it validated separatist politics. 22

Just as political movements throughout America and Europe reverberated

among different sections of those populations, producing dialogues among

blacks, students, youth, workers and women across several different

countries, so feminism in Britain developed out of these same cross­

currents. It acquired a flavour that was specific to those conditions and to

the activists who took the first steps cowards working collectively in the

interests of women, but it was a movement that took its cue from a

women's politics that was being worked out simultaneously in the USA.

31

I'''

(

l'lu lllljlllll" lu ld11d 1111 l 'll tl y A 111 1 1 it 1111 i l'liilill~i l ' i ''II ''''P 111 lilt• 111

iiiHIIIIH• Htx flc •11 ('1 11111 ' 1111 )-ll'iy IHlll l Ntllll lll •flt Wl1 11 1 - 'I IIIII 11 Willi WI' H' III II

widd n tlw <.· iv ilri )-l hts movcllll'll l nnd who lu1d l 11111 III ~ Jillf • cl hy ri H• l't'vc •l1

of black pc.:ople in che areas where thqy I ived and wwl. t•t l. flo•· i llHn y of' 1 h ..

women it was their experiences inside the ch urch d 1111 propelled them;,,

direct action alongside their black new-found brothers and sisters. l1 1

remarkable book that documents this history, Sara Evans records in t"

views with women who either grew up or studied at college in a society ch: 11

practised segregation between black and white. She describes how many < •I

these women moved from an awareness of injustice against black people t c 1

a sense of their own struggle for equality:

Twice in the history of the United States the struggle for racial equality has been midwife to a feminist movement . In the abolition movement of the 1830s and 184os, and again in the civil rights movement of the 196os, women experiencing the contradictory expectations and stresses of changing roles began to move from individual discontents to a social movement in

their own behalf. Working for racial justice, they gained experience in organising and in collective action, an ideology that described and con­demned oppression analogous to their own, and a belief in human 'rights' that could justify them in claiming equality for themselves . In each case, moreover, the complex web of racial and sexual oppression embedded in southern culture projected a handful of white southern women into the forefront of those who connected one cause with the other. 23

As the decade progressed and other movements among the new left,

students and youth began to gather momentum, black and white women

working within male-dominated structures began to express their frust­

ration with their own situation of powerlessness. Many white women

experienced this as a discovery of a cause with which they could identifY

completely: instead of supporting someone else's struggle against oppres­

sion they could fight for themselves. Sara Evans stresses that the rebellion

by mainly young white women against racism had powerful implications:

Within southern society, 'white womanhood ' provided a potent cultural symbol that also implied little practical power for women. The necessity of policing the boundaries between black and whi te heightened the symbolic importance of traditional domestic arrangements : white women in their proper place guaranteed the sanctity of the home and the puri ty of the white

32

1(1(11 1\ I IIIII /' 11M tlt l)' l flililltu~d 1l111 ii 'W I IIIII I ill II

tilt I fi J •If "'"' "" dlllillll ill IIIII II I

'''" ""'"Y nlilu• Wlt lllt 'rt tlll h11 • 111 tl1 u t.'H tl y d11YN ol1 h ~· WOi ll <.: n 's rnovement, 1•111 11 111 1lu• liSA 1111d 111 1\JII Hi n , lll lllttl.llll ill ,4 11 connect ion between

d lll t•rt•fli k iII( Ill ol pol it ks WI IS ~ · rudu l (0 riH.:i I' r<: .ni ni sm' however difficult it

p111vN I. St•vt· •·ld hove wl'itLen o•· spokc.:n about how hard it was to decide

wlllll 1 heir l)l'ioriti<.:s were . By I968 two camps had emerged in the US

won1en's n1ovemc:nt, one for the 'politicos' - those who came from the new

lc·l'l and who be l ievcd chat capitalism was the main enemy- and one for the

'fe minists', some of whom later called themselves 'radical feminists' . Ellen

Wi llis recalls how she sided with the 'feminists', arguing that male

supremacy was a systematic form of domination, requiring a revolutionary

movement of women to challenge it . 'Our model of course was black power

- a number of the early radical feminists had been civil rights activists.'

Although the women who identified with this kind of feminism were

accused by the left of being bourgeois and anti-left , the majority ce~tainly

allied themselves with various leftist causes . Ellen Willis writes that 'with

few exceptions, those of us who first defined radical feminism took for

granted that 'radical' implied anti-racist, anti-capitalist and anti-imperia­

list. W e saw ourselves as expanding the definition of radical to include

feminism.' 25

Leslie Cagan remembers that she felt 'torn apart' by the distinction

between 'politicos ' and 'feminists'. Although she was quickly caught up in

the early women's groups and was committed to the idea of feminism, her

involvement in other political struggles made it hard for her to jump one

way or the other:

At the same time, deep in my heart of hearts I felt that we couldn't separate ourselves totally. We had co deal with the fact that Panthers were being shot down, we couldn't ignore the war in Vietnam. I didn't know how co do it, how to pull it all together. So I felt and acted as if I were several different

people all at once; I was an anti-war activist; I was a Panther support person; I was a feminist and my women's group probably had the biggest impact on me.

For her the problem in 1968 was to remain in both camps without feeling

rejected by either one. Active involvement with other liberation move-

33

li 11'111 ilt "til I11Jli I

11 ·tattut -t l ~~' ' ~ r~~ ·• 'i v• llltd ltt "11 11 11'1 I till

IIJl 11111111 1" ltiiiJIIII lilt' tiii llilj

with tilt ill t i ' IWIIItlltllll ~ t ituol hIt

• ~ wt •ll ttM 111 illkt • lt tt tllttilllt l :Uu

i if I lllllllillfll

I I IIII 1111tl ltr ill)l 11 ltl 1

olt 11 1llu ·~ 11 plltllttdoll 1111 ldc •nl Wil li h I ell 111'1 iiiii Nfl lllt 'd till' ltt ij llll l iltll l 111 1 111 ~ 111111 ' i Olllit'I IIOll

'" ' ' wt•c•11 ••• ovt• rn t'III N. In r <.no she.: wns one ol •• g rtH tp ol wldt c wonw n who

n tntptdJ{ II t•d 10 r·rdst· hui l tnoney l()r joan Bird , tt n inc rc.:cn-ycar-o lcl studt·nt

nmst· who w11s nrresrcd wich cwency ocher mem bers of che B.l ack Panthe r

1'11 11y on 11 1nrmpc.:d up charge of conspiracy . For the women in clv• rt llllplliJ.In , th<.• issue was both chat she was a woman and char she was an

"' tivis t with the Black Panthers figh ting racism, and they wanted co scress

1l111t in 1 he campaig n l iterature. At chat t im e it was not necessarily accepted

hy t1H:11 that women's consciousness was a valid part of any struggle and

1 ht•y were apprehensive chat their support for Bird would not be accepted

hy the Panthers. Instead they met with 'a beginning of what seemed co be

omt· rnurual respect. We weren 't just coming as some sort of guilty white

pt·ople who wanted ro help the poor Panthers. We were saying chat we had

t s trugg le roo and we thoug ht there was some way ro connect the two.' 26

In Britain the first feminist meetings and campaigns took place within

1 ht: context of the left - that is, actively socialist and trade union

or.4aniz ing. "Sheila Rowbotham, who was active within socialist and

student politics in the late sixties, describes how in the early years there was

fl strong socialist influence in the women's movement:

We would go on marches against Cambodia and then later on in solidarity

with Portugal after the revolution there . People now have a very clear idea of

the difference between the women's movement and 'the left', but we didn't

really at the time. Both then and now I would regard myself as part of the left. This does not mean I'm not a feminist :27

Elsewhere she writes that women were optimistic at fi rs t in assuming that

fem inist consciousness would automatically lead ro seeing connections

with other people. She admits that although many feminists did see the

onnections , this did not always happen. In 198 L, looking back at the

developm ent of the women's movement over chc previous ten years, she

speaks about an 'erosion of memory' which has obscLJ red the 'experiment­

ing and struggle about organising' that cook p lace in rhe early days of the movement.

It is perhaps easy to romanticize or over-si 1 n pi i ly l'c r·iods of history when

34

t'VtHf tltlllj , II f tiiid ll i tl• •t itlllfi .lrtt ;llili l i!ltd i il •t lii Vt I IIIII il IIi , tl ~ illl ~ l · il d

Ill h ·IJIII IIII Ill li111~ 1 11111111111 11 4• )1111 liP' JII IJitlt . NU'III Ill l ll ' l lt ' ill~ llOI'JI ,

lwt 1111 •c• il1111 I ~ 1111 11 11 11 1111111 •• II tllll ~clcHI • tllil 'lllpl 10 j,,,,,~ to_4ct her

tll• IHII IIII ' N l ltlll tl ~, Ill lti ll l t IIIIIIII 'IIIIIIIN lit IIIN'I jllt'VIOUSiy llllC()nnected

I hjll ' llt •IHI'N 'I'III INI' IO IIIH'I IIOIIN 1'11 11 NO l'l tSdy hi.' tnkcn for granted as the

jllllllll ttl co iii i'XI c lwngvs nnd 11ew ro nvcrt s arc drawn in . Different political

t lllt iH 1111 \'IH i\'S do 1101 ni.'<.:cssar ily have consistent bases for alliance or even

di11 111p, uc· . ' l 'h t· r~· (H il he no g uarantee chat apparently progressive move­

IIII'III S wi ll noc work against each other, sometimes unconsciously and

w nNi rn cs knowing fully chat each harms the other's cause . Being aware of

III II' own hi scory, as wh ite women t rying to work out a politics which is

c Oll t'crnecl with all these issues- gender, race, class, ecology, peace- which

111 ftl<.:t wants justice for all those who are exploited and powerless - gives us

mo~·e chance to renew those alliances. Continuing Leslie Cagan's thoughts

0 11 those things that are buried in the past:

There is a tremendous amount that we have yet to know about the links that

have existed between different struggles. It is going to take the pooling of

many people's different experiences and insights to see what those links are

and can be. And part of that process is writing our own history . We know

that 'they' are never going to write our history the way it really happened.

We have to do that one ourselves. 28

Legacies of Empire

Doubtless there are native women who set the highest value on their

chastity, but they are the exception and the rape of an ordinary native

woman does not present any element of comparison with the rape of a

respectable white woman, even where the offence upon the latter is

committed by one of her own race and colour.

Hubert Murray, Lieutenant-Governor of

Port Moresby, New Guinea, 1925 29

By instruction leading to the improvement of the individual we shall aid in

preserving women for their supreme purpose, the procreation and preserva­

tion of the race , and at the same time promote that race to a better standard,

mentally and physically.

]. E. Gemmell, journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of the

British Empire, 190330

35

itt 111•111\ I It h lllod l·lild l 1 itlllllll\ j ltlll l llf j\fj lu +j i j j i li t. i t l ~ ijtJ - ft l iJit 11tlllilt 1

tlu Wilt llitl lill -- 111111111' \W~ liH ltt ~ l Wli111 \1' 11111111 HT I !Ifi ll i tl i111 llllliVt

'"'''"··- '~' · I 111111111 l 't l ~ ll\' I ~ ·'IIW ' Itlll ' "" 1111/llill jllltof Ill iltl ~ ftlil Ill till •

111 11111 ' 111 I' Wii/1 Jt iiH•N t' ( 111/Ni/ilil wli/((• Wll llll ' lll ' ~l l II d IIVI'I pi/tii/liVI' pt•op/t• WIII INI' IIW II Wll ltil ' ll WI ' ((' Ill hrst I li t hurdt n ht'IIII 11N WliiiNI' lot \VI IS (O WOI'I\ tltlll oiH•y, 11 11d who w~· t ·t· oft en tl'<:u rc.:d wiLh tll' dvc O I' Pil ssiv~.: cruelt y.

Now I a•·cn'c no 'and with the ladies, For, tak ing 'em aJJ along,

You can never say till you've tried 'em,

1\n' then you are like to be wrong.

W i J) i li·ed Mathews, ' 9-1.~ 1 1

There's times when you'll think that you mightn't,

There's times when you'll know that you might;

But the things you will learn from the Yellow an' Brown, They'll 'elp you a lot with the White.

Rudyard Kipling32

The attempt to write history 'the way it really happened' necessarily

presents insurmountable problems . It implies the possibility of there being

one versiop of events, shared by many diverse participants. Yet how can we

begin to synthesize different versions of history that exist in separate and

often unrelated forms? For myself, deciding to learn more about the

historical connections between white women and black people, this

,Juestion became more and more important as I searched for clues in what

was available. I began to read more feminist history, that is, history

rewritten by feminists in pursuit of the conditions that have shaped

women's lives and their resistance in the face of economic, social and

political subordination. I tried to match this up with what little has been

published about black British history. Inevitably the first area was limited

to white women and the second mainly to black men, since there were far

fewer black women than men living in Britain Llllti l recent immigration

began in the 1950s. Another source of information was the wealth of

written material on slavery, abolition, colonialism and racism itself, some

of which included a perspective on gender bur most of which did nor.

The insularity of British women's history convinced me further that this

was a key to understanding the way that racism hnd been separated from

gender relations in contemporary analysis. lc is sri /1 rare, for example, to

find any white feminist history of the ni nerecn 1 h century that relates to the

llli1 hit 111ilj!ll ti, 1:~ 11)•t ,, , 1 i11t1 r ilt·ti '' i"'''' d "t) i(li_; II 'H II vi :" 111 lit i111111111 ''

I J" "- ild1 l 'lll t'ill 1111111 l111 ' ' llltllll ~ lti i 1,1111 d ltl llt td I II NilliNJ'ylll f4 lil t• Il l

11111111 t IYPt lt ntl 11111 tl tt ' l ., ,. ,, "'' " ' '"'i"tltd iNI lii111111~H ·N l l ll f~JWN I H thnt the •JII1 1Ntltllllll t tl! I ' l 11 1 ~ 11111t lt•Vtl tllt 111 1111 IIINIIIIY 111 wlut t· WO IIl CII . This is

"' 'N J!IIt~ 1111 1 ""' I IIIII lthH ,, IH'IIjilt• IIII VI ' il vt•d ill lll'itnin ro,· four hundred

YI'I II H 11 ~ Ji ll! I 111 I lit• All'intll llltd A ~ l l ltl dinspoms, (,g hting fo r their own

liht'l 'll ltOII ~~~ Wl' ll liS pl:tyinl-i 11 pat' l in wod<i ng-c lass politics. Apart from

ilti lt, llrlli sll ntl c ex tended until relatively reccndy right round the world;

H11f4 l ish p~·oplc did t10t ex ist in a vacuum on their precious island within

1ltt 1J l\mpi 1·e, ob li vious of what was going on in their name. Nor were

wo 11H.: 11 , white or black, excluded from the colonizing process.

l<i pling's phrase 'the White Man's Burden' is often interpreted as

tt'l crring co the great weight of uncivilized, non-Christian people through­

til l! the world who needed colonial rule to save them from themselves. 33

lt <:ading the poem of the same name I wonder whether it was not intended

11s an ironic comment on the obsession of Europeans to justify their

·ommercial exploitation of colonies by claiming that their rule was

spreading civilization and rescuing savages from themselves. But however

you want to take it, there is still the question of whether Kipling's White

Man could exist without White Woman somewhere at his side. We are

entitled to ask what her Burden was, and what she has done with it since.

Gender played a crucial role in organizing ideas of 'race' and 'civiliza­

tion', and women were involved in many different ways in the expansion

and maintenance of the Empire. The presence of white women, for

example, demanded that relations between the 'races' be highly regulated.

The increasing number of white women who travelled out to join husbands

and families in the colonies, or to work in their own right as missionaries,

nurses and teachers, often had far-reaching effects on the social lives of male

settlers, and consequently on the status and sexual exploitation of black

women. This was particularly true where the military were concerned,

since prostitution was often viewed by the colonial authorities as a

necessary evil to service the working-class troops who were not permitted

to bring their British wives. During the late Victorian period when

theories of race and eugenics were being used to bolster the concept of the

innate superiority of the white race above all others, English women were

seen as the 'conduits of the essence of the race' . 34 They not only symbolized

the guardians of the race in their reproductive capacity, but they also

provided- as long as they were of the right class and breeding- a guarantee

37

ilu11 lit it i11 lt ttllll o d ~ tlltd pt lwljdt •" wr tt tltllil"l i'ol ill lti tliU lif t 1 l11 'lilt I IIIII

lllf y, 1111 Wt•ll ttS ht' lllt\ 1 nl tl llt tt Ill t•d I 0 till • II I'M I J\1 I ill oil IIIII j I I till dt •llfiWN I IIIII

discussions on th<: vo luti l<: si t w LI iott in So11ilt AI ti t, , 111 il11• ' '' " ly lwt•nilt•flt

century, it was thought co be paniculal'l y iltt pOII illll 1 htil lll'il i.~ h WO •tH' II

made their presence felt there.

It is women of high moral character possessed of common sense and a sound constitution who can help build up our Empire . ... tThey can) .. . . cxa l the tone of social life, bring a softening, elevating, intellectual influence. 3'

Inevitably, the colonial situation varied from place to place, and from one

continent to another. The significance of white women's posicion within

the ruling elite was not fixed either in time or geography, but varied

according to the state of relations between those being colonized and those

exercising power. One of the recurring themes in the history of colonial

repression is the way in which the threat of real or imagined violence

towards white women became a symbol of the most dangerous form of

insubordination . In any colony, the degree to which white women were

protected from the fear of sexual assault was a good indication of the level of

security felt by the colonial authorities. In a study of European women in

colonial Nigeria, Helen Callaway writes that 'the question of European

women's "sexual fear" appears to arise in special circumstances of unequal

power structures at times of particular political pressure, when the

dominant group perceives itself threatened and vulnerable'. 36 Protecting

the virtue of white women was the pretext for instituting draconian

measures against indigenous populations in several parts of the Empire. In

Papua, New Guinea, a law was passed - called the White Women's

Protection Ordinance- which made any 'native' convicted of rape or even

attempted rape of a European female liable to the death penalty. The law

was passed during a frenzy of racist passions following reports of two

unconnected assaults on white females in a short space of time. Contempor­

ary records reveal that this was happening in a period of social and political

uncertainty in the colony, and that the actual level of rape and sexual

assault bore no relation to the hysteria that the su bject aroused. White

women provided a symbol of the most valuable property known to white

man and it was to be protected from the ever-encroaching and disrespectful black man at all costs. 37

The history of this particular discourse on ntct ftnd gender cannot be

8

Ill till 111 ~ 1111\' 111

I Jt hlltitdf ~ lll

11l111111 1111111'1 jllddli do j , lit 11 illll. [' lltfll j\ i lt(l ~ii lt; q 11f v. ld11 Wl lltlf ' ll Ill iiiiJ

l'tllpfll•, lttll lt lll tlllt d - IJ•IIfilt tllll j•itf tll ' Ill ill!_! d1 Vt lll jlltll Ill ttl lllflll 'll ttll ll l

tl ti ti11JIY 1 1111 d Jllll h lttfittlllll tl ~ td lltt jll t Ill J',IIV IIIIItll ' lli ld jlllil l y II ~ Wt•ll ttS

~ Ill lt il lt ' iltl liiJ I" J11 fl11 • tll illtiiJIIi /·Itt ftll 1 1i1111 i111" Jll'l ' ll ill lit• tx pfontl i011 ()(

tlllu•1 t•vc' tll lttllll tl w po l111 til vlt •w ol tllllll 'llljlllfi ii Y f(: tllinist polit ks in

lltll ttill , Yl'l ( ' V~'II tiH'NI' hl'ic•l lf((()IIIII N II III ( foll ow wi ll g ive an indication or tltc•lt• iiiiJ )Ot"IHi ll pl11n: i11 ill\' histOty of 1'on•, class ftnd gendcr. 1H

'l'ht• yc111" 1 H57 saw cite Grst nat·ional uprising in India, known co th

I ll'i 1 ish ns 'The Mllci ny '. Although there had been local resistance ro British

tllk in India before this date, there had never been widespread armed

1 t• ht·ll ion on such a scale before . Soon after the initial uprising by the Sepoys

111 Mctruc, reports of gruesome atrocities against British soldiers and

1 ivi li ans began flooding back to England, and for several months the press

rq.~ urgitated a diet of eyewitness accounts, military bulletins, stories and

rumours ro the British public who became ever more eager for revenge.

Tales of vengeance provoked great public rejoicing and Bernard Semmel

quotes an eyewitness report that 'the very sight of a dark man stimulated

our mltional enthusiasm almost to frenzy'. According ro Semmel:

Day after day, the newspapers told stories of massacres of British women and children, of gruesome oriental tortures and mutilations , of assaults on the virtue and honour of English women. Reports were received of aristocraci English ladies dragged naked through the streets of Delhi and exhibited co the lecherous gaze of its senile king. 39

It has been said that 'no episode in British imperial hisrory raised publi

excitement to a higher pitch'. 40 In 1897, a woman writing in Blackwood's

Magazine claimed that 'of all the great events of this century, as they arc

reflected in fiction, the Indian Mutiny has taken the firmest hold on the

popular imagination' . 41 As in all wars, there were tales of heroism ,

bravery, deceit and betrayal, but at the centre of the r857 uprising was the

spectre of the most awful atrocity that could be imagined: the rape of

English women. This was a crime that was rarely described in any detail ,

but alluded to in countless reports of attacks on civilians . The English­

woman's Review and Home Newspaper, the only women's newspaper pub­

lished at that time, provides a fascinat ing narrative of the way in which the

39

~lllli111 <"1'- i'!.' l iilf lid 11111"1•1 111111111111 )' l\f ll lfill\\'tl~llllljj"ll' IP\ . 1''11 111111 ,

1l11 • 111111 ll f it M l'dfllll itd 1111111 ' 111 I I'II I IH ,j j lf l l f llli )' fliilil tfl·ll 11 f !1 11 III II VI' II

I illlillf j lii 'NN l( p f y/ 11~ 111 1 ll ' f HI II N It II Ili 111 f11 •1 f' l!l li; t li 1 fl_l lll ril11

II 'II IIINIIII I I1 1ti lwlt•N, 1111 · f1 ilf ll ' l lttlo pl t• tl t lt t' IOI W ol tl w 111{}{111 v•Jd I'll li11 1, Hl vl 11 ,4 lt dl

1'11111 111'111\t' lll t' llf 10 tfl t· hrav<." lll Cil who SUI VIVt•tl I ll i1Vt' II ,4C:: lhd t• St'X,

At lOIIIII S or dc::lld c; hild rc n, of rooms fi ll ed with hlood , macccd hni t',

lllllllflkd 1oys, rott ing clothes, would all have had a particular impact in

1 ht• PIIJ.I CS of a women's paper which aimed to reinforce the conventional

lt• trutk role in che domestic sphere . To speak directly of lust and sexual

ltssn tdt wou ld hard ly have been thinkable in such a refined context . On" 1 t' POI't , pub! ishcd five months after the start of the uprising in May ,

lttt,4<: rcd not on ac tual rape so much as violence of a more representable llllllll'e:

Every clay brings news of further atrocities. The fiends of Islam actually mince the Christians - oblige poor ladies and children to lie over the dead bodies of their husbands, brothers , and fathers, there to be chopped up limb by limb! They often force down the throats of the living victims the flesh of the mangled Christians, whose fate they well know they themselves are to shnrc immediately after!42

One month later, under the heading, 'An Oath for Vengeance', the paper

recounted the heroic story of one detachment of troops. On finding the

r<:rnains of one of General Wheeler's daughters, the men divided up every

hair of her head between them and took a solemn oath to kill as many

'natives' as each strand of hair in revenge for her unspeakable fate .

This anecdote illustrates the dynamics of colonial repression in which

the Englishwoman symbolized all that was held most dear in British

ci vilization. The colonized people were to be punished and made to pay for

their revolt against colonial rule, bur the severity of the punishment was

g iven the appearance of legality by being carried out in the name of

avenging the womenfolk. A graphic account wrircen almost fifty years later

proved that there was still an audience eager to hear the details. The fate of the women provided much of the drama:

The fugit ives who escaped from the Cashmere G11 tc hnd some very tragical

experiences. Sinking from fatigue and hwl,4Cr, St'Ot'dwd by the flame-like heat of the sun, wading rivers, toiling chr011Ah jun~ ks, hun ted by villagers, they struggled on .... Of that much-end~11' iii J.1 W ll1 Jli ii i Y ... it is recorded

10

""'' till "ll lllllllllllll Iiiii Fd iliP l tijtlt; t. j jj, j.lll "' '""''""' IIIIII JIIIII I IIII

lll II IIIII II hill IIIII 111 111 1111 fhtd Ii i J,i\' !111 1i1l fd Jlt 11 ll ill lli ' fi'NN jllll ~ l l'

Iii VI, 1111111 ' 1111111 IIIII Wi l l fl tld [II ~II f ll'l llltNhtllld tfl t•, of h11 fl t: 1 01'

Wllll f ~ lllli .", ill 111 11 ftt 'l

' J'fll' follllll!f t• of f ill.' Jlt·il iS h WOII1l' ll Wli S f'rcq ucn cJy COntrasted with their

11 t•n t nwot hy t lw ~ ·~· be Is. ll owever, in chis particular account, written by

W , II . lli tdH.: tc , HA, LLD, 'author of Deeds that Won the Empire, Fights/or the

f lf,tp, , 1/ow!Jnp,ltllul Sa11ed BttrojJe, Wellington's Men etc' , it was evidently more

signilicant co st ress barbaric cruelty rather than sexual assault:

Outrage, in the ordinary sense, was not, on the whole, a marked feature of

the Great Mutiny. The Sepoys, that is, were on fire with cruelty (more} than

with lust . But their cruelty spared neither age nor sex. The wife of a captain,

according tO one scory current at the time - and perhaps not true - was

li terally boiled alive in ghee, or melted butter. Children were tossed on

bayonets, men roasted in the flames of their own bungalows; women were

mutilated and dismembered. 43

This extract is not only interesting for the way it differentiates carefully

between 'ordinary' lust and inflamed cruelty, but also because it repeats an

anecdote that the author himself suggests might not be true. Thus it is a

good example of the continuing power of the 'Mutiny' narrative in the early

twentieth century.

The second incident to precipitate a panic about the safety of white

women was the Morant Bay uprising, which took place in Jamaica in

r86s. 44 A protest demonstration of several hundred Jamaican peasants, led

by Paul Bogle, marched to the local court-house to complain about the

partiality of magistrates, and, meeting the full strength of the militia, set

fire to buildings and forced local officials to flee . As a result, the governor,

Edward John Eyre, declared martial law and sent in troops who killed 439

blacks, flogged about 6oo others and burned over rooo homes. The

savagery with which the local revolt was put down- the troops met with no

resistance - caused intense interest in England. The arrest and execution of

George William Gordon, a prominent landowner and critic of Governor

Eyre, provoked particular consternation. During the months that fol­

lowed, debates about the character of the West Indian black man raged

41

'"''''""'''' 'I\' ' lltml •·lut •tll •l••tllld l'ptl Wtllll~- tlllllit II l·lul 11 111 11 Wt/1( IIIII - ltlllljll tilltll , 1111 II JIIIIIIIIIII Wlltl ld f\1 1 i l.lllljil l li" i\' 11 111 11! It lilt I t\ ~ l11 •~ 11 llllllltll Will ' d1Hpt111 i11 •d Ill l11 •lp l!y11 • ljlll ' li tlllltilllt llllllllllfl 'd dt HIItd ll lll 11

1

tlu • .\'MIIr~mlll • pot ' tt ·d !l ull tl~t • hllt t k NIIVII!J.ON ol llllll tlli ll l111d 1111 J-ll'l<•vJi tH ~ ~~. btll NOII /{ 111 on ly 10 ~ llfi N fy thti t• )4 1'(.'Cd , hntt•cd 1111d 111111 lw• wliJ(l' JH'OJWI'Iy ,

whllt • lt ves 1111d whit <..' womcn.tt ~ 'f'hose who dclcntk·d t ltt.: b lack popu lution

WN<' hmllthl as 'ni i-IJ.le r-worshippers', while the development of chc so cui Jc•d sdl'nces of physical anthropology and evolutionism meant that chct'l'

WIIS .1 new language to express the old prejudices. 46 One newspaper

NIIJ,lf;tsted chat the 'world-renowned quest ion, once thoug ht so convincing,

of " Am I not a man and a brother?" would nowadays be answered with

NOn1t: hesi car ion by many - with a flat negative to its latter half by rhos who rt:gard the blacks as an inferior race'. 47

'J'ht: histOrical memory of white women's presence in the Empire, shaped

hy events such as these , cements the image of the powerless, vulnerable

female. However, an equally fruitful and revealing discourse emerges when

white women chose to defy this role through what they did and said . There

arc many instances where English women challenged the expectations

:arising from their allotted place within the colonial system, preferring to

livt: independently and inviting scandal and frequently loneliness by doing

so . T here are scattered examples of women who engaged in anti-slavery

politics, who organized campaigns to support black women in different

parts of the Empire , or who gave their energy to nationalist movements,

but they remain eccentric individuals at best. Whereas feminist historians

have uncovered many examples of feminists who braved convention at

home to fight to improve the lives and opportunities of women of all classes

and backgrounds, there has been little corresponding interest in British

women who came face to face with the complexities of racism and male

power. T he exceptions to this usually fall in the 'intrepid explorer'

category: women like Mary Kingsley who are freq uently remembered or

•ven celebrated for their 'feminism' - that is, their at t itudes to the

constraints of gender - rather than their role in the imperialist project and

the way they dealt with racism and cultural difference.

The struggle for history is about m uch more than establishing what

actually happened. lt~ves those who have so far been excluded or

marginalized, recognizing themselves not as pass ive victims but as actors

who have had an instrumental role in che pas r. Recognizing that there is a

whole dimension of British history now demanding incorporation into

42

"~ ' i lltltl " tl1111 ' VI' tl' l ' ' "" liiii' l ~ ll j' tr · l ~:d li- lil l lr i.ld , 111 '" 1t , 1 ~ 1 idtftlhltivr ,

lloi l lllllllllllll lllijdlt til IIIII ~ IIIII jll 1 1 ltH lt'tlfitli ~ l itl - ltlli tiii - JIIil 1!11 111 11 1\!1

11 11 11 111 ""' ' '''"'' ' ' ~''' ' ~ 1utl l, I 11111 11111 hlll'td· i11 14 tdHtlll id111pl y htin~in,~o~ :t

ltl - 1111~' "' l thtt l l ll 'llt dt• '" .,r llld ~ tlllilllll l{• ltl• • wlu11 is lwow n ohout whi te Wllllllll

1" l d ~ llll y, lllil ul IIIHI' Ii l llll /{l ' ltd t•t liillll 'l! iNI ill/{ l l~'COLitlCS or race and

tl t i ~M ' t\pp lyill/{11 pt•tti jii'I II VI ' olt ucc•, 1 hiNN 1111rl J.l<: ndcr co hiscorical inquiry

•llliidd l'li c•t IJ VI' Iy ll'll tiSfo rm intt·t' jWC tlltions based on race and class or class

!ltd /{l 'lldt· t', 'J'Iw 11111 i-sl11very movement, for example, coincided with a

pt•tlod of tutntd lllous social change in Britain. Studies of women's aboli-

1 ionist wot·k have so Car been mainly restricted tO a limited 'women's

1 Olllribucion' sty l.e of inq uiry , but the evidence these studies offer us could

dso be used in conjunction with other material to speculate both on the

1 hang ing dynamics of social , economic and political relations and on the

politics of challenging slavery itself. To take another example which I shall

h,t: exploring later on, colonial society involved a highly complex web of

social relations based on race , class and gender. Learning about what white

women did to pass the time in that society would not necessarily contribute

much to an analysis of how it reproduced itself, whereas prising apart the

social relations which connected white women to white men as well as

black men and black women is likely to shed more light on the mechanics

of power and domination under colonialism.

The purpose of exploring the histories of slavery and imperialism is not

to bring white women to account for past misdeeds, nor to search for

heroines whose reputations can help to absolve the rest from guilt, but to

find out how white women negotiated questions of race and racism- as well

as class and gender. In other words what we need to do is to trace ideas that

have historically constructed definitions of white womanhood and to ask

how these ideas have been formed either in conjunction with or in

opposition to feminist ideology.

The final stage of my argument concerns the legacies of these ideas

today . There would not be much point in understanding how the category

of white femininity was constructed through history if this information was

not used to engage with contemporary ideologies of domination. It is

largely by looking at the histories of racism and male dominance that we

find keys to understanding the specific complexities of our societies,

unearthing connections which might otherwise remain unclear or even

unpalatable.

I would not want to suggest that this process is simple and straight-

43

lill\i(illd , I Iiiii I jll tll til ,til ) Ill ill! 111111\l(HIIy , i lt t, i[lli liJ Jlitj!lll illll l jlllllllt1111

111 hr iiddii ·MIIt'd , 11 11111 ~~~ I111W WI' till ' 111 d11 iltl t - -iii I' 1111 iitllll\1' - lllil~tllll y 1111d

lllllil' l'il" ll ti i Y li vPM, I IIIIIIIJIIIH ilo11 wlilt 1111111 Hlllll j •·•••f i •nlpl t• whlllllll)'

11111 l11• l uft ' l t'H I I'd Itt o111' Vt ' I'NionH, Ol' who II lilY I•P 111 11111il lt 1 w i1 It ti N. I low

do WI ' fltt' ll p lt'(l' Olll' ilill't'pi'C.: IHrlOOS li ll d IIJl l il yNI'N 10}-\t' lit <.: r with o fl u •t

Jwoplc•'s in 1mlc.:r· to m11kc better sense or chcn1 l And perhaps moNt

IIII J!OI' IHtltly, who arc 'we' anyway ? lt is this lase suspic ious question tl 111 1

~ hould hc1-1 in any incursion into feminist history .

Notes

l!noch Powell , Freedom and Reality, Paperfront, Kingswood 1969, p . 287 . Char les Moore, The Old People of Lambeth, The Salisbury Group, London 1982 . S<.:c, for example, Ruth Hall, Ask Any Woman-A London Inquiry into Rape and Sexual

A \1111111 , Falling Wall Press, Bristol 198y]. Hanmer and S. Saunder, Well-Founded Fear - A .'!illllllllllity St11dy of Violence to Women, Hutchinson, London 1984; and Liz Kelly and Jill

Rildl(>rd, 'The Problem of Men: Feminist Perspectives on Male Violence', in P. Scraron, ed., I .1111>, Order and the A11thoritarian State, Open University Press, Milton Keynes 1987.

~ Dorkla11ds Light Railway News, no. 5, Autumn/Winter 1986. ~ Ibid., no. 6, Summer 1987.

Ray Honeyford. 'Multi-ethnic Intolerance' . The Salisbury Rrwiew. no. 4, Summer

l<)!l ~·

7 Daily Telegraph, 4 September 1987. H Dttily Express, 4 September 1987.

Observer, 22 April 1990. 10 Eileen Macdonald, Brides For Sale: Human Trade in North Yemen, Mainstream

Publishing, Edinburgh 1988, pp. 86-7. 1 1 Sm1day Express, r6 November 1986. In a report of the same trip, the Guardian (12

November 1986) provided a nice example of what Jim Clifford calls 'the Squanto effect' . During a re-enactment of a traditional wedding plaTed especially for Diana's entertain­ment, an Omani woman was asked what impression f e English princess had made on her. She replied in English, 'Well, actually, I saw her last in Gleneagles, and she seems very much the same'. (Clifford, The Predicament . of Culture; Twentieth-Century Ethnography, l-iterature and Art, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA/London 1988, p. I7 .)

12 Vogue(UKedn),June 1987. 1 3 Observer, 2 3 February r 986. I4 E//e (UKedn),July 1987 . 15 Pratibha Parmar, 'Hateful Contraries: Media Images of Asian Women', in Ten.8'

no. r6. r6 Pratibha Parmar and Jackie Kay, 'Interview with Au eire Lorde', inS. Grewal eta/.,

eds, Charting the journey: Writi11gs by Black and Third World WI omen, Sheba, London 1988, p.

I 25 . 17 'Taking Racism Personally: White Anti -Racism ac the Cross-Roads', Peace News,

1978.

44

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ill IH'IIIIhil l-1111

ll111 fu11 illul V111 i1 1111 \uoilll" \~'1111 1 1 11 , /llllriJII'IIiV 1 Wl lli l' l II)H 1111 . 11 '11111 11ildllll t ·h W l l ll lfl}il'~ 11 11 lolll••llt 11l11 '1111 hill -1 l'l 'lllltiiHIII ', Ill l)id< CluSicr,

!'d, //ltl' l/11111/,//l,,t.,. ,llll'••/ 't '/•rl/i'.H/111/I 11//" /1,,,//t,tli U!llll'lllhM ' ihPIJiii, South End Pr<.:ss ,

1\11-11111 11)/'1 , l lfl J~ I II t IIINII'I ' I' A,fl 111111'1 Mlllh1•ll , \Y1111/hlll'l /li/.m, l't ' ll/-111111 , lhll'lllOIIdsworth 197 1, p. 175 ·

S11 111 l!v''""• l'!ll'llllll ilflo/1111 .11 Vlntll/{t', New Yo1·k 1979 , p. 24.

1\VII II N, p, )~, , ll.llt•ll Wil lis, 'Rudk:u l [lcminism and feminist Rad icalism', in Sohnya Sayres eta/.,

1 dH, '/'In• 110.1 \YiitiJo111 JlfJoloRy, Univers ity of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1984, p. 93 ·

CIIISI<:r, pp . 2'1 '1 -~· 1 111 ll clll'y Abc love, et a/., ed . , Visiom of History, Pantheon, New York 1984, p. 58 .

H Cl LI Ster·' p. 2 58. <) Amimh Ing lis, The White Woman's Protection Ordinance: Sexual Anxiety and Politics in

/ 1,1/llltl , Sussex University Press , London 1974, p . 72. 10 J. E. Gemmell , Presidential Address co the North of England Obstetrical and

( :ynuccological Soc iety, published in journal of Obstetrics a11d Gynaecology of the British Empire, lkccmber 1903, p. 590, quoted in Anna Davin, 'Imperialism and Motherhood', History

Wlorkshop]ournal, 5, Spring 1978. 3 I Winifred Mathews, Dauntless Women, Edinburgh House Press, London 1947, p. 5· 32 Rudyard Kipling, 'The Ladies', in The Srwen Seas, Methuen, London 1897 p. 190. 33 Rudyard Kipling, 'White Man's Burden', in The Five Nations , Methuen, London

1903, p. 79· 34 Jane Mackay and Pat Thane, 'The Englishwoman' , in R. Colts and P. Dodd, eds,

l!.rtglishness: Politics and Culture 1880-1920, Croom Helm, London, p. 201. 35 The Hon. Mrs Evelyn Cecil, 'The Needs of South Africa, II. Female Emigration',

The Ninteenth Century, April 1902, p. 683, quoted in Coils and Dodd, p. 205. 36 Helen Callaway, Gender, Culture and Empire: European Women i11 Colonial Nigeria,

Macmillan, London 1987 , p . 237· 3 7 For a detailed account of this history see Inglis. 38 Since I first wrote this I have read some very interesting and useful work on both

events: see Jenny Sharpe, 'The Unspeakable Limits of Rape: Colonial Violence and Counter­Insurgency', Genders, no. 10, Spring 1991. On the Morant Bay uprising see Catherine Hall, 'The Economy of Intellectual Prestige: Thomas Carlyle, John Stuart Mill , and the Case of

Governor Eyre', Cultural Critique, no. 12, Spring 1989. 39 Bernard Semmel , ]amaica11 Blood and Victorian Conscimce: The Governor Eyre Contro-

versy, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT 1962, p. 21. 40 Patrick Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness: British Literature and imperialism, 1830- 1914,

Cornell University Press, Ithaca/London 1988, pp . 199-224. 41 Hilda Gregg, 'The Indian Mutiny in Fiction', Blackwood's Magazine, no. r6r,

February 1897, pp . 218-31, quoted in Brantlinger, p. I99· 42 Englishwoman's Rrwiew and Home Newspaper , 24 October 1857. 43 W. H. Fitchett, The Tale of the Great Mutiny, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1901,

pp. 44, 69.

45

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'Europe Supported by Africa and America' by William Blake

llf lilllldu I tllldil il1111 HI(, hi IUili ol li111111d Wl tl1 iiH Ill

111 wt lu ludol , llllilll d111 11 ,

l l l t~'H luiii i'N f l11 II1111H t iiiH ii l'd ~

Wld lt• WII III II II0H 111'1111 IN hlt·NIIIIJ.I,

Sh11 ll WO il li iii 'N vol<t h~· husiH.:dl

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Sheffield Association for the

Universal Abolition of Slavery, 1837 1

111 1 ht lnst decade of the twentieth century it has become almost a ritual for

works of femi nist hi story or theory to begin by discussing the concept of

'wwnan' or 'women' as a tool for understanding female subordination.

Writing in a collection of essays entitled Feminism/Postmodernism, for

t•xa rnple, J udith Butler asks:

Oocs feminist theory need to rely on a notion of what it is fundamentally or

li stinctively to be a 'woman'? ... Is there a specific femininity or a specific

set of values that have been written out of various histories and descriptions

that can be associated with women as a group' Does the category of women

maintain a meaning separate from the conditions of oppression against

which it has been formulated? 2

These kinds of questions are crucial to developing contemporary feminist

theory, since in refusing any simplistic notion of homogeneity they invite a

more complex and contradictory view of gender relations. At the same

time, others have stressed that feminist politics require a more immediate

and practical sense of connection between women if alliances across race

and class are to be created and sustained, and if feminism is to make any

sense as a political force. In other words, feminism needs to deal with two

distinct levels of understanding 'women' as a collectivity: on the first , it

would be ridiculous to say that we did not know what it means since we are

continually reminded either by straightforward biology or by the social

relations of gender that govern our lives, wherever we live; but on the

second, there must be a recognition that the category itself is historically

and culturally constructed. It follows that a historian needs to be sensitive

to the ways that the category woman/women was understood during the

period in question, without losing sight of the shifts in those meanings

since then. The poem at the beginning of this essay is a useful illustration

49

ttl iltl ~ Jit!itll li -,- , - til li II''\' WitfiP 1 til,dlli )' iiiid til !- I itt~~ \ltll lltll tdttlll l

hit!l_lt ~ Jil\1 1 1''11111111 1 jttddt ~ J II',j fit 11 jttli!. ftllldf {J Jllitil tr ifl illl ~ f llllt ' f/111 1

ltvt ll\' Will II Vt'l It fll!tl jdtlit ' \XI tl l111111 ~tl. lllj' tltt 111 1111 • I Ill wl11 1lt I I

tppt'tllt 'd , illl ' l! ' Ill!' llllt ill t'N I I ~ Ill ii H• Nllt uti t f l t l lltlll ~ lu IWI 'I'II ti u• Wil ll ll' ll

h••ltt/{ ttdclit•Nst•d tltl d til t• wo ttt t•n who :tt't' in l tllll ltlc·. Yt• t lwltintl i1 11 •

,.,, lt tll 'ltl.d i 1 y ol II H' t I'Y li·o1n womn n 1 o woman I k·s 11 litsd nn t i n,t.; h is t Of'Y 111

''I'I'IISII i1111 10 sl11vc•ry and an emerg ing fem inist consc iousness .

The• pl'Ojt•c·t or trad ng connect ions between race and gender scares most cl~d,lly d ul'i ng the yea rs o ( At lantic slavery, when t he social relat ions ol' I tit t•, t h1ss and gender in .E urope and America were being formed by speci fi "

t'l o11wn it, po l i 1 ical and ideolog ical forces. T his is not co suggest cha

tnlt·llot ki ng systems of race and gender subordination did not exist before

tlus ! llllt', but chat exp loring the parcicular relationships between black

pt'llplt•s 11 11d white women throug hout slavery - and the movement for irs

th11li1 ion provides g reat insig hts for understanding subsequent histories .

Tit is is 11 11 enormous area of study, and in Britain at the time of writing this

t'NII:ty 1 het·e has been very little published on British women and slavery. 3 I

lm ~~~on the role of women in the anti-slavery movement as a way of tracing

t 11111\Ctt ions that women themselves made between the social relations of n" t'. class and gender.

From Oroonoko to Uncle Tom

As I set out co research this chapter I was astonished to discover that the

lirst novel ever written by a woman dealt with the ethics of slavery, long

hdorc t he abolit ionist movement was formed. In 1678, the poet and

playwright Aphra Behn wrote her first prose work, a book which was

rc:markable for two reasons. Oroonoko - or the Royal Slave was, some would

1rguc, the first novel to be published in the English lang uage - a fitting

IIChicvement for the first woman to support herself by her writing . But less

wd I known is the impact the book had on representations of black slaves

withi n British culture. Behn's novel was dramatized by Thomas Southerne

soon after p ublication and was shown in London every season for almost a

century_ Despite substantial changes in the plot and characterization,

Oroonoko became 'one of the most internationally popular stories of the

eighteenth century __ . a prototype for a vast literature depicting noble African slaves' . 4

50

1'111 1111"• ,,, tlf 1111111 L l•illtl, II! )' Ill ii~ (itlllltl\'1" Ill"" lt,ll llll/1 I dill I,

,JHitill "' ' l'l11 111111 , '111 \lri u 111 Pti'" o i.l1111ttud "· '" l ~ttlltho " " '• noh lc,

lt~,tv• '"'" tl• tJtl)' lttiNi llt lit ( IIII Miltlltit\' lit • 111 t d ~o tll]lllhk ol inrens"

flllllillllli htVI . 1111 tl oJ il't 'iill/111 11111)11 lti ' J III~M l tiii H It '( OJ-I II iZll hJt: tO his white

llllllit•illl' l 11 ti ll' tiii ii Ht' ol t l11• plot ]It' IN l'f iJl lll l't.'d and brought over to

,\11111111111 ~~ ~ 11 Nillvt•, wht•t't• IH· lt'IHis l11 s lellow slaves in a revolt but is

I' VI ' II I IIH ii y cl<·lt•t tt t•d 11 nd lll ll l'dered by wh ite offi cials. H is defiance right up

1 o I lis dc11 tl \ is sy mbolized by che way he continues to smoke a pipe as his

hody is hocked co p ieces whi le cied ro a stake.

W ithin this main p lot Oroonoko meets and is separated from Imoinda,

1 he woman he loves . T hey are dramatically reunited on the slave plantation

where they are allowed to marry. W hen Imoinda becomes pregnant,

Oroonoko refuses to accept the prospect of his child being born into

slavery . Rather than see her being raped by their captors he kills her and

the unborn child as part of a suicide pact, but is so tormented by grief and

.lesire for revenge that he is unable to kill himself, and is captured as he lies

helplessly by her corpse_ 5

In order to appreciate Behn's role in changing the way black slaves were

dep icted, it must be remembered that she was writing at a time when

blacks were seen as a different species- certainly not individuals who could

think, feel and love. Anti-slavery protest from whites was almost unknown

in England , and just beginning to make itself heard in America, but

descriptions of the brutality and torture involved in maintaining slavery

were almost meaningless as long as the slaves were not thought to value

love and liberty . According to David Brion Davis, Europeans, who were

not obliged to come face to face with the slaves, could generally only

understand concepts of freedom and bondage in terms that were familiar to

them: romance, betrayals, unjust punishment of a faithful servant. 6

Certainly Behn gave her hero physical characteristics that must have

endeared him to her audience - she was careful to emphasize that his

features were not those of a 'typical' African:

His face was nor that of that brown rusty black which most of that nation are, but a perfect ebony, or polished jett. His eyes were the most awful that cou' d be seen, and very piercing; the white of' em being like snow, as were his teeth . His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat. His mouth the finest shaped that could be seen; far from those great turn'd lips, which are so natural to the rest of the Negroes . 7

51

1 ,1~, 1111 l ~tdltll l lk"litdl , l'n ~ i' "' • J.q ·· 'i~" U· ll t!d r ldi11 ·i,., tlllli i11

Hllli~ l i i il W•l" l llll lllll lllld l ·d l t)1 1t tlllillli 11'\'t illlll llllll }' d ll llilll Ill •. l ~l lll t ild Ill

!I IIII w "HHit• lifl lllll" l Nt•tldtllll , <.IIINI ' I Ill IIIII III illi 1111 IIIII NIIIVI ' lllld

lt•t tdiiiJ!. Aflll'llll Attlt ' ll\ 1111 uholi1ionist, Jllt•dt 'll l i I lttll fl lii ~R, Wl'll lt ' ol ltt•l

wo l'lc 'O•w flit s it I t'OIIl 1 he hca n -Sltppl icJ i tH~· II t•t 1 o f ll ll lllt ' l llt·t·cht:l' S1 owt •

·ould l i,4ht a mi ll ion cn mp flres in front of th<.: emhnul<.:d llOSLS of slttv t ty ,

which not all the waters of the M ississippi, mingled as they arc in blood,

t'llu ld exling Ltish. ' 11 William Wells Brown, another African-American

abo li t ionist , who was in London at the same time as Stowe, wrote: 'U1td1•

'/(wi'J Cabi12 has come down upon the dark abodes of slavery like a

1norning's sunlight, unfolding to view its enormities in a manner which

lt1lS fastened all eyes upon the "peculiar institution" , and awakening

sympathy in hearts that never before felt for the slave .' 14

1 Iarriet Beecher Stowe described her motives for writing th is book with

simple clarity. She felt, she said, a desperate urge that she , as a woman ,

should do 'something ' for the slave, urged by her sister-in-law to use her

pen to 'make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is' . 15

Just before she began, she wrote to a friend:

1 feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak. The Carthaginian women in the last peril of their state cut off their hair for bow-strings to give

the defenders of their country, and such peril and shame as now hangs over this country is worse than Roman slavery . I hope every woman who can write will not be silent. 16

l]nlike Aphra Behn, Stowe did not place herself in the story to give her

slave characters a greater proximity to her readers. But ,, when the authen­

ticity of her book was challenged, she provided her critics with a factual

account of slavery in a separate book, called The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin,

defending herself against the charge that she had let her female imagina­

tion run away with itself. This work proved to be a far more devastating

account of the realities of slavery- for as Frederick Douglass pointed out,

the slaveholders had only made matters worse by denying the truthfulness

of the novel. 17 The Key not only confirmed the accuracy of every detail of the

characters and the events that took place in the story, but corroborated

them with letters, slave narratives and lega l documents. Stowe also

reiterated her main point that slavery was rh <.: responsibili ty of all those

54

wl11i, ttl l id lllt . lll ~ t ; l vtr i Iii illl !!it' 1111 ··Iii' i1ult11ll'd 11 l111 t I I11 " ' " ' Y ~t i t ' lll h ll: l ljdllil ~ dt llllltlilhlliilll tlli!lllilil lllilillll 111'~ ' 1111 1 ~ tltl ~ qlll 'lillllll .

lttlfll 1111\'llli ~ tj ll' (tlll \\' 1 li. ,ltl L\' 1)\ II JIJIIIIIIIIti ty lliplt 'l l( h dit·~·U i y l() h<.:r

ll tldtt ll ~ ~ 111 drt w tlllt llli llll i11tl1• 11 \'JHII II NIC 'N tt l tl~t • llht•rt tl s who supported

MlttVt 'IY l ty tlt lliitl lll fl wi tlt tl11• 111 1111 tl ltv tttiiNiy 't•vi l' slnve craders; and she

t lud lt•lt/ll 'd 111•1 Not'lill ' lll H'tll lt•IH wllll tli lllll t'd 10 desp ise the institution of

lttvt •ty httl who tt.ftt st·d 10 llttc:pt ft•t·t.• h iat.'ks as their equals. By claiming

il u11 Nli lvt••y wns 11 ptll't: ly morn l und t·elig ious issue she was well aware that

wo nw11 would he mo1·e susceptible co her arguments, and she set out to

spt.•nk LO chern directly. More specifically she addressed the 'mothers of

A met·ica': through her descriptions of domestic life, death and the sepa­

nll ion of women from their children and husbands, and the humiliation of

sexual abuse, she s~ated quite explicitly that it was up to women to use

their moral influence against the more rational and unfeeling qualities of

men. This division of emotional and ethical labour between the sexes was

entirely consistent with mid-nineteenth century, middle-class views of

social relations, both in America and in Britain. In the first part of the book

Stowe introduced two white couples who personified the different

approaches of male and female. The well-meaning but ultimately guilty

Mr Shelby justifies his decision to sell both Tom, his most hard-working

and trustworthy slave, and little Harry, the four-year-old son of his wife's

maid Eliza, by arguing that the high price these two would fetch would

stave off his inevitable bankruptcy. When his wife finds out that he has

made the transaction she launches into an impassioned speech about the

hypocrisy of bringing up slaves to be good Christians and then selling them

' just to save a little money'. Her husband clearly does not want to be

reminded. He tells her that while he respects her feelings, he does not share

them to their full extent; he cannot back out of the sale without

jeopardizing his whole business . Mrs Shelby's reaction illustrates the

particular situation that many white women found themselves in:

This is God's curse on slavery! -a bitter, bitter, most accursed thing! -a

curse to the master and a curse to the slave! I was a fool to think I could make anything good out of such a deadly evil. It is a sin to hold a slave under laws like ours - I always felt it was, -I always thought so when I was a girl , - I thought so still more after I joined the church; but I thought I could gild it over, - I thought, by kindness, and care, and instruction, I could make the

condition of mine better than freedom , - fool that I was! 18

55

llttttlt;t llu •t lut :l tlt l'l olt l ttflwtlf\ 1 1 ~1-t lulhftt i-'··hJIIM pi 1tlt i\ j'llllltltt

Vtl\' l11 1MI i l 1l~M Ill ~11 111l11111 Wlll tll ' ll ', illltit t'tllllilllti iit ['!,till/ 1111111 1 jll\11 1

htolit•ll' whfi t• 1 ntvt •ll ltlfl 111 Kt' illllt ky wl1 11 l ''~ j lll '~u d \t; t )' ld t1 tllt11 lol' il l l

1111'111 ". Tht•st• Wlll ll l'll do 't il l they ~·: 111 to ll il t•v lollt wl11t1 tl~t •y ntntiOI

jllt'Vt' ll( ', slw wr·otl· , and ll t'C olicn surrmrndcd hy t ir~ tii ii ,~ IH tl tl'S over· whid1

I ht•y h11 VI' 110 l 'OII l'I'Oi .

A11ot her fema le charac ter whose moral indignation also shames her

husba nd with more successful results - is Mrs Bird, the senator's wife.

( )vcr the tea-tab le, surrounded by young children, she scolds him for no

opposing the fugitive slave law which forbade anyone to help or harbour

runaway slaves. As their house was situated just across the river from the

slave-own ing South , they considered themselves friends of the· slave and

would have unq ues tioningly helped any fugitive who came to their door.

When Mr Bird attempts to reason with his wife that to do so in future

wou ld be breaking the law, she rounds on him: ' I hate reasoning, John­

t•spec ially reasoning on such subjects. There's a way you political folks have

of com ing round and round a plain right thing; and you don't believe in it

yourselves , when it comes to practice.' The power of her emotional

argument is soon revealed as a runaway slave presents herself at their door,

und there is no question of turning her away.

It is during this episode that Harriet Beecher Stowe draws on one of her

own most painful female experiences: the death of a child. Mrs Bird is so

shocked and moved by Eliza and Harry's plight that she gives Harry the

clothes of her dead son. Watched by her two young boys, Mrs Bird goes

upstairs to fetch them:

0, mother that reads this, has there never been in your house a drawer, or a

closet , the opening of which has been to you like the opening again of a little

g rave? Ah ' happy mother that you are, if it has not been so . 19

W hen one of her sons asks her gently, 'Mamma, are you going to give away

those things?' she replies: 'I could not find it in my heart to give them away

to any common person, - to anybody that was happy; but I give them to a

mother more heartbroken and sorrowful than I am; and I hope God will

send his blessings with them!'

Of course , Stowe did not restrict her male and female characters to good

or bad , or even simply pro- or anti-slavery , but in each case their gender

affects their perception of slavery. Many thousands of words have been

s6

lllli'll ltl•lllllflll lil !lltl~l lli(!lliltit! ~ it [l''t l' tiiiC. jlllillltl 'tl IIII Vt il"l!illol

• lt1111 h idtu Wll tol ~ '''tttlt . ltllttlttol ill! II · 1 i" t' t\ 1111\'1 il ttllt tl I >u•,/, !Itt• '1:1/r• of II

/111//l,i/ \'u','lll/1 illl titlltlt • 1ifil .tlj 111 ,dutllt till • liti ' III !Y !llt 'l its ol l111de

111111 Jll l'lii 'MI' dl •lt,lt l'll, wl11t It 11ll11t 1 " ' "" 111 1111 lttdt· ll :11'1' ier lkecher

11 111Wt''" jtl tlll ' 111 A11 11'tlnt11 1111 '1•111111 , l11 •1 11ilt• 111 til t: tllll i-slave ry move­

ltll'lll , Ill 'I v lt ' WII 1111 lt' llllll iNn I 11 11.! tili't', 11 11d till· i JJl jXl<.: t of her work on other

tiiiVI ' It stll, i11v11 t iuh ly t t:vo l v~· l'(li ii H I lil t' ttntrnl theme of the author's status

,IN 11 wlt ite m iddl e-t iltSS wonwn den ling with race and slavery through the

lit 1 iwud livt:s ol'bla<.:k people. In her own day many believed that her book

lt11d lt<:lped ro change che course of hisrory; Abraham Lincoln was reputed

1 o have call ed her to see him at the start of the Civil War, and told her: 'So

thi s is the li t cle lady who made this big war' . In Britain a review in The

'f'i111es ac tually acq.1sed her of sabotaging the prospects of abolition in

America by demanding instant emancipation, something neither the

blacks nor the whites were thought to be ready for. Regardless of her own

poli tics - and there were certainly some who found her patronizing or

insensitive2 1 - the political impact of Stowe's work was unprecedented,

coming at a time when women had almost no social and political rights of

their own. In the two hundred years that separated Oroonoko from Uncle Tom's Cabin,

British women writers continued to demonstrate a concern for, or certainly

a fascination with, the plight of the black slave . In particular the late

eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries saw an increasing number of

novels and poems written by British women about slavery, which

approached the subject in a variety of different ways and which played a

significant part in developing a popular anti-slavery sentiment.22

While

there are many problems inherent in grouping women writers together,

regardless of class, geography or their attitudes towards the question of

race, the proliferation of this type of literature is certainly an important

subject for consideration. 23 It raises questions about what women saw in

the condition of slavery that made them want to address it in their writing,

which was, after all, their only legitimate means of public expression . Did

these women see in the relationship between slave and master a reflection of

the more familiar bondage of wife to husband? This analogy was not as far­

fetched then as it may seem today. In 1772, a precedent was created in

English law when Granville Sharpe successfully defended an escaped slave

who was in danger of being shipped back to the West Indies by his owner.

This case established the right of the individual not to be owned by any

57

l\1 1 l t fl ' il I I I Il l J:t \ I I

nt I u•t pt•rKt u 1 1111 IIIli{ lt ~ lt ~ull , \ ' t•l 111111 t i1 •d WI IIIII 11 lt ,!d till ti Jl ll! - w l 1111 11111 VI 1,

110d in It SCO St~ IW('II Ill l' til!' IJI'II jH' I'ty oltht•ll illl ~ l t t lllthi Ull liltlll liiJll l II pill ill

repeated ly stressed by M:u·y Wollst'OIWUitlt t wc• ot y yl'lt t li ltttt•t Ill '1'/J Vindication of the RightJ of Women, publi shed d~t ,J ' IJi i{ 11 IH'Iit ul o l mdko l and

slavery agitation.

The whole discourse of the affinity between the white woman and t h"

black slave in literature can be read as a useful introduction to women's

more overtly political efforts to end slavery as an institution. Because of

their own economic, social and political subordination, many felt con­

strained in their efforts to organize effectively, and found themselves

contesting the boundaries of what was acceptable activity for women.

Others, however, were not only able to accept these parameters readily, but

were also able to frame their commitment to abolition as a task particularly

suited to women.

'A Decidedly Religious Question'

British abolitionism emerged as a mass movement at the end of the 1780s

and reached several peaks before the end of the r86os. Several distinct

campaigns were waged during this time: for abolition of the slave trade

(1788, 1792 and r8r4); for emancipation (1823, r830 and 1833) and for

the end of Negro apprenticeship (1838). The movement first took organi­

zational form in 1787 when the mainly Quaker Abolition Society was

founded, and over the next seventy or so years it became a permanent

feature of extra-parliamentary politics. By r830 the level of public support

and involvement in the movement had given it a momentum that was to

continue long after slavery was officialJy abolished in the British West

Indies. The r833 Act ensured that vast sums of money were handed out in

compensation to slave owners and the vast majority of slaves became

enforced apprentices, with scarcely any change in their daily lives, and it

was not until 1838 that this system was abolished. The movement then

fragmented, with a final revival during and immediately after the Ameri­

can Civil War.

Any discussion of how abolition was achieved has to take into account

several different factors: changing world econom ies and developing mar­

kets; pro- and anti-slavery forces within Bri tain; and obviously the

resistance of the slaves themselves throughout the Caribbean. Some

58

t littlill \ ihiYt i tti! l iifd llt.tl \Itt ' 'i ltil ld .;lil! it! i!itfl!i i(Ht l!j'fi [LJII \\' i lito otittill

lt ·~ll lltlllllllllitd l l •·I tid· l t)t dt tltllliitd ilt[J[.iJ] i!l f'lll dti. tl!filll)1 jltllflillhlll y

wi th ilu 1111 ! 111 tlu •lil\'!1 ii t'dt ' !i! t ll•. •l• 1illi l tlhtt tlu.1 llllltl •lllltillitlil

IIIIIVIIIIIIII lilttlllillillllil l l !! !!l Jttlj\ltlllli Wt!- lt'l ollil' t'l\' ll ttllt •l liVe it tillltlil

tlu• J\IIVt 1 ''" ""' 111 1'1111 • ht Vtll)' Otllt ll ll jl l\'1 lltttl l' wi'IH III 111 tld H '''' 'v'' 1111 ' 111

1 ) till d i~t l j{ l lll II~ Ill w ill tii CI' II Wi l ~ 11 lllitltll1• I l t t H~ phiiollilllflljlll

llltlll ' ll lllllltllll i lt•d )ty till' 11111111 1111lit odtii ' IIII ' III N iil lll llit •ty, II I II J.\l' llllittt •l

jtllpitlilt' illld jtllll '!ll 111 ll y it ld ll'll i ttll llltlll ', ' l 'ht •Nt' dt •lltliell NO itl t' t irtH'N o llN11ili '

tlw sij.I IJili('llllll ' or lllllVI ' III('I II N ol NIIIVt'H ill ti ll' Cl tl'ihht•t iJ I , j\\ONI IIOiiih ly IIH'

Nllttt·ss l'u l n·vo h•t ion in ll oiti nnd tlt t.• dcd rtnltion of' tht• lt t pnhlit ol S1

Don1ill ,4 llt' in d-lo,1•

It is essentia l w refer to these debates in order to lJntlcrsmnd tlw wl'it·d ·lass corn posicion oi the Brit ish anti -slavery movcmenl and ro npp t't't ill It '

che sign ili canc~ of women's involvement in it . Yec although l'hcl'(.' 1..'0111 i

nues to be avid di scussion on class and race in relat ion co che abo litiwt oJ slavery, there is still relatively little study of the way char gend t· t' rdso

figured in this hisrory. At the same time there has been a great dl'ttl o l

feminist investigation into the dynamics of gender and clnss in !111• nineteenth century, most of which pays scant attention tO qll<.:SI ions o l

race. My focus on women abolitionists is not co provide an acCOIIIII ol

'women's contribution' to the abolition of slavery, but to try co di.srovt•l

how race, class and gender intersected in a period that saw the emcrgc ll l..'t' o l

a feminist politics. Despite significant differences (and extraol·di Iiiii y similarities) in the domestic and colonial policies of North Arneri cu 1111 d

Britain, black and white feminist research in the United Scates h tt,

provided a useful resource which helps to focus on gender, class and mt:c i 11

the British context . In the Album of the Female Society for Birmingham for the Rei ief of'

British Negro Slaves, a record of one of the earliest women's organizat ions,

compiled in r828, I have identified some of the themes which I think til'\.'

consistently found in women's anti-slavery documents, organi:t.atior\ll l

reports, pamphlets and other propaganda:

Should any Lady become interested for her fellow-subjects, the British Slaves, and be inclined to 'remember those in bonds as bound with them, and those that suffer adversity, as being herself also in the body;'(Heb. Xur. 3) should she desire that her own sex may no longer be treated as brutes, no longer be bought and sold, and marked like cattle , which the

59

Pl tiiiii ' IH1

11 WII (; ii ' I'IIIIM liii11111 111 VI11tih ly IIII IVI tlhll tlt il)' Iii!!, lid lui'""'

' '''OlltHI t ht• 1 iJ t ic of ht• t' own , ,.,,,, lvt 'N '"'" lit qllllitll lllll' , 111 dt -'"''' 1 II tl11 •11 he uoc nc lellSt one perso11 wllo owy be ilwllkt•twd 111 ''''"1"'-• llltHtlt•, ttnd assist, and plead for, our unhappy Slaves, who, livin}.l UIHit•t 11111 dolltlldoll ,

are not protected by our laws, but receive from civiliseJ , enl ighte ned , Christian, Britain, whatever is most painful, humiliating, and clishonour­ing, in the bitter cup of slavery. 25

The first theme expressed in this fragment concerns audience. Women's

abolitionist writings were almost always aimed exclusively at other

women, and through reading them it is possible to see how they under­

stood their place in the social structure of the time, and to prise apart the

various meanings of womanhood . Ten years later, a pamphlet addressed to

the 'Christian Wom~n of Sheffield' exemplified the way that women's

subordinate role in society appeared to be confirmed in this type of

propaganda:

But here we are met by the question , 'What can Women do in this cause? We will attempt to answer the inquiry under a deep sense of our limited ability to accomplish what we desire, but with the prayer that we may each receive the gracious commendation of our Lord, 'She hath done what she could.'

We are happily excluded from the great theatre of public business, from the strife of debate, and the cares of legislation; but this privilege does not exempt us from the duty of exerting our influence, in our own appropriate and retired sphere, over that public opinion, without which no important moral reformation can be accomplished. We desire not co take part in the final adjustment of these affairs, but we may help on cowards a decision. 26

A second theme in women's anti-slavery pamphlets was the emphasis on

women's moral responsibility to emancipate the slaves. In the eyes of most

abolitionists, slavery was regarded as a sin, and one of their greatest

achievements was to make it impossible for any respectable person to

defend slavery publicly . Theirs was a mornl crusade which claimed

Christianity as the true religion of emancipal'ion , which , as the above

extract shows, gave women a particular relationship co the movement. As

in all philanthropic movements, the lang Ltttgt• of'n hol icion was infused with

biblical metaphors and references . The qLJOI'(' fl·on1 1 hc Book of Hebrews -

'Remember those in bonds as bound with tlti•tll ' was one of the mQSt

regularly invoked; it was particularly appt'OJH' ill( l.! l(>t· a female audience, as

0

1!1\.

I"'"" \l' i 11 1 Hf. tll ntll f ilii ill l 111 111 ' liT I' '"1d ·~ llfi,H' 1''""' llu111 nu•ll , '' ''"

Wllllhlilut t liu OIIIIIIIIH 11hlt lt l iii ii iJ •fiH tlliilt .I I V1'~ 1 11 1 NIIill lhi • hody ' o llh "

II I'JII fiNMI·ti Mltt VI'M, illlllilllll"lty flit Ill il y w itit tlii•lt JHIW< ' tl< 'NN IWSS.

lt ll ,tlu •th Pt • li ~ t ·, IIlii ' ttl tl11 llttiHf flll lln d 111 ull llt•ili sl. abo li tionists ,

tHI, IIIIW ii'dw•tl tlu• ll11dt N ol wot o ll ' il '~t poliiiCill ttl 'tivily while stressing the

JHIWt' t 11l tlu•lt II Hint l lnl lll i'IHt'. lu ll dt·tdt ol' t tll ii.ddre~s from the women of

I lttd lnj)fllli 10 ti H• worn~·n of' (;l"(.:ac O•·icain she wrote:

lk not af"rnid ; we as k you. not tO do anything, to incite in anything,

llllh~:cominJ.t co your sex:

'Ours is not the tented field, We no earthly weapons yield,

· Light and Love our sword and shield,

Truth our panoply'27

The Sheffield pamphlet also raised the problem that anti-slavery work

might tempt women into the political sphere, which was not thought

appropriate for them . Again, the authors posed it as a question which could

be answered with righteous indignation, and in their reply they extended

their sense of their own womanhood to the slaves they were seeking to help:

Be not turned aside by the oft-repeated objection, that this is a political

question, with which we, as women, have nothing to do. Nothing to do with

Slavery! Nothing to do in behalf of women, publicly exposed for sale under circumstances the most revolting to human nature - of woman, writhing under the bloody lash - scorned, polluted, ruined, both for time and

eternity!28

The appeal to white women to comprehend the brutality of slavery through

empathizing with black women as women is another vital theme running

through women's abolitionist propaganda. While women's anti-slavery

appeals were often made on behalf of both men and women, it was the fate

of female slaves that seemed to p rovoke the greatest outrage. The literature

was often quite explicit about the 'indecencies' that women slaves endured

as they were stripped and beaten by male overseers. The destruction of

family life and the anguish of wives, mothers and daughters were also

recurrent images used by women to aim their propaganda at others of their

61

Itt dllflll ; 1111 111 \' ldtlllifirti il11 Nj lll/fit iljtl•l '-·iiii !If "'iilllf"ll -~~ 1\'I 'N: I flfll ' l il'i 11hjt11 ~ llfiiiNIIIfld l1111f 11H1y Ill fill' lhlildtllf llfli l!lilli ll\'l'llil'1 1l n

1

Ill ' 11 ~ vitI IItt S ol11 MYNft' lti 111111 dt•flit·d 1 h t•ttl 1111)' 1111.1 111 ' tHIIIII •d ' dwtwsl i

t'XIN il' ll\1.', ' l'ht· sn •t1C Bit·t•1iliJ.I hum women's AI/Jttl/1 1111111 wltHh th <: li1·s t

t·xtmcr wns trtk<:n concains thr<:e engravings chat ilJustmtc these points.

One shows an anguished black woman as a mother of a young baby;

another, a wife being forcibly separated from her husband who is being sold

off co pay his owner's debts; and the third depicts a group of near-naked

black women, clearly distressed and ashamed at being paraded before a

number of fully clothed white men. There are minimal captions to these

particular pictures as the message was expected to be clear to any woman

who studied them. Images such as these played a vital role in anti-slavery

propaganda and deserve careful study for what they reveal about gender and

race relations throughout the struggle of both slaves and abolitionists for emancipation. 29

The Sheffield pamphlet relied not on actual pictures but on direct

appeals to women in their different familial roles as daughters, sisters,

wives and mothers . Through identifying with the female slave they could

illustrate that she was being denied all the most important components of a

woman's existence in a supposedly free society: she was not able to receive

the love and care of a mother while growing up, her husband was likely to

be sent away from her at any time, and as a mother she had to suffer the

pain of seeing her children sold as merchandise. In this way the abolitionist

women both reaffirmed their responsibility for the moral and spiritual

well-being of the family in their own communities, which helped to

sanction their active involvement in a very public and un-feminine

activity, and they also confirmed their sense that both black and white were

part of the same human family. Reading the pamphlet, it is hard to

imagine that women were not moved by the power of this type of

propaganda, made even more dramatic by frequent recourse to poetry:

Women! the fair, the firm, the free, Of England's vaunted isle!

Tell us, if griefs like these shall be, And you be still the while?

No! strong in Christian virtue rise!

And heed the negro mother's cries!

62

lfll ijl)\'f!Cd IIIII Ill t ill

I 111 -lli lt 1 ~ 1 "' 'Ill' l11111i iljlltil1 1

l 'ol l1 11 d tllill I lulliltl/1' IV

A lu,tl I'll lu •tlll Y""' 1' 11 ~ 1~11 lu<,

I I hi fil l

Ytll il Wli i tltwt lltl , 1.111 '1' rtlltll.l/Jurlld 10

l'lw litH I li11t' of' 1 h is po~· t n SUJ.I,I.(Csts nnothcr chcme echoed in the reference to

•, ivi liscd, cn lig ht:e ned, Christian' Britain in the Birmingham women's

'\ 11111111 . The emphasis on the supposedly advanced state of civilization

within 13ritain was often used in abolitionist propaganda to highlight the

ltypocrisy involved in just ifying or condoning the slave system. It also

11lcant that the destruction of slavery could be presented as an inevitable act

l hat would demons mite the t riumph of British, Christian, civilized values.

The word 'civilized' had several nuances of meaning - as it still does -

wh ich relate to different theories of race, class and gender prevalent at the

ti.me of the anti-slavery movement . In his history of Victorian racial

attitudes , Douglas Lorimer argues that in the early part of the century there

were those who believed that civilization was obtained through education

and religion, and that most black people remained in a more 'uncivilized'

state merely through lack of opportunity and, more importantly, because

of their class position which they shared with sections of white society _31

One example of this attitude is provided by the philanthropist Hannah

K ilham, whose work took her from Ireland to Africa to the slums of

London. In r823 she wrote that the African children who played on the

streets of London were disadvantaged by poverty, and were not representa­

tive of African children in their own environment :

In England, people see only a few of those who have been slaves, or mostly beggars, and too often judge from such specimens of Africans in general. . .. But what judgement would even be formed of the English nation were only the most unfavourable specimens presented to view?

Hannah Kilham's experience of missionary work in Africa had taught her

that civilizing and educating the poorest whites in London presented in

many ways a more difficult prospect than bringing Christianity to 'heathen'

lands. It was a similar process, she argued, and 'they would want the same

care even from the beginning in the attempt to civilise and Christianise

them'. 32 Douglas Lorimer points out that such theories would probably

63

-.---------------------------------------------------,T~~~~,~nfi~l r.rtTnr~r~,-----------------

illlvt• ln11l 1iu• t•fl h I ttl l ltri ll ll ' tlll~ trtiol.llr (IIIli llj tj •i"i a lii ~~ 1111111111" ttl

supcl'iority ov~·r hwlt /\ltinlll l>t lltd 1111 •11 IIWII luu W1 ;ll rdlrHIIIIIIYIIII'Jt, 11111 1

chacduring thi s period it is in (ncr ve ry l11nd lttdiMifiiJI III II Itlu •lwt•t•n nH tNtrt

and class ancipachy .33 Ocher writers have '"'d ltt tHI ' t' lltp iHtNIS 011 tire lon

history of racist ideas about black people whit..ll p1·eduted slave•·y, nnd

which formed the basis of the more systematic cheories of t he nineceenLIJ

century . Peter Fryer, for example, cites the influence of eighteenth-cencury

writers like Edward Long, who not only identified blacks as a different

species from whites but described at length what he saw as the similarities

between blacks and apes. 34

The Sheffield pamphlet is again useful for the way it illustrates a

particular moral and religious anti-slavery position, which refers to this

kind of racial prejudice as 'unholy'. In the following extract their goal

appears more visionary than practical, and possibly calculated to induce

satisfaction among the do-gooders rather than their objects of pity:

We seek to raise the Negro from the depth of misery and degradation into which Slavery and unholy prejudice have thrown him, and bring him out into heaven's sunshine, in the full enjoyment of his birthright privileges. And we seek the attainment of these objects by Christian means and upon Christian principles alone. By the concentrated radiance of light and love, we would melt the fetters of the slave and let the oppressed go free . 35

The development of racist ideologies in Britain has been discussed at

length, particularly in the context of black history. 36 As we shall see

below, black abolitionists who visited Britain during the first half of the

nineteenth century gave favourable reports of their treatment there by

whites, which is hardly surprising since many of them had experienced

slavery at home or at least severe discrimination if they were from the

Northern states. However, the same period saw the emergence of the bio­

social sciences of racial difference which appeared to establish a rational

explanation for human variation. For example, it was during the r82os

that phrenology, or the study of skull shape, first gained credibility as an

accepted discipline after the well-known surgeon Sir William Lawrence,

published his findings as evidence that culture was biologically deter­

mined. In r8r9, he wrote: 'The inferiority of the dark to the white races is

much more general and strongly marked in the powers of knowledge and

reflection, the intellectual facilities . . . than in moral feelings and

64

ilit!ltiHiftll.lornltlli Wfllt

I II h l11r11 l '111 rtl Itt li t

alltlala ltltll'rl l111 '" IIIII ,,_I IIIII 111 - 11111

IIIII lilllllil/ A" ~tl t • lltt ' li•t ll lwtrltrll 1'- lrdrll , lu rl rUI 11 ttttlqw• lnttrt ol l , nowlt •dJ.~t ' 11

lu•ttlllli' itHII'II Iil tl l-\ iY iulltl Ill IIIIIII ·MI thi N IYIII ' ol JHO ·Nil<ill l ill\'tlly . ()I

IIIIIIIH', 1'111 t• WIHI IIIli till' 111tiy llh)t •tl ol IH ll ' llliiH lnqlltl'y; HOdlti divi RiOII

ltiiHt•d Oil dii SS lilHII-\~' I idt" J ' til Nil l't' ljl d l't•d I'M 11111 11 111 ion 1111d jUS! i fl CII I ion wldd I

ltlo sociu l tll l'orics we•·c nhk to supp ly, bui lding on ex isting idt:o l o~it •s or rlllkrcnce. 1H Yet bio logy was not always invoked co conlirm sodn l 1111d

tu ltu l'll l in<XJ~• tdiLy; there were instances of women ltSing a fOI'Iil ol

p l11·eno logy co assert the similarity of the sexes. Barbara Tay lor· des< rihl'N

how many Owenites turned co physical evidence to reinforce chc i•· ll r'f-1 11

ments for 'human perfectability'.

A lecture delivered by Anna Wheeler in 1829 was typical. Having demon· strated women's moral capacity with historical and li terary examples, and their muscular potential with evidence from non-European soc iet ies, sh•· went on to cite phrenological studies which had shown that 'all cxisci n differences' in male and female skull topology were a result of educacion nnd

the 'very different circumstances' of the sexes. 39

In order to defend themselves against charges that they were innate ly

different from men, and that their supposedly natural talents were con lined to the domestic sphere, advocates of women's equality sometimes turned 1'0

simplistic forms of ethnography and even zoology to demonstrate the

possible range of relationships between males and females. Harriet Tay lo•·,

who married the philosopher John Stuart Mill, came near to this approach

when she wrote in r85r in her Enfranchisement of Women that the domina­

tion of women altered as a society progressed from a 'primitive' state tO so-

called civilization:

In the beginning, and among tribes which are still in a primitive condition, women were and are the slaves of men for the purposes of toil. All the hard

bodily labour devolves on them. The Australian savage is idle, while women painfully dig up the roots on which he lives. An American Indian, when he has killed a deer, leaves it, and sends a woman to carry it home. In a state

6s

Mll ttu wl11t1 ttHilt ttolvtt tltt tl , ''~ l11 A"'''• w•u,u;ll Wt•P liiul fitil tltn•I••V• '"' 111111

lo t ptttpiiHI'M 111 NI' II NIIIdliy Ill

The use of this kind of ech nograph i<;,d li ll tj.l lt ttf4t' wt tN 1101 in itst ll so remarkable , but it illustrates the way that, by il w nliddlt: (Jf the ccnt~11· y,

the sciences of ethnography and, later, anthropology were being free ly used

to validate theories of racial and cultural difference , and tO define the pach

to true civilization. However, Harriet Taylor was not arglling thac

women's situation in Europe was necessarily better than what she had

described. The domination was here achieved by 'sedulous inculcation on

the mind': that is, through a more refined psychological form of bondage

which undermined the 'civilized' status of the Western world just as much

as racial slavery. In her famous essay she went on to describe the effects of

this 'modern' relationship between the sexes in which women had become

part of the furniture of the home. It is time to look now at the constraints

imposed on abolitionist women by ideologies of gender and class.

Women's Mission to the Slave

One of the most important themes of early nineteenth-century women's

history is the philanthropic role assigned to the women of the emerging

middle class . This is sometimes referred to as 'women's mission', a concept

which has been usefully summarized by Alex Tyrrell in an essay on

women's role in early Victorian pressure-group politics . 41 The first precept

was the heavy emphasis on the distinctive characteristics and roles of the

sexes. Men and women were suited to different tasks in life, both mentally

and physically. Second, women were ascribed special qualities of a moral

and domestic nature- home was their principle sphere of operation. Third,

women's refined sensibility was seen as out of place in the 'real world'.

Instead they were expected to use their particular qualities as a reforming

influence on their families and friends. The logic of this - which was not

quite so widely accepted- was that they had a useful part to play in public

societies working for social and moral reform.

Useful as it is, this summary must not be allowed to over-simplify or

obscure the ways in which the meanings attributed to womanhood were

being contested in nineteenth-century Britain . As many historians have

described, there was a certain amount of confusion over definitions of

66

llllltlll. l•il • llltttl lit ~II! i£,1)1 l!f ilii lj il!ii!· 1\[" I ,tlf ~ l t\titlllilll li j\tlltlill

lllllill 1 1 It tit ''I H , lit i.t•l ilihlitJd Wiilt tiillll•tdlt llllll . \l• ltlt h Jil tiVItlt d II

tllllliiiiiiiiiN llitdt ttlllltlll "' 1•11 '11''" Htii.l , !IIII I it 1 1

' Mil l til , lw ttiMII IIH t•,

'''II''"" tlhtt tit• '" ' Wtl~ •1 tltltii,tl '' 111 ·d 11 \' ht ' t Ht .ll ttlt 1' 1111d Wil li It' ll , whi It· tttiii'IM i11Milllll l tltllt Wllllltll Wilt Itt tlu 111111 otl "' '"~11t11tl ol sod<· ly , 1\nd tlll'tl'inll ' lt 'M JHIIIMi lllt • l111 It" ttiiH otl wt•ll )ll'lllfl· Plu lttll l It ropy became a

lt•gltl ntttll ' lnl'ttt ol 111 liv 11 y lw wnttll' ll Nl ntt• it 11 il owt:d t hem co usc the ir

111111'111 tiJid spil'itunl lniiii\'IHt' 1()1 tltt• lwndll or t heir COJn!TILt!lity . Thus it

nl kr't'd n dHIIH.:e to tn ov<.: beyond the private sphere of family intO a more

p11h l ic wodd . 'l'hc concept of'women's mission' has also been discussed at length for its

rm:ct· on the relationship between women of different classes. Lynda N ead,

1()1· example, has written ~bout the way the phrase was used to describe the

, !'O le of the respectable woman in the reclamation of the fallen, and the way

that it differentiated between the deserving and the undeserving poor.43

One of the contradictions of 'women's mission' was that it undoubtedly

helped to regulate the distance between women of different classes. In this

·ontext it is also important to consider how it worked to construct

relationships between women across race as well. It was a short step for

women to channel their supposedly superior moral energies bestowin

charity and advice to poor women and their families, to applying them ­

selves to 'compassionate, and assist, and plead for' a more abstract group

poor with whom they had next to no physical contact at all. There was ar

least one fundamental ideological difference between performing charity

work at home and campaigning for the abolition of slavery . For most

women in the anti-slavery movement, the increasing numbers of urban

poor whom they felt it was their duty to help were perceived to belong to a

social hierarchy with which they were more familiar. Their condition

might be addressed by readings from the Bible or education in home

economics, but hardly by campaigning for their emancipation, let alone

their equality. Abolitionism was a political struggle to change hearts,

minds and laws; the appeal to British women to recognize sisterhood across

race a'nd class could be read as sentimental philanthropy, but it could also

signify an assault on racism itself. Much has been written, particularly in recent years, about the class

composition of the anti-slavery movement. One characterization of its

leaders maintains that they were not only largely ignorant of the conditions

of the urban poor within Britain, but actively colluding, either as factory

67

IIWIII ' I ~ IIIII ~ j Ht lll lt IIIItH It Wt iH Jllllttfltllllllilllli llii1 1il!j.jl t1 Jlh toi h f' di ll ll'l lll'l i

hy 111 dkuls tllllll i tll ~" ''l ' l lttlw li M 1111 lw 111 ~ til \1' 'Jif'l lt ''f" t I' lll 't tlt 1 lllllttt•t tlld

10 I'X post· the sancl'imonio us l'lttn b linJ.IS o l tlt t• llludltltiiil ll l ~. 11 w11~ uiNo 1lu•

111~1· 1lt n1 1 he movement addressed and invo lvt•d i ii 'IIJl lt• 111 1111 11 11 t lit ss<.•s 10 11

Vt ttyttt/1 d <.•g ree . Withou t wanting to comme nL on li11 s d ebat·c at t his poi tll

i1 I• Wlt •r•t·sti ng to note that some women aboli tioni sts both acknowledged

tiH •Nr ' rrt 11 is ms and took them personally enough to respond. In thei r·

u_Httd ll ttlllt lil report, the Birmingham group quoted at length from a

pn•t It td 111111 1 he brutalities of the slave trade given by Thomas Buxton in

It• ll1111 ~1 nl Commons . They then said:

llrq~,, hi' whom all this is forgotten, look only on the distress of our own

p!i!lloll llllloll ', and are persuaded that all our sympathy should be expended

1111 tltt 111 '1 111 ',~ 1 objects of misery; that our charity should not only 'begin at

liillitt l11r1 t• lld there. They are ignorant, or unmindful, of the claims, the

hIt I'' IIIIIJ.INI, helpless slave has on our Justice as well as Mercy; and they

1 tl 1111 II 1 wo beggars presented themselves in distress at their door to

!J l111 tdiii N, they would first help the one to whose misery they had

!!lllluttt•d , whose sufferings were chargeable to their oppression, their llilllllllolltliy, or thoughtlessness. 44

tHiq ••lliNon of the two beggars who are poor for different reasons, and

lir11 It Ill ' need a different order of treatment , is another sign of the

11 lttlton between race and class, articulated through an image of

p hilanthropist bestowing charity . T h e preference for Justice

M n cy indicates a moralistic view of why the poor at home were

lll st place, implying that, unlike the s laves, they were not the

Vir 1 ims of a vicious economic Md ideological system of i!ltlllll

111111 of women's anti-slavery trllCtS mlly appear today to be

! l1· pttii'On izing towards the slaves che rn st'ives, but the emphasis on

111 It wtollged, helpless slave' was often lllH tchcd by an insistence on

IIW II weakness and frailty. T he nutho r·s or chis extract from the

ilifi!Jjltoltll 11 /b~tm pleaded that tbrou.'-l h il td r· own shortcomings they

I H.111 1 (lluced to redeem the slave :

11111 this work of mercy more tttJ IVt 'tNt dl y and heartily engaged in!

11 which, in Christian chari cy wt' 11 111y i'l 'lll t'n co such an enquiry , is

··H

ilti ~ 1 1l11 •UPIIIIitfl lliJ!ltiti! l illlillli jiiiiiWi li[>ti,l• iiW)1 tlt ljdlll1111l ,l ll tll tiii NI

lit ' lilt It !Itt li II llllllilllj tn •ll hli i}JI! ![ill j IIIII I 1111 IIIII Vt I I' Wl•otl III 'N~ II tid

ltt ltl tw ••'· ltlllli ~ lt t tdtlitlllthd ' "' ' .""~' tllluq u lllttlu l tl t y lll ~il ldll l (;w l o u' tiVIII tll ,' wlt 11 l11t • tl 11 ltotol jll tl ii l( •• l11t tlu lllltllll ol/11' 1111 '111 ol th t' tnOSl

lljj i!Ji y 1'"11'1'1111 1tl 11 ll ti N ifti ltiWI I. tl1111 f11 hot" t iii iNI 'IIt llt' 'Wt'llk thi ngs Of the

wt u ld , ttl ll l tlti • iltliiJlN t lull 1111' "' '"I tlNI'ol , lltll ltlt t• 1 hlnJ.IN 1 hnt fu·c noc, co bring

IIIIIIIIIJ-I hl 1i u• 1 hi ii J.IN 1 h111 til t•' '' l ' l~t • 1111 t' 111 li tH 11 lwnys co che sw ift, nor the

ltllll lt• lllt ht• N ti'O II J.l , ' ' 1 ~

' l 'lds 1 hrows more l ight o n to the discourse of affin ity between women and

ll ilt <: r woups m arg inalized by masculinist and racist hierarchies. W ithout

llt·t~·ss~t rily appearing to be radical, women were ready to link their own

11hordina tion with that of black people by referring to the Christian ideal

o l inner strength that might be possessed by the physically and mentally

weak, which was certainly one way of connecting the hierarchies of gender

and race. The similarities between black people and women were suggested

more forcefully by the American abolitionist Lydia Maria Child in an

argument which is part of this same discourse. In 1843 she wrote:

In comparison with the Caucasian race, I have often said that they are what

woman is in comparison with man. The comparison between women and

the colored race as classes is striking. Both are exceedingly adhesive in their

attachments; both, comparatively speaking, have a tendency to submission,

and hence, have been kept in subjection by physical force, and considered

rather in the light of property, than as individuals. As the intetlectua! age

passes towards the moral age, women and the colored race are both rising our

of their long degradation. 46

'What have I done for much injur'd Africa?'

I t was in this context of performing moral and religious duties that women

became legitimately involved in abolitionism, which, as the first great

campaign of the early Victorian era, provided women with a means to use

their influence in the public sphere. However, as it was one of several areas

of philanthropy that they turned to, it has until recently been glossed over

·by historians as just another example of the compulsory charity work of the

middle classes . Women's contribution to abolitionism has even been

dismissed as 'sentimental humanitarianism', in a middle-class society

69

~ , , lw11 tl1r ( iJ ,IWi llli 11.111111 liitd lwttlltll

lli - 1111 hill ltlll!lllill 1111 ~~ ~ Ill - ~~ 11i t i iHHiw.l ' "

'I 'o NOll II ' t•x It ' ll I I li t• pi II luoilt l'opk poss ihl li 1/t •N 1 II " '" 1 II IIVI ' IIII ' III ' '' 1 r'lll 1 ~·d t il (' I hul'ituhk• and Sj)I II'C· f'iil1l' llct ivitics of idle i11d il'N

1 11 11d Ill (liiii'OI1ise SOdcti <.:l

lor tlu: l:mnnd pation of Negroes became as fas hionnbl<.: as ic had been 0111• hund red and fifty years earlier co own one. 48

'"'

O ne writer who does draw attention to the large numbers of women

working in anti-slavery societies describes how they were encouraged to do

so within the limits of what was expected of them. 49 By the mid 182os

women were being attracted to meetings in such large numbers that

separate committees and auxiliary groups were set up so that they could

work more effectively among their own sex. Within a few years the

activit ies of the newly founded women's groups had succeeded in swelling

the ranks of the anti-slavery movement beyond its founders' dreams. 'It is a

singular fact that none of our Antislavery meetings were well-attended till

after it was agreed to admit ladies to be present .. .' wrote Sir George

Stephen graciously as he composed his memoirs. 50 However, not all male

abolitionists were able to accept even token involvement. William Wilber­

force, whom generations of British schoolchildren have been taught was

responsible for ending slavery, made his own objections clear. 51 The

majority of male abolitionists welcomed women's participation, often

producing explicit propaganda exhorting women to take an active part in influencing those in their immediate acquaintance:

We would remind every lady in the United Kingdom chat she has her own sphere of influence, in which she may usefully exert herself in this sacred cause; and the effect of that influence, (even if it were quietly and unobtrusively confined to the family circle, or to the immediate neighbour­hood), an awakening sympathy, in diffusing information, in imbuing the rising race with an abhorrence of slavery, and in giving a right direction to the voices of those on whom, under Providence, hang the destinies of the wretched slaves ... 52

There were many ways that women could identify themselves with the

wider movement, both at a private and at a public level. Wearing or

decorating the home with images and emblems was one popular gesture:

70

pit 11111 1 11! l tl \'1 ' ltljii 1!11!1 III II!,, l!,tililllli ,l h ul !111 111111111 11 111 MLI VI' I ) Wl' ll '

tllil llllllllllliiiiii ii iHtld idi11 V(I tlu_: lll lfllil\' '1111 lilll~ li t iiiiiiii ~ I H ' IId i llll hOI" tl11 iltltl/11 11 1 1111 111111111/ll! lltl·.- Wfill tl 11 Wll it lll, ' A 111 I No1 11 Mu11 and a

llittilu •l (, wldt lt Wt l ~ lit MI Jll tll llil t'd 1111111111 ' 11 hdl y l>y 1 he Committee to

Al11t ll"lt ilu•S ilt vt •' l'llldt• 1111 /H/ 111 t H ~ (, , ttl c• llt ll lcv<.•rsionofthisemblem

Wtl ~ tt Mc•d l1y 1l11• llll'lni!lf.l ll lllll l.11 dt 1 ~~ Nqo~ I'Ocs' Friend Society to decorate

1111' t OVI' I' of ilt t'il' li t'S ! rcpon , a11d it qLti <:kly became an effective piece of

fii OIJIIJ.III IId it in il s own ri g ht. ' 1 Outside the home , attendance of public

1111 '1'1 ings was cenrral to maintaining the momentum of the movement.

' l'ht network of associations was divided into regions, and lecturers were

itppointed to cover as many towns and villages as possible. Meetings were

of'tcn several hours long and it was quite common for halls to be

overcrowded with people of both sexes. Reading accounts of these lectures

in anti-slavery papers of the time it is possible to get a glimpse of the

incredible popularity of the subject by the late 182os. Hundreds would

attend meetings in churches and town halls, queuing up for hours

beforehand to be sure of getting a place, particularly if there was to be a

visiting speaker from London. Women as well as men attended in large

numbers; in Bedford a meeting was arranged for a Friday as Saturday was

'an inconvenient day for families to attend public proceedings' . 54 Women

were not expected to speak at these meetings and there is no evidence that

any tried to do so, though presumably they made up for it at their own

gatherings.

As we have already seen, a significant number of women's protests

against slavery had already been registered through their writing. In the

early part of the century, three other literary women made particular

contributions to the movement, each making an impact far beyond her

immediate acquaintance. Hannah More, poet and friend of William

Wilberforce, wrote several poems on the theme of slavery which were

widely circulated . Although a strict conservative when it came to the issue

of women's rights- she was a vocal critic of Mary Wollstonecraft, whose

book she claimed she had never actually read55 -More made her views on

the British slavery system well known throughout London's social circle. In

1824, Amelia Opie, poet and writer of romantic novels, wrote a poem

entitled: 'The Negro Boy's Tale, a Poem Addressed to Children' which was

similarly taken up by abolitionists as ammunition for the cause. But it was

Elizabeth Heyrick, a member of the Birmingham Female Society, whose

work was 'hurled like a bomb in the midst of battle' . 56 Her pamphlet, On

71

111/11 /1

r/ , ,rlld t\l tttl 1.//,ftMI AI;,

lr l'l ltn lil t j , w. r ~ tolurvt• 11 tlt •tiHIVI! .-; li t• 1 1111 ilu dil l'' ''"" 1111d

n•t t lt ll ol 1111• IIIIIVI ' III I'IIf , 11 IIPIH'III'('d 111 11 IIIII• ' wlutt tl11• l.o11dno A1111

Sl,tvt ••y <.olllllllfft 't', lt•d hy sut h lft,nOliS llit l tl\'11 1i'l W ill wl'lot·t·c, ' J'Ito nllts

( li11k~111t, .) IIIIH'S S tt• ph ~· n and Macau lay, had initiar t•d 11 campaign f(>r rh"

t1tdlflil 11ho l it ion of' slavery. This was largely a means of d iscanci ng

iiH'IIISt·lvt•s f'I'Om •·adicals who appeared to promote insurrection in rh"

1 olonit•s li S 11 quick way of ending slavery, as well as an attempt to adopt

wlt~ tl ilwy considered to be realistic tactics. Elizabeth Heyrick's pamphlet

providt•d a coherent and compelling challenge to this reformist position,

uu I was wide ly circulated among abolitionists in Britain and among the

1111~1 t•rtt movement in America. She denounced the whole principle of

,4 t.ldt111lism , condemning the government for negotiating with slave­

holdt·rs and , most importantly, calling for a boycott of all slave-grown

pmdun.• in order to ach ieve immediate and complete emancipation.

Coming from the pen of a woman, this message had very powerful

rrnp licarions for the movement, whose leaders had been careful to avoid any

tdt•nt i fica cion of anti-slavery politics with radicalism in any form. Eliza­

lwt h I ley ri ck followed up her argument by personally carrying out a door­

fo door survey of households in her home town of Leicester, finding

support for the idea of a consumers' boycott. It was around this time that

women's auxiliary groups began forming in the Midlands. Heyrick herself

was an early member of the Birmingham Female Society for the Relief of

British Negro Slaves , founded in 1825. This group made its annual grant

lo the London society conditional on its declaration in favour of immedia­

t ism. n Also in I 82 5, the Sheffield Ladies Anti-Slavery Association deleted

the word 'amelioration' from its constitution and pledged itself to irnmediatism.

By supporting the boycott of slave-grown commodities, women aligned

themselves with the progressive wing of the movement , which eventually

split off from the more conservative London committee in the years leading

up to abolition. Their power as consumers and housekeepers gave them a

vital role in implementing tactics, however symbolic, which helped to

arouse public feeling all over the country . 58 Women fully recognized their

power within the domestic economy, as this extract from a Birmingham report shows:

72

flu II ill! it Ill I tif f,_; lll· d l (II !lif t iqi!ll !i tf t,pi!i [1111 111 \ (II ~ 1111 \' till IIHIIIill y

d il l ill '" 1111 11111111 l ~tdd o~ lf · lll ~ I• w rl(l ll ll )' IIIII I 111111 II )l iN I N wllli 1111' 111 Ill

dtllllllilll ~· Ill II III 1111 111 :: 11111 ~ lllditlj•.l ,jIll , IIIII IIIII IIIII VI' IIII ' IIii 'N (' II)O yt·d ,

l11d I ' 11 1111 111 1111 111 It 11111 1111 1 11 q tlii\'1 1 1 111 111 1 1111 11 , 111 l11 1111 tiH· oppr-essors of 1\I I I IHII hlti VI'H 111

'J'I1t WO II H'Il in l!it'llling lwrll Wt' l'~' typica l of many of their sisters through­

Oil 1 Eng land , Wnles, Scol'l nnd ftnd Ireland who called for boycotts of slave­

pi'Odut:ccl SLrgar. They embroidered work-bags which they filled with

p:tmph lecs explaining the iniquities of slavery and the reasons why the

price o[ West Indian sugar was kept at an artificially low level.

ln order to argue for the abolition of the slave system, the female activist

obviously had tO understand the principles of free trade and protectionism.

This obliged her to study worldly matters which rook her far beyond the

area where her conventional domestic expertise was assumed to lie.

Economic arguments were used sparingly by the anti-slavery movement as

a whole, compared to considerations of religion and human rights; but by

the r 82os the changing economic climate throughout Europe led to a

general belief that the older system of mercantilist protectionism was out of

date in early nineteenth-century Britain, and that free trade was in the

nation's self-interest. The copious annual reports of ladies' groups demon­

strate that women were convinced that the rejection of all slave-grown

produce was an issue of morality first: 'Is it for Christian females', asked the

Birmingham women, 'robe bribed by the greater cheapness of this, or the

other article of daily consumption, to lend themselves ro the support of a

flagrant system of blood-guiltiness and oppression, which cries to heaven

for vengeance?- and can we think the cry will not be heard?' However,

their crusading work also involved persuading other women face tO face

that they should reject all slave-grown produce. Where moral arguments

failed, they were not ashamed to give them economic reasons for being

more selective in their housekeeping :

Only about one sixth of the town of Birmingham yet remains to be visited house by house, to promote this benevolent design. It has been calculated, that, if the 830,000 slaves of Great Britain were divided amongst the whole population of the United Kingdom, it would be found that there was one slave for every twenty five persons; and that, if the towns and neighbour­hood, embraced by this Association, contain 3oo,ooo inhabitants, then the

73

lllllllltt •ttil N i!I VI'~ Ju ld litllltlld tlfll Ji\' litllll , ''IIIII I lt! t ! (111!{1! 1 A11tl tl111 ~, J1111

for ! fH• III II NI li ' ll ilii ii N 11 ' )1 '1 i/011 11 f Hhi VI' flllldlltl f t\' lililll Ill ti!i t f!il f tll liiiiH

dis1·riu , w~· s i Hdll utv~· 10 t't'W•d ii HII 'w1• '" '' 1'•'1'11111 ' 1'111 111~•1111 1 ~ ll lfllllllld ~ ' '

year, for the pcrpcwal'ion or t his ill fSl'l y II lid ll l'jl ttln llll l I wl d It• WI ' Ill I'

subscribing less than Three H und red u y CH I' rw li N I'M I I II ( 11011. '110

This line of reasoning was credited to their sister g roup in Liverpool.

Correspondence between the proliferating women 's associations was clearly

an important part of their work: the early reports of the Birmingham

society list with an anxious and almost proprietary tone the formation

and work of new groups. In 1826 the list included Sheffield, Norwich ,

Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool and Huddersfield, as well as more provin­

cial towns such as Caine, Devizes and Colchester. Over the next twenty­

five years women's auxiliary groups were formed all over England,

Scotland, Ireland and Wales. This network was crucial in exchanging ideas

and tactics as well as testifying to the fact that hundreds of women were

being drawn into the public sphere and acquiring, first-hand, experience of basic political organization.

The practical skills that women developed during this time were those

essential to any campaign: writing, printing and distributing propaganda,

fund-raising, organizing meetings and collecting signatures for petitions.

Pamphlets, reprints of speeches or newspaper articles, poetry and prose

were produced in phenomenal quantities as the abolitionists attempted to

argue their case. This was not just the result of their desire to educate and

persuade, but arose out of earlier struggles by working-class activists to

gain access to the printed word. 61 The flourishing corresponding societies

which had sprung up since the late eighteenth century had led to an

increase in literacy among working men and women and this was reflected

in the tactics of the anti-slavery movement. The mainly middle-class

female organizers expected a high standard of literacy, judging from the

contents of the work-bags, portfolios and albums which they sold. Apart

from pamphlets explaining the necessity of boycotting slave-grown prod­

uce, there were many other documents ranging from extracts from notable

anti-slavery speeches to copies of Jamaican papers proving the horrors of the

system 'in their own authentic records' . These collections also contained

children's books, which were intended to help 'the rising generation to

grow up devoted, as one man, to the entirely effacing of this foul stain from the national character'. 62

74

11!111111 J)LI)'Ut l it li!l\ 11!1 fill[, lil.lllihtlllllll\ ! it [• 1!!!)\iii.IITII tlll ttll/1, 11 liiii.J

Hll~i ll /l ~lillii I' i'iillf'· l ft iili'!t il l ' ~;! IIIIi Wlllh l iiiJllt Wtiq 11.111 "" lllt; ;l hr 111 111111d

111•- •lip!lilll ~, 1111.! " """iCt l 10 l!li ' Hll!f(l l 111~\illd~ifll• lll llllillll tl;, I ill ~ t l ~ j titl 111 111111 Wil d ''•il jl(lll II 111·111 )• hil! llili iillll d111 IIIII lilt • I 11 11011 1111tl

i ll. lllll Wlll 'lliltl IIIII VI IIIIIII tlllllitlli - illtl:llllilll 1111111• lll illlli ll l •Y~ II ' III II l

llliiHc 'd ' 'Jl l ''""'"' '~ lilj il l liH ''I" ·"' d it ltiVI I\' tdl i' l cd ill llli ll ll , Snnll'}-\ illl lf l

wc• tc• !l iMo 11 hl c• 111 l" 'Y IIi• • c ~ !-'' ' " " ' '" 111 vtNIIIIIJ.\ Alllt ' ll t'l lil ilhoii!IOIII NI N. l11

tH.Ju I IH• Alri n c11 Atlil ' ll !'l lil l i •f!l lll ' l c lulil c•N l.c• llfiOX ltt•motH I Wl l ~ NJlOII

NOit'd 011 1111 ti}.l hl!.'t' ll 1110111 h visit by tht Jlaii J.IO I' Jll·tnttk /\111 i-SIHVI' l

Sotic ty, rhe Pon lnnd Sew i il J.I Ci t•<:lc and the N<.: wport Yount~ l .i cd ic ~,

Juvtni l<.: Anti -Siav<.: ry Society. In wrn he represented rh<.: m :t l tl w fll 'll l

i 111 emational anti -slavery convention which was held in London, 1111cl 10

which women were barred as delegates.

Women were also active in raising money to fund black proj <.:u s 111

America as a result of solicitation from visiting African-American abo I i

t ionists . Men such as William Douglass,]. W. C. Penning tOn, Wi lli il'' '

Wells Brown and many others received money ro help found black sc. fwols

or churches. Black newspapers were supported by funds raised in Britoin

while money was also used to help buy relatives out of slavery . 63 Frcdcri ( k

Douglass achieved his legal freedom as a result of the direct intervention ol'

a woman in Newcastle, without any suggestion or encouragemenc f i'OII\

himself. A Quaker abolitionist called Ellen Richardson who was world n

as a headmistress of a girls' school spent a day with Douglass and lwc·

brother at the seaside when he visited Britain as a fugitive in the 1 840s . S h ~·

later described the idea of purchasing his freedom coming to her like a fi ns II

of inspiration, though she did not discuss it with him for fear h"

disapproved. Douglass at that time belonged to an organization of Acncri ­

can abolitionists who refused to recognize the trade in human fl esh . Ell e11

Richardson first consulted a lawyer friend who reassured her that it was

morally right to raise money for the sale and, without telling her own

family, she wrote to various influential people asking for their financinl

support. Money was quickly raised and she managed to negotiate with

Douglass's former owner through relatives and a helpful lawyer in Amer­

ica. Douglass had no idea who had arranged his freedom until he revisited

Britain several years later, and he remained in close and affectionate contact

with Ellen Richardson until the end of their lives. 64 Ellen was also

responsible for arranging the freedom of the novelist William W ells

Brown, again on her own initiative. Fund-raising for large public organiza-

75

IIHII I IIII li•Wh .. ill·li'' '" I '' '1''"11 dfllli"" ,,, il!liii ~, li ~ hill t li •1111 ,, liil\11\ Wllllllll Will i ldijll II !111 y lll illlll}\l'd dtllllt III L )1iid1HT \ . \'' 111111 111 dnv1

"'"'" IIIHIIIII!III " 1111 )HIYIIIIII II i{ NIIIVI )1111\'' " ' '"" '"''ill 1111'11 lll lt• II ltniiHt•l, t•t'IH'l ll, ••H'"Y 11 l ~o 10ok I IH' ttl! I illllvt 111 l '"" 'll tliJIH I IH• Nll lt• of ,tlit ' lllliiiVt'N, )lililhJil ll l'l y ro t ton . Ann11 l{it hllldNwt , illlot llt t' Q ullkt'l' uni

vi 111 ill Nt'Wl'II Nil t•, edi ted the Slrtvlf, the Ol'gt lll ol tht• f11·ec LabOlll' Assod o ~

111111, 111 various s1agcs throug hout the t84os and 185os; another woman

lllillllli{t'd 1 ht..• London Free Labour Depot , and women's comm ittees pro­

vi• ln l a IIHl ional network of customers and helpers, 65

( :oll<:cti ng sig natures for peri tions was a sig nificant development in both

rd()l·misl and radical pol it ics d uring the fi rst half of the nineteenth

t t'IH ury . Al i cs peak in rhe r83os the anti-slavery movement subm itted the

ld~hesc munber of signatures to Parliament in a record four thousand

)WI it ions. As Seymour Drescher points out , the significance of this form of

political act ivity goes far beyond the sheer number of names collected

IO).It.: ther: 'I t req uired the existence of a complex political and social

Ill' I work which could foster the easy circulation of political literature and

tgitators throughout society, and of associations capable of well-timed

1gi mrion on a broad scale' . 66 Women abolitionists were obviously part of

this complex network and worked in conjunction with men , but they also

renched large numbers of women who would not otherwise have been

upproached for their opinions . The staggering size of the petitions are an

indication of the organization needed to collect them together. In r833, at

the climax of the campaign, four men were needed to carry a single petition

of 187 ,ooo signatures of'ladies of England' into Parliament. The accession

of Queen Victoria in r837 provided a great incentive for women to

demonstrate the strength of their feelings. Groups in Scotland and England

com bined together to produce an address signed by s88,o83 women on

rolls stretching II ,4 53 feet . 67

Over five thousand of these signatures were collected from the Darl­

ington Women's Abolition Society, which the young Elizabeth Pease had

helped to found the previous year, It was mainly due to her interest in the

international movement, that the Darlington group was the first to

respond to the address to the women of England from the ladies' anti­

slavery societies in the New England states of America. Their reply,

published in the Durham Chronicle ( r 6 December 1836), led to the

formation of many other women's societies around the country. The tactic

of composing formal addresses which were issued from one group of women

76

10 111111 1111 \Vi'~ li ij l lllli ~.t llll I !I ill ii t ll•\>t•!Hjl!lli Ill 111 ~· tlltl l) ll 1 ~ 1111 lll ll M l,il 1•

IIIIIMI illli!lit" 111111 ll ltl lif lf )i111l 111f !iilil111 tll (~ l ltil -1 1 \' 1 1 ~ iltl ' IIIIW ii•dp.t•d lil t•

llljlllfl tllltl 111 Jl'll.ltt l u11l1 111 dJttlt.-llllltl jl ),1,11 1 ilttd wlt ill' WOIIll' ll 's

1 ~ l''''l ' lltl 'llt llld lti iHifiii' 'M IIIII: ,, 11 1111 dy lltll 1lu•y tiiNo l t l• l p~·d 10 excend a

ltlllll ' Mylld uil l1 III 'IWII il. 111 Wllltllll , llllltt •d hy il tt'l t' i{C ndcr across class and

' '"''• lll tlt l lllll 'lll di • of t ill' til tiVt'· IIWII III H wol'ld 10 the ocher. 'l'lti N illt l'l' lll tt iwud so lidiii'II Y lwt wt.· ~· n women was expressed in ot her

wily H. In d-l .n, l\li ~abc 1 h 1\•t•se suggested che p ublication of the American

1hollt ionis t Ange lina G rimk<.:'s powerfu l 'Appeal to the Christian Women

11l 1 he Slnve Scates of America' and wrote to her assuring her that the

p11 111phlct would be circulated 'amongst all grades of society from the

nobleman to the humble cottager'. Elizabeth was also responsible for its

d isr l'ibution, along with other members of Scottish and northern anti­

~l ttv c ry societies , 68 T he dialogue between British and American women

was backed up by gifts and donat'ions which became important symbols of

mutual support. The women in the Boston group held an annual anti­

slavery bazaar for which they solicited articles made by women in England.

Boxes of g ifts and handiworks were shipped over and apparently eagerly

bought by visitors to the fair. Maria Weston Chapman, one of the

organizers , wrote to Elizabeth Pease in 1837:

Though in greatest haste I cannot let this opportunity pass without

thanking you for the beautiful articles for our fair which we receive through

Angelina E, Grimke, They were the means of bringing throngs to purchase,

who would otherwise [have} passed by on the other side; nothing could have

been more opportune than their arrivaL Please to express to those to whom,

with yourself we are so deeply indebted, our warmest thanks on behalf of the

slave. The Address from the Ladies of Darlington, signed by yourself and

Miss Wemyss, has been published in all the Anti-Slavery periodicals, & has

been the means of encouraging the hearts of thousands. 69

The warm and heartfelt correspondences that developed across hundreds of

miles through letters were sometimes translated into real friendships as

both black and white Americans made the trip over the Atlantic to argue

for the abolition of slavery in their country . British audiences welcomed hearing first-hand accounts of the brutali­

ties of slavery and, by the r8sos, anti-slavery meetings were incomplete

without a black witness, usually from America. 70 Women were particu-

77

l11 th• l ( oJ pt i\"l1 ill ! Iii Ioii i' til . • lol \' f'•• 11 1.! I[ l! jljl[.11i N tii •ll li l( lll \ 1\ itl t tlll . . .

\tll f lh. lllt ltlli ll l t •·qttt lt tl)' ltllli lt • J lllf ll il 'd ll lt-lt' tt if!- t il tl w ~Cf fl o tl t d ll t ~ t · 11 1

l •ltu l Will i It ' ll , tl ut tt l\ lt t lu•y Wt ' l l' olt c•if 11 I tt l 111111 11 _1 d tru ii ~N tl u• d i'l ttil

ll j ll' td y W illt tiiJI C11d1 , wlt oNt ' t'.~ l'li J W /r·o111 NIIIVI I )' w l tl 1 l ti ~ w il t', l! ll t•JI , 111 11 1

IH'III It li ' II III tONI 11 lt•gt·nd , to ld Ids packed uudi t'Jii t•N !l ull ' !It t' WJ'Ongs hetqwd

ll jlllll ww tl t' ll could not be told '. 11 Sarah Parker Rcn1 onJ , who came fro 111 1t

11111 1 ht•r tt /iunil y with a long an ti-slavery tradition, was more explicit in her

d1 'NI ri pt ion. In her first public speech in Britain in r859 she told the story

11/ Mnr·gurer Garner, who was abused so badly she decided to free herse.lf and

lt t· t· l hildren or die in the attempt. 72 According to the newspaper report of

the 111eet ing , held in Warring ton, Sarah Remand explained how common 1 his experi ence was for women:

Above all sufferers in America, American women who were slaves lived in

1 he most pi tiable condition. They could not protect themselves from the

licent iousness which met them on every hand- they could not protect their

honour from the tyrant .... 'Ah!' continued Miss Remond, in deep and

1hrilling tones, 'what is slavery? who can telP In the open marker place

women are exposed for sale - their persons are not always covered. Yes I can

tell you English men and women, that women are sold into slavery with

cheeks like the lily and the rose, as well as those that might compare to the

wing of the raven. They are exposed for sale, and subjected to the most

shameful indignities. The more Anglo-Saxon blood that mingles with the

blood of the slave, the more gold is poured our when the auctioneer has a

woman for sale, because they are sold to be concubines for white Americans . They are not sold for plantation slaves.'73

Shortly after her arrival in Warrington, Sarah Remand gave a talk to a

group of women. Although she was extremely tired and not feeling well,

she spoke to them for a few minutes concentrating entirely on the

experience of female slaves. When she finished she was approached by one

of the women who said she felt proud to acknowledge her as a sister. She

gave her a watch which bore the words: 'Presented to S. P. Remand by

Englishwomen, her sisters . . .'The Warrington Times reported that Sarah

Remand could scarcely speak she was so surprised. At length she said, 'I do

not need this testimoniaL I have been received here as a sister by white

women for the first time in my life. I have been removed from the

degradation which overhangs all persons of my complexion .. .'74 Several

78

JIIIIJJ tl ll lill i' l ·· 111 ' 11 '~• II di ll!!! I ii J!Vi; ll t;d till iiVU f]lt /1 1·1111 1, 11 111 ~ l'll l t • ollll ' l I ly

111 Wll l tlilllll i111 tlll ol li lit I' 111 [1 liii J\0 tWO tlll /l i ll t\hitii i ii •Nii ' l NIH• •' i' IH'Idt•d

i111 11'ti JII 'tf lil lll lj t l llllil fi ll '" 1111111111/ flli /i hiiltl ' I

J l tll l ~ l l W11 11 illl1M tii'J II t ill i111 tlllt/ ~ III V t 1)1 Wll fi , WIIS in the early days

/l ll 'll tl y ll dll il il'd hy Alt ll ll l 11 11 WII II II ' JI ttholiii OII is ts and served as an

llll jlll llt ion lm 1 lu·11 1. llt •t Wt 'l' ll ' H 111 111 1d 1 H6u women on both sides of the

At li1111 il wrn· t 'Oil St ious of t'llt h 0 1 hen;' t ffo rcs as interest and enthusiasm

ill t'vituhly ll agged 1tnd rH:cdcd 1·eviving . After a tour of the northern states

111 1 H~6, the controversial British abolitionist George Thompson returned

lmm America with a special appeal to women to become more active.

Dlll·ing a visit to the Pease family in Darlington, Thompson charged

E li ~abeth with the task of organizing local women into an anti-slavery

association. 'GT's farewell words to me', she later wrote, 'made a deep

impression, and laid a responsibility on me which I know not how to

d ischarge. "Remember," said he,· "it rests with you whether anything is

done here by women or not." '76

International links between women flowed mostly across the Atlantic,

but there were also successful attempts to make contacts in Europe. Anne

Knight, a Quaker active in her local anti-slavery association in her home

town of Chelmsford from r83o onwards, visited France several times to

promote the cause and in r834 tried to persuade the eminent abolitionist

George Thompson to carry out a speaking tour there. When he declined,

she decided to do it herself and addressed several large congresses and many

other informal meetings .

It is no coincidence that most of the women mentioned so far- Elizabeth

Heyrick, Elizabeth Pease, Anne Knight, Ellen and Anna Richardson, for

example - were Quakers, as were many other active members of the

movement. Their religious Nonconformism often meant that they had

long absorbed notions of the equality of man and the iniquities of slavery,

and had received, in principle, a reasonably good education . While the

skills and experience acquired by anti-slavery women in their campaign

work provided a first-hand political training, many would have been

familiar with radical ideas through their unorthodm.> upbringing. In order

to t race the ways in which some of these women both experienced and

conceptualized the social and political relations of race, class and gender in

their own lives, I shall now explore the social networks in which they lived

and worked, and particularly the friendships that developed across the

Atlantic.

79

lll 1 fl_!L .,.I_I I Ill , I

G111111

lt is itnpOt'l'illll I'O hl'll l' In ndnd II III I I lit• Iilii j •Itt VI' I 1' IIIIIVI 1111 ' 111 Wi t ~ Ill II VI

during a period of greac social and poliltn d 1 IHiil fiO 'l'lltnllg lwlll HIIJOpt•

the first half of the nineteench century saw world np, duss llml nrtl lowdlst

movements erupt and threaten the Stabil ity o( their respect ive fiOV~' I'II

ments, and political philosophies moved across the English Channel jn

both directions. In Britain the key issues were suffrage and represcncac ion ,

Ireland and the price of food, and abolitionists were often key 11gures

exerting an influence on these questions as well as focusing on slavery. The

crusade against slavery had helped to make respectable the formerly radical

claim that all men were equal, and from this stemmed the demand thac

women should be equal as well. In the first half of the nineteenth century,

Owenite, Chartist and Saint Simonian groups and individuals discussed

and called attention to women's rights, demanding the vote, education and

greater recognition of women's lower status. In r847, Anne Knight, who,

as we have just seen, was also heavily involved in the anti-slavery

movement, published what is thought to be the first leaflet on women's

suffrage and this led eventually to a petition in the House oflords in r85r.

However, it was not until r854 that women actually came together to

make specific demands on laws and institutions, and began to create

channels of communication to discuss women's issues. It was during this

year that Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon published A Brief Summary in

Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women, and the first

group of self-consciously feminist women came together to discuss political

strategy. 77 The following year she instigated a petition to reform the legal

position of married women. Addressed to all women this petition had

collected sixty thousand signatures from around the country by r857, by

which time a growing number of feminists had begun meeting together.

The English Woman's journal- the first regular journal to be entirely written

and published by women- was founded and several important institutions

for female reform were set up .

Both Barbara Bodichon and Anne Knight came from family back­

grounds that encouraged daughters to appreciate the value of education and

take an interest in politics. As we shall see below, both were active within a

network of radical men and women who were in regular contact with their

counterparts in Europe and America. Although there was an age difference

of forty years between them, both their attitudes to women's rights were

So

pHtlttllllllly tl il [t~~i!l h)' ilt~. ii !i!VIIIhtlli ill !ii iltiti t LI'ii\' ludi!HM. lltlllt

Will dttjtl)' ll rt•U td hy ltit tlV! 11! ilt ti i lllllh jt!H f Ill ltt!ldlltl Ill tll Jjll \U itlt It j tlliljtllill f ti tl Nllljt,t ttl lillf' tT l f i11 ilti· i f111 1lillll 111 Wliiiiiii

1

N tl j& ill ll tllll i

ll l'ttt nl t~t t lttttt lt !llttl 111 !Itt dt ,,, lt•ilill(ltl 111 ltlltllll - •11 .

III.JII tli ' ttl ilhll yt'l ll ti ll 111 11 1 llll!i[ll!llil!lhd tlllli HliiVI'IY IIIJIVI ' IIIillll Wi l

lt t' ld lo l.ond1111 ' l'lu• !!ntlt • oltlt Hillt~ ttltlllt tl11 •it w11y to lilt • Jlt•t•t•ttttt NIIII '

I hill , quilt• lllljlt '<' IHilt •d ltu lilt • l lltlltlt ul ti! •IHti WI tlutl il wy Wl' rt' tlhtHil 111

wlt tWNN . W lwo 1 lt ('y ttt'ltVI'd , otlti •tH Wi'H'Iltllll ti iog II J'OU ttd tnl kin~ t•t tt'll l'NI I

111d thc•·e we•·c unex i Wl' t ~· d g t'OIIPN of Antt•rkttn women who up p<.:t ll't•d 10 he· 11hOll t' tO take the it· seucs:ttnong the men in cht.: huge hall. lc nmedi tlf'l'i y ttfl t'f

the dHtinnan had introduced the convention , the yo~111g Arnerican ttbol i t ionise Wendell Phi.llips rose to propose a motion :

That a Comm ittee of five be appointed to prepare a correct list of tlw

members of this Convention, with instructions to include in such tt I ist , nil

persons bearing credentials from any Anti-Slavery body . 78

The entire first day of the conference was spent discussing whether or nol

women delegates should be allowed to participate in the proceedings .

With few exceptions the British delegates refused even tO contempltuc 11 1111

they should do so. One of the committee pointed out that, as soon as II H•y

had heard rumours that some of the Americans intended a ' lilwru l'

interpretation of the invitation, the organizers had sent them word IIHI I

convention delegates were to be 'gentlemen'. Another Englishman, il w

Reverend). Burnet, appealed to the women to recognize English CUSI'OIIt

and conform to English prejudices. His arguments were sarcasc icn ll y

reduced to the following list by George Thompson:

rst That English phraseology should be construed according co clv•

English usage. 2d That it was never contemplated by the anti-slavery committee thac

ladies should occupy a seat in this Convention.

3d That the ladies of England are not here as delegates .

4th That he has no desire to offer an affront to the ladies now present.

After dismissing these 'arguments' as frivolous and groundless, Thompson

gave his reasons for supporting the motion:

SI

l 'li i' Ni ll tp l t t p ii 'N IIttli l ll i llll II ~ 1., witt t ilt I i11111 li!dl[l.t l ii !il lll\l llllt tlltlllllll

t lwi t ut•d t•!III II IN, t lt t• lll lf •111 1i11 •y il tiVI' tliNj tl tl\'lol tho : ~IIITi tllij '~ tilly iltiVI

c.: nJurc.:d , the.: jourut·y tlwy hitvt• und t' ll itl. l' ll , Nluti tl d lu till til tWit tlw d hy It

in vircue of chese hig h citlc.:s, or should bt• Nlll ol 111 11 lt11 t l11• I I'IINI!I I•I Nltll n 1. 1'

The failure of the majority ro respect these credentials refl ecced Llv•

dominant view of women's work in the Brit ish anti-slavery movement . As

Thompson himself pointed out, 'It appears we are prepared to sanction

ladies in the employment of all means, so long as they are confessed ly

unequal with ourselves'. Inevitably the charge was raised that delegates

were wasting time on such a 'paltry' question. Opponents of the motion

warned that the proposal was in danger of splitting the whole conference,

of doing untold damage to the cause for which they had originally

assembled. This extract from Phillips's speech illustrates the passions that

were aroused by the debate:

When we have submitted to brick-bats , and the tar tub and feathers in

America, rather than yield to the custom prevalent there of not admitting

colored brethren into our friendship, shall we yield co parallel custom or

prejudice against women in Old England? We can not yield this question if

we would; for it is a matter of conscience. But we would not yield it on the

ground of expediency. In doing so we should feel that we were striking off

the right arm of our enterprise. 80

At the end of the day a vote was taken and the women were excluded as

delegates by an overwhelming majority. For the remainder of the sessions

they were obliged to sit behind a curtain - 'similar to those used to screen

the choir from the public gaze' . 81

The exclusion of the American women delegates from the business of the

conference and their banishment behind the gauze curtain at the back of

the hall would have come as no surprise as they had been warned that this

was likely to happen. Their first few days in London were not just spent

recovering from the terrible seasickness which seemed to afflict all transat­

lantic visitors. According to Lucretia Mott , much of the time was spent

discussing their right to take part in the convention. 82 They breakfasted

with Joseph Sturge, one of the founders of the newly formed British &

Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and organizer of the conference, who tried to

persuade them not tO claim their seats alongside male delegates. A

82

Jlllllll v IIIII 1111 Wllllllllill

t l' ltH ol•ptllll)llittltlll'l"l

I II 1111"1' " q hill It Ill

111 llti!i "lt Wllltllll ill

l lu•ttll1"11

IIII I )11 11 1 tl111 ~t lll aJ l !ll;t!nUII lit \1111 "1 1111~ 1 jltll ll p ld t•l WIIN wt• ll

l lltiWI I i ll Atlll ' illll , Itt II Il l ,,, !Itt" tlttlli lll lllol ~ Ill iiiiiii i YI I IIII IN Wl) lil (' ll WIIIISI'

l 'll ti ll l pit • l111d i ll ~ jil t t • tl n -IIIIIY 111 !111 II /\ttlllllllll II INII ' I H.

l.u t n· I IH M 0 11 , w lw Nt' d 11 11 y 1 Pll t•t 1" he•• 1 t ' t 111w ot•d L' ll t' I',LI, Y 1tnd en tln 1s ins n1

lo t' polit it:t il lilt-, l't't w ·ci N tl u11 tiH'II ' Willi o11 ly one ocher woman prcsen1· Il l

1 his gathering, bes id l.!s 1 host• in 1 il l' A mcl"i can party: El ikabc th Pease hnd

drcady called on them in their lodg i.ngs - 'a fine, noble-looking g irl' - and

was co entertain them with her father, Joseph Pease, for breakfas t a few days

later. Throughout their stay Lucretia and Elizabeth developed a close and

supportive friendship which was to become one of many important

transatlantic alliances against opposing conservative forces. From r84

onwards a serious split emerged in the abolitionists' ranks in Ameri c11,

which was replicated in England as organizations and individuals cook sides. Although it may be characterized briefly as a rift between the rad icn l

and the conservative factions, there were also great differences of relig ion,

politics, morality and, inevitably, personality . At the centre of the radi cH I

faction, called the 'Old Organisation' (as opposed to the 'New Organi St!

tion' , which broke away), was a man called William Lloyd Garrison, who is

now remembered as one of the most influential white abolitionisrs in

nineteenth-century America. Garrison began his political career as a journalist committed tO soci1 tl

reform. In 1829 he became associate editor of a paper called The GeniTtS 11/

Universal Emancipation, edited by Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker opponent of'

slavery who had consistently reported on British women's campaigns . llor·

the next three years, Garrison, influenced by the demand for immed iat ism

inspired from England by Elizabeth Heyrick83 and impressed by the

contribution made to the British movement by women generally developed

his particular strategy for abolition. D~ring this period Elizabeth Margaret

Chandler, a young Philadelphia -poet, was appointed to edit 'The Lad ies

Repository', a section of The Genius reserved for 'philanthropy and litera­

ture'. Jean Fagan Yellin has described how she used these columns c

publish a wide variety of materials on women and slavery, includin

reports of female anti-slavery societies in England and America, writings

by black and white American women, and her own abolitionist essays and

poetry. 84

83

\\flli!IIUVtrl I Iii ; Jll ftl'ti' ti •t l ~ll ll t ltll I , , llll ilt ll 1 ~ lili{it ·~i fit •. iliili_lll'• 1i,4 l11 .,

l11 W1 t ~ qtd t l- 111 - 111'1 111 11 Anll'llllltl lt1111d, t1h1d11 ltlid ~ i li l1111 tlw y l uw111

1111 •it jtll l ll ll Wlt illtt du• tii \IIN ' l 'l 11 • ' \'V'tlltliltiiiii P• JIIut ', , , ~ It Wt l ~ l.tHIWII ,

lu II IItH' 11 Hil lin I' ol dt iiii,4 11 '1'111!'PI 11111 0 11 ,4 Altii ' J il1111 ,,j 111 111 fiiiii Nfll liN NOW I , 1 ~ II

uost•, pi't•dpittllt·d by l il t: ut tt:mp ts ol' lht• (ltirttl,t• tuslt't'N um l oll let·s 10

tuldt•t•ss p11hlk mee1ings :ttrcndcd by men and WO II lt.·n . 11 ~ ll owevcr, rh t• l't•

Wl'l'l' 01 her fitt:to •·s which al icnaccd potencial supporters: Garrison's unon h­

odox rd igious views, in particular his attack on the sanctity of the Sabbath

he insisted on the right co hold his anti-slavery meetings on Sundays ­

and his all eged fanat icism and unwillingness co compromise. His repu-

1:11 ion has survived at tempts co demote and blame him for fracturing the

l()f(;es of anti-slavery in America, and he has likewise enjoyed periods of

recognition as a great journalist and influential spokesperson for human

rights. One of the distinctive tactics of Garrison's American Anti-Slavery

Society (AASS) with which many others cook issue was a complete

withdrawal from active political life , based on a belief that all human

inscicicucions were corrupt. Slavery was a sin, and any dealings with

slaveholders were unacceptable. Frederick Douglass, whose career as a

public speaker was first facilitated by the AASS, fell out with many

Garrisonians because he allowed friends to negotiate a price for his

freedom. He later expressed his irritation at fellow-abolitionists who

criticized this t ransaction for giving credibility to the institution of slavery:

'Viewing it simply in the light of a ransom , or as money extorted by a

robber, and my liberty of more value than one hundred and fifty pounds

sterling, I could not see either a violation of the laws of morality or of economy. '86

Garrison had considerable charisma which particularly affected some of

the women who encountered him. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the party

of American women who attended the I 840 London convention - not as a

delegate herself, but on honeymoon with her abolitionist husband - said twenty years after meeting Garrison:

In the darkness and gloom of a false theology, I was slowly sawing off the chains of my spiritual bondage, when, for the first time, I met Garrison in London. A few bold strokes from the hammer of his truth, I was free! Only those who have lived all their lives under the dark clouds of vague, undefined fears can appreciate the joy of a doubting soul suddenly born into the kingdom of reason and free thought. 87

84

lit du ''' , .,,,1,, 111 ~ 1 ''''· ' (hi ll ihiiH fii•d li•iHd l1 lti 1 trdl - '' l1111 111 ' ''".!'' viH tl Ill l1111ti1111 Ill I tl \\ f lltllillf li tllt'l I I tdlttd t'tllttliy , "It t• Wll't IIIIIIIC 'tlllllt'Jy

illl tlt il'd 111 1!1 11 jtltilll~t qdl\ '' "" ltilt IPli tt ·d i 11 l11 " "'tl'''li~,t lfi on. When he

Jllli VI' d ill II II I tiiiVI 'IIil ti ll tl iJ I'' d t l \'~ !.11 I til IIi I 1111!. ltt N Nl'lll wit h the women

lllllllfi 'H i ill 1l11• wuy il11 •y litttllu•J'II flt 'l lfi 'tl , lit• was i!l~· vicabl y ostracized by

""' t1111)wl1 y ol lltlliNit tdHt lltlo iiiNik who hnd ar least expected him to

I'''" it iplitl', St•vt·ml wt't'ks l:llt'J' tlu.' t h irty-three-year-old Elizabeth Pease

wrOit' 10 !111 llllOilymous r.·icnd in America:

II <.: JGnrr ison} knows my mind and heart, we have canvassed everything 10gcchcr, and inexpressible has been the treat and privilege of doing so with me. _ .. Thanks to some who have hardly taken him by the hand, abstaining from all intercourse with him, who have sat in judgement, censured and condemned alike both him and many of his opinions. Thanks to such as these I have been privileged with a much larger share of his company than I ever dared to anticipate would fall to my lot- & I feel that the fault is my own if I have not been benefitted and instructed by it. 88

According to George Thompson, with whom she worked, she appeared

'quite in love with W.L.G. & to find in his name and virtues an exhaustless

theme for her prolific pen. She seems to mourn his departure with a deep

and unaffected sorrow. '89

Despite their relatively small numbers, Garrison's supporters in Britain

formed an important part of the British anti-slavery movement. They were

based mainly in the provinces with strong groups in Ireland, Bristol and

theW est Country , Scotland and the north of England. As in America, they

tended to come from Unitarian or Quaker backgrounds, but were freer of

religious dogma than the older generation of Quakers who gave financial

and moral support to the rival British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society .

Like the Garrisonians in Boston and Philadelphia, they also connected and

supported a wide range of humanitarian and sometimes revolutionary

causes - from Irish nationalism, Chartism and the Anti-Corn Law League

to women's rights. However, judging from the correspondence that

survives, this last question was given less prominence in Britain than in

America, whereas the letters from Britain to America are full of news and

discussion about Chartism, poverty and the Irish question.

It was during the aftermath of the I 840 convention that we can see the

clearest picture of women's rights emerging as a political issue among the

Bs

lh l i l ~ ll dutl itliHiiT 1\ Ji ll lllilt ,illt 1 !111 11111

" " '''I hdtll11 Itt l il t lt lt lld 111 II IIHIIIII , Mttt itt W U/1 111 111 It IJ II thlll , l! IVIIIH lu •t

ill iht• dt • i ll il ~ il h11111 wl11 11 lt1td lu1ppt•oc•d , 11 l11 w t11 ilt •pt llliJIH '' ''"''ll'l lt•f ft ' l 11 lt•llf.l lh lw 1111• dlf lt•lt' ll tt'N i1 n ·vt:uls lwlwt 't' ll 1111 JHINIIItlll li ol Alll t· rknn 111d lll'llis l1 women:

Of' wurst:: wc woll ld nor 'thrust ourselves forward' inco such a meeting, bllt hnvinR come so far to see what could be done for rhe slave, & being rhus prcvcnced doing anything ourselves, we were willing to be mere lookers on & listeners from without, as by doing so we should be rhe means of many more women having an invitation to sit as spectators- which we found was nccollnted a very high privilege in chis land - by their women who had

hi therto most submissively gone forth into all the streets, lanes, highways and byepachs to get signers to petitions, & had been lauded -long and loud for chis drudgery, but who had not been permitted even to sit with their brethren, nor indeed much by themselves in public meetings - having transacted their business, as we were informed, by committees. 90

Lucretia Mort had earlier made a rather disparaging note in her diary after

meeting some unnamed women anti-slavery activists in London: ' A stiff

company of Anti-Slavery ladies at our lodgings, a poor affair. We find little

confidence in women's action either separately or conjointly with men,

except as drudges . . .'91 However, in her letter to Boston she described

their attempts to rouse women on the question of their own rights:

In vain we endeavoured to have a public meeting called for v.;omen -although a few Anne Knight, Elizh Pease &c- did all they could to promote it. At length we gave up in despair & left London satisfied - that 'when for the time they ought to be teachers, they have need chat one reach them which be the first principles' of Human Freedom. 92

She went on to speculate that the British public, for whose sakes the

women were banned from the convention, would not have been as outraged

as they were given to understand, judging from the reaction that she and her colleagues had met in public meetings.

Elizabeth Pease gave her own version of their attempts to organize a women's meeting in London:

Every obstacle was thrown in the way & no public opportunity was afforded them for a free interchange of sentiment with their English sisters. I

86

IT IJii ll ( tl I I !lrGJ•I

' " "' Y'l ' "Ill til III II IHIIill!,, Wll li]l WI ,,,, IIIII NI I VI'R 111 111) JlitWi! flt;:M- I

I' I II II IIII I I l111d d fi t}' Il l lt1 lp It

II fiJiii lll '" 11 11 fllil lll'il11' 1 h111 lit' l'l '

1\ rJ WI' I HI VI' Ht•c•n , lill t~du • tlt t dH •Ifd y lutd poNII ivt txpct·icnce of setting up a

wonlt 'II 1N ~ IOI IJ 1 In ht•t lutiiH' lown , und torrcsponcling with other such

INNtH l111 io11s hoth 1111tionu ll y nnd in America . lc is significant that this was

1101 enough lO oveJ'COtne rhe bar ri ers set up to prevent women organizing

I I WilY from 'horne', especially around issues that did not comply with the

lc~itimacc fema le task of philanthropy. A letter from the veteran American

abo I it ionise Sarah G rimke, written two years after the convention, indi­

·aces that Elizabeth Pease turned to her for support in raising the question

of women's rights within the British abolitionist movement. After reassur­

ing her that the behaviour of the British men had been 'an unwarrantable

assumption of power', the older American woman told her: 'I cannot see my

dear friend that the public expression of my opinion on the subject of the

rights of women, would at all tend to set at rest the strife and animosity of

the parties of the anti-slavery cause.' It is interesting to note that, in her

view, the dispute over the woman question was a pretext for sectarian

fighting, and not the real cause of dissension. Even if it had been, she

claimed that the sectarian behaviour of the women's supporters since then

had shown them to have identified 'self with the principles they were

defending'. Meanwhile she believed that 'God calls now to other duties, to

the living out of our anti slavery principles in every day life, to assert our

unchanged opinions as to the equality of the sexes at the family altar,

around the social board and on all the occasions which may and do arise in

domestic life.'94

The fiasco of the r84o convention also prompted Anne Knight to write

to the Grimke sisters: 'Yes dear Angelina dear Sarah your noble spirits

lighted a flame which has warmed, enlightened, we thought not of our

bondage .. .'95 She also wrote to Maria Weston Chapman in Boston: 'How

much have we felt thy absence during our convention! A new and grand

principle launched in our little island and shipwrecked as it were in its

birth .. .'96 The principle to which she referred was, of course, women's

rights. The British women were aware that Lucretia Mort and Elizabeth

Cady Stanton had decided to organize a women's rights convention when

they returned home. 97 It seems that the endless discussions they must have

all had on the subject affected Anne in a particular way. From then on all

87

l11 1 1\11i!i ll jl8 ~ 1 111\\1 IIIII!\'' j ii d llllt il j t ltll ll~l qoll \ i tt '\• l titlt ~ l ti ·· liiii l tlll t 'd td l

111 itd 111M 111 11 11 • l'i tJii i'M• ill tt ll l Wll lii i ' II 'M 'dl \' 11111 lll 't liill i t,llll ~ ~ ~~ lljljll 'l li i' d

liiJU •Ji t'VI ' 11 11111 1 Wt l ~i ll t ' li ~ l l lll ~ I ~M II I', t l ill l Wl llll l II l 11 td Jll 'lilltll 'i ll t'til ty(;lll l

Ill jlii' VI ' III li ll Y II li Nt lllt 'l t'II IISt'd hy lt \111) , ' l't•fl Yl ' lll ll ltll l ' l l ll tlt ll tt l'M jlOtHit•ll( ('

to t il t· /J I'i,~hto11 1/vrrtltl con<:c t·ning women's Sld lt'II J.w Nlw Wt'Otc:

It is not fi J.I htinJ.! powers we wane in chat House (of Commons); we already

illlvt' 11 horrible majority of slaughter-men there. Women could not suffer

Wi lt'; she would soon change the sword for the ploughshare, the spear for the

prun ing hook; although for power of fight ing , her deeds in battle have

sht• wn wha t she can do, from Boadicea downwards; but the day of battle and

wnr with her is gone. She would soon take the tools of murder from the

h11 nds of her bruce force brother and he would learn war no more. 99

' l'l w previous year she had written to Lord Brougham about the manner in

which wom en had learned of their own oppression: 'Ah! W e have been

1 IHIJ.\h t another lesson , by our idle brothers driving us out into the battle­

lldd tO combat slavery and war, and every monster that is grasping the

1 hroat of our trampled and peeled country, taught of another slavery than

hluck! Compelled to fight with hands tyed these foes to our welfar; and now

we sec and know the evil, some of us; we are demanding the remedy .' 100

The stubborn refusal of the convention's organizers to admit women

delegates was fiercely contested by some of the male members of the

American delegation who joined the banished women behind their curtain

in silent protest . But they also took satisfaction in the way that the issue of

women's rights had been forced on to the agenda. Garrison wrote to his

wi fe shortly after the conference: ' ... We have not visited this country in

vain. The "woman question" has been fairly started, and will be canvass~d from the Lands End to John O'Groats' house.' 101 Two months later he

reported to a friend and colleague that 'the rejection of the American female

delegation by the London Convention, and the refusal of Rogers, Remond,

Adams and myself, to become members of the same, have done more to

bring up for consideration of Europe the rights of women, than could have

been accomplished in any other manner' . 102

Charles Lennox Remond, the African-American delegate who was

at tending the convention as a representative of three women's groups in

north-west Wales, wrote a report of the incident to the only American

88

I t 111 111 1 Jll 'l tl ' l ol i I ii I i'd [I i [ 1 I tl it llt 1W IIII III I I YI II I I I ··· Jilt Iiiii\ ii il ttllllt ,j

lt_' [l l' l I ll till ' I tli l lll ltt ll llllll i •'III I I

du! i olo'" l ilil tllll l

,,, , itt Vt' l

litdil l• ill

PIIJ I(' I S. Ill II

'l'llltnkH lu• 111 l'tllvl tl t•it ll 'o lltttVI ' yt•l to lt•t ll 'll , lhlltth<: emancipat ion of the Ant t• t•lntll ~ ~~I V(', filii II I li t• NI' Ptdt h··~· or American slavery, is not of more importH tttt; t1 111n th e t't: icnion of' females from che platform of any Anti­

Slavery Sociecy, Convention, or Conference. In the name of heaven, and in he name of the bleeding , dying slave, I ask ifl shall scruple the propriety of

female action, of whatever kind or description. I trust not - I hope not -I pray not, until the bastard system is annihilated, and not a vestige remains tO remind the future traveller, that such a system ever cursed our country

103

' Remond was consistently interested in the work of women's groups and

was the first black abolitionist to collect items for the Boston Anti-Slavery

Bazaar. On a highly successful tour oflreland in 1841, he helped found the

Cork Ladies Anti-Slavery Society, which became the most active women's

abolitionist group in the country. The correspondence generated by the I 840 convention is fascinating for

its comment on a number of social and political issues. The Garrisonians

were shocked by the appalling poverty they witnessed on their visit, and

the callous treatment of the working class by an aristocratic and landed

government. Garrison himself wrote to a friend as soon as he arrived back

in Boston:

Oppression, degradation , vice , starvation are there, side by side with monarchy, royalty , aristocracy, monopoly. . . . I could not enjoy the beautiful landscape of England, because of the suffering and want staring me in the face, on the one hand, and the opulence and splendour dazzling my

vision, on the other. 104

He predicted that England was sitting on a volcano which was about to

erupt, and that should Queen Victoria suddenly die, a republican revolu­

tion would bring down the monarchy and the present system of govern­

ment. (Like many other radicals, Garrison found Scotland much more to

his liking.) Just over two years later Garrison wrote to his friend Elizabeth

Pease in a much more militant tone:

89

llu JU• '"' [il ll , lit i.u1 111 l'tiJ ' I''IIII Itt II 1 • lil il 111.11 fili i

I ill til·' ' I ill · · ~' " ·-li lt lit 'I' lti J1 llllid WIHII II •JIIfl Ill II lllti 111111111 I 1 111 111111 ~ ''"

It " lndtl~lly 1111d li N lt •lilllt y1 Ill N1'11 VII HI llllililttllli 1 111 tin Jlllljl lt fllildNitln l111 ltt t•ttdl Wilttl IH 10 ht• the• c•ncl ol ttll lid ,~( ()l ,dl Ylltll ttltllllt l'• ••ti• ~H 1 11111

one• i{ot'N ' '''' t' IIIH1filt , 1101 Ollt• ls illlst·d on 1 lie J)I'Otldi"""'IVtth lc• ltHIIh illt lou ol hllfllllfl ri~-thl s ll() f' ()II~' ruiscs t he stnndnrd or Chrisrlnn l'l' VOit' ll~llinst th"

powt••· ol dnrkncss. . . . 'J'hc watchword should be, - at the risk o •nurtyrdom, or execution Cor high treason, - Down with the throne! Down with the :u·iscocmcy! Down with the accursed union between Church and Srntc! '0 ,

'J'hc poliricaJ climate in Britain was so volatile that radical women found

1 heir energies dispersed into a number of urgent causes, of which women's

II J.I hts was just one. However, through involving themselves in a wide

ntll}.IC..' or political issues they were able to see connections between different

woups or oppressed people. This experience, combined with the active

support of those they worked with, radically influenced their perceptions of

tlu: ir own oppression as women. Some, like Elizabeth Pease, Harriet

Martineau, Eliza Wigham and Mary Estlin, juggled their feminism within

1 broad concern for human equality. 106 Others, like Anne Knight and

Barbara Bodichon, increasingly concentrated on women's issues while

n·raining their commitment to other social causes. For all these women,

t•cttular contact with radicals in Britain, America and Europe was crucial in

sustaining their energy and confidence, and it was this that helped to

provide the grounding under the feet of the incipient women's movement.

Elizabeth Pease

lllizabeth Pease, being a Quaker, was a pacifist, bur it is clear that her own

views were not so far from those of the outspoken American whom she

adm ired so much. A biography, writteQ shortly after her death in r896,

describes a significant moment in her political development. Travelling to

Birmingham with her father, Joseph Pease, to celebrate the anti-slavery

jubilee in 1836, they were joined by the Irish nationalist Daniel O'Con­

nell . She listened while the two men talked: 'I felt myself in a sort of

elysium while listening to the conversation of two men, who, to so large an

extent, practically carried our principle "that all men are created free and

eq ual, and have an equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of

90

l~tijqlltu •• ' , ,,; , D111i11i ' ili •H 8t!iti11 )'rlll '1 Jil ~t: ph 1\ - , , ~, lu w 111 '''HIIItiiiiiJ.I 111

illtlli'• l tllllllllll iiHJit lli•l••tlil "h "i!l)' iJtlwli•t l'lu Jtdtlltt • llllli t'tntnHIHtll)

h11d lw1111 trll1 ·d lt.lltl•l•l •lll tlu l '"~'il il ~lll illu • 1111 il11tl dt Nnn•ntled cnlorced

IJIJIII ' IIIIi l'~ h lp Itt 1l11 I tiillolu ·t llt 1 l•111 illlllll ' l N lnv~· owners had already

IIIIIH'd 111 ltul il• 1111 t iii'IIJI iltltttlll , IIIIJHIJIIII/-1 what were known as 'hill

toolit:N ' 10 MtlilllliltN Hlld (;uytttllt . lk·sides this virtual slave trade , plan­

rutions in lttdi11 l't•li cd on vast pools of native labour whose plight was

j.\J'Hdually bccomi t1g known to English aboli tionists through increased

tmC!ic between the two countries. Both O'Connell and George Thompson

became involved in Joseph Pease's campaign, and a network of local

roups, formed 'for the protection of the natives of British India', quickly

spread in conjunction with existing anti-slavery groups. By 1839, the

British India Society had been founded with Elizabeth Pease as the

unofficial secretary. For several months she had worked closely with both

Thompson and her father, writin;g their letters, discussing strategies and

deciding policies. She continued to do so for as long as her health

permitted, and her biography describes the dependence with which the

two men relied on her.

It was a rare position, in those days of prejudice and misconception, to stand at the side of the men who were proclaiming a great crusade, to be consulted on every step taken, supported in every suggestion, to have her prompt business-like arrangements carried out in every detail; to be in a sense the source of their resources, and the executive of the measures which she inspired. 108

The relationship between Elizabeth and her father was not particularly

unusual in anti-slavery circles; in fact, the role of the daughter-confidante

would make a very rewarding study. For instance, both Eliza Cropper and

Priscilla Buxton, daughters of leading abolitionists in the early days of the

movement, played an important part behind the scenes. In her role as

secretary, Elizabeth consistently asked her American friends for support for

the British India Society and found them to be extremeLy willing to help.

Articles were exchanged, often written by Elizabeth herself, on many

different aspects of the Indian situation, including the opium question and

the great famines exacerbated by the system of British rule. She also found

time to write a pamphlet criticizing American Quakers for their exclusion

of black Friends from New England meeting houses. This was widely

circulated in both England and America and helped to earn Elizabeth a

91

lf l'•lli flflilll ,,- ,f filii! til ' ' 'i' lllu; flltl flu tllt jl ) lpil\fHtf!i!ll

~"111\'1111 1 11 ·•du lit '- -111\'I VI IIii Itt II t ll lllti lt1Hii t1 11it '" · IJi· ltll tlljulltlll'l i tl11

""111'1' '" 11ll•l," l 11, Wtlltll' tt •ttu l i111 • wod '''H tl i t ~' '"'"'"' I'"''''' 11 ltl lllll '

Ill I lltJNIIIII '''""" · At lilt' Willi I' ll Wt~N IOII , " ' " ' Wlllfl '""' tly ltlldlttllli 'N f ly duutl lwt lt•t'litlf

Wit h lt'J.tlll'd to •n y polit'icnl cc nd <: ncies, about which ch Oll enquires

rc•turn 1111 unsw<:r which my fri<:nds here wd . term very ungencee l - for t hey

Ill ' 1dtr·u l'lldicn l; ro sym pathise with the poor oppressed Chartists is

c onNidnt:d vLdgnr but 1 do most sincerely - condemning of course in them

liN I wd . in any, nn appeal co physical force- but their transgressions in ch is

w11y hnve been wonderfully few - cons idering the oppress ion they are

I'IH iurin,4 , & the ir deprivat ion of rights as human beings, I am often fi lled

wl!h astonishment ac their patience and forbearance. I know I am not

n tpnhlc of taking a comprehensive view of what wd . be the effect of their

prlltt'ipl<:s, were they carried out in action - but it appears to me chat they

tsk nothing more chan what accords with the grand principle of the natural

<'Cfltlllity of man - a principal alas 1 almost buried, in this land, beneath the

rubbish of an hereditary aristOcracy & the farce of a state religion - the

llilluml consequences of which are the love of patronage & power in the great

the: domination of the few over the many, & the destruction of the rights of

1 he great mass of the people. The live points of the Charter, are these,

l!nivcrsal Suffrage, voce by ballot , annual parliaments, no money qualifica­

tions for members , & a salary for members of parliament. It is thought most

unnccouncable for a gentleman to say he sees nothing wrong in these- but

f(Jr n lady to do so is almost outrageous - I have nevertheless frequently done

so, & am generally answered- that the people are not ready for all this- now

1 hi s appears co me, nothing but a slaveholder's argument- the slave was not

prepared for liberty- & the people are not prepared for their rights . How, I

shd . like co know, are they to become prepared for them if they continue co be wichheld? 109

Lacer chat year she wrote to the same friend again, describing the progress

of the anti-bread tax agitation. In this letter she welcomed the education

this campaign p rovided for the middle classes :

I c is reaching the middle classes their powerlessness to resist the Aristocracy

& Landocracy & shewing them chat the political liberty & equality of the

people, whose rights they have too long treated with neglect or disdain, is necessary co their own independence. uo

92

lu tllttilllllt ;d tll ~lN Piii H it.o it til ~ i t'il liii l:.o i lltf.i l tilijllft lllttllll'.llt~lllll.i l'tll

II IIIII\' tllltidlt 1lit'if t'iltil! ,d e 1 ii ... I" fltfJUt< 1flti1 IIIII Ill l11 • tlt•c•pJy ltllt•tt('d by

tlu• ttlltdll lttiiH 1 II tilt 1111 '' \''' "' 11 11 ' '"" ' ltlld11 •11 wlto lwd ht•t·n dmw n w ely• ttlilllttl ltt 1111 i11f( '' 111 11 •11 Itt -'''"'II 111 Will i l.ikc· ( ;"'' '' ison , Elizabeth Pease

Willi p ttr'l it11h11 ly Nlt l, t•tll'tilty 1l11• tlltlff'II IH betwee n che id le, landowning

l'it h 1111d tlt t' NIIIIVlll t\ 1 Ji Cll tit•lt•NN III IISSt:S in the tOwns:

We crcnc chc wol'ldng clnsscs as aliens, as foreigners, as interests, except

when we wane to carry some measure of self-interest - then we appeal to

them as rational & intelligent beings , capable of reasoning & deciding of

questions of Justice & Injustice - so long as they are called on to judge on the

extension of some privilege to ourselves -but, if they dare to exercise this

judgement in favour of their own privileges, or rights even, then , forsooth

they are ignorant, misled by passion & incapable of coming to a just

conclusion. Ah, my dear Friend , ~he slaveocrat spirit is not confined to the

Southern States of America ... 111

In t his same letter she marvelled at the forbearance of the labouring classes

in not rising up to 'steep the nation in bloodshed and rebellion'. She ended

quite abruptly, as she ran out of space, reflecting on the miseries of her

countrymen 'my brethren, my equals', and on the wickedness of those who

perpetrate such cruelty, not just cowards those in England but throughout

the Empire. She added:

Think too of our atrocities in heathen Lands, wherever the English have

colonised - & now behold them carrying devastation & war into China,

because, they have the morality to refuse our poison. Was such iniquity ever

heard of before, yet we call ourselves a Xtian nation!u 2

In another letter to close friends in Boston, this time to Wendell and Ann

.Phillips, she wrote about the Chartists in more detail. First, however, she

thanked them for their questions on the subject which 'taught me how

little I really knew on the subject notwithstanding that I reckon myself one

of their body.' Although she had to write to a mutual friend for clarification

on some of their questions, she talked at length about her own experience

and opinions:

Surely it is to class Legislation that nearly all the evils which affect Gr.

Britain & render her a curse, instead of a blessing, to other nations- is to be

93

llllli ) llllt ' d t llltl •ti l llll/1 1 1~ tltiNII\'tilll lu•,ldt d 1111111 t• t j · !iii t tOti t il 1\; lll tllll , It

N Vlli ll Itt Ntlil.t • 11 11 IIIII ' 111 it H li l 'tll iN Ill !111 - lt·l)•t ill ilu· i ,11111 ltiW•,

MonopoJ y, lllliOI\ Of dllll I h ~ Nlil i I' 01 IIIII\ hi t•INIII I Ill I I I- dt •NIIII ytd IIIII tly

- blood, bones & sinews like !' he f11hlt•d ll llt iiNII' t ll l ttltl , 1wo ht•ttd N wi ll

spring up to fi ll che p lace of one. 11 ·1

After this she seemed vague about the Chartist position on women's rig ht s

- 'I believe, the Chartists generally hold the doctrine of the eqLtality o

women's rights'- and she admitted to being unsure of the status of married

women, and whether or not they were expected to merge their political

rights with their husbands'. In this letter she did not give any opinion on

this question.

Reading these extracts written by and about Elizabeth Pease I am struck

by how reticent she was on the subject of gender, as opposed to race and

class. This may have been related to the independence of her own life-style

which made her less concerned about her subordination as a woman, or it

may have just been that she felt a great deal more angry about the

hierarchies of class and race. In any event, it would seem that she was not

ready to connect the way that women were systematically excluded from

political and economic life with the oppression of the 'starving homeless

masses' in Britain and slaves in America, India or the Caribbean. The

confusion she expresses in her letters is a useful reminder that political

consciousness is bound to be uneven and contradictory, even in the most

committed and militant activists.

Elizabeth's politics were inextricably connected to her religious beliefs as

a member of the Society of Friends. In both America and Britain Quakers

played a significant role in the abolitionist movement, and although they

were feminists neither in principle nor practice, their commitment to

humanitarian principles gave many women a grounding in early feminism.

However, as Olive Banks points out, it is clear that even a deep involve­

ment in such issues did not necessarily lead women to question their

traditional role. 114 Elizabeth Fry, famous for her work on prison reform in

the early nineteenth century, justified her role ,in social welfare through

entirely conventional means . Her life provided a clear example of the

contradictory nature of women's philanthropic work. Her 'mission' as a

woman was to apply her moral and spiritual strength to helping the poor

and needy. By applying herself to the appalling conditions of prisoners she

94

itllit ltitd li• tli-1 tlu: t n iii fi iu lill llltW IHtltl)' 111 \l itl vn l lt i, t ~ i.ll ii

ll] i(lltil

l l li ttllltlt l 't 'i l ~ t lultttlj ' ' d 10 tll ii i hlfl!itd til fJ11·d t" l - tlh!l ll ' fll ~ t · d II IIV l111ol

111 Ml'l Ull ltllii NIIIIII ltllj, IUII j dllj'ill il llf ' t) WIItllttllit llllitlollttllllltl fl lii ttllly

,,1 11 ttl llkl1111 WtHI tit tl vt:d 111 tlllttlt ft1111t ilu I tiiNjll I Ii' ' ~ 111 1111 rl11 • llli1ptilll '

h 1• "''w 111 01 111d lt t t ""' ll tt , c lttl ~ l"llllt y WtiN 11 ' tl'II ~ HIIt o l IIIVI ', wlt11 II f( •Hdli'N I hi' lll liVI ' III!I I) tHi ilii•diiiiHIIII rvhtll ' ll 1•t dt NI1k 1• of Nt'tllllllllll li lll Wt l

l'(• llt•t a·d in h~· · · t't'ltditH 'hH to lwiJ il' itd l.ttltl' t i! t Mott , who l w lwt~t ·d 1o 11

hmnrh of 1 he Qu trk~·rs t1 1111 Wi tS 1 onsidl'l'l'd lwr·et icu l by til t on hodox. l.tttt •r in her own life she came up againsL sectariani sm nmong her· ow11 1 lllll tt llt

nity : when Elizabeth married in r852 she was disowned by hei' IOl'ill hnttt t It of Friends as her husband was not a Quaker. it appears, chouJ.I h , t h tll tlwy

were more reluctant to expel her than she was to leave, and ir wns pmlwhl y

the case that her expulsion ha~tened the end of the w le that t1riends t'o ttld

not marry outside. During the r85os Elizabeth was occupied by ill-health and b<: t' lwpp

but all too brief marriage. Her husband, Professor J ohn N ichol, who WIIN 11

widower, was an ardent supporter of national liberation movem<: nt s In

Europe, and personally acquainted with the Italian and H ungariAn k trd t• t., ,

Mazzini and Kossuth. In the few years they enjoyed rogecher the l'011p l1•

formed an important part of the radical network in Glasgow , wlH'tt'

Elizabeth was closer to long-time friends and allies Jane Smeal nnd ll li ~t t Wigham. However, she kept up her correspondences with Amet'icnn

friends and was visited by Garrison before his death in 1879 .

Elizabeth Pease was by all accounts a very remarkable woman. She wns 11

port of call for many important American abolitionists who visited l3 r' ilni ll ,

In r849 the novelist William Wells Brown wrote to her shortly befor<: Itt•

arrived in Liverpool, introducing himself and passing on letters fr0 11

Garrison and other mutual friends. He asked for her help in arrang in

lecture tour: 'As I am a stranger, and wish to consult the friends of 1'11 " slave, upon my future course, any suggestions from you, will be gratefu ll y

received and highly appreciated . .. . Respectfully yours for the slave.' " ~ J. A. Collins, who toured the country during the winter of r840-4J tryi n t~ to raise support for the American Anti-Slavery Society, wrote horne C<

Garrison about his experiences: 'But the most noble of all the Englisl

spirits I have met with is Elizabeth Pease. What an enlarged and free mind!

How faithful and uncompromising! How liberal and self-denying! How

95

lltllddt i111.i t~ni.d 'di 1ih i Jllt lllllliliiJII qtltll illt ,tilllttq • lllft tli.lli itttllll ~ l il lll t

l11 .1 lltt )tillllil ttl l )' 1 tl 1111ltl t Wtll t lt ll t , ' 11 1~1

Anno Knlnht

W lwrt• Hli:w hl' th Pense has provided this legacy ofw t·iccen macet·ial, An1 w

1-.tti~ lu t't• mai ns more of a mystery . 1 was able co find only a few scattered

(11nd nlmos t uni nte llig ible - she used no punctuation whatsoever) wr it ings

tnd '' IILIInber of references to her being the first author of a women's

~til rag~· pamphlet. 11 7 It is frustrating not co know more about th

lttt'lldship that developed between Anne and Elizabeth as a resul t of their

1111 i sl1tvery work in the r8 3os. They would have had much in common:

hot h women came from or were related to leading Quaker families and had

lwm all owed to develop an interest in both intellectual and artistic

Sllhjl'etS . Anne, being older, became involved in her local anti-slavery

1ssodat ion in Chelmsford as early as r83o and throughout the decade met

many of the abolitionist leaders and activists, including Elizabeth. By

1 H ~H she was already in affectionate correspondence with Willi.am Lloyd

c;,,rrison and other Boston abolitionists in the radical camp. In July 1838,

slw wrore co Garrison from Paris bemoaning the fact that the abolition of

slovery had not managed to improve the lives of the former slaves:

My dear fr iend & brother I hope the hideous enthralment is coming to an end for every vessel

brings to our ports tidings of other planters coming to emancipation from mot ives of self interest! They only wanted to see if & how much more they ould plunder from an outraged people in the form of compensation we have

all reasons to hope that for the Africans liberty may be obtained- and then­then - the Hill Coolies! 118

Al though Anne may have felt more strongly on the 'woman question' than

Eli zabeth Pease- or at least felt more compelled to express her beliefs on

the matter - she was similarly connected to other radical movements of the

period. She also counted herself a Chartist sympathizer and had many

fr iends in the Owenite movement. After she had published her leaflet on

women's suffrage in r847, she was approached by a leading socialist in

Sheffield, Isaac Ironside, who passed on to her the names of seven Chartist

96

,,r.wll •·h11 Ml'ft' llll ~ •n • £lt l i11 lll'l'' "l ~, tiil l '"fl' ""' ' 1111 ilti ~ I N~ '" Hlu•

11111111 ditttt l\' Wltiii ' IU 1111'111 '"'" -, il-liindtl ·ll t l dtt li lu ll it ld A~HIH ii iii Wtl or

l't ll llil l llttllll lii HIJ Wil~ flllllitlnl till lifll l lltlll d l•tl WOi tWII 'N Sttffmge

tiiHtll tilltl llllt It Wll•• l ~ ,, II '""'' ttl1 l 11 ~ i1 1111 t ill' III 'NI p t' llt io n demanding the

vu l t' lt11 WOi ll t' ll Wi tH dt•IIVI 'II 'd 111 tl 11 • ll nt tMI' of L01•ds i11 t 85 1. Shortly after

li ds An1 w It'l l llllglil tltl 111 li vt• 111 li llt OJK', rc tut·ning periodically for visits.

C.S.Toll

ll owcver tantalizing it is to have only fragments of correspondence

between Anne Knight, Elizabeth Pease and their friends, these sources do

at least make it possible to claim some knowledge of their family

backgrounds and political contacts. There is no suggestion that they were

unique, either in their intellectual or. political lives, however difficult it is

to find written evidence of other women who shared their political

passions. The following extracts from letters from and about C. S. Toll,

who is far less well known, suggest that a significant number of women

involved in anti-slavery campaigns were more ready to make connections

with their own oppression than has so far been thought .

Clare Taylor's collection of abolitionist correspondence between America

and Britain includes an extraordinary letter from a woman called Margaret

New in London to Maria Weston Chapman in Boston, written in Sep­

tember r84r. She began by explaining that she was writing out of support

for the work being done to end slavery by the women in America,

describing how ashamed she felt when reading of their treatment at the

hands of those calling themselves 'Gentlemen'. She then begged for more

information about their activities, before launching into a revealing plea

for women's emancipation:

If you can now and then spare a few minutes of your valuable time, and will write to me, how proud and happy I shall be .... It is a selfish wish, but it is mine, that you would use all your energies towards bettering the

condition both political and social of women of this country, we are in such a fearful state of bondage tis dreadful to contemplate, and we have so few women of moral courage sufficient to attempt a change. My friend Mrs . Toll is one of the few she is a woman following in your own footsteps. Thrice

blessed are the women who do advance some steps from the old beaten path

97

111ol ' '" 11 01 IIEHI , It o ~ t if'U I8 111 tit ii i Ill i It• II I' il ldil .!II III' 11 11

Wr 111 '111 11 11 ll llllt ' 111 Mll r f~i l l l ' l Nt•w 111 il ii N llt ll tt lhllt , l111 1 til!' lw llll llll i'

n llllt fl lt 10 ltH vt• 11 lt•t tt•r 11 0 111 M1 s '1(>11 ii!' INc•IJ , til No ••ddt tSSl'd to M 111'i11

WcN IO II Chnp ltl lll t, It tlpp CII I'S thar C. S. 'J'o ll lived 11 1 Birm ing ham wllcr"

Itt· wnN invo lved in a cnrnpaig n co pass a law aguinsc the c:mploy rncnt o

wonu•n i11 coal m ine~ . In chis lcccer, written in 1844, she explained to the

Anwrk nn woman chat with the help of 'many good and noble hearts' and

tilt' si,4 nnturcs of many local women they were successful in getting a law

passed , :tl thoug h it was being evaded by mine owners. H er letter is a

111ixrurc of anger and despair at social conditions she saw and heard around

lt{• t : the use of the military against the Irish, the strikes in the cities and t he

poverty of the working people in the towns and villages throughout

Brirain . She was particularl y concerned about the fate of women:

On the right of suffrage - on the cruelties and horrors of our Poor Law, and on the abject and suffering condition of our labourers, particularly females, there is an enormous deal to be done . . . 120

But C. S. Toll had written to the Boston Anti-Slavery Society principally

because she wanted to express her solidarity with their work. 'If 1 were in

your land, ' she began in the same letter, '1 must join your ranks, 1 could not

possibly be apathetic, neither can I conceive how any woman calling herself

a Christian and a woman, can stand by contented with professing herself

opposed to slavery.' She ended with a warm message of support from herself

and her young daughter for 'those good and right-thinking women who act

with you in trying to rescue their fellow creatures from the curse of slavery'.

Barbara Bodichon

Barbara Bodichon (or Barbara Leigh Smith as she was known before her

marriage,) was only thirteen years old in 1840, but a childhood spent in

radical anti-slavery circles would have made her well aware of the excite­

ment generated by the London convention. Both Lucretia Mott and

Elizabeth Cady Stanton visited her house as guests of her father, Benjamin,

who was a radical MP like his father before him. As Unitarians, members of

98

IIIIi lt llitll l .. I ft ' it h it ill I iii i [ It Wli '•t •i• IH ttH i tUI!WU~ II I IIII I' IIIIIJ II illld tlllllt

vi•l t lll j4 l ll ii tllil ll lll ~ t ~ 1 II ... rl l tt\ l t~tlli ,d · ·ntd ~i11. il d i~ l ll ill ll1i1 11111 I \t il h,11 11'1

t· dii l lllltHI W•• ~ IIIII IIII Vt tlt lll ll lil l•\11 •• phd 111 tlt tll 111 l11 •t hwt l t{~ ,·s: they

tlll ' iidt•tl ,, -· luutl11111 '""''II f'IW1 11 it• III II 'M, ill lll ttl t• tl illl tl p1tid lor by their l,tiiH'I, ltll tliH•t liitlt •jtt' lldltlll 'll lld illt 'tllltll llll llVO ivt· ltcrscll' in polit ics was

fl lt'n ll y llt' lj wtl wlu•n ll lll' WIIN I{ IVI 'II tlll II Hh·pt·lldcnt: income by her father at

iiH ' llf\l' ol I Wl' III Y•OI Il' .

1\1\J'bll l'lt Bodichon's <.'Ont'r ibu cion co the Victorian women's movement

hus been docurncnccd elsewhere. 12 1 Her attachment to ot her reformist and

md ical causes was important tO her and expressed in a variety of different

ways including important alliances with other writers , artists and activists.

'J'hc importance of anti-slavery politics in Barbara's life revealed itself early

on in her poli t ical career. A trip to America in 1857-s8 with her husband,

.E ugene Bodichon, brought her into contact with defenders of slavery as

well as slaves themselves. 12 2 During. the seven-month visit she spent six

weeks in N ew O rleans before travelling up the east coast to Canada. She

also followed up her contacts with women such as Lucy Stone, an active

feminist who had come to women's politics through the abolitionist

movement. Barbara wrote in her diary that questions of slavery and

women's rights were inescapable:

It is less perverting to the mind to hold the most monstrously absurd doctrines of religious faith than to believe a man has a right to breed slaves [and} to sell his own children ... [or} to believe that men have rights over women . . .. Every day men acting on this false belief destroy their perception of justice and blunt their moral nature . . .. Slavery is a greater injustice but it is allied to the injustice to women so closely that I cannot see

one without thinking of the other . . . 123

After she returned home she published unedited extracts from her diaries in

the English Woman's journal which she had helped to found just before she

left England. One of her aims was to inform British women of the issues

involved in the American Civil War. Her views were strongly anti-slavery,

and she went out of her way to gather information about life among black

people in the Southern cities she visited. She also spent time trying to

analyse the effects of slavery on the white population, rapidly coming to the

conclusion that it was they who fared worse from the institution:

It is impossible , almost, for you to conceive the utter depravity in all ideas of

99

Jil ~ lli I 1 olll '•ull! )• ~ l o t V fl )11 I ~ ~ til 11111111 ilt fl WI tit

I '' '1'• 11111 h I J I ''"''"'"'" ''""

lu• WIIR Jlllli lt itl tttl y tlllkii l ol ill!' wllit l' Wtl lt llll ~ 111 tlllllll tlli ' H'cl , 11111111 1-1

iiii'IJ I' Xil'l ' llll ' )l ypm lw lldl'i ll , It'll I' of WOI'k IIIH i niJIH'MH illll WII h tl wir IIIJ JWIIJ'

lllllt 'N, ''" ol which she ll ltTi buted co slnvety t't llht•t' tl wn the most usu11 l c•x pl11 n111ion: the unhc11l rhy clirnacc . She also remarked on che cruclcy of

"'""Y slavt•-owning women she encountered. ln one extract Bac·bara n·rw•dtd an extraordinary conversation she took part in with a group of

1 nt ii )J,C I"S on board a boat on the Mississippi . All her companions were

1111i1ed in thei r disg ust that Barbara should have gone to school with a

' tnll llll'to ' gi rl and that there were 'mulattoes ' in England 'who were not

11111 ikcly co marry with white people'. When Barbara pointed out that 'your

l11 tl (· children all find it possible to come in close contact with negro

11urscs, and seem very fond of them' , proving that there was no 'natural

11111 ip11t hy ', the Southerners replied that: ' ... there is an inborn disgust

which prevents amalgamation'. Barbara noted at this point that 'only half

tlw negroes in the United States are full-blooded Africans; the rest born of

whicc fat hers and black mothers' . The conversation then turned to women's

riJ.I hCs, which the strangers inevitably dismissed as rubbish, although Mrs

B did confess to having been carried away by Lucy Stone's eloquence when

she first heard her speak. Barbara steered the conversation back to slavery as

she wanted to push them further on the subject of education, and to argue

lor the right of black people to learn to read and write. The general

argument ran that education made slaves discontented and encouraged

1 hem to run away; any form of emancipation was out of the question: They

were inferior to whites and likely to remain so' . The encounter ran into

deeper water when Mrs B aske~ Barbara if she had read Uncle Tom's Cabin .

When she said she had, Mrs B replied: 'If there's a creature living I hate,

it's that Mrs Beecher' . 'This was said with an expression of bitter feeling

which distorted her good face until every vestige of humanity disappeared.'

Barbara noted more than once the frequency with which Uncle Tom's Cabin

was cited by white Southerners, although it was certainly not available in

the slave-owning states.

Barbara concluded her report of this conversation with a comment on

white racism:

I do not know how others may feel, but I cannot come amongst these people

100

ltlilllll ilu JtiilfJilli.ilt i1 111i l•¥l- ' \' •!titttl tll tl ti l d j\ 111. o!llll litiiJI I• lllltllll

t lllll ~ l ,, l11- 1 1111d tit•ll !1111 111 0 1 l•lit •t il!l tlu : III ~I! I V(lM tlltti tit Ht •tdlltll,y I Ii i 11111 l . tl ~ lillllll l ltl tlu llth l ~ tlll lth II ti ll\' d N~> ll tllll vu ltitlll • lu•llt •l ol•' vl tnl

j,tJ . i•lll tllti Ji lll " llll ~ till till ~ J t iiiiJI• 111 Ill! I

l )c •ltJi llc ' 111'1 uhltiiiii 'IH I' II Iili!• r~ y ll ll ' lll witH II 'nuscd farni li cs co be split up uul so ld olf slw OIIU' wlt tH 'IIN r.•d ll slnve auction which she described in

gt'!'tll dewill(>r he•· 1\ng lish rcrtders - Barbara's own writing betrays deep­

t•ootcd ideas about rac ial pr ivilege. Many of her character sketches of black

people arc demeaning in their attempts to portray their humanity, and her

observations about the benefits of education to the African race are fairly

i'nsulting . In one passage she described herself not as an abolitionist who

bel icved in immediate emancipation, but as a gradualist: 'What I wish for

i s~ gradual freedom for the blacks, but freedom in all the states to buy

themselves, and freedom to educate. themselves.' She was interested in

what she saw as the relative capabilities of the races, observing in one

extract that 'the race is not so low in the human scale as I had supposed

before I came here. Probably the field hands are inferior' . 126

Elsewhere she

noted that 'the mulatto and quadroon are equal in mental endowments to

many European races' . For all their mid-Victorian arrogance and sentimentality, the diaries

give a valuable impression of life in the American South before the Civil

War. They revealed, for example, that black women often expressed an

interest in Queen Victoria and her marriage, seeing her as both a symbol of

liberation and as an expert in fashion . 127 Barbara's research took her to

black churches, where she was welcomed with interest, and where she

made many thoughtful , if again patronizing, observations about black life

and strategies for survival. She was most affected by the singing and

chanting she heard:

The voices of the negroes are beautiful; some day great singers will come out

of that people . . .. Sometimes when I hear them sing, the thought of

slavery, and what it really is, makes me utterly miserable : one can do

nothing, and I see little hope ; it makes me wring my hands with anguish,

sometimes, being so helpless to help . 128

One of the features of the slave system that most appalled Barbara was the

way the law either discriminated against black people, free or slave, or was

101

ll ~ iilllt ''1'1" tlillil nnt ftttt lti t 11 ''' r l;u l,iil tilltl i li I .~.h It I"''' I 111 It'""'" '' lil t, 1111 1 '"' " '" , wl11t It 111111 ol r•• "PI•I ' '' !f:'il !ll 1111ol '" " ''"" /u 1'111 '1 W lti lt 111 ht tVt lil tli d l Mlu• Willi I' , " l ' l u • w •~ tllt , t iJ IIttl t" i1 l11 11111dly Wil li II

wltllt• "' ' "' ltt •t•, 1l u• luwlll tl l' Ho lu• .. l ott fill 'lll tiii W II t i ll y ""'Y II! 1111' S 1111 "

n l A l1tl !i lfll ll , , • ll ll'y IIIIINI l111 w a II Oililt ll tl IIW III ' I , 11 11d go up 10 lw

II 'J.I INI I ' I't 'd Ill tt'l' (ttill flllH.'N, 11 11d COmpl y with Hll NOI 'IN o l' VCJ<H ti Ou S t'l.' ,i.l ld ~t · fftlll N, souw of' which arc cxpcnsive.' ' 29 'l'he inst itu t ional ineqLtal ity

lll' tweru blud< nnd whi te was shocking enough for a Bricish visico r,

c•s rwdu ll y one who had g rown up as a child of the anti-slavery movement .

ll11 1 ll:•rlwrn hnd ocher reasons to identify the legal structure as a source o

pttl'l ic. ul ar oppress ion: three years before her visit she had written her

lnolous pamphlet , A Brief Sttrnmary, which , as I have already noted,

t oludded with the first feminist gathering in Britain. The first law to be

I I II J.I ~·tcd by leminists was the notorious Married Women's Property Act,

whkh deprived women of control of their earnings or property once they

wt•rc married , and gave husbands legal custody of the children. In I 85 5,

ll11rbara instigated a petition calling for reform of this law, drawing

1 og<.' thcr a group of women called the 'Langham Place Circle'. In the

pt• t it ion she wrote about the power of the law to retain all women in a state

of powerlessness and vulnerability: she ended it with the words:

.. . it is time that legal protection be thrown over the produce of their labour and that in entering the state of marriage, they no longer pass from freedom into the condition of the slave, all whose earnings belong to his master and not to himself. 13°

Barbara used the metaphor of slavery with peculiar passion, but she knew it

was not an original analogy. Her ideas and political development had been

shaped by her contact with other radicals, and this included a vocabulary

which repeatedly referred to slavery as the ultimate state of legalized- and uncivilized- inequality.

From Bondage to Liberation

In I 82 5, just as the first female anti-slavery assooanons were being

fo rmed, an Irish Socialist called William Thompson published a book

called Appeal of one-half the human race, Women, against the pretensions of the

102

r11•il lw1 In ., li Iii I II II I 111 11 v•• i11 1111• < 11 "ll'' " '' 1w

111 1 1111 luu d ""' "' ' ll ' llll 'd li lt' ll" 't ist· l(>r ms of'

WII II II ' II 'N .illttilllll l illll ft\' 111111 tlilll ~ ll ilfl ' '~ ll ' ,j ll ' lll i'dl nN 10 OV~' I'(() Il"'<.: chis. lt

fu•t 111111' 11 '1 11~ 11i 11 • d II H II I II ' 111 1111 I it i ~H i l plltl iiNOjllt in il t<.:XtS On women's

d~ lt i H, NIJII IIII IIIH tlw t'lf1 ltly YI'I IIH ht•twt•t•n M11 1'y Wo llstonecraft 's Vindica­

/UIII 111 ' !')-' 11 11d .Jolin S ill lll' l Mill 's Sttbjectirm of Women, which was

ptd ~ li s hcd in 1 H69 . At the core ol Thompson and Wheeler's argument was the idea that

women part icularly married women - were systematically deprived of

lil Y chance of happiness or fulfilment as human beings. Man's domination

'was achieved first by rendering women powerless by law, and this was then

·onsolidated by arbitrary moral and physical codes which maintained

women in a state of ignorance, idleness and frivolity, much as if they were

part of the furni ture of the home. A central and recurring theme of the

book was that women in Britain had been reduced - literally not

metaphorically- to a condition which at least equalled that of slaves in the

W est Indies:

A domestic, a civil, a political slave, in the plain unsophisticated sense of the word - in no metaphorical sense - is every married woman. 131

Thompson and Wheeler relied on public condemnation of West Indian

slavery, which was just gathering momentum in another wave of cam­

paigning, to supply graphic illustrations of women's dependence on

men . 132 Although slavery was always condemned in all its forms through­

out the Appeal, the urge to prove that British wives of all classes were

suffering under a similar condition sometimes required a simplistic picture

of life on the plantations. In one section they tried to prove that British

women were actually worse off than female slaves, arguing that for all the

evils of slavery, female slaves were not required to submit to 'a second state

of individual domestic slavery to the male slaves'.

No female slave is obliged, for the sake of existence, to vow obedience to all the despotic commands of a male slave, to resign her privileges, such as the task master leaves to all, of going out and coming in, of moving from place to place within the desolate sphere of common bonds, of forming acquain-

103

1111 lill "lil,ill i lll Ill( I ll!l i tH i t il lll l it•l~' !1 11

U lilll.loll ', I

~b~ a:JLe < IHlJii hwn·nt'( l1 l1 1 yt ~l '' ' '• li l l I' ll~III I IN

fH ~niso : CtHv , u:~cec , clorr, 's 1 k•t'il 1•111 ~ Nr< il1l•·

;.':s n:l~;'ttqik<; Vroi>.)ilJ OOCCild ci •ttOt 'nnuy

ta(~a'~ _futon,21Jt ,bqta ,m. t<n•r l:u 1C:<UI n

e;nGitml< mcf1:1 h·knmtdmm vcnnrdi1 hv-r ,

m hr ru~ c Jr>~r: c nk :iir;rc .do rgu o-ctlc

l l<tlffii]VIL ~lie enl LvS\'ee b.;! otleJ.~·zn ,c!JI(C

il ,o h uto a>tc ,ftJronn•rJ:ntoJal. nrie10::. o

~tat vr lilk o ~· 1u111~el ;.c.~cn,oies·fanv-­em5'1der-reettt'mt13-

Cnc crp.rs•G- b)¥1-.n;ia tt~~c-lwr ,tiehmh

rg:qtid ckoJo~ nstlnin,HOcc;nGi<IX) (\Ita:

i~ - vr c:rfly a-1e< :lr•tgt b 1-Dn,S>t uc Xhee it

urlnn1 )De [t( ruig orru: va i:oc o nc :ore

>t'~e : :1.se :nllv -:k:i"'c· h: tDtfe im·s·co:levdcr

rortu_I: ,ftJeirt•r.ssucvihs:> no vale' 1 0[t<ylgtd:la

ui norvon:r JC l:vsho .ryci<ic 1~ o M<ttc b: ncdt.i

:ore. l>at; lt~~ 'lf:< ;nu-:el for na:t~o .s 91Il o t ti'J OU<

pk lhngi rp.sJ.; fofl i:gto nrrc ms:Je oral :i·i

i;lt~atc eucc 'nctt(S3eD Cll<toOO ibs Oo !llS\1• jt•f=t:

lttLUCM~~. 3

1hry ~r !a-le, j[r '\' d~o1enf J..c Jo Je.d Ird

\IIllO 0 S3'6, hllgi Sli M~ l. De d-pia. ll (L( ita

>a"<ga>) ,fC:e yrJJ:J/1 }[r tpaelt< Je llf d<eSl1ll0 )I

iJelgp:11 aknlitli: C9tn; c(IJI [ Sartrttf£0:6 ·aJe

ht 00lljl61l<rf :c lau. St< lSC nc ·cotlF ) ! ~wa:; rev

od~.IL!!~piy~Icdcc >OOG.VtmleclcS> -CM~Ot<

ICQ~ ;

Vb hrfcrcl:HwmoJvs Jnenir~lti~ a . i-il;oefcr

icrcl~ hy01ntor.d >GVr n!tle •r losdl:rtler

eenst< o1al.ctmr . 3

~loocc h liJl<yc wnvht<in:isiTtt\\ <f Ja·ksa'6 r <

1<4

! iliill j,- ·· 1

tlll1111il•lll111

li~i ilitl ~II tVII

1111111 ~ I ll lillJ'd~ l l I

tllltil 'l"h )I !. tmltli!l Itlo tt llli lf '" " 'tl

udttlf tltlllw t0•l l11" "0 ' '' ''''"'' ' " '' n lil u"' ly f<ll ., d illlil MII HII.Ifl tdl 1 f11p 'N 11'• 1 Hifq 11>10

! I I1'Nitl , t i lll ~'l if i i NII~ illtll lj y i lt' IIUib ~• i , .JJ W <: !' 11(1' 1'< 11 1«~ 111111 tft~• nild o l'~t' ~~· ~• II

lll i• i l ~it.:· J ' I\'I;t'SI') I •O tl.' lnt tl t bUtl 'fi 4ht~l l

d [~l )!)oUC rn ijiG. I

'H_Ijosi>I> l<t rrold :c<inn>l Ar l0l~<n:c tit':SH l~l

; >dii~'ri.!:, bintat oiriroa ~a'.r~ •l'IC Vl lt IW 1

e:stv· ohrproicnc· ai:labdo.rmudis?'si>l· < 1 t

im v-tl h >Jr6SO) vma..h:2:1i Deieyi:!G.IS' ,11 r1

wscla hsknl>li.crcst)L 51dd ire b: lndltit; HH

,fe, >et re>nC< D: ism<Jl:v•oldnnb£rs,ca,p>ltcl tJt

~,a q:li}I:!!.>!Met di>.)il•n )sosrgV:iy\"d\o!(;d0

1

oeii h cm::i>r ,ffrniitiOCL~ >diis =·r ~-J:ia1Wf(J I ll n "f>lttoDJ Uc 7f.ta to: .sttd>UJh; e:t<f '\1;1•-\ n•H I

eonso';edbed6iKUJt otw.r. cu a<i18( I. 11

~l i Ia cfe, :IattO:t is rnbi :,t; li~<ri:' a<J.n;~ru· ord i<IllO> av:y ;c hne n:y nleav.; tm tat Ul]t,U C"loltl

eons J.tcime. ·rtUcas• q1etla hs;nerunn; ;IJ, JI 'I IPidt· .ocr rfltoii wii1,t;<nmuisepaiy }lnSur Vii' 1 hnlll rc le )Jxlino_· ?re1 o ce• n tyt

c bn·s~<Ul<ll Hpa' ·ria tM~p.lsel>-e biJ }!:n il·r

>lttlepitclcin:t< nttci"d.th< ieee (Jl~cea>} . ~3'4': r n :::rb>at ud it Areiahc >e: tloihc i} nr, :>II II•

rn•r >lOt :bltOLitoiS• v-skp:ai·d:r :Joe,bh.c ]\•t

:lr~: :t :nta:tv. dy , ~a) via tdolaue< co

)[mC Lt\\Clll]3gi! ll t;'>Q'IC >lee 1\;~LU<e lttst J<ni r..l

:in. Vil!alt >ztOlJrltompt< no oc,al,U) lml :njiea

:leiJsi,ai>r cfilsfde tnclel c cEs nhun'21 ru1

r:2milidniei1 ~!, Oc ~ratclelJCIDLDISI"gu I\ . lbnlM it • Ki; 1< c::e< o >te) o<lalc£ h .ania6ontc

ir •danrt :r;utg,ihp:a loaD :gnttlee:es6 ~ h

D'

•

1•11111 ,, "'''-'-liij ' " 1 ' ' 11 11 •· ~lit vi;•

titol ttll tltillllllll 1 Ill li f; l jil rtUIIi Ill

J'lu•y IIIJ{III 'd !1 11 11 1\di/ ~C II Wtlllli ' ll Wl' l'l ' llll ll ll y d1 1JII IIdl lll 1111 ilu•/1 li11Nh11111i

fill lli ' IIIII HIIIWI 10 11111\lt' IHII/l idt• flt tc' IIOoll t', ' Ill tlll 'll ' tl lt 'lllidt• .~ lil\1(' Ill til"

Wt•N f lwllt ·s,' lht·y IINkt·d, 'who wou ld suhn1i1 111 Sll (' h dic1:tlion I'I'Oill :toy

llll il c• sltt\ll', il ht· •· l'Oillpanion, her eqwtl, and no more than hc1· equal, in

dt•J{ntdttt ion 1111d misery~· 1 1 ~ Black men and women were united in s lavery,

1111 c• llwrt· wns no property co make claims to and no rights over tlv·

1 hildl't·nnnywny . While fema le slaves were 'liable to the occasional despoti

wil l, 10 tht• lust or caprice of the common tyrant of all ', married women in

111111tin were 'liable to the uncontrolled and eternal caprices of an ever­j<'t tl ous und ever-present tyrant' . ' 35

( )t her comparisons - the psychological effects of slavery, the brainwash­

IIIJ-1 l'l'lll' ired to keep people in submission, and the degradation of everyday

I de_· were carefully argued through by Thompson and Wheeler in

1111rdenring prose. The marriage contract was likened to the contract

lw1 ween master and slave- 'the law of the stronger imposed on the weaker,

111 w ntempt of the interests and wishes of the weaker'. 136 They argued that

nt•ithcr women nor slaves had any choice as to whether they entered this

wmract. Daughters were groomed for marriage as soon as they could

speak, although in passing from single to married status they lost all civil

rights and returned 'into the state of children or idiots, the passive property of' their owners'. 137

Thirty years earlier, Mary Wollstonecraft had also likened British

women to slaves, though she was far more allegorical. In the final

paragraph of the Vindication Mary appealed to her male readers not to be

like Egyptian task-masters, resorting to Old Testament references rather

than examples nearer to hand . She used the vocabulary of slavery freely,

only rarely qualifying her choice of words. When she did so she was quite precise:

When therefore I call women slaves, I mean in a political and civil sense; for indirectly they obtain too much power, and they are debased by their exertions to obtain illicit sway.138

Elsewhere she displayed a somewhat dismissive view of black slaves in a

104

l_llltill 1111 till · .. ,11\

I Hl~lli ll l 'M liltd [Ill ""~ .. M- 11111

I j (I i ill Ill' I' tiiiJIII ~lj l \'I

IJ lJifiil l ·II II , ,_

wli It 11 ivud

IVI'II till Jt l' ii l• il )III II • III hi!I VIIV 111 1111 111 ~ IIII I' th t• NIIVI I/-IC des ire of iidllil ltlliltll whli It tlt t• lil111l IH'IIH 'M ittlll •tit lllt~>l ltot lltltd t• p:u·encs, for all tl11• lu11tll y l'lillll'd HIIVIII/{H 11111 Niti VI' ' '"' llllilltlitn ly cxpcnded in a li ttle tawdry llllt'IY· ... An /,,IIIIOdt•ttltl' loltdot•ss I(H· d•·css, Cor pleasure, and for sway, llt't• tlt t.· p11ss ions ol' s:wogts; the puss ions char occupy those uncivilised beings who hnv <.: nor yet extended the dominion of the mind, or even learned to

tl• ink with che energy necessary to concatenate that abstract train of thought which produces principles. ' 39

This discussion is not intended to diminish Mary Wollstonecraft's status as

a poli tical writer, but instead to invite a reading of her work that is

sensitive to her perception of racial subordination and its possible connec­

tions with the oppression of women. In fact it is precisely because of her

status that this kind of interrogation is needed, since the Vindication has so

often been celebrated for its unequivocal demands for social, political and

legal equality between men and women. Discussing Mary Wollstonecraft's

role in the formation of feminist sexual politics, Cora Kaplan writes that

the reputation of the Vindication as the founding text of Anglo-American

feminism 'generally precedes and in part constructs our reading of it'. 140

This has often meant that 'its troubling historical meanings and contradic­

tions drop away, so that we may take away from it an unproblematic

feminist inheritance'. I would also argue that this same warning should be

applied to other influential writing on women's equality.

John Stuart Mill's famous tract The Subjection of Women echoed many of

the themes found in the Appeal when it was published over forty years later,

but the political climate that received it had altered considerably. Slavery

in the Caribbean and in America had been abolished by then, but the

memory of the abolitionist cause was kept alive by those who had lived

through its most active days, some of whom had endeavoured to co­

ordinate new campaigns in support of blacks living under British domina­

tion. Mill had a particular relationship to the expanding Brit ish Empire: at

the instigation of his father he worked for the East India Company from

r822 until its demise in r8s8, the year after the Indian uprising. 141 As a

Liberal MP in r 865 he acted as one of the leaders of the Jamaica Committee

in Parliament, arguing with great eloquence against the excesses of the

105

111 111~1! 111111)' itt !Ill J\ 111111111 1\oi\' iipli NIII/1 1111.! itit tltli t l; iiht ,d 1111 HIVIIIIitl

l!y tc• . 1'1 ' ( l11 tilt• Httlljt 't l 111 Wtll ll t' ll It t' Will i I dliti ' tlu· lil 111 tu t vllwlt Itt

llliii'J'ill ),ll' i s It IIIOII NII'()lltl Wllll tll li t ll()ll llill lltJII jillllli jtii ·N 11 11111• lll iidt111t

world, and to a ll the <:xp<:ricm·c t il r<H t ~ h w lt lt It tltt tNt ' I" lll t tpl t·~ il ttV< ' IH•t• tt

slowly and painfull y worked ouc.' ' -1 1 The only Nlllvt•H fl wt t't• nwi ncd wt•n•

the ones married to men under British Jaw. Slnve•·y was v iewed fro tn 11

historical point of view as a state oflegal dispossession in which ind iv iJ uals

were forbidden from owning property and were treated as property by t hci r

masters.

Mill wrote at length about the evolutionary nature of women's oppres­

sion, concurring with the Appeal's position that women in modern Europe

were experiencing a milder form of dependence which had its 'brutal'

origins in primitive slavery. Where the Appeal had argued that the 'brand

of inferiority' was impressed on women at birth, 'indelible like the skin of

the Black', Mill discussed at great length the ways in which men justified

their domination of others by claiming it to be natural. He cited the slave

owners in the Southern states of America:

Did they not call heaven and earth to witness that the domination of the white man over the black is natural, that the black race is by nature incapable of freedom, and marked out for slavery? 144

The historical context of each of these texts determined the weight each

gave to slavery. The Vindication appeared at the outset of the earliest

popular wave of agitation against the slave trade; the Appeal just as the

campaign for abolition caught the philanthropic imagination; the Subjec­tion after slavery in America and the Caribbean had been officially

abolished, but during a period of imperial expansion justified by economic

and ideological arguments. Both the Appeal and the Subjection relied on

popular sentiment against the institution of slavery, arguing meticulously

that the oppression of women was identical in many respects, and therefore

worthy of the same, if not a greater, degree of condemnation. To quote

John Stuart Mill once again:

I am far from pretending that wives are in general no better treated than

slaves; but no slave is a slave to the same lengths, and in so full a sense of the word, as a wife is. 145

I06

All tltu:r II " 1 til jlill jll_i ll )'t tl oil .1

lt it It liio It lilt ol !111 dlil \'•i tlji IIIII th ij I ' . t;~ l llll tlilltttlolll \' ·•·illt iltl'lh j i ~ Wll li 11• i!t(t !!lllltil tot lllljlfhlllttl tl11 11 l11V1

IIWttlll/1 t l o t ~ll I .111 11 ! 1 dtlt 11 Iilii ioi i•jl j l ti ll[tll il~' ltJI ltitl ll ttllhil olt·vt •lllp

1111 ' 111 , 11 11d t d t~tllll 111 IIIII' tnt! II It til 11!' i I Vi i II H III ~ WU IIJ 1ii H11 lt~ · qill'llll y "' "( " ""''ti l l ~ 1111 '1 111 ~ l ty wlll t It II II I 1 ~ 11 lildllllol WI IIIII II Wl ' ll ' 11 ' "111 t•d II III Ml lli I

111 Ht' I VI IIHic •. ' l'llt•ll tllll" '''"' IIJ it llll' I'll 111 ~ I IIVt ' t y t•vt' ll Mtii Y W111i ll tll tH'

t l'fl il 'll \IIHJllltlili t•d II NI' 111 !111 • lll lj t'l li VI ' 'N IIIV IIi il ' ptOVtdt•d 11 IIIIWI' IIIIi

phi losophk1d b1tsis lot 1111 illl t't' w r'll t'lll w11 nling to nw kt• both llt t•torl n d

tnd liter:d. points llbout women' s s11hordinn t ion . Whi lc ch<.: lttng uagc of slav<.: ry wus ofc<.:n used in ch <.: conr<.•x t ol' 01 Ire:~

oppressed g roups, its role in che arti culat ion of early fcmini srn , suggt•sfl•d by this superficial read ing of some class ic texts, provokes impOI' III III

questions about connec tions between race and gender during th<.: first lr11 il

of the nineteenth century. For instance , what d id the concept of slovt'l y represent in terms of a political unders tanding of race, either as nn n nn l yt i1

ategory comparable to gender, or as a system of domination of whi ch tl wy

were part? How was the power of anti-slavery rhetoric affected by I l11•

popularization of science and by the legitimation of scientific raciSJl l ( ' l'o

what extent was race seen as a gendered category, and under wl11 tl

circumstances did race, class and gender take precedence over one anot iH'I' (

I have suggested that a new synthesis of the disparate strands of hislOry i

needed and that I think women's abolitionist work provides uncapp~d opportunities for finding a dynamic between sex, race and gender i 11 t ht•

first part of the nineteenth century. There are several approaches to looking at the connections between I'll( <.:,

class and gender during this period . The first is to examine how raci :ol

difference was expressed, or obliterated, in relation to gender and class. Ilo

instance, the fact that British women claimed an unbroken sisterhood wi l'lt

female slaves must have had implications for the meaning of womanhood

which bound them in their own communities. To deny that there was any

difference between the basic expectations and experiences of black slaves

and free white women and to assert a sort of spiritual sisterhood would hav"

had the effect both of confirming conservative ideas of what constitu ted a

woman and of what imprisoned her at the same time. Since feminism cook

on the task of constantly redefining the boundaries of womanhood , th'·

significance of race or class difference between women was always present in

some form, as it continues to be today.

107

hlt ll tlll , II lA lll'l ll lll tlllll lll .. !l lllllll 4't! lll f.l l'!i l! llll fi li!Vl l) l.!tl li l'

w nl! 'll ' ' il ' lt' '"Hi ''ll" '""'"'•lllltltt . 11 w pi·rnl i)i ll l!i ll ,-,r 1;' "'' Wi th \111111 '1'1" 11 11 d 11111 }1 1111 /11 d l tiWII (1 11 1111 111 lll lilll iil lit h 111111_11

twd olt t' ll tlll tl li ldiiiiii Y w11 yH tii i iiiiHIIIHIIIIJI IIII lil l.llt ll t ltlt lll l

gender wi dtin hoil1 11 d l • vt• li t p ln~ il' ll illliMI ld1 •tilllil)' •lltd !111 wld1 1 i'tl l

culture of which it wus 11 !Jil l'f, ' l'ht• III NI l11dl 111 i111 • 11 1111 llt ' tlllt 1 i'l ll llt

witnessed the beginnings or s <.i c nfili ~ ( till li ft', Will i iJ jll lll li 1111d 11 .li lf t i• Iii

order of struggle against dorninar ion hy nlt t, t l tt ~N 11 11d JI I'IH!t •t ln tt td t l 1

contest , or alternatively legit imate, cxisti nJ.I sot i1d dl v t ll illlt ~. I'"''''' nl philosophy was increasingly drawn in co a d in iOJ.\ 11 \..' w11 h ii H' IH'W "' ;, 111 1 Hi ethnography, anthropology, biology and othcr b r~t n <.lwll ol ll 11 11 ly 111 tlu

human race. In other words , it became more and mOJ't' dill1 t 1il1 111 t i i ~ Uf

the particularity of women without reference co ocher appon•n1l y lilllllloil

differences, particularly race, since both white women 11 nd hh• t L ju 111 do

differed visibly from white men against whom all di fference wns rilt'HNIIII ol

Each of these three works on women's righ ts convey an impl k if r't•)t•t 11 1111

of 'unholy prejudice' which lies beneath the forceful condC1i1 11 11 111H I 111

slavery in all its forms . Yet, as in many abolitionist trac ts, the discuss io11rd

the realities of West Indian slavery or the cul t ural patterns or llllll

European societies frequently betrayed assumptions of whi te supe rio1'll y

As Nancy Stepan discusses in The Idea of Race in Science, there is a compl t•ll

and contradictory relationship between racism and the various stages ol

abolitionism:

A fundamental question about the history of racism in the fi rst half of th"

nineteenth century is why it was that, just as the battle against slavery was being won by abolitionists, the war against racism was being lost. The Negro was legally freed by the Emancipation Act of 1833, but in the British mind he was still mentally, morally and physically a slave. 146

A third area of inquiry must be the relationship between the politics o

women's rights and black people's struggles for emancipation and equality .

I have tried to show how the nineteenth-century movement for women's

rights was at first inextricably connected to the rights of black people for

equality, humanity and some kind of liberty. Through analogies with

slavery, women's rights activists could claim that theirs was a respectable

moral cause, not a revolutionary demand that threatened the whole

structure of society. The identity of slavery with sin and barbarism, and of

abolitionism with true Christian civilization, paved the way for a new

I08

,-,!if loii tll l·q;r li, l

IIIII 1 11111/11

/, -II Will

nd lll tit wi ilt luu ·,w i•··lfi1J 1 wl tlt 11 1.1 " " "' 11 11ol wi t II

111 ll lo jlf ll \' tdl ll't ltl Ill II llltfi ll l r p11 ·~ 11 11 11 \11/ 111 11

llltli[l 11111 1 WfiiiiJ III /1 ~ 11 1 111ol ~ oil Ioii i 1111rl Hl' llll t• l wilt•tl ~ ~~ 1 \I I J I Y

d tir li -11i ol 1 /\ltl 11 111 1\ l1 N1 111111 Wl !i dd 11 1111111111 ' III III J-1 111 ' il 11 11 fl11

tiJ ti 11 W11 tii11H t lol ~ll, ilu • rli ~ lll t lll il fii H olnH ild ""' VI'IY ill 1111 •

111 , illll l li ll ot 111 i111 • I l11ifl ~ ol Stii ii'H, 11111d.1•tl ill!'' '" " ol fi ll' HII IM I

liii 111 111111 'I '" ~"111 11 H't 111\ ll il l'd 1" W1•N ii 'lll u d! "' t•. Tilt• t•x INit ' llll ' ol

•IHdti! !I ll lVI 11 11 111 11/l' IIJI MI l lu •ll lii VI'IY ol h i111 i.s ittl lll' Cill thlll'llll ltll d 111 11 '1

il!il!\(1 j"l lll'l ol l d 11 II IIII I' IMIII III ' llll ti lt• /wi ld ill l-\ ol II WI)I II I ' J I1

~ lf /\111

'iil!'lll lit lldt ttill < II IHI ' j11 N ol t•qtlld ity , l t•r~cd 1111d t tOIIOII Ik hw1d11 gt•,

if hut olltol 1111 t ill• II II'I HpiiOI'H ol sc rvift •dc whid t wet'<.' l't·tt• ly ttNl'd hy 111111111~ 1 ~ wt•tt • tll iiHfll ll'tll ly hormwn l hy piOIK'e rs I(H' wonH:n's ri g iii H 111

Uiih t lul t MIIII I-\Hit ' 111 ti l(' witkr Oil <.' ol' hu n·mn rig ht s. 'l'odtty tlt is ot Ji p. lu

ttlllllltlovlotiN polnl t t ~ fi ll.' lnngunJ.\t' or slltvcry has been end less ly d illl fl 'd ,

IHti lit t tlt nMt' who W t' l'l' acq uai nted in any way wic h chc rcnlitics ol lil t•

jli:tlll 1111111 NyH II' tiiS and the un<.lc in human souls, it had a spct il1t 111 11 1

l'll .lll i111l H'NIIIII II H I.'. As rhe movement for women's ri g hcs p rOJ.~rt!NNt •d , •i ll ll ll Wl' ll 'li hk to exploil che power of the slavery analogy in intCf'l ll't.' lll l

tl11'1i IIW II Nt• tvitL•de bur without need ing any longer to refer co elK' s l ~tvt• ''""I' I H ll td t l f' ~' had once outraged and inspired them . However idcali :wd 01

IIIIIII IIHiious 1 heir ident ification with black slaves bad been , ic bega n 10 t•hh

1 N•'Y ' ' ~ 11 i'l't:sh sense of the polit ics of female subord ination emerged 1111d

ltllll llll ' I he site or new public Struggles. By then, however, the geogm phy

rtl 1111 iu l confli ct had itself al tered . The struggles of b lack people lilJ' 1/ltl' lltf ion fro rn British control had ranged further across the world and 1 h"

H11q11n.: had been extended into new territories. Woman's mission co tl w h1 vt·s was accomplished, but her relationship to the 'natives' was Sl ill

rvo lvi ng.

Notes

1 A rJ Appeal to the ChriJtian Women of Sheffield from the AJJociation for the Univorstd

11/m/it ion of Slavery, Sheffield r837. Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

109

•

l!ulttlt i!l!ih 11 tl! lloh 1 I 11111!111 Ill IIi to hi I I~ ioluol ~ll ll

1'1 ' II I I I II II I- III IIIIIJI IIIII illld H ii~llllllllid ll lll illfl lllll, I"" lliiltllll j I'" 1111 u lll l lll ' lli i ~ II I 'NN"'

W111 11l' ll Ill !Iii' 1111!1 ~ 1 1 A llll -o~hi VI' I y MIIV1 11111 '111 \ Ill !11111 llo ill ltd I, 1 ol , llt{IMI /1111 I )J//rii'W/1 !

\\ ' 11111~11'1 / 'r~/1/111 111 11 1'11.1111 UIUII l tJ!.f, ll iiNII llh11 kw1 dl , I h l111 ol IIJH / 'l'lilH IN ll lll ' ol il 11• IIIIINI d!•lld l!•d llfllli i111 N jlllhliNIWd l('(('llil y.

1 Jlw 11 111ll1'1' d l~1 li NN ion of til l' ld s1ork iol s i~ 11il 1 ullt tt' ol OrrHilllilw sec l )11v id ll1·ion I lotvi N, 'I'll~ l 1nililw11 tif' Sftii'OI')' in WlllJ/~1'11 G'llftllr~ , Come II

1•11111 , pp. •1/ .l t) . S~·t· 1dso Ani n Loomba, G'o11der, Rem, RenaiJ.rance Drtlllltt (Mnnchcs r<·r lllliV!'I'Nit y i>l't'NS, New Y01·k/Mnnchcsccr 1989) which presents a much more complex, lt•ntllliNt , vit·w ol r'II CC u.nd gcnde1· in li terature before Behn's time .

St llulw·ly enoug h, Maureen Duffy in her in troduction co a recent edition ofOroonoko (Aplmtlldlll : OrtHJIIIJllli & OtharStoric.r, Methuen, London r986) attributes Oroonoko's failure

1111 tl111 fl lt•tc the suic ide pace co physical weakness , which is a misleading simplification t hat

d!·ni! 'N hi111 the passions chat illustrate my argument. In Oroonoko (p. 94) Aphra Behn dt •Ht l'i lws how her hero's 'g rief swcl l'd up to rage' as he looked upon his wife's dead face :

li e lOt'c, he mved, he roar'd like some monster of the wood', but as he called out

lmoinda 's name his rage and desire for revenge turned to grief and he lay weeping

by her side, powerless to move. After two days he was indeed coo weak to kill himself, but when his English enemies found him he still fou nd enough strength

nnd pt·ide to kill one of them and disembowel himself before they carried him off. David Brion Davis, p. 474 ·

1 Duffy, p. 33 ·

H Angeline Goreau, Reconstructing Aphra: A Social Biography of Aphra Behn, Oxford l!niv~·•·si 1: y Press, Oxford , pp. 4r-69 .

Duffy, p. 70 .

1 o Dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones based an incredible three-hour epic performance (called 'The Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land') on the

< hamcrer of Uncle Tom , which he used as a springboard to explore themes of sexuality, race,

gender, faith and AIDS . In an interview in Elle (November I990, US edn) he explained: I've been called an 'Uncle Tom' before. I wanted to set the record straight.

Nobody knows the story now -let's see who Uncle Tom really was . He is such an

incredible part of our Western consciousness: the epitome of the American liberal impulse, with all its hypocrisy, inconsistency, and ideal ism. People think they

know the novel but they don't. It deserves to be examined on a much deeper level.

1 1 Samuel Sillen, 'Mrs Stowe's Best Seller - the Hundredth Anniversary of an American Classic', Masses & Mainstream, vol. 5, no . 3, March r952 , p. 23.

12 Some of the Scottish anti -slavery groups took the initiative in capitalizing on the success of the novel. The Edinburgh group held a large public meeting at which it was agreed that all readers of Uncle Tom's Cabin should subscribe a penny (minimum) towards

Hnti-slavery funds. Many other groups followed suit. Glasgow groups wrote to Harriet

Beecher Stowe inviting her to visit, and she was offered a free passage by the owner of the steamer, Glasgow, which she accepted. However, there was some doubt expressed as to the

value of all this excitement: for example, Jane Wigham, a radical abolitionist in Edinburgh,

wrote to a friend in Boston that, 'The great excitement caused by "Uncle Tom's Cabin"- is

unlikely co do much good, and we were grieved to see H. C. W. trying to undervalue the

IIO

'""'' ~I tllliiild I ill

1 1 1iJ~'• l ldlulolll fl h 111/ •lo pp, \() IJ ' ·

:1/,A /111//~j/o/11 1 1 1'.1/IHI', .II) t\pt•IJ 1H J,tlil lll l • lol111l 11/IIIII'H In n l n~u:cnch-cencu ry

Altll•tll ll 1111111111111 Mli1 Vfi iY, lu I'MII i! Wd 11111 1 Wll- jll lljtfl ll t•d lnw the ILbollcionist limelight by

tlt l' I illlllHI!IiiiiiiM In II IIN IIIII ll tl Wll~ 11 l11illl11111 111111111 11111 1 lt\l ur Cl.lited his own newspaper.

I h• I III V!•II i•d Ill l! n~ li111d ~i'Y i' llil illt ii'N ll !lfi WIIH 1111 illlJlOI'liiO l fi gurC in the t ransatlantic anti ­

lit VI 'JY 11 \0VI'J•H' tll , Ill• WII N uhw iiH• lit 'Nt """' in America to call publicly for women's

~ llllllif\1 ' nnd , dcN jJitt• fund lllll ('Jil nl dilll: r~nees, he remained a close friend of many leading

lf' iotlq iN IN 111!'011 /{hOul his lif~ .

C. 1>c rcr Ripley, ed . , 'J'he Black Abolitionist Papers' vol. I: The British Isles,

I ii J() 11:165, University of North Carolina Press , Chapel Hill/London r985, p. 344·

15 Cited in Ellen Moers, Literary Women, The Women's Press, London I98o p. 4· o6 Lnngscon Hughes in an introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin, Great Illustrated

Clnssics, Dodd, Mead & Co., N ew York I952. 17 Harriet Beecher Stowe, The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, Clark Beeton & Co., London

~8 53· 18 Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's, Cabin, Penguin, Harmondsworth 1986, p . 84.

19 Ibid., pp. r53-4 . 20 For a list of earlier critical books, see Margaret Holbrook Hildreth, Harriet Beecher

Stowe: A Bibliography, Archon Books, Hamden , CT r976 . For more recent feminist critic ism see G illian Brown, Domestic Individualism: Imagining Self in Nineteemh-Century

America, University of California Press, Berkeley and Oxford I990, Part r. 2I Harriet Beecher Stowe received many approaches from black people to tell their

stories of escape from slavery. Harriet Brent Jacobs, a former slave, suggested through an

intermediary that Stowe should take her daughter Louisa, who had received a good education, on her proposed visit to Britain as a 'representative of a Southern slave' . Stowe's

reply was a bitter disappointment: 'She was afraid that if her situation as a slave should be

known it would subject her to much petting and patronizing which would be more pleasing

to a young Girl than useful and the English were very apt to do it and she was very much opposed to it with this class of people.' This last remark made Harriet Jacobs extremely

angry and she later wrote: 'What a pity we poor blacks can't have the firmness and stability of character that you white people have'. Dorothy Sterling, ed . , We Are Your Sisters: Black

Women in the 19th cemury, W . W. Norton, New York/London 1984, pp. 76-7. Following

this she travelled to England herself and began to write her own life story - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl- which was later published in Boston with the help of Lydia Maria Child,

becoming the only autobiography of a woman fugitive to be published before the Civil War.

See Harriet A. Jacobs, Lydia Mary Child and Jean Fagan Yellin, ed., Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1987 .

22 Elaine Campbell, 'Oroonoko's Heir: The West Indies in Late Eighteenth Century

Novels ', Caribbean Quarterly, vol. 25, nos I and 2, March-June I979· 23 See Moira Fergusson, Subject to Others: British Women Writers and Colonial Slavery,

1678-1834, Routledge, London I99L 24 Herbert Aptheker, for instance, argues that abolitionism was more of a successful

revolutionary movement than a simple reform movement. See Abolitionism: A Revolutionary

MIWernmt, Twayne, Boston I989 . For a good account of these debates, and of the dynamics

III

4

It l 1 1 ' II • ! J t I I ll 1 I '1\ I I

ul t tllt l~ ht vl t y ll'iiltltlly , ~~~ llltltltt llltulluutt i/J, iJJ 'fflltiiill ' ill L tt/lt Hii#/ .1/,mn~ II Ht III/II , Vfll~ll , lltttduu/~~~ w \'111 1. I IJIIII

Alli11111111 il ll l ilr•toiltl t•Hotlr•ty lut lllttolitt/l ltllltilllt tlu llilhliillltlll ~ l tliii\111Ni!IVI'M 1 R. Pctll"f, llir·rnlnl-l lli lll l r. tll .IH, p. 1 ,

26 'An Appcn l co chc t:hl'istit\n Women ul H l~t • ll it , ltl ' , lttllll ti t!' AHNtH h11 Jon lot tit Universal Abolition of Slavery .

27 Anna M . Stoddart , Sairttly Live.r: E. Pease NiriJol , J. M. l)cnt, London 1 HI)\), p. (J~ ,

28 'An Appeal', p . 13 .

29 See J ean Fagan Yellin, Women artd Sisters: The Anti-Slavery Feminists i11 A worirtm

Culture, Yale University Press, N ew Haven/London 1989 . T his book takes the cJo.ssi abolitionist emblem of the kneeling slave asking, 'Am I Not a Woman and a Sister?' an~l uses it to examine the discourse of the anti-slavery feminists. Thanks, Isaac.

30 'An Appeal', p. 12 .

31 Douglas Lorimer, Colour, Class a11d the Victorians- English Attitudes to the Negro in the

Mid-Nineteenth Century, Leicester University Press, Leicester 1978, ch. r.

32 Hannah Kilham wrote her memoirs (The memoirs of Hannah Kilham, ed ., S. Biller,

1837) which reveal many interesting insights into the nature of charity, Christian

missionary work and the contradictory position of middle-class women in the early

nineteenth century . Quotes cited in Lorimer, pp. 34- 5, 294- 5.

33 Lorimer, p. 35.

34 Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, Pluto, London

1984, pp. 157-6!.

35 'An Appeal', p. 14.

36 See Lorimer for a discussion of Victorian racism. Also Fryer, ch. 7; Ripley, pp.

33- 5; Nancy Stepan The Idea of Race in Science - Great Britain 1800- 1960, Macmillan,

London 1982.

37 Fryer, pp. 171-2.

38 Despite a huge literature on the development of biosocial science, as far as I am

aware there has been little published on the intersection between theories of race, class and

gender difference. See Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man, W. W. Norton, New

York 1981; Nancy Leys Stepan, 'Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science', in

David T heo Goldberg, ed . , Anatomy of Racism, University of Minnesota press, Minneapolis

1990. This essay also cites JohnS. Haller and RobinS. Haller, The Physician and Sexuality in

Victorian America, U niversity of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1974 .

39 Barbara Taylor, Eve and the New j erusalem: Socialism and Feminism in the Nineteenth

Century, Virago, London, 1983, p . 27.

40 Harriet Taylor Mill, Enfranchisement of Women, Virago, London 1983, p . 25.

41 Alex Tyrrell, 'Women's Mission and Pressure Group Politics in Britain

(r 82 s-r86o)', Bulletin of the j ohn Rylands University L ibrary' vol. 63 , no. I ' 1980, pp. 194-

230 . I am indebted to Barbara Taylor for sending me a copy of this article in 1981.

42 Barbara Taylor, p. 124.

4 3 Lynda N ead, Myths of Sexuality: Representations of W omen in Victorian Britain,

Blackwell, Oxford/New York 1988, pp . 196-7 .

44 'Second Report of the Female Society of Birmingham', contained in Birmingham

A lbum, pp. 13-14 .

4 5 Ibid., p . 26.

46 Yellin, p . 58.

II 2

. . lull llltt I /11 1/tlll

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llttlvt•Hil ty ol Ltlltdon (qltlllt•d In Wtdvl tt , p (tJ) ,

St'l' Yd lln , I ~P · ~ J(l lor 11 di Ht ii HHi t!IIOI dw vtorlouN o•cndini-\N of doiN l" li'M'' und 11 11

1\INIIH'y, ~ 'I Wu lv i11 , p . 5<; . ~ llurh11m Tay lor, p. ' 4 ·

~ 6 1\cccy ll l ~tdc l and, Men & Brotbers: J\17glo -Americm1 Antisla·very Co-0/Jertttit)IJ, lJnlvmHIIy of' Illinois Pt·css, Urbana/London 1972, p . 181 T his metaphor wou ld 110t hllvt p l t' II H~d 1\ll:t.f\bcth J-lcyr ick as she was a Quaker and therefore a pacifist.

57 Tyrrell , pp . 224-5 . 58 David Brion Davis, Slavery and Human Progres.r, Oxford Un ivers ity Pr·css, OxloHII

New York 1984. 59 'Second Report', p . 16.

6o Ibid., pp. rs- r6 . 6L See O livia Smith, The Politics of Language 1791- 1819, Oxford Univeo·si ty Po•t•NH 1

New York/Oxford 1984 . 62 'Second Report ' .

63 R ipley, pp. 29- 3. 64 Alfreda B. D uster, ed., Crusade for justice: The Autobiography of ldct B , Wlu/!1 1

University of Chicago Press, Chicago/London 1970 .

6s Tyrrell, p . 212 . 66 Seymore Drescher, 'Public Opinion and the Destruction of Slavery', in Walvin , cd. ,

Slavery & British Society, p. 25.

67 Tyrrell, p . 213.

68 Stoddart, p . 53 · 69 Clare Taylor, British artd American Abolitionists, p. 63 . Finding a copy of chis book

made an enormous difference to this essay as it provided many of the key pieces for ell•·

jigsaw. 70 Between 1830 and 1865 African-American women were very m uch in the minorit·y

as visitors to Britain . Only eight out of the eighty whose presence is recorded in this book

were women. However, many black lecturers frequently made reference to the work 0

women's groups , and called for boycotts of slave-grown produce, using similar argument'S

to those made by British women since the 182os. See Ripley, and R . ]. M. Blackccc 1

Building an Antislavery Walt: Black Americam irt the Atlantic Abolitiortist Movement ,

1830- 1860, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge/London 1983 .

71 Ripley, p . 23. 72 Margaret Garner was recaptured , but when she realized she was cornered she ki lled

one of her children with her own hands rather than submit her to slavery . She was brough

II3

l l l • t• · fl • fl • Ill

Il l llitll tnol t ltilijlf! l Wi lli tttllilhl l ii l ln~ ilililld t1 1 iltU ~11!!111'! 11ttJ1ifl\l!l lli•tVll C,t ~n',

11 111/111/'1'' ' ""'' // li/fll.llt1I I,'OIII1·, I" • ltllll ''J ' I 1'1' I I i I lll tolo I'• I• 11M A• 11 )1111 11 1/l Wil li IIIII , Hotllt li hll l tt 11, ltlllllll 1 o llti i '"l i~ lll'd lltllvt•ly

IIJioilll~l J lotvt ty 11111 1 ~ -lll til ll 111 itlllotll "' 'jtllll t r llii ll ltil ltnlll th•l' l iilt loittd , lwt ll ll il lli~IHH' ol

du 111 ~ 1 lt lou l, Wll lll l' ll 111 Ito IIII I' ll 'll tll ut ly lu•ltill ' illl tl ·• htVtiV ~tllditlltt·H W li llt• ~ ltr wu" Itt

l11111h11 ul ttt t 11 "Prttld 1111 111111 Nile· 111 111 inu ('d lwr l!lfnt tl l l•dtllottlti ll , t' lli OIIinll In wouwn'

llli ii HrN 111 ll t!dlord Coll rllt' In I.ondon. She rcmnincd l11 I(nJ; Iund duo·lnl{ rhc C ivil Wur,

wo t'k11 111 lo t· the l.ondon llonnncipurion Sociccy nnd Lhc Ft·ccdmcn's Aid Society. She; til lilt wd 1 he udn1it·nrion of cndy fem in ist reformers throug h her anti-slavery work nnd pnrc

111 hN ttut obiogrnphy was reproduced in the Englishwomcm's Review (vol. 7, June x86r) . ln • HMi shc wcnc co Flot·cncc, Italy, where she trained as a doctor. She subsequently married ,

1111d died in 1894 · See B. J Loewenberg and R. Bogin, eds, Black Women in Nineteenth­

(.'MI IIry lli!JOricaiJ Life.· Their Words , Their Thoughts, Their Feelings, Pennsylvania State Univers ity Press , Un iversity Park/London I976, pp. 222-33.

7'1 Rip ley, pp . 445- 6.

7~ Ibid ., p . 459 · ;6 Stoddart, p . 51.

77 Jane Rendall, The Origins of Modern Feminism.· Women in Britain, France and the United SIIII CS 1780- 1860, Macmillan , london 1985, p. 228.

78 Mari Jo and Paul Buhle, The Concise History of Women 's Suffrage.· Selections from the (.'/t~.r.rir Work of Stanton, Anthony, Gage, and Harper, University of Illinois Press, Urbana/

London 1978, p . 79· 79 Buhle, p. 82. So Buhle, p . 83 . 8 t Buhle, p . 85.

82 Frederick B. Tolles , ed., Slavery and the Women's Question.· Lucretia Mott's Diary 1840 Friends' House H istorical Society, Haverford Penn and Friends' House, London I952, pp. 22-5 .

8 3 G eorge M. Fredrickson, The Arrogance of Race.· Historical Perspective on Slavery, Racism ·mel Social Inequality, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown_, CT 1988, p . 74·

84 Yellin, p. 12.

85 There is a substantial literature on abolitionism and the early women's movement in

America: see, for example, Buhle; Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race & Class, Random House,

N ew York 198I; L. Perry! and M . Fellman, eds, Anti-Slavery Reconsidered, Louisiana State University Press, Bacon Rouge 1979.

86 Frederick Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (I 892), Collier Macmillan, N ew York/london I962, p. 255.

87 Ellen Carol Dubois, ed . , Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony.· Correspondence, Writings, Speeches, Schocken Books, New York 198I, p. So.

88 Clare Taylor, British and American Abolitionists, p. IOI.

89 Clare Taylor, p. I09. 90 Clare Taylor, p. 104.

9I Tolles, p. 49· 92 Clare Taylor, p. I04. 93 Clare Taylor, p. I02 .

94 Clare Taylor, pp. 163-4.

95 Gail Malmgreen, 'Anne Knight, 1786-I862' (unpublished paper, I978) p. 4· I am

grateful ro Barbara Taylor for drawing my attention co this quote and telling me about this

II4

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l11o II tl ;t 11!1111 ;Ill• I I ll ·II tit (!ild.\' ~1~1111111 •·Uo jlillll y ll '• l'llll"llt lt• lw 11 t'/llllli 1. 1ol~ • 1111 ot l 1; tl l ~ llltl~t Ill it Ill Iii tlll ll, i111 lit 11 Jhtilllthtl/ltlilii •il iiJl 1 II A lllrr'lt 11 11 wom~n und

tlu lol/11 1111111/1• Ill il u IIIIIVI IIIIIII l111 ¥111 111111 1 tilllll •

•JII loilll Mlil llt/1111'11 1 ' AIIitl l, llljl lll tlild tl11 ll t1ollt i t l 1\ ttl li lllltii'~·QIItikor /Ji.rtory, 71 (Fall

I 11ll J), 1'1' I IIII I \

•J•J l ,l' t ll•t 111 1h1• 1 1! /~ h/1111 llrliiMttl Hll li tl 11• Hlt 1• ntlon of women in the French Republic,

l'l' lllill ll y ' H,o . ""('ill I ~' ll o ii ~I'H AI ( hlvt•H, 1.011\ lon , ncr o. 2 ~0 . II III liJ id .

11 1' Chu·t· 'li•ylot·, p. !14. 1 11~ Clurt· 'l ilylor, p. 11 0.

Ill\ n iplcy , p . 73· 111•1 Ill, • o6 l lnrri ct Martineau is one of the better-known female anti-slavery activists of the

~ u t• l y LO mid nineteenth century . I have chosen not to write about her at length because she

wns in mnny ways exceptionaL Eliza Wigh;tm came from a Quaker family with strong anti­

~ htvcry connections in Edinburgh. Another Quaker, Mary Esdin (1 82o--I902), was the

dnug htcr of John Esdin , an oculist who founded the Bristol Eye Dispensary in I8I2. She

wns his close companion and worked with him in abolitionist circles. The Bristol Anti­

Slavery Society was pro-Garrisonian, and further correspondence in Clare Taylor's book

shows chat both father and daughter were committed liberals with strong links to ocher

radicals in England and America. In an obituary in the Englishwoman's Review Mary was

described as 'strongly advocating the rights of her own sex'. She was one of the original

members of the Bristol Women's Suffrage Society and continued her father's work by

supervising the eye dispensary and establishing the 'Hospital for Women' in Berkeley Square.

I07 Stoddart, p. 70. ro8 Stoddart, pp. 8o--r. 109 Clare Taylor, pp. I54- 5· rro Clare Taylor, p. I 59 · III Ibid.

II2 Ibid.

II3 Clare Taylor, p. 183. I I4 Olive Banks, Faces of Feminism.· A Study of Feminism as a Social Movement, Macmillan,

London I98I, pp. 24-6.

rr5 Ripley, p. I52 .

rr6 Clare Taylor, p. I34 · II7 Malmgreen; Banks, p. 25. II8 Clare Taylor, p. 65. II9 Clare Taylor, p. q8. I20 Clare Taylor, p. 210. I21 See, for example, Jacquie Matthews, 'Barbara Bodichon: Integrity in Diversity', in

Dale Spender, ed., Feminist Theorists, The Women's Press, London I983; Sheila R.

Herscein, A Mid-Victorian Feminist.· Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, Yale University Press,

New Haven/London I985.

115

'l oll tlu ~- 1.1' 111,p ltltlillHII~ tlu11 1111 111111 lit Ill I Iiiii ·, HIHIIII ,j 1111111 "lilh llol I I IIIII' Ill tlu l'l111111t , ~t lth It liill•l hoi

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ll tllltoll ol wi th

1 J 1 .l tl~l f oli W It t n l It , 1 ,j , ,\ 1/ t \ nmlrdll I llol ll' Ill II, HHIItil.l/11 1\!')111 11 11oll ll ,

I.Hrlllllll 11)/1 0 I' lo\ 0 ljlllllflllll M tlllh t•WK 0 pp 111, II 1 ' •I lln~lflh 1\"mlhlll'i, / rllllllll/, vo l . H, Ouolwr • Hl11 , fl 11 1 1 :.1~ /(up, lllh Wlrmlilli'.l ./tllll'tltil , vol . H, l)cccmhcr 1 Hl1 1 , flfl ~ ll o f

lh ld . , p. J.6 ,j .

1 ,, I hid . • p . :zo:.1. 1 JH /i!l/l, li.r/; \YIOtlltl!l's ) o!lrntd, vol. 8, November r86r, p. r86.

I .JI) Ibid . , p . 184 .

1 ~o Mnc chcws, p. 97. 1 11 Willinm T hompson, An Appeal of One-Half the Hmrum Race, Women, Against the

f lrto/UIII ilm.r of tfJe Other 1-la/f, Men, Virago, London 1983, p. 67. 1 12 T he Ant i-Slavery Society was formed in 1823 at the start of a new drive cowards

t· mnncipat ion. Elizabeth Heyrick's pamphlet calling for immediatism appeared in 1824.

1 B T hompson, p. 83.

' .\4 Ibid., p. 84.

I .\5 Ibid .' p . 88 . I )6 Ibid. ' p. 56.

I 37 Ibid.' p. 59 · 138 Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Penguin, Harmondsworth

'985, p. 286. ' 39 Ibid . , pp . 310-II. 140 Cora Kaplan, Sea Changes: Essays on Culture and Feminism, Verso, London 1986, p.

?4· 141 Patrick Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism 1830-1914,

ornell University Press, Ithaca/London 1988, p. 82. 142 See Catherine Hall, The Economy of Intellectual Prestige: Thomas Carlyle, John

Stuart Mill, and the Case of Governor Eyr~'', in Cultural Critique, no. 12, Spring 1989. This

fasc inating essay explores the response of particular intellectuals to the Governor Eyre

controversy. Among other things, Hall discusses the way in which questions of race and gender were in the process of being transformed by a new articulation of racism that became

popularized by the supporters of Governor Eyre. Mill played a central role in opposing the

concept of 'natural' difference between male and female, black and white.

143 John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (1869), Virago, London 1983, p. 147.

144 Mill, pp. 2o-r.

145 Mill, pp. 56-7. 146 Nancy Stepan, The Idea of Race in Science: Great Britain 1800-1960, Macmillan,

London, 1982, p. r.

147 Thompson, p. 213.

n6

il11i i II 1 i lh

I ism

Daisy Bates with Aboriginal skull, Pyap 1938

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1 H ;<J . 'l'lt t• invnslon ol Hflypt 111 ' HH J 1111d tlw dcuth oi'Cot·doont Klu111 '""'' in 1 HH ~ 'rniscd irnpcc·i11list St'lll iii1 Cllt w a lever pitch tluu hardl y lihtlft•d

·v<.'ll nftcr chc "revenge" for Gordon ac Omdurman in c H<)H' . 1 ll owt•vt•t ,

according to John Mrtckenzie, it would be a mistflke t:o cotHl'lllltilr' too

much on these 'imperial characteristics, popu lar react ions to Nj Wt ilu

events, dramatic displays of chauvinistic emotions. These were IIH't't•ly 1 l11 •

su rface ripples, occasionally whipped up into scorms, oro much dtt' l"' '

intellectual and social current which had been set up by che S<.'Cotld lutll of

the nineteenth century'. 2

There has been great speculation and debate on the development lind 1 It"

nature of Victorian imperialism and all its manifestations. Mrtckt.' tt llit• , wl111

has made innovative studies of imperialism and popular culrtll t' , lu1

described it as an 'ideological cluster' that was made up or 'n ITIIt'Wt'd

mili tarism, a devotion to royalty, an identification and worship of tlill it 111111

heroes, together with a contemporary cult of personality, and J'nci ttl idt•H

associated with Social Darwinism'. 3 Patrick Brantlinger discusses tiH' H lt•tt that imperialism had the effect of being an 'ideological safety vnlv~·· ln

response to domestic crises: declining industrial growth, the g reat d~·pt ~ ~

sion between 1873 and the 189os, and the question of Irish Horne Htdr•

were among the main issues facing politicians in Britain. 4

Mackenzie, Bran clinger and others have dealt very interesting ly wit It tit"

subject, studying many of the components of the 'ideological cluscer' (hHI

made up Victorian imperialism. While class and race have figured heavily

in these discussions, the configurations of class, race and gender are sci ll 11 relatively uncharted territory for social historians. This essay is conCCJ'Il(•d

with the ways in which late nineteenth-century imperialism articulat'NI

with feminism, and it starts from the premiss that feminist ideology nod

practice were shaped by the social, economic and political forces of

imperialism to a far greater extent than has been acknowledged .

Il9

\i i l [IIIII" \1'11111! I \'ldiiillllhliY il lltlllti• oll ' lhtliiJ \ Wi! l\! tl ll 1 ~ IJIII'• I• itl lllld

1111111 1!1 llljt•d•illtll '1 Will ) i!JIIll l llllfl 111 jil l ~~ 111111 lilt ' 1 r-i lli1 ~ ql 11111 111 11111 1

t; II HI11q fl11• ltn qJ/11• jiiiiVidc•tl iJ11 fl 1 II plt y"l ttd tllld 1111 idlllliiJIIill l Njli iU ' in

wltt.-lt 11 11' d d lt•tt 'lll II I! 'I IJilli J.IN ol lt- nil tti ll ity tt Jttltl lu• l'~ jih lll ' d w· t II Jil tll l t'd .

< llllt '~I POtH I IIIg idl'liN llbout J'llt:hd OJ' t.: ul ~ un• l d dl t~ lt ' llll' pt ovidcd u conccxt lw tlwNt' tO ttll it' ls w he pl 11yed Oltt in cheir l'lll l t:Onlplt:x icy, so chac, for t'lUilllplt•, t lw Ilngl ish woman abroad could be ac once a many-faceced fig ure:

lmnt nil increp id adventuress defying rac ial and sexual boundaries to heroic

111111 ht••· responsib le for che preservation of the white 'race'; from the

d('VIHl'd miss ionary overseeing black souls to the guardian of white morals;

fm111 determ ined pioneer and companion to the white man to a vulnerable,

ddt• tK'c lcss piece of his property - 'the greatest gift God gave to man' .

'l'llt'se various images of white women's femininity obviously had implica­

ltons l'or relationships between men and women, bur they also worked as

p 111 1 of the dynamic between black and white, both in the colonies and at

ho111c.

We can safely assume that the dominant view of British women's

n·lal ionship to Empire was a conservative one, since it was women who

were expected to provide domestic continuity as well as to breed new

·icizcns. O ne question that arises from this is how feminists, who contested

many of the traditional restrictions on women, conceived of their role

within or outside the imperialist framework of society, both at home and in

the colonies. According to one feminist historian, one of the achievements

of the Victorian women's movement was 'the adoption of an alternative set

of values', 6 but there seems to have been little research into whether their

politics offered , consciously or unconsciously, an alternative view of

popular imperialism. Recognizing that Victorian feminists were in no way

a homogeneous group, this essay excavates the racial dimension of their

struggles to improve conditions for themselves and for other women.

Taking the examples of two British women whose lives and work were

bound up with Indian women, I examine the ways in which they saw their

influence, as politically active women, in the wider world of colonialism.

Their stories are told in order to find out how they connected their own idea

of womanhood to those whom they perceived to be of different cultures and

races , as well as how they dealt with difference itself.

120

11 hi lhllldll

AI i111 1•11 ••• 111 ltllllllllll '' tl11111 ~fllld llllldll lutll ~i'• 1111 111'1'11 111 ll'tt-lvr und

w• l•llltll llnu l l ~ lt l i llY• 1111'••1'• '4'' II " '''"' d, illttcuttp l h~ J u •d Hnfl l lsh Indies, llli! l Ill 111111 liidlttil N I ~ II'I H 1 liitl li hy l nNCI'l!Ccion and

I "111'111. Ill ytlll IIIII leu 01 1(' 1 not f()l' lifty, but for ll •t N, wll tw• i.ll ll l' lll llliii iiS 11 11d wnifs pcnccrace the skies

1111cl Nl'l' ll l to till li t: OVI'I' Ill ll11M I11 11d w Nt it· up chc hearts of their English

I t' I'N,

Keshub Chunder Sen7

In the uurumn of t87o , Annette Ackroyd attended a lecture by Keshub

'hunJcr Sen, a Bengali who was visiting England as leader of the Brahmo

Somaj, an association for Indian social and political reform. Sen outlined

rhe need for basic education for Indian people, especially what he perceived

co be the neglected area of women's education, and he appealed directly to

English women to go out to teach their 'Indian sisters' . Annette Ackroyd,

who came from a Nonconformist, liberal background, was one of many

Annette Ackroyd (1842- 1929) with her pupils in March 1875

121

Wtlltlf 11 w l11 1 11 '~ 1 '""" ' .I r uilll llh l ~ ti, · i dl y t il It l 'wti fCi ll ll t! il l:' l

ht•tllltl f4 St•ll " l" 'td , 111 illf' ''II'' ~t ii WI' III Y 111111 , 1hil l titVr lltd 1o1 f 'ttlt Ill l ot 111

Sl lll' l II IK hool fw· 11/lldll fJ. I II ~. ll!•t Jtii NNi llll Wll ll l fi i11 11VIJ i! !ttl IIIII ', tdiltllll fl, il

she workcJ nt it dutifu ll y for· 1wo yt•t ll ll OII lu •t IIWit , h111 tdl!•r ltt t ll ' r y •nt~• '

progressive British adminisct·aco r· sh<.: mndt· ll!'r h111111' /11 l11di1t 111HI SIIIY('d

there for most of her adu lt life.

Her personal story is useful because it reveals some of rhe cornplcxi tics o

a Victorian feminist's response to questions of race, class and gender. When

she first arrived in Delhi, Annette Ackroyd was shocked by the attitudes of

the other British people- known then as Anglo-Indians - towards Indian

people and culture; ten years later, however, she was active in the debate

surrounding the Ilbert Bill, a relatively progressive piece of legislation

introduced by the viceroy, Lord Ripon, which aimed to expand the

territories in which Indian judges could try subjects on criminal charges.

Annette Ackroyd was in the forefront of opposition to it since it meant that

European women would have to stand before Indian judges. In a letter to

The Englishman she argued her case:

I am not afraid to assert that I speak the feeling of all Englishwomen in India when I say that we regard the proposal to subject us to the jurisdiction of native judges as an insult.

It is not pride of race which dictates this feeling - it is the pride of womanhood. This is a form of respect which we are not prepared to abrogate in order to give such advantages to others as are offered by Mr Ilbert's Bill to

its beneficiaries. 8

In the same letter she claimed that all Indian women would agree that the

Bill was an outrage. Her concept of womanhood allowed her to speak on

behalf of all women against a measure of social reform in the colony; she

clearly felt that the bond between women across racial lines was stronger

than any desire for political independence felt by the Indian nation as a

whole. By tracing the circumstances of her decision to go to India and her

experiences once she got there, I hope to illustrate how she came to hold

these views, and what significance they hold for us today.

Annette Ackroyd's Indian venture is evidence that there was a lively

connection between progressives in the heart of the Empire and those at its

margins, and that women were active in maintaining these links. From the

first days of the Brahmo Somaj in England, a significant number of women

122

lun I

li lt , ""

II I I Vii it •• 111 IJ H' il\liiH i!ti Iii! I I!! ll f! Wllltllll I lrll 111 i111111 , 8'-iflll!i/ I )iihi;H 1,,))1 il, W•• ~ 111d ~· It II III t• ll vr• ll ytt tl

11ld whl' tl 11 111 li1 •1 lu~·1 11.i il tll i111 11 11 h t " ' tlu ll ttillltll t Mll tt ll tj , lt ttttllttllhttll

lttt y, Mjll'td. 111 :;1 111111 l'l ttfl] C luq u l l11 l 1111 t1 11 11 llttlll l11 t HJ ~ illil lll ltllll lly

width lu•d tlllltl llt iltiiiN wl 1lt l~td lt l ~ 11i11 i4 httt I. 111 • 1 II) , 1il11 • ' ' 'ttdiit•tl 11

lli r l1111~ ttlltllllllnll ' tll 111 ill " IIIII YII IIIIIII Slu• lt•llttlt'd l \t • 11~1111 111 llldt•t 111

111dy llntluno lt'll lll, 1111tl tl rN pl11• ilit' li11 1 tl11t1 sht wns lwd t•iddt•o lm 11111111

of d~t· 1inw, wos onlvc lo p1opn~uiln~ th <.: hi sro r·y 11nd idt'II N ol d11

• ssod~ttio n i11 Eng land : she pt'(>du <.: <.:d three books on rh<.: subjt•('l , i11c l11din

1 subs11u1tial and scho larly biography of Hoy Y The ocher ~orH C IIIf!Ot t ii Y l!ng lish study of Roy was Mary Carpenter's Last Ot1ys i11 lillp,/11111ln/ 1/J l<t~jtth l~ammohun Roy, written in r866. 10 Like Sophia Oohson Coll t•tl ,

Mary Carpenter had encou~tered Roy as a chi ld, when he hlld b~· t' ll 11 J{t lrHI

at her father's house in Bristol. Before addressing the question of why the message of these lndin11 N<H uti

reformers appealed to so many British women, it is necessary co look hr Jc•ll y

at the background to their movement. The association, which SOitJ.Ihl 111

reform Indian society through eradicating idolatry, polytheism nnd t 'lllll

bad been founded in 1830 by Rammohun Roy, a Bengali, who h imst•l( lu11l

spent two years in England, where he died in October I 8 3 2 . l h· WI•

complex figure: a brahmin by birth, he had converted to Christianit y, Vl'l

he maintained caste rules while in England,

.. . not [from} any lingering attachment to the superstitions of his coun1 ry , or to early associations, but [from} a desire to avoid everything which miJ.IIll

impair his usefulness among his countrymen, or diminish the influence ol

his teachings. 11

Despite his conversion and his belief in the conservative nature of 1 h .. Hinduism of his day, Roy was no Anglophile. He saw the need for cht~ ll ,i\<' in India, but he challenged the British view of India as backward and Wll

deeply critical of British political and religious institutions. In July r 8. he wrote to a correspondent in Liverpool:

I am now happy to find myself fully justified in congratulating you . . . oo the complete success of the Reform Bills, notwithstanding the violcoc opposition and want of political principle on the part of the aristocrats.

123

ANipid tll•ly ''''"''"' d 111111 111 ilu• 1 Vf' ill 11lllu lit l11111t lltlll i111 tl•l• ·•ll• d I woultlll 'llllllllil lilY 111111111 !11111 wl !lt ildN t IHIIIIIY Jl 11 illtoll tll •·•l•t l jlilll lil lll

Amcrim l, I 11 '1' ''''" '" 111 1111 Wi lling 10 ytH • 01' li ll Y o i1111 1111 tullll II V1 11111111

unt il I knew t ilt• l t'N IIII , ' l 'l111nk hcnvcn I can now IN•IpHIIId t~l l ulllll.llll! ' ol

your fellow subjc\.1 s. 1

Roy was an aristocrat who advocated democracy and allied himself to the

cause of the working people of India and throughout the world . In Britain

he won friends among liberals and Nonconformists of all classes. But it was

his support for women's rights above all which must account for the

ltdmiration which he received from British women.

Among the questions which were of deep concern to Roy, sati, the

practice of widow-burning, was perhaps his major preoccupation. 13 Roy

took up this issue, inspired 'by the personal shock he experienced when his

sister-in-law became sati'. His work in this area typified his overall

approach: to reform Hinduism through a rereading of primary texts. In a

series of papers published between 1818 and 1830, each of which he

translated into English, he opposed the understanding of sati as a religious

rite .

It is not from religious prejudices and early impressions only that Hindoo widows burn themselves on the piles of their deceased husbands, but also from their witnessing the distress in which widows of the same rank in life are involved, and the insults and slights to which they are daily subjected, that they become in a great measure regardless of existence after the death of their husbands; and this indifference, accompanied with the hope of future reward held out to them, leads them to the horrible act of suicide. 14

Seeing sati as intimately bound up with women's economic dependence

he argued for the rights of women to hold property. Like John Stuart Mill,

forty years later, Roy realized that what was widely regarded as essential

feminine character was in fact the outcome of a very particular process of

socialization. He saw that social, religious and economic factors were

crucial in shaping the female individual's sense of self and often mocked the

evolutionist argument that men were by nature superior:

The faults which you have imputed to women are not planted in their constitution by nature; it would be, therefore, grossly criminal to condemn

124

J .

!111111 lillil~t ltl\ idti - 1

·h Ill tl1111 l11h IIIII ltllltiiiiH , I'' IIIII .lid Y"" I'V t' l ullwd

ti ll IIIII ltill "1'1''111111111\ 11! i ltll•liilll' !11111 lltllllittlllijllli lty ~ I low lli t·n ru n

Yll ll i lllll ~l ""'''Ill Willi! Ill ' '"'"' 111111111111

A- Yllll l111• Will Ill 11 11' ' 111 I ti ll y v11i tl 11i I'd! II III 1011 und ilt'gLtmcnts, you

1111111111 , 1 111 ' 11 '11111 ', l11 j11•li•••, 1'1111111111111 ' 11 11 IIH'iJ' lnkriority ... \'1111 1 IIIII /{I' till '"' wi ll I Wil l II 111 II 'Nil llllion , Ill' which 1 feel exceedingly

lll'jll lN!'d; f01 WI' 1 IIII NIIIIIII y pt'l 1 t•lve, ln 11 t:ouu cry where the name of death tnnl\ t'N !It t• IJlll lc ~ lt uddt· l' , 1 lt 11 1 the l'cmnlc , from her firmness of mind, offers

Ill hul'll with chc C()l'pSc of her deceased husband . 15

Whi 1<.: Roy wrote about Hindu women his articulation of the injustice of

their siwation clearly struck a chord for the British women who encoun­

u.: rcd the man and his work. His commitment to Indian women's rights,

'his feeling for women in general' according to another admirer, Lucy

Aikins, and evident pleasure in the 'mental accomplishments of English

ladies' he met with, won him a wide reputation. After reading one of his

papers, Lucy Aikins, who met Roy a number of times, wrote in r832:

Afterwards, he details the many cruelties and oppressions to which females in his country are subjected by the injustice and barbarity of the stronger sex, and pleads for pity towards them with such powerful, heartfelt eloquence as no woman, I think, can peruse without tears and fervent

invocations of blessings on his head. 16

Keshub Chunder Sen, who became leader of the Brahmo Somaj in the

late 18sos, shared Roy's belief that there were radicals in Britain who

might be enlisted to help their cause, and he inherited some of the same

contacts. In May r87o, he delivered a lecture on 'England's Duties to

India' in which he argued that 'the first great duty which the British nation

owes to India is to promote education far and wide'. 17

In Sen's view, mass education was central to progressive change in India;

it was through education that people would come to question idolatry,

polytheism and the immutability of caste. In particular he was concerned

about the lack of educational opportunities for Indian women and girls,

which prevented the spread of literacy throughout the population. What

India lacked, he argued, were women qualified to teach. For though

increasing numbers of girls were receiving some sort of elementary

schooling, early marriage prevented them from reaching a level o( ~duca-

125

llltVIIN I) 'I I I II I'M I

lion which wou ld 111 IIH' IIIIw• ll'l ldlinf-1 lht• llr 'li l l't' lll 111111111 hr• 11 ~ ~~ ~fl,I~N it ' cl

that among widows in ptlrl icu lnr, th ~· r·c WIIN 11 1lr It ltllllllllt' 111 Wll iiH'll who

would benefic from reaching as an occuparion , l11 11 111 ilu11 ll lrH' liltr't' were

no women equipped co train them as ceache1·s. I k lwllcvt:d Lhar English

women had a unique role co play in chis interim work, which was why he

appealed to the educated women who were among his supporters co travel

to India as teachers .

The Civilizing Mission

It is relatively easy to understand the posi tive way that many women

responded to this call, particularly when Sen claimed to speak on behalf of

'millions of Indian sisters'. First, it was unusual for women's intellectual

skills to be sought after; Sen's appeal was direct to 'well-trained, accom­

plished English ladies, capable of doing good to their Indian sisters, both

by instruction and by personal example'. During the second half of the

nineteenth century, many educated women were faced with stultifying

boredom as there were so few opportunities for satisfying employment.

Being a governess in Britain was an obvious choice for many young women

as it was considered a 'genteel' and respectable way of earning a living.

However, according to Barbara Bodichon, writing in 186o, it was in

reality a gruesome fate . In the rigid class structure of the Victorian family

the governess was not considered as a social equal either by her employers or

the ocher servants: 'The governess, however well conducted, remains a

governess; may starve genteely[sic} , and sink into her grave friendless and

alone.' 18

One solution was for women to consider looking further afield for more

satisfying work. One of the most immediate ways in which women -

including feminists - in Britain were connected to the expansion of the

Empire was through emigration and the opportunities it provided for

female independence and employment . According to A. ). 1-lammerton ,

between 1862 and 1914 voluntary societies helped more than rwenry

thousand women of various classes co emigrace to Jiri 1 ish colon ics. 'l'h <.: li rs1

of these, and probably the most conrrovcrsin l, wns rlH' ilt'llllrlt• M iddk C l o~s

Emigration Sociecy, which wr1s sc1 up in 1 H(r' ~~ ~ 11 lt 'IIIIIII NI l't'II IJOII IIt' 10 I lit•

increas ing d(•n,nnd l'ron1 n)idd lt• t lt1 ~N Wll llr l' ll lru llr 'W lor 111 M ol 1'111ploy

liWlll , 'J'IlC' Nt' l'iOIIN rli Npropor I ion ol lllf' ll 111111 WIIIIIIJ II Ill 11111 11111 1 II IIIHI'd

1 " (r

jll lilly lry ilu t'IH I)Ihllillll 111 1111: 11 1 [I

Wllllll ' ll lllttld IIIII 11ly 1111 lll •llil tt

tub lil tl w P111 111tl l1 llt l'tllll tl11t1 lllilliY

l l t • irtiiii ~ I H Wl'il' ollt ' ll lllillltfl. til l! !11 1" iii• I 1rl

III'Nrii 'N 111111 lf't ll ht•tll Ill lfl! 1l1ifrli'lll 11l yltllr Ill

IJII 'JIII II 111 Nll!ljlllll

IIVI' I ~ I 'l l ~ I I ~ )\IIVI'I

lltiWI'VI' I, II II ' Nlt1111

ldN ilii Y ol till' I'M< ns dtilti iii~IIIIIH I IIIII ill HI ill ' iltl ill!• l jlli ~ll tlllll Il l

IIIJ.I illtl :t.t•d l ' llil~llilillllll ' lllilltll'rl lljllllhlrllhlf ir tiJII' ftH ll' tlilliiNIH rl111111~ til pt •d od . 1\y r H H(r rl11• Jl M <. HH I u11llu 1 111111 td 1M111 I ll'd i tllo lilt• ll ' l ~· 1 11 1 y lor lllt•rl

<.oloni td l!ndf{ntlioll !'lot ll ' ly , 111111 t ~ llll ~ llillilll ptllflliJ.IIItHIIt llurl tlttjlilll 'rl

IIIIIIJ.I IIIII i· fl'IJliniNI tOIIIIOIIilltlll )nt• r't'IISOn why (t·n,ini sts did 1101 trr tt'iflllvorully suppor'l tltt• t' ll ll floll il ioJJ

IIIOVt'll\('111 Wf\S thai f'llC 1\\01 iveS of' I ht: IICW SOciety Wl'l't' l't'i ltld y II II

lllt'rprctt d by the righr-wing press us be in~ lit d t: mor<: 1 h.111 1 host• ol 11

ttllll'l'iiiJ.It.' IIJ.I<.:ncy; alrhollgh some professed t·o he shocked 111 1 hi s, lw '''"II lldH'I'S it St'emcd n perfeccJy ' logical way or r~·d llrtll J.I tiH' 1\lflltl lf'f !If ' rii N II ' t~sstd J.len tl <.:wt>men' it) 13rimin and increos inJ.I iht• stmk ol wltll t'

Wlllllell in rhc ('Oionics . The chall enges or the fe tninist 1110V('IIH'III llllrllill

rlt ' llr tlllds of the 'new wonuu1' ft)r socia l and poliricttl r<.:l(> r' lll nli l' lll ~ ruqrl y he dispersed by sending femini St'S inm the fur t'OI'JK'fS o( ilH• world wllf' ll

tlwy would be occupied in scrr ing up hornt.:s 11nd ntisinf-1 1\tnrilir ~ll. A lll't n11rl ,

111111 pt·r·hnps mor·c conclusive fact01' that di scournJ.It:d mtwy lt•nii!II HIH 1111111

r • r11i~n11ion was the rcpons rhru beg:ll1 to flow bnd{ 1'1'0tll wOtJH'Il WlltiNt' )1111

t ~ J.IOVt' l'trcsses hnd (llllOllllil'd to lin le more l'lwn dOJnL•s t lt Nc1vitt' ol 1t l h1d

wlu ~ h wou ld not bt: wntcmp lttred by women of tire Sll tllt' t ltr ~N 111 llr llrtlll ,

A11 lltllllllll'rton point'S our, 'C:olooi1d socittl l·onditiwts rt'tl'd~t • rl 11 ll 'lltrlr •l

i11 p. of' lmditionn l British t'H it'lo\Ori cs of d ttss, S ll illl ~ nnd lt-nulh· t'llljlfiiY

1111' 111 1

II dif'fin rl i msk l(ll' WOillell whos~· ( laSS•l'OJIM( illti S IH~NN OVI' tll fllttlii WI' tl

1111' 11' li'rrtiniN111 .' 1') AltiiOPJ.Ih Nllt Ct·ss iv <.: k ltdt•f'll or t il t' .~m II' IY Ill H'llljlll 'rilll

11'1' 1 I! IOllt'Mt' IWI W~'t' l\ llt't t'jHIIb lt• l(:ntinisl l ,f'i n('ip l t ~S 1111d lilt' Prl' llllilll ' lllt 'rl

ftu 1'111ploylltL'III , ilrl' Wtll n1diu ions nwdt: 11 11111Y wor 1H'II Willy ol 1 l11• wl11111

irll'll , 'I'ht•l(• Wt'l't' lhOII NI IIH IN o( otht'rN, howt'Vt' l'1 wlto lt• li lit iltillllll Will i Ill

lilt • 1 olwdt~s irt wllillt'VI 'I ru ptH lty WIIH IIVII thtlllt• Wol'i, l11g t I11 HH Wrll ll l' tl

Wl'll' lll 't'rlt•d 11'1 tlllllll 'N III 111' 1VI IIII Il 1 llllf'Ht•N 111111 htllllt'· 11Hil.t•tN1 11111 1 whi l1

ilu•11• WIIM II IWII YN lilt• pHIIl jlt't l ol d1111" '' ' illlllliHI," IIIII'IIVt • lllll ~ 111111111 ilu ~ Wtl lltlltl tt lllllllll 'l' liLI' All ~ iiitll ti '"'" ~Jt • w :f,t•t rl ltlltl , It w11~ lti Vr ll lo rlrl y

1111 '1 1 ~ 1111 '" IIHIIIIIHI lilt ' Ill t•lllllll ll llflj iiiVI' II \' t111rliii11111Jdllyllll ' fll ill IH IIIII

~J t•vr• lllll'lt •N", St• II 'M irf f•J I Wi l ~ wt ll ill I lVI rl , It I! II tlllltlllt •l l wl iltilll lrfl 'il

dutl lldli MII Wlll lllll l111rl 11 111ti1p1r rl111 1 l1 _r IIIIIIH r_lvflltll'ifrll Ill tl11

llrlllviiL·t•l l. ' l'ltl ~ Wt t ~ lllvuk t •lllllrlllirriiiii!IH.l jirriJI liillu t .-i ti t'll• llflllllll ,

!lu Ill\\ ll!ljilltlt u llhiiiiiii M tdu tllli l lll ilu tHI!iiti '•' d IH 'IIJd n II V fll~ 111

l11•tlfl1111 '''""" AN I di"'" ~N t •d In ~' • Ill ~. 11111 111 tlu tlliltttlt IH lw WIH tH•n 'N

l'lit' tl{lt •H IIIHII tlu• t•11 dy lllDoN hud lwt•n pllll tiJ tii ii•I Jdl 111 tlvltlt•s . Hy li lt' 1 H /DN 1 lit' 1 h111'l 1 11 hlt• w01·k ol' 1 IJt' Hvan}.lcl k11 l 111lddl1•· 1 lllllN wom:1n was sti ll

ti lil <.:d tH cd um 1 ing hct· working-class coutH<.: t'J)ll J'I in I'CI ig ion, morality and

sao I ration but , as the ideology of Empire developed, her sphere of influence

was expanding to wherever the British flag was flying. As one writer puts

it: 'Notions of imperial destiny and class and racial superiority were grafted

onto the traditional views of refined English motherhood to produce a

concept of the Englishwoman as an invincible global civilising agent. '20

Although women from more radical backgrounds would nor necessarily

have seen themselves in this light, and would have had a variety of different

responses to ideas of duty and patriotism, they undoubtedly would have

felt that they were better educated than women elsewhere. Many of those

who heard Keshub Chunder Sen's appeal must have been distressed at his

description of the plight oflndian women, though not especially surprised.

Ever since the British had first begun to settle in India, the practice of sati,

commonly represented as a product of a pagan religious system which had

produced all manner of strange and backward social practices, nor least rhe

caste system, had aroused curiosity about the way Hindu women were

treated by men. It seems that, before the movement for women's rights

intervened in public debate, there was a variety of ways of characterizing

gender relations in India, mostly, though not always, from the point of

view of white supremacy. For example, the matrilineal system of the Nairs

of Western India had been held up as a utopian example of freedom

between the sexes. 21 Eliza Fay, writing home from Calcutta at the turn of

the eighteenth century, began a description of East Indian customs and

ceremonies with a discussion of widow-burning in which she acknow­

ledged that men in most countries had nor failed to 'invent a sufficient

number of rules to render the weaker sex totally subservient to their

authority'. The same letter was probably a good indication of British

atti tudes towards Indian women themselves; it was not so much their

status that intrigued, but rather their different approach to femininity:

The Hindoo ladies are never seen abroad; when they go out their carriages

are closely covered with curtains, so that one has little chance of satisfying

curiosity. I once saw two apparently very beautiful women; they use so much

art however, as renders it very difficult to judge what claim they really have

128

111 tihtl tiJi jlllittthtll tlii ll t• W

1 Itt iltlll 1 yt Ill he 1 \'1 l•111

'1 'td

1111 !itt ,, Jll ' ! "'"' ·

IHtlld•tllld ll •lil ~,,tll tlltdl •uwl c•lluln j illll 11 •• 1,. llllllldti lillllllillilt lllliljth 1111 /,t . illl tllfll i\ 1 IIIII llillllilt' Nl' t' iOIISiy

ltl 11 11 11 ' tlud1 lt i! VIIIJI'IIII III •I 111tlu ••1, 111 ilu IJIJ•tlltllit I'N II H• tolotivc being Ill " 1'1 1111 ' Jl u• ttli l 'l till! IN Il l 11 llli ~ Jitlllt I, Ill Ill I 11 11111 fl l ill I I ht• pi !InN of fl rival.

1\y 1 ht• 1 H /!lN wht•tt Annt•ll t J\1 kt•oyd wt•rH to Calcutta, the dominant

lllll~t · ol' lodion WOtilt'll in the •n inds of the British public can be

litlll'IH ' t ~' l' i:t.~·d ns one of inrcnse suffe ring behind closed doors. This was

j ll ll 'l ly lwcause of the spread of missionary work throughout the subconti-

111'111 ' which influenced the way that Indian culture was represented in

'1\r·imin. Descriptions of purdah and zenana life, the provision of education

f(>r high-caste Hindu women within the women's quarters, where they

lived without contact with men outside the family, abounded with

metaphors of darkness and imprisonment which had become synonymous

in the British mind with Indian women's whole existence. Mission

writings created an imperative for women's mission work by denouncing

purdah as inherently evil. In the minds of many Europeans, the world of

Hindu and Muslim women, largely hidden from their view, provoked

suspicions too awful to name,

In all the homes, the purdah is strictly kept, and alas! who can tell what dark

deeds are occasionally done in these secluded homes. 23

An increased awareness-of feminism and the different forms of women's

subordination at home meant that gender relations in other countries were

viewed more critically by many observers. Hindu women were increasingly

portrayed by feminists as victims of barbaric cultural customs from which

they needed help to escape. In the British feminist journal Englishwoman's

Review in r868, Mrs Bayle Bernard contrasted two books written about life

in India. She scorned the first in a few paragraphs because of its attention to

'frivolous details' and its 'slipshod slangy style', bur devoted several pages

to Mary Carpenter's Six Months in India. Mary Carpenter had a lifelong

interest in India- her father was responsible for inviting Rammohun Roy

to Britain in r83o - but she only travelled there in her fifties when she

became involved in the Indian educational reform movement. Her pub­

lished diaries, which were the subject of this review, provide a revealing

glimpse of Indian life seen through the eyes of a British liberal feminist.

129

~lti lhithlld !piiii t d '"' 111 lll)'i " H• ' ll• u•n dw iii ll i i ii ihi; ' '' ' ' " ''" ••I ,, II lf olttll I" itt flldl ,l, tf11 fll li lll wfti l lt 11111 ~ 1 fttdllfll ff )' fl itlf Hi~ tfiiJ lllllltf I ~ tf 11

JlltHiillltilll fllillhtll W11 1111111 °1 ll lld tfH ' II I IIIIttttfn ft ll j"lilliljlflrit ~ I ' I H III H ol ilt

Into!, wltlt It tttfdJI'HIIt'tf 1 It IN qtwNI 11111 , llnw1 v• 1, ilu ~t • vlt • w JI INo dr~·w tfll'llfiOII 111 M111y Ciii'Pt'lll l' t''s dcsnipdou ol r tl11n tdomd pi'Ojt•u s sc.•1 U j) iu

dlllt•tt'lll lilll't N of lodi11 by Indians thcmsclvt•s, tJldlldin~ the Umhmo Sw niiJ , 1111d It t'tnplmsi:t.cd 'how earnest the women of Ind ia themse lves ar''

111 tlt!N il· in~o~thc ir own improvement', a poinc demonstrated by the enthu-

ii •SIII with which women greeted Mary Carpenter when they heard about

ht•r miss ion . Mrs Bayle Bernard ended her review with a plea for British

WOJ nt•n to ~ec involved, her last sentence providing an interesting example

olan t•xp licir ly feminist attitude co Empire and the sense of duty which it dt·outndcd :

Lt•f them throw their hearts and souls into the work, and determine never to tes t until they have raised their Eastern sisters to their own level; and then ll)IIY the women of India at last attain a position honourable to themselves nnd co England, instead of, as is now so generally the case, filling one which n•n on ly be contemplated with feelings of shame and sorrow. 24

Interestingly, al though there was often a blanket condemnation of both

llinduism and Islam by the British within and outside India, these

rdig ions were not always understOod as being equally oppressive to

women. Five years later, another review article focused on the 'condition of

women in mahometan countries', the first sentence setting the tone for what was to follow:

At a time when we are congratulating ourselves that a better day for women has dawned in Christian Europe and America, and that the harsh laws, engendered by ages of ignorance and barbarism, are being one by one repealed, it is satisfactory to be told that in countries under Mohammedan rule, a similar advance is taking place, and that the women of the far off East are not the hopeless helpless victims we have long thought them. 25

During this same period the Englishwoman's Review carried an announce­

ment of the founding of the Indian Association, which was set up

to promote understanding between the two countries and to support

'enlightened natives of India in their efforts for the improvement of their

130

tli"""i' lililll' , · r' lt iJ ' '""' dw lillttllft I I ;ttitf i'dittlf O( it• f11lllliiil

I 1111~1, Hlld tf11 111111 it l lli d · tl ( llfi fi tl \'II

tl II ~Ill It I y'

Wtl~ 11 Wlll llt y

ttlltiHiy ' "'''" '"' 11 Nt'' '" ' " tlll iltV!' ''' ''l td 11111 Nft l111lt• Jt•lw·ot . It qllotcd tit ''i 'l'lltVttl tlu l ~ttllhl ul ilu 111 w ti~Ntultttlt ttl , Nllpport ed by Indian

ltllllttllt N " ' " ""~ l·,t•HIIId t ( lllnlllt•t Ht•u tlltd l>tllltthlmi Naoroji (who was

lttlt 1 lttl~t•u utll ' 11 ttlt' tttl wt ol iiH• IItlf t ~ h Pttl'iu•utt:tll), chat 'the Government

ptlt~tlplt• ol twfl .. lliic•dctt•mt•lnn•li).lious and social cuscoms is to be strictly

lllttllllll'lltt'd '; Ottl' of it s aims wus 'to promote by voluntary effort the

t• ltll fl ltlt' llltl~· nt nnd improvement of our Hindu fellow subjects'. 26 The

••tftu 111 ion of women was inevitably high on the agenda, along with sanitary

tltptovemcnts which were seen to be essential to the moral and physical

lu•tdth or the nation.

'}'he 'Government principle' referred to was a recurrent question in the

1 olonial administration of the subcont inent. The r857 national uprising,

l(flown to the British as 'The Mutiny', had been sparked off by a cynical

disregard oflndian religious practices. This much was agreed upon by all

observers and interested parties, but there were disagreements as to what

should be done to secure Indian rule once the rebellion had been sup­

pressed. At one extreme, there was a body of opinion in mission circles that

the uprising would have been averted by more 'interference' in Indian

ulture rather than less. It was understood by missionaries in both India

and Great Britain as a sign of divine displeasure that the British authorities

had been tolerating false religions and neglecting Christianity. There was a

belief that if missionaries had been allowed access to the Indian soldiers,

the uprising would never have happened. Extracts from church magazines

of the period give the impression of an attitude of supreme confidence that

mission work was in the best interests not only of the church but also of the

state. In the same year as the rebellion, one article in the Church Missionary

lntelligencer claimed that: Christianity strengthens lawful authority, con­

curs with it in action, makes the man more loyal, more submissive to his

superiors, more attentive to their commands.'27

The church view did not necessarily represent the official position.

Queen Victoria's response was that Crown rule must respect the autonomy

of Indian people's religions. She took this stance in opposition to the

particular events which had led to the uprising, but made it clear that she

had disapproved of the increasingly aggressive government of the country

by the East India Company, which had evolved from a once peaceful

131

1111 '11 ollllih ll oitlfll /1 1111>11 '•''' \' tlilllll fl il lllilli oll \" ll 'd till t- li H IIi i 111 11 II ~11 11 ul

lwnt•volt•lli "' '"!'''' 1\y i111 • 1 H \ l iN, d1 VIlli( Ifil l t.l• t~ l lljifl·- 111 lll t iod ttnd

(\l ltu nd Nlljllt'II IIHY 111 H11,4il11td lwd lt•d ' " '' lu lli I'"'" iliiiHt' lu•yond th"

l'ench or Weslcrn civ il il.lltion needed I ' (~N ttliiiH 1111111 iht•ll IIWII pl'imitiv"

uscoms and l'cligions .2H The liCcy years 1wiw· to 1 H") '/ lliiJ rc ll ecced rhis

change, as the Company 's policy had shifced swadi ly from a readiness co

coexist with Indian culture to a practice of active intervention into the

private lives of Indian people . First, the Company's prohibition on

missionary work had been dropped in r8r 3, heralding an influx of

churchmen and women into the country; equally damaging was the

Education Minute of r835 which decreed that English education became

official Company policy. Political theorists with progressive views on other

subjects were ready to support the imperial project in India, in the name of

disrupting the 'despotism of custom'. Patrick Brantlinger points out that

John Stuart Mill, for example, who worked for the Company under his

father , argued that Indians needed protection from both European aggres­

sion and from their own despotism of custom; before 185 7 he believed that

the East India Company was the best agent for supervising this civilizing

mission. 29 Queen Victoria was thus addressing those who would rule India

under her as much as the Indian people when she insisted that the following

passage, which she reputedly wrote herself, be included in the proclama­

tion which explained the passing of India's rule from the East India

Company to the Crown in r8s8:

Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. . .. We do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects on pain of our highest displeasure. 30

There is no mistaking that this was a pragmatic benevolence. She had seen

that the uprising of 1857 had been caused by such 'interference' and sought

to ensure the continuation of her rule. Hence the proclamation went on: 'In

their prosperity will be our strength; in their contentment our security'. 31

Closer study of Victoria's life reveals, however, that she often displayed

both sympathy and warmth towards Indian people that went beyond mere

pragmatism. 32 Aside from her official role as Empress of India, she took a

132

j ltlll li lil tlll l' ill II Vti llll (i(l~ l 111 ht t\iJli l [i il t! ll • i! ll d 1111111 - llllollllllllll lt11llt111

1_11!11. !1 . \'(• l1111 l ~u~ lnd • i ln!ih lo~ t llt;11 \J!~ II ! ' d l(l l/1 1•11111 111 1 H /"• lw Wt l ~ lltYi lf d Ill tltl j lld olll ' wl1111 ol " ' / i' ltll j Ill 11111 ,- (1 Wi l ~ jiiiiVidt•tiiOI lt111 1. lie

loll rl' 111 11 1111 tl tln11 ' lull It !111 I 1\lllll tlfid tl11 l'tiiHI'"" WI' H' ,4 it1d 10 hea 1· that

lwl 111 ' " ' ' 1~ 11 '1 11 lltld llipltll ttttl llltlj lli lttlnllll 111111 ilutl Mr S~n hnd requested

""'"Y 111 III H ltu ly ltit •tui H 111 lt11 ~ 1 t 111d 111 Htl tllltlH'I' 10 undci'Utke che work of

lt it lldt • t•diiml Hltl ', SIH· w1 1 ~ ttl rm Nt tld 111 lulvt·

t•x jll't'NSt:d rnuch Sill isluc:cion Ill Lhc progress of female education m lndlt1 , u11d the impr·ovcmcnts maclc in several respects by her Indian subjects

II lllti Nt~lli C IICe or the spread of English education. She was glad that the tlllt·~· hnd been abolished and showed great concern for the miserable

I Olldition or Hindu women. 33

Victoria herself saw no contradiction in applauding 'the spread of

1\ng lish ed ucation' while promoting the official principle of cultural

•utonomy. So though the uprising caused the British ruling elite to

question the wisdom of outright reform of Indian society along Western

li11es, the promotion of both Western education and religion continued

Sl eadi ly. However, the concept of education without interference in

t·cl igious or social customs was an ideal shared by the more enlightened

po licy makers and many Indian reformers alike. In Keshub Chunder Sen's

lecture on 'Female Education' he spoke forcefully against the imposition of

European cultural norms, and clearly found enthusiastic support in his

audience:

With all my respect and admiration for civilization as it prevails in England, I have always been foremost in protesting against the demoralisation oflndia by importing English customs into it.(Cheers) Though I can respect learned, intelligent, philanthropic and generous-hearted ladies in England, I could not for one moment persuade myself to believe that for the interest of India I ought to introduce their customs and institutions . The growth of

society must be indigenous, native and natural. (hear, hear)34

After the national uprising in 1857, many more people in England,

whether Tory, radical or Evangelical, took an interest in the question of

how a colony like India should be governed, and in particular to what

extent the 'native' culture should be allowed to coexist with the dominant

133

Uil1111,tl \\'t l ~ 1 ~ ul 1111 1\rithll lt11j , IIi fi Ullil g Hi lt(l hit!iWII 11111' f1illfiVrd

lil.llillll l '•tHW!IIIt l t l ~" tllld /ll ' lldtl Ill l11 .-lii111 luJIOfh [IIIII t ll i lllfll l Jllllllht '

w•'~ ''"'"" "' "'''"'' tl• •ln•ll'"• 11 11.! ' ' IM hiHiil l' lilwl)' tlwt i' ww 11 11 11 111, Anllt'llt• At ktoycl , who <'llnH' l•·o"''' n1tllt,d llll il. tt i,tll ltl lri.w·ollnd , would h11vt• lwt•u fll tllil li ll' wldt 1 ht• s ~tbj t"t ' l cvt' ll lwfw t• Nht• lwrtllll t' involvt·d with tlw llntllliiO Somuj .

Annette Ackroyd in India

Annette Ackroyd owed her belief in education to her Unitarian father,

William, who saw it as a vital social issue. He had begun his working life as

an artisan but worked his way up to become a successful businessman with

wide-ranging involvements - a gas company, eng ineering , banking. H e

was a prominent local figure who, according to his biographer, Annette's

son William Beveridge , maintained a strong sense of identification with

his working-class background and devoted more time to unpaid work as a

poor law guardian, against the Corn Laws, and as a Liberal candidate, than

10 his business. He had been involved in setting up the first public library

in Stourbridge and in private he encouraged his daughters to take their •rlucation to the limits available at the time.

After leaving school, Annette studied for three years in London at

Bedford College, a nondenominational college for women, the nearest

thing co a university available. Having excelled in her courses there, she

returned to her father 's house in Stourbridge in 1863, where she remained

for the next five years. Her diaries show that she was active in several

different aspects of education available in the town- she taught at Sunday

School and at a local Ragged School, regularly distributed tracts, took

classes in sketching, geology, singing and metaphysics, and attended all

sorts of performances such as the opera, choral events and penny entertain­

ment . During this time she was also involved in foundi~g a Working

Women's College in London where she taught intermittently after it

opened in 1866. She appears to have led a busy life, yet occasional remarks

in her diary suggest a level of intellectual frustration and dissatisfaction:

FEBRUARY 22ND 186y

Bachelor's Ball. Very Great Fun in some things. Not very lively (mentally). Good Dancing.

134

lt iII ltii li1 ( h1111l1 IH ilr;!!l

ll hilid l1111 VII\'~ ~~~

1 1~1 1 1,\\" l fllillll t ,\ lllfl

Ill hlit 1!1111-iHII t illlll ( lollilll - i11 1111 I IIII HIIII 11 111 11

1111

l'11 I l1111 11i , VI' IY Ml11w li11lt I'l l W1111 '1 WIINII' 111 y tlu1c ag11in .

~HI M,w 1 Hl1lt l'u '!'own tluiiiM li i ll t•till}{ huHI II t'r I,

l'wlc t' slw upproachcd her father about the possibility of his employing her

111 Ids lirm , but ic seems that such a suggestion was beyond the scope of

Wi llinn1 Ackroyd 's imagination, and he refused. Yet Annette's attachment

10 Iter father and home were such that seeking a more fulfilling life away

from Srourbridge does not seem to have suggested itself to her until her

li1 thcr's unexpected death , after a brief illness in early 1869.

'l'hat year, the remaining family moved to London, and at her step­

mother's wish, Annette and her sister Fanny rented a furnished house of

their own. Annette then spent almost a year with her sister and another

friend on a European tour during which time Keshub Chunder Sen arrived

in England . The Unitarians , who were committed to progressive reform in

India and had supported the organization for over thirty years, were

prominent among Sen's supporters, so Annette Ackroyd became aware of

his lectures while she was still travelling on the Continent, attending one

shortly after her return. By that time she was twenty-nine years old,

unmarried and frustrated by the lack of intellectual stimulus in her life.

Since her father's death she had felt particularly rootless . Writing to her

sister Fanny some years later, she confided, 'I know you have felt as I have,

that home was gone'.

The situation described by Sen must have appeared straightforward to

her. Indian women were 'crying out' for her help; her skills, which seemed

so underused in England, were apparently needed to free them from a

burden of suffering. Educated, progressive Indians she met in England

encouraged her to go to Calcutta. Though immediately attracted by the

idea, it was some time before Annette actually made the decision to go.

Meanwhile she taught English at the Working Women's College and her

diary shows that she pursued her interest in Indian affairs as she met a

number of other Indian visitors- Sisipada Banerjee who was on a lecture

tour in 1 871 , Krishna Govinda Gupta and Mr Manmohan Ghose. In J uly

1 35

t llft llll tlllt• tlliilllt tl i,t t )' tlt i ll ' ~ lu J IIIIII lli ldl 'ti tt l t

llld hl

II Ill

lltll illl\ t H{4 1 " ltt • I11 ',41 111IUJII t' JIIIII ' III • t ~ l ' llit )" l d·IIIJ 1\t ii}!ld i l c •~II I I II HII IId

' ,40Vt' I'IH 'NN t Wtt Nt'tll l it t• llllltll ' HIId Co lwll td! .u ll tJW,IIIh i Mlu• lillld ly lt•ll llll'

lndiu latl't' d1111 yt:llt', She spt'llt hc.: t' tirs t tll llltt iiN ll v tll t~t tt 1 ht· ho11 Sl' of' Mr· llld M I'S Mnnmohnn G hose in Cnlcurta , rr'() l~) wh~· t'l' sht: SWJ'C(.:d her work or

es tab lishing a school. Her copious notebooks and diaries provide a unique

picwre or her responses co her new environment and the nature of the

problems which she experienced. Her initial reaction was one of detached

disapproval towards the British establishment. It is worth quoting at

leng th from an entry in her notebook five months after arriving in India.

To Government House a large party - very nice music - but! This is a

ountry where there is always a but! and this but! is of painful dimensions.

Day after day as I go into Anglo-Indian society , I am convinced of the

falseness of our position here. All allowances made for some little insular

prejudice, for we cannot at once get over this narrowness- there is a cruel

amount of difficulty between the races. What wonder! I sit among a group of

ladies and hear one lisping to a gentleman that the 'natives' come so early, sit

]ownstairs in the anteroom , with their feet on the sofa, ie. oriental fashion,

as if they were at home- (query? who has most right to feel that, the people

who pay for the house, or those who make them pay?) I hear at Belvedere of

ladies who say 'Ah! No! I never spoke to a native' , when asked to help to

·ntertain and talk to some of the numerous Indians present and of another

who said, 'Let us sit on the verandah to get out of the natives .' If this were

said of men who have no refined ideas, .. . I should not wonder, but when

all are classed together - men of learning from whom these empty-hearted

women might learn much, and men of proud feelings- I get a sickening

heartache and terror oflife here . How these sweet and feminine souls, whose

sympathy is so tender and sensibilities so acute can be so destitute not only

of humanity but of simple courtesy and consideration for the feelings of

others, is a problem I cannot pretend to solve. 36

Annette Ackroyd not only disagreed with, but was surprised to encounter,

t he attitudes of the white people in Calcutta, suggesting that she had not

encountered such 'colour prejudice' against Indian visitors in England.

The differences in attitudes to race in Great Britain itself and in the

colonial territories is repeatedly noted by the black and white travellers

who moved in both directions between India and Britain in the nineteenth

136

III II j!!!llll Iii ltn tl h• ll trllll ll t ti ti ll' VINII 11 l

ill tlill ''I tl hll l1 1 Wll ~ C ' llillll ~ i ll~ ll

i ,til \' II t_Li VI d h• 11 I l ll~li lit' I. I i1111 Il l I 11 /1 11 ,it .,II 1J I y l11• WI IM 'lllllhl ll'd' hy l hn

wtt tl11 • IJ1 11 Mll lltlll 'll t l t 1,111111 Y wld• l1 lu v1• l11 d, 111td tl•t•n 1wcsenLed co

Wl ll h1111 IV 11M 11 di Htill l{ lli ll lll d vl11i lo t A tlll l ll ~ tl11 • HnJ.~ I i sh he met, it was

Atl l\ llt 111d it1t1N wltot 'X JIII ~HHr•d 1111 ltd JIII'JIIdi ll' tow11rds Roy. A contempor­

" Y cllllllll! ' lil llttlt ', M1'N 1.1• 1111•1011 , Wt'tll l' ot'onc such incident:

At 11 purty 11 ft·icnd of ours Capwin Maulcverer, who had known the Rajah

11 lt~dill und wns very much attached tO him - we . . . overheard one of the

J.\ ll ~·s t s, 1111 Indian officer of rank, say angrily 'What is that black fellow doing

ltc:t·c?' A shocking speech to those who loved and honoured him so much. 37

l11 the eyes of many people in Britain, the life of their fellow-countrymen

in India was characterized by idleness , frivolity and decadence. Mrs Bayle

Bernard, in the review discussed earlier, endorsed Mary Carpenter's crusade

f(>r educating Indian women, and appealed to all Englishwomen in India to

usc their influence to better the lives of 'native females', as much to benefit

Lhemselves as their charges. 'Have they no other alternative than to indulge

in sinful excitements, or to pass day after day and year after year in a

monotonous fulfilment of mere animal functions?' she asked. The founding

of the Indian Association in Britain was prompted by the impossibility of

any respectful dialogue between black and white in India itself. 'We have

been assured more than once by a distinguished native, that the English in

England are like a different race to the English in India', wrote the

Englishwoman's Review in I 87 I, and this seems to have been a common

vtew:

We may regret the fact (but can hardly deny), that our young English

gentlemen, when placed in positions of responsibility and trust over life,

limb, and property, for which at home, if ever obtained, they would wait till

they were grey-haired men, have not the good name of England more at

heart, than to let it be the synonym for contempt of and overbearing

discourtesy towards 'niggers'. 38

During the same decade, the anti-imperialist journal, Anti-Caste, car­

ried another revealing report of prevailing British attitudes towards

Indians:

I37

A 111111 ~ l'lliloh Ill 111 '//1, l ll•f~'itrt ~ li11 IIIII !111 11 111 l)litj i ol o lj Ill 1' I • ill

lud lu Hr lldH lll tlllllt l Ntll ld t•llill}-1 1'1'" ''' n l llu 111111 111 '"'"" l 11t lh•11 M111i11Y

with r't'J.IH I'd 10 tht• IHit lvt• l lllt 'H, At IIIII ' li11tt< l lt1 l11 •1 11d 11 ll •• ld1 ·111 ttl IIIIIII Y

years inveighing ro lo11d ly ll}{lli ll ~ t tht• nutlvi•N, ''-•r• lflit ).l thlll t i11 11Nitln14 iiH•II t

was the only mode of c re~cmenr· . "l'hmsh rht•" ll ' l'hl ttNit th t· 111 l' Ill' Nitld

'Every blow that misses is a blow wasted!' li e spokt fccl in}{ ly of rhc 'good

old times' when, if your servant vexed you, you sene hi rn wi th a nocc co rhe

nearest police station - 'please give bearer twenty-five (or fifty) lashes' and ic

was done. This is described as an 'extreme case', though some young English

officers chimed in with it heartily, and the writer met with many who

apparently were in accord with this view; and whose panacea was to swear at

and kick the 'niggers' as they call them. Others, less rabid, assured him that

it was impossible to like the natives, and that the longer you live amongst

them the more you hate them . Others, again, were very indignant at the

educational policy of late years, whereby natives were qualified to fill posts

which used to be perquisites of youths from the old country. The contempt

with which well-educated natives are treated in India by Europeans is

described as a real grievance ... 39

The racism described by Annette Ackroyd distressed her for two reasons:

on the one hand, it showed a dismissal of the worth of Indians regardless of

their class or personal characteristics and, on the other, it completely

denied them any cultural autonomy. In the first instance what bothered her

was the way that all Indians were 'classed together' and she was particularly

mortified that the English women should be so insensitive. But the main

point of this notebook entry was to take issue with the predominant

attitude to Indian culture. In her 'query' she questioned the logic whereby

the English could assert their cultural norms over those of the indigenous

people of India - that the English should be the racial group allowed to feel

'at home'. However, although Annette Ackroyd is likely to have gone out

to India with a firm belief in the importance of respecting local autonomy,

it is important to see the unevenness in her own attitude, for her notebook

reveals very contradictory responses to cultural difference. The first note­

book entry, made on 15 December r872, reads:

The features of Calcutta life which have struck me as most curious are the

crows, the jackals and the difficulty of taking exercise! This is because I have

never realised all these things before, while the servants, the semi- and

demi- semi- clothed people are quite familiar to my imagination.

138

1)1~ 111111

IIIIi I

dt i'.MI d I IIIII I I I ~ (

I 11 11111 (

IF1d t' ul l ildl illl

, IIHIIIIIIIIiiiR tO!!tlillllll. Iii !It!' 1!111 1111111111 ~ llljl ( huttl i t; lltll(1• ~ I11 1W

Vo'i l ~ [tLIII iilh •Wf\' jll[l\[{ l!l litH I Wi ilt !IHJ Wil\' d ii tl l~~tl ii lll 1''"1''' lin l ll ill i lll ~ ,du tll i i l 1iii H1~ tlll l'' '''lo- tli l!lly iltfiiPMi lll l\ 1111 tlu y

ltllll y wi tlt l111 j lllth l•'"·d 1i illh1 tillltlll l nii.I VIIIilon i r11 11 111d iu n

< l11 J (J I lt•tl' od H}I •lu 111111 tl ,

" " 11'/-PIIdH ill!' qu t•H i iOitlll dt l' di t'l" o lll t' ll /liil !'l' WO II It' llllit•tt: NtCliiH 10 till' Ill

lw iiH' fllt'll i t•N t ll t' t'd llll l'lldtiltt•lltli!IIIIIIIIIY of to lou r., , , , ' l'ht tt' u l\INI lu 1 dt•t ldt·d dJII IIflt' 100 In li w lowt•t· J.llll 'lltt·nl s. 'l'h <.:y c~t nnol xo In to fll ihl h

phtt ts in such coswtn<.:s. 'J'hcy ll'l llY cover 1 h<.: rnsclvcs ltp , bur t ht• Vt 'l y lwddlinx or rhcrnse lves up i11 sw~tthes of muslin suggests imtNldt:s ry.

O n 27 December she visited a school which Kcshub Chundcr· Si!ll wu

Involved in running and which his wife attended. They were rcce ivt·d hy 11

Mr Bose, who, she wrote, 'really looked so uncivi lised chat I C()uld hnrd ly

shake hands with him. He was clothed in a huge shawl which swullJ-1 I'O tllld

him in folds, had socks in wrinkles and shoes, but showed a qun nt i1y of

brown leg, most distasteful to the eye and to the sense of decency.'

O nce in the classroom, she commented on the 'immodesty' of the ,4l rl '

dress , dwelling particularly on their jewellery. But,

the thing which shocked me most was co see Mrs. Sen, ignorant of Ilog l ish ,

while her husband speaks so fluently - dressed like a poor wife of S() n'1''

uncultivated Hindoo- in red silk, no shoes or stockings, .. . She sat like 11

savage who had never heard of dignity or modesty - her back tO lu.:

husband, veil pulled over her face - altogether a painful exhibition - tho

conduct of a petted foolish child it seemed to me, as I watched her playing

with her rings and jewels.

Whereas Eliza Fay, almost one hundred years earlier, had shown incenS"

curiosity about the different manifestations oflndian women's femininity ,

to the Victorian mind of Annette Ackroyd, their jewellery, the red silk, chc

bare feet, the ways they exposed or concealed parts of their bodies, were all

clearly and uncomfortably suggestive both of sexuality and of sexun l

subordination. Mrs Sen's appearance only seemed to make the English

woman aware of how little she had in common with her, and encouraged

her to apply harsh moral judgements co the Indian people she met: elY'

139

llitl lvl li•1d ' o\11• ll ll•tr . 11 111 11 11 • l11 rmt 'lt ill olh o\ lt N i ll II ,

whu '"" ' lll:t 11 Nti VI IJI I' ', 11 1 tlu• ' i l lllll lll i l'll t ' ~i l uu olf l il lli tll Allll l' li t•

At k 10yd ltud 1tl ll 'ttd y IH•t tllllt ' 1 ypi n tl ol iltt• lid d ~ lt i 11 l11d 111 wl11 '" ' 1 li t• Nt' IINt'

of mol'll l NliJ K' I' IOI' i I y il'if{/~ t' l't•d by S\1( II iNN I H:H II ~ d 11 ••~ WII M II I lil t i ii I t'it ' JII ~' IIi in reinforcing in europeans in India a cenni111y of ilu•il' t'lf{ hd i.d posil'ion rt S

the ruling race . T his is clear in the langungc of her notebook: having

critically quoted other Europeans' use of the word 'native', she ltsed

markedly more derogatory terms herself - 'uncivilised' and 'savage ' - in describing Mr Bose and Mrs Sen.

If Annette Ackroyd had expected to find instant solidarity with Indian

women, this encounter certainly disappointed her. In addition she objected

to what she perceived as an untenable inequality between Mr and Mrs Sen.

In her eyes, Mrs Sen was not a suitable wife for the leader of the Brahmo

Somaj or for a man who had advocated the rights of Indian women, not

merely because of her appearance but because she was unable to speak

English. For this, she blamed Sen and perceived him as a hypocrite,

although there was no evidence for this. Sen advocated education for

women and his wife was indeed attending school. There was nothing here

which could not have been predicted from Sen's English lectures on the

position of Indian women and the need for their education.

Aside from encountering attitudes which shocked her, Annette Ackroyd

also found the practical tasks of renting a school building and finding staff

extremely difficult. Many of her diary entries are brusque, irritated reports

of abortive meetings with prospective landlords and of seeing premises

which, because of their state of repair seemed entirely unsuitable to her.

Her diaries suggest a frustration brought about by an expectation that

things should be just as they would be in London. Despite a busy social

life, she felt isolated. In January r873, she wrote: 'I do not know where to

begin! or how to begin, and long for several impossibilities in the shape of help and womanly help.'

She failed to develop any close relationships with Indian women, though

she stayed for nearly a year with Mrs Ghose, and mentioned a number of

other middle-class Indian women whom she visited. As far as other white

women were concerned, she felt alienated from the Government House

crowd - the wives and daughters of Civil Servants and army officers -finding them conservative and unsympathetic.

There was certainly no possibility of friendship with any of the mission

women in Calcutta. They disapproved of her project and made sure that she

140

l uo •A· Uu "\ 1\ roi l 111 ·1, ~ l t [j tlti l!;tl " "' ' 1l11 l ~o t d lu·r n oll ll t•ol flit hy 11 11

\it t[llo_illl , o\ 1 1 ~~ :loo h l· "' ltti l tt ld l ii' i jll!iil tl l ill tll 1 ' tt li ll tll itlJI IN 11()1 ()Ill'

11 ii •N l111 1 IHII Ill •t iVI • ll til l f'l 11 ollllt il ll f llll t l ~ l11 11 "'" ' Willi I', ' I k·urn from

l lo d 111 ~il lli 'l ll illtl llttll l 'll ll ilittl ,, tt ll u lt ll tt ii Y l1o iol l ll 't ' ll it•ll inM his cousin that

111 11 ••IHto l WII M HIIIIIH 111 lti id " till tlu• H IIIN liilul!•ls.'

Wltilt• i111• 111 iH" IIli llll WH fllllll tl lil lt t•t Ni l too l wou l<.l provide roo little

pltllilltl 1 !'lit ltinH, il iC I'I' WII N 1 t' il it IN Ill on dte other hand from Indian men,

wl111 qll t'SI ioned 1lw wisdom of' 11ny inrcrvcntion by European women into

iltr llvt•s of' Indian women. In her notebook of March r873 Annette

At la oyd rmnscribcd two letters which had recently been printed in The 111tlia11 /)ttily News, an Indian-language paper, which announced their

upposirion to her school. One of them read:

It is a grievous mistake that our people have fallen into, when they think that our social condition will . be improved by our women pursuing instruction according to the customs of European society. We have seen that t he wives of all the Europeans that live here are utterly shameless. Where women cast off their modesty and associate with men, that which princi­pally constitutes female virtue is destroyed.

Though many of the British administrators may have seen no contradic­

tion between a policy of cultural non-intervention and the propagation of

European-style education, these letters expressed the views of those who

did. They also posed a challenge to the arguably naive view of those like

Sen who hoped that English women could teach without 'importing

English customs'. To these writers, in terms of their very life-style,

European women were clearly unsuitable as sources of guidance or author­

ity. The author of this letter had begun by saying that though he believed

her to be a 'holy woman', Annette Ackroyd's unmarried state was contrary

to religious law. The second correspondent also made a pointed mention of

Mary Carpenter's marital status:

At the present time, many are earnestly making efforts to improve the condition ofHindoo females. Are our women really so degraded that there is no other object to which compassion may be extended?

A short time ago, Miss Carpenter, an English unmarried lady, came to Calcutta for this purpose, and the present lady has come to promote their improvement as the former did . .

141

Wl1111 lo q iiiiVIIIH IIf 111 ll lndllll ''''""' i 1o111 I WOl tlllll f W l1111 dot~H Hill • I, IIIIW ot 11111 NIH 1111 111 ~ 11111 " 111111 11111 V' llllltll ~ l1111dd

be rea ll y clcvn t ~·d hy IH·r ll lNIII II tloll!l( Stil l! 111111 • j i!I VI 1l11• WilY lot 11i1•

destruction of Olll' socicly .

It is possible that these letters were intended as D1 L1 Ch as an attack on Sen

as on Annette Ackroyd's school. Her first six months in Calcutta coincided

with a period of crisis in the Brahmo Somaj, in which Annette Ackroyd,

having come to Calcutta at Sen's invitation, was inevitably entangled . It is hard to tell from her papers what was the exact nature of the crisis within

the Brahmo Somaj but it led to the breakdown of relations between

Annette Ackroyd and Sen. She had begun to express criticism of Sen soon

after her arrival, partly, as we have seen, because of her experience of

meeting his wife whom she considered to be shockingly repressed. From

then on, she had little positive to say about him. She was antagonistic to

his politics, his religious views and what she perceived to be his morality.

When she first arrived, she had considered going into partnership with

Sen, forming a new school which would amalgamate with the school which

Sen already ran. But she soon dismissed the idea. After sitting in on a class

taught by Sen she was also critical of his teaching method, as she wrote

early in 1873:

The girls were mostly listless and inattentive. Mr Sen went on talking for a long time, but I must confess I was sadly disappointed. He never looked to see if the class attended, and the whole affair was pointless and diffuse.

As for his religious views, she was outraged by his evangelical style of

delivering sermons and by his belief in the Fall, which was anathema to

her. Before long she could only view his actions and involvements with a

critical and suspicious eye. She decided that he was corrupt - citing his

part-ownership of a newspaper which supported him. She even suspected

that he had made dishonest claims for expenses on his trip to England.

The antipathy was clearly mutual. In June 1873, after only three

months, Sen resigned from the management comm~ttee of her school.

Nevertheless, she retained significant support among Indians in Calcutta.

In reply to the critical letters in The Indian Daily News a letter of support

appeared with twenty-three signatures.

Almost a year of difficulties and delays passed between Ackroyd's arrival

142

1tl1 lull ltl hl Iii I tilllllltl 1ll!f1 Hd lllj " I !

lil l'l'li ll ltillill ll v• 1'111111 • i11 N11' 1111l ''' dl l\ ll!ifl tlllj \ I dIll IIIIi If lid jllll \' 1.; ii! i j Iii\ tllllli" !! p •l'! i j' j Ill '"' Ill I . , IIIII !I A ,,. , Ill'

flllllll•l ,d ttlll ft ll 1111111 i ~ l\t .I 'VII dt (l i i! it~li!iil i llilf l' llllll i llld Wllllllll , 111 11~ 1 ol

!111111 I lid IIIII ~, l i hldl dllll tilllllll iliiliHIIII ill jl til II VI I I I ,I IIII I A lllilllht•i Il l

till '"' Wt ' lt ' pt ' lllttllld iJ lt · nd ~t 111 A1111i'l 11.1 I'" ' '' 'NN IIItlld pt•uplt· w i HIIJI wlu• lllllllittlli 1d Ill'"' ' dltiiii'N Atilltllll I WfllfY Il l " " llllll lt• 111 WIIill y Nld Hit lip

tltliiM tlt l' lit tNt tt l htl ~ t ·d Nut ltiiHd lttd ltllt Assot 11111011 prov 1dt•d 11 N\ hnh•t

hlp l 111 wu· t~l rl in tl w Nl lttl ol ,\' m t• lllot llil , nnd M111·y Ci li' JWllt ~' J' I W t'SO t Htll jllllVIdt•d tWO 'widows' S(. holll t'Sil ips' Il l .i:lj O II lll011th .

A t•IOIIJ.I those whose nnmc:s appc:ared in bo th rhc: mon thly li nd tlw 0111'

ttll rHthsnipt ions to chc school was Henry Beveridge. Annet te: lwd IWtO it ll'

111 qullit u ed wirh hirn through a relative, whom she had got ro know dt,f'in;

tl•t' voyage OLit . lie started co write to her after their first tnt·c: tin j.l 111

( :n i t utta and his many letters fi ll out the partial picture of evcnt:s whidt Clill

lw 1-\ lc:aned from Annette Ackroyd's diary and notebook. His atciwd~·s 1dso

pi'OviJe a revealing counterpoint to hers. llcnry Beveridge had been serving in the Indian Civil Service in HenHt d

since 1857. Like Annette, he was a liberal, though of a Jess orthodox t hllracter as he was also an agnostic. His son and biographer SLiggcsts 1 h 11 1

hi s political attitudes made him unpopular with his superiors and hindct•t•d his advancement. His letters to Annette certainly reveal a critical acti tud t• 10 British rule. In an early letter written in the midst of her confli cts wit h

Sen in March r873, he adopted a position sympathetic to those who wet'''

·riticizing her:

Every European in India is more or less in a false position. The longer you stay in this country the more you will feel that at heart the natives fear and dislike us and that they look with suspicion on all our schemes even when they really are for their benefit. You will feel too that their dislike and distrust of us are reasonable and that it will be long before they are removed or even mitigated .... I am not writing to discourage you and I hope chat you will not think I am taking a despondent view of your enterprise. J believe that you will do good and are undoubtedly on the right track.

Beveridge offered her advice and support. He made inquiries among his

acquaintances on the merits of a boarding or day school and, coming out in

favour of the former, he told her that he believed the prospects of boarders

143

Wf! ll t ftllllt J lll /lt ' ll1 1l td l11 ~ II JI/111~ 11 •d illtll -Ill_! J11itt It 'd 'i ltt~ lj' tllltl 1.!111 llll l tiJH 'd

lu•r• Ill fl y Ill lllldt•tHitlllllllrHIII 'IIjH 'I I II I' IIJW II P••qdt tllld tl 11 lr ,-I IIIItH'.

L11 t t: t' in • H 1 ~ lw Nll f\J.\('N 1 l'd 11 I'N Oll t il lt 11 It 111 wI t h •"~ • ' " ' I lt1111 y 1, t•N h tr h is a good man, ' he wr·occ, 'bLit f'he leader· 01'11 p11 r1y IN 1tl wttyr1 to some extent' i1·s

slave.' FL1rther than that, he gllest ioned th!.! j)Oii t k ttl implications of the alliances she was making in Calcu t ta:

May I venture to say that there is a danger in your being too much identified with the anglicised Bengalees .. . . I have nothing to say against Mr and

Mrs Ghose, who were kind to me, but I do not believe that they represent the best section of young Bengal or that Bengal will eventually follow in the track that they are going.

But Annette seemed to have been unresponsive to his advice. In her

frequent letters home to her sister, dominated at this point by her

enthusiasm about Fanny's engagement, she made no reference to Bever­

idge's substantial correspondence. When she eventually mentioned him in

early 1874, after a year in which he had been writing regularly to her, it

was, though complimentary, in quite impersonal terms: 'He seems to have an unusually earnest good character . . . '

They met rarely as he was stationed six days' journey away from

Calcutta. But he came to stay in the city the following February and after

meeting on a number of occasions he proposed to her. His letters showed

that he was aware that this may have seemed hasty but that he was so sure of

his feelings for her that it was foolish to delay . Civil Service life in India was

inflexible; he was now on furlough and would be visiting England later in

the year and did not want to miss this rare opportunity for her to

accompany him if she accepted his offer of marriage.

At first she turned him down, but in the face of a barrage of love letters,

which included a lengthy discussion of John Stuart Mill's views on

marriage, she conceded. After she had agreed to marry him, he sent her a

number of letters daily, setting out in disarming detail his feelings for her

and his high hopes for the marriage. Henry's courtship of Annette showed

him to have progressive views on sexual politics. In one letter he wrote

about his fear that he 'never could aspire to be the husband of a young lady

who wrote that she was going to read Mill's Autobiography as a holiday treat.'40

By the time of the engagement Annette's school had been open for gearly

144

I kt lnii[l ' '" ' ilu liii Jl lt •N- 11111 dt tll iltlll

1 ~ ~~~ l lltd 11111111 '•'11 Jllll' l lri . lltll

I'II II IPM II 'VI'Itlt •dilll ll ll rlll .. •i ,,, lti!IIHIIY i ll{ ~. NIH' WI'Oil' ilt' I'()S$

li Vt t lllyM ' t~lll t tl t l l 111/11 '1 11111 1 1 ~ tlu11 Wtl'l 111 1 111111 ltlit' IIVI ' JII tiHII'J.4C.' Alter

'' 1hr Pt 1 d11y lu t•II L lti!l 'r l11 tltt • 1111111111 ''" ' l'll lt y r•t•!id : 'St.:hool, most of the

il H 11 0 1 1'1'1 111 11111 1-1 .' I >oHplf t' wtitl tt ft 111 It' ll /-\ I II fo her sister of her fondness

lttt 11 pltl'ill uh11· pupi l, NIH· lound fi~t · }{ tl'isl n gcnc,.aJ d ifficul t to understand:

I 'IIIII ol'tl'n i' Ltzzled as t'O whether chey do like me or not . ... There are not !Itt• Nl•lllc l i~ h ts and shades in brown as in white faces and they are not so t•usi ly understood by strangers .4 1

After two and a half years in India she still experienced a profound sense

of difference between black and white people and felt alienated from her

fnd illll surroundings - an approach which contrasted with Henry Bever­

idge's . In her notebook she made frequent reference to what she perceived

ns the squalor around her - the 'dirty courts, offensive smells', untidy

children - which, had one been observing in Victorian England, she would

have read as products of ignorance and ill-breeding. She continued to react

unsympathetically to evidence of cultural difference - for example, regard­

ing one pupil's vegetarianism as a whim. On one occasion she wrote to

Fanny that a number of girls had refused to eat their lunch because a

sweeper had been in the kitchen - a breach of caste rules. Her attitude was

disdainful, treating their behaviour as attention-seeking, though she made

sure that a breach of this sort did not happen again. However, there were

problems with both staff and pupils, which suggest that there was

dissatisfaction on both sides:

FEB 27THI28TH:

A good deal of worry in school through the rudeness and disobedience of one or two girls.

APRIL 13TH:

All the servants absented themselves in the evening .

Her disillusion is plain from her diary. She wrote: 'As for the widespread

desire for the education of women - it does not exist.'42 It appears that by

March 1875 when Henry Beveridge proposed to her, Annette Ackroyd had

already made up her mind to give up the school. In a letter to her on 5

145

Afidl , !111 till)' l11l tt ll 11 1111 Wt d.l i ll jl, ll otil\ illitld ili ,- 11 llllotl~illj4 l h ttd t l poolwt l.tllll ' looh1 y 'yo tt lutvt • wtl y illtll t ipotlt ol \'IIIII ltilolhlo ol olo11olllllll ' hy 11

Ill () I)( it Ol' (WI) ,'

Annette Ackroyd uuribllt cd til t· lni h11't' ol l11 •t N< lt no l lt•ss 10 d w hdw­viour of the girls than co che att itudes of lnd in n t il~' II . As ht:r son wrocc years later:

[This} early experience of where women stood in Indian society had a profound effect on Annette's mind. She did not as a result sympathise any

more with what she had described as the Anglo-Indian attitude of most of her English sisters. Bur she began to feel less in sympathy with the generality of Indian men. 43

Ever since she had first arrived in Calcutta, her difficult relationship

with Sen had been the focus for this antagonism, which soon became a

distaste for Indian men in general. Her account of an open-air political

meeting 'of quite the lowest classes in the Bengalee quarter', which was

addressed by Sen, led her to make the following observations:

I do not think there were three women amongst the crowd, and certainly I was the only lady. In consequence of the infrequent appearance of a woman the people looked at me with profound amazement, and for the first time I realised how uncivilised are their notions about women. I read it in their eyes, not so much in the eyes of those who looked impertinently at me, for this is an expression not unknown to civilisation! as in the blank wonder with which most scrutinised me. 44

The absence of women (or rather of ladies) was proof to her, not that Sen

and the Brahmo Somaj were right to place such emphasis on educating

females, but that Indian culture was hopelessly backward. This was

evidently a decisive moment for her as she surveyed the men around her,

completely ill at ease in the face of their undisguised curiosity. It is

interesting that she was less bothered by the plainly sexual attention than

by what she interpreted as a vacant stare. Taking on the role of the

ethnographer, she made her own mental notes of the men's physical characteristics:

Many of the men were fine looking fellows. There were three very distinct types among them - the keen delicate featured . . . the heavy, thick-

146

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doj\llllltlft

1! 1111111 j HI llltlt/ifoi tllld lliill l

io t1 II

''"

Anw tlt ' A1lt11Vtl "'i 1t ~ tHif illllll 11 dup ltit•t tllltl' 111W111tiN lw lhlftlttt '"'" " l

tillit " ' " ' WtVI ' tlfilllt l lflltl li fll'l'-1111 ltlt 'oltll tl li lll t III II "YIIIj ll llll ytt llllilllll '"

Ill lit • Wl il1 llld ll lll W1 11111 ' 11 1 l 1111 Mill Wt l ~ III II Vi tlll 'tl ll ll il ilt t•y Wl ' t l' VII I IIII ~ 111

,, lwtH ol t' IIHIIIvt ' liil ' lll wid t h IIIII INit 111l t• Hl't ' llll 'd pow t • dt·N~I 111 dt Ntllj ll

Ht•ll d l tt j{ h t•l' puhl11 Nl ttlt' ttlt ' ttl tt}{tiiiiNI IIH• llht•ot 1\ 111 in 1 HH ~ it is t lt'll t 1lt11 1

•noi hl'l dt•nldt· i n l11din, tiS tit ~· wdt• o l' :t w lwlin l udmin is lt'i liiH , ll1td onl y

ll tttdt•nt •d IH·r· vi ews:

111 this discuss ion us in most 'i l y a quescion de femmes' und in !111

di N~· u ssion rhe ignorant and neglected women ol India ri se up ll,iill inst tl1 t•l •

t·nslnvcment in evidence aga inst their masters. They cescify to chc just it t' ol 1 hc resentment which Englishwomen fee l at Mr llberc 's proposal tO suhjt•t 1

t ivi l ised women to the jurisdiction of men who have done li tt le or notlt i " tl 10 redeem the women of their own race, and whose social ideas nrc ~ ri II on 1 he outer verges of civilisation. 46

The rhetoric of slavery and civilization are by now familiar co us. A ~ I

poi need out at the beginniRg of this essay, Annette Ackroyd ass u mcd tl1111

the bonds between women ought to be stronger than those of class and t'iit t' i

llnd thus she brought in Indian women as witnesses tO supporr lt t·r

objection. She clearly believed that they were more likely to feel oppt·cssc:d

by male dominance in their own culture than by the system of Bri cish n tl "

represented by this piece of colonial legislation . 47 In this instance sh"

showed herself to have accepted the dominant ideology of imperial ism : chnt

it was only through contact with Western civilization that the 'natives' had

any chance of being delivered from their own tyrannical cusroms .

Josephine Butler and the Pride of Womanhood

The fact that an articulate and well-placed Englishwoman set herself up as

an opponent of reform might be enough for many people to dismiss her as a white supremacist. But to overlook Annette Ackroyd on these grounds

would be to lose an opportunity to learn more about the histOry or feminism as a social and political movement, and its uneven relationship co

147

pnt·tdlt•l NIIIIHH I"" ''il• 'lltNt dtllttillittllltl l •1' r l''' tlltd t t~~t; lilt ~ t ill\' 11ii Nt'

llll lOJlliO t' lllh lt• \lll l!N I IOIIN fl1111 lil t' JII MI I I ~ 11 '11 V1llll l llliJ tllilll ~ lll l111it1y II~ il wy

were in Vicw.-ia n 1 i ~tK·s : lot· <.'XI IIt tp lt•, wh''' dtlt 'N H ""'' '" wlw11 11 wltitt'

feminist aligns herself on her own re •·ms w lf It hh11 k WO III t.' ll 11,411i llsl bl11cl<

m en? The legacies of the same colonial period COlli i nue co haun t the way

women might answer this question now, echoing similar patterns of

alliance, opposition or conflict in response to certain situations.

Annette Ackroyd's stand on the Ilbert Bill does not necessarily tell us

whether she was justified in her claim to speak on behalf all Eng lish

women, although there were undoubtedly many who were against Indians

having any more power on any grounds . While it was generally acknow­

ledged by Anglo-Indian society that Indian women were oppressed by their

men, there is not a great deal of evidence to suggest that British women in

India were moved to feel any sense of connection to them as women'.

Annette Ackroyd, in this respect, was different because she identified her

own feminism with the attempts of Indian women to reform the institu­

tions that oppressed them - even though it was an identity based on her

own terms. Both her claim to speak for Indian women, and her despair at

ever seeing any change in Indian society, must be seen as part of a complex

process of communication between women in Britain and In-dia.

As a way of starting to explore this historical relationship I want to

examine in more detail precisely what British women felt they shared with

women in ot~er parts of the world, particularly in India, during the last

two decades of the nineteenth century. This period also saw intense

struggles over the meaning of the concept 'womanhood' - struggles which

need to be examined as part of the 'ideological cluster' of imperialism. As

feminists began to make a more concerted challenge to oppressive laws and

institutions from the r85os onwards, the forces of opposition laid even

more stress on the virtues of supposedly traditional womanhood. In their

essay, 'The Englishwoman', Pat Thane and Jane Mackay describe different

nationalist images of women during the period r88o to 1920, arguing that

the image of the ideal Englishwoman - or indeed any woman - was based

on essentially domestic and maternal qualities. However, although the

category of womanhood was generally thought to transcend race , class or

culture, Englishwomen often found that they were being compared with

women of other nationalities, not always favourably:

. Englishwomen, it seemed, had difficulty in living up ro that ideal. Not

148

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111 l111 tlu fltolol

111111 II 111 111111 I

1'111 • dt Vt 1lll jll llt Ill til II 11111\1 ~ 111 , II IJWI I'l l 1111 '11111 '' "'' Wil li It ' ll Wl 'll ' (jill II'

ll ljltd tlt• 111 dt•lllllll fl !1 11 II IIWI I t_illotl it it1M1 1111111 ~ 1111l y 111 V11 t!ll i. llllt ' lliliii NIII ,

l'lli l ip1111 I.I'Villl' wti ii'M i1 1111 ft •lltilliNIM Ill tl li N Jll ' lltll l lllll' l'il 'd fl 11• Nlfl llil l

1111111' ol NI'X, II I,J dillt ' l'l' ll ll ' WltJi t• Ill til l' ril lllll ' lllllt' ll' jt'II III J-1 1111' 11111';.101111

whi t It llt ttl t· po l it it ~ t't'Nt' l vt•d lw tli t''" · "1 Si ntil ~t l'l y, O liw l\1111kN point ll tllll

ilutl lt \I IIIY ft ' ll1i ni s ts slwrcd wi th thd t· oppont• ttl S 11 sc n s~· of WO II H'It '

I'"Nt'lll iu l qunli1 1<.-s, 11 point whi ch rhey ofccn used in the it· ow n dd~·n c c•, h111

thi s is noc to Sltggesc, ol course, thnc the feminists ~ t ccepted th t tlltt litlillttd

vil·w of women as they found it. lo the hands of even che most const•• VII I IV<'

of' them the cult of domes~i c ity became transformed into the idcn l ollt•tot ll lt•

superiority , and the doctr ine of separate spheres into the atcem pt <.:d lpvuNiil ll

of' chc masculine world not simply by women but, potentiall y cvt·n 11 \lll t'

revolutionary in its impact, by womanly values. 50

Whi le there were many women at tempting to win reform throug h 11 11111

r'l tCio nal argument, there were others who promoted these 'womnn ly vil li II ' '

of g reater sensitivi ty , spiri t ual purity and general goodness :ts ll m t'I IIIN 111

·hanging soc iety from within. At the turn of the century , chc Wl' il<'l' t•nd

·mupaigner Ellice H opkins wrote a book called The Power of Wollltl 11/Jrllifl,• 111

Mothers and Sons. A book for parents and those in loco parentis which conrni1H'tl 11

hap ter entitled 'Imperial Aspects'. I t illustrates perfectly how 1\1·1 1 iMit

women were able to turn their supposedly innate fem inine qlla licics in to 11

force for power in a world increasingly occupied by their fellow-coLtntrynWII ,

The great British Empire, the greatest civilizing , order-sprcndin /"1,

christianizing world power ever known, can only be saved by a solemn

league and covenant of her women to bring back simplicity of li fe, plidn

living, high thinking, reverence for marriage, chivalrous respect for nil

womanhood, and a high standard of purity for men and women ali ke. ' '

The argument put forward by Ellice Hopkins was simple: m orali ty WI IN

the basis of all great civilizations, and the way that women were treated w:1.

an index of a nation's racial purity and strength:

149

AIIIIIHIIII)' ll •o tl llt 'M II ~ t lhtl il11 WI I Ioiii o111ol 11 q • !! 10 i] i 1\ ll •! ll li iil ' olotoilldtll ol hy llWIIIi r! III HI'N 1 111!d tli oll It IN il tl ' jlllll Ioiii'- till l olo (:. llioll 10 1- JIII t t lo l' il

W() tll <.; ll 11 11d J.l ll lll'd il ll' lll jl'lil t iiiMiy it W II dl'iilltllllil 111!11 oll l t i ll • IIIIIJI Ii ,

prolilic, ascendant r·nccs, t ill' nobltst int ypt•, tl lf ' t li iiMt t' tllii ii i!IJI In jlJO/{ t t•ss,

and the most fmitfLt l in propagating rhcm~~· l vcN.

It was now British women's responsibility to lead the crusade for res toring

a sense of morality to the world. This extract appeared in 1900 in an

edition of The Storm Bell, a small journal edited by Josephine Butler,

another prominent Victorian woman. In her accompanying review of the

book, Josephine Butler extended her thanks to Ellice Hopkins for putting

these thoughts so clearly- 'thoughts which have been pressing heavily on

the minds of a multitude of true British women, whose jealously [sic} for

the honour of their dear mother country has never lessened their sympathy

for the womanhood of the whole world, and the ardour of their zeal that

justice should be done to them, - to the women of every race and colour.'

These words need to be considered in the context of the moral purity

movement inspired by the campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts,

which had brought about new alliances between men and women of all

classes, and had given a new edge to notions of women's traditional moral

qualities. The Acts also provided an example of policies being enacted

simultaneously within Bri tain and India_ and highlighted the connections

and differences between women in both countries. State regulation of

prostitutes was largely the result of imperialist foreign policies which

required the maintenance of huge armies both at home and in the occupied

countries. It may also have been the case that the experience of state

governments in India in controlling the movement of prostitutes at the

beginning of the nineteenth century influenced government legislation in

Britain later on. The fullest analysis of this movement in Britain appears in

Judith Walkowitz's Prostitution and Victorian Society in which she argues that

an initially radical campaign for the repeal of the Acts was superseded by a

reactionary movement for 'social purity', whose aims contradicted those of

the original organization. 52 An account of the parallel campaigns in India

is found in Race, Sex and Class under the Raj by Kenneth Ballhatchet, which

provides valuable information about India in this period but makes no links with feminist campaigns in Britain. 53

In Britain the first Contagious Diseases Act was passed in r864. It

received comparatively little attention among civilians, partly as it was

150

lilititt :d lo i joiiiYi.J!itjl it!l til!' -;l!lli.lllll!li·liiliH! ' It l ji!!Filltlll ' Ill ' jU!t lli!

tlliilltll\ oltjt!tl " itt ~IJI III! ~fil !lilj\lJiiltltHH! lf t-ltiiii l Il l• jtlllloiltlllll ll lllli od

.l hi• ' • ' ~' tlltlllltl 11111 tt' !illj1~ Wti• !!l•l !H W1 li!! l ilw lttoto lnpltlo \ 11! 1111 ti lt ttl

IIHIIIIII lllt•l •u tl.ll! I I III ilt i' t t itilrllt " '1

11 liot! ll ttlllljlll od lllll l !ll! j il lll lo y tl11 lltty!ll t ll ttiittl u lttlttllt tl11 l l•hdil111l tluJ ~\ till\' 111 t lh I• w lti• l t .It lll tltto ll d 11t111 """" tiilltllt lu t•d 111 . '!111 . 'LI"''' • rw•lliittll y 111 ll t•d 1111 1111 t'lll i 111

1111111111 ' lt1HJII 1lll1111 Il l 1111' 111 1) 11 11~ II Wtl~ """ "" 11111111111 lilld Mt•ll 11 ' ~ 1 11'1 1 It

lti "IIII III 'Hilt'titlit• d ill t11 il l l ivi11~ lll tll l iii ii iiH Ill 1111 '11 Nl lilllllll 'd td11 1111d ,

j tl iilltt dii tl y ill!· hot't•dott llll ti' I IIHII y tiild lilt' li ' l l'ih lc• Sl ll li t tll y conditlllll

Ht ~ J.I IIiltl ion o l p1·os t itiii< ~N WIIN i l ii•tl'itH't' pntpost·d ns 11 t't' ll ll'dy , ' l' li t .~ Nil

1;tllt •tl li tll tlltllit:l l' iiln l ljl j)I'OIIt il was h t1ckt•d up hy snu isti ts s howttiJ.I !l tr •

III J\ IIlt\ t: pidt• tnk s of vl' tH.'rcu l disease among tt·oops in lndi t• wht·n· hu 11 l

1•tlntinistmtions had been experiment ing with d i(fere nt 'solu tio tls' lw ovt• t

ldty ymt·s. 'J'wo 1nore Aces were passed in •866and 186<) , bot h t•x ft'ntlllt)

1 ht• powers of the fi rst. Pub I ic opposi cion surfaced in che early 1870S when coal it ions oln t~ ddll ·

1 lttss Nonconform ists, fem inists and rad ical working men chall t·nHt'd tilt '

Aus as immoral and unconst itu tional. In 1869]osephi ne Burl<.:•·, idt't'l ldy 11

we ll -known social campaigner, helped co found the Ladi<:s Nat iw11tl

Association (LNA) which denounced the Acts as blatant exam pits ol 1 l11%

and sex discrimination, not only depriving poor women of their dg iHs l1111

also sanctioning double standards of morality. During the next l(:w yt'IIHI,

{(; minists were drawn for the first time into campaig ns which chnlk·tHll'd

che police, Parliament, medical and military establishments .

Meanwhile in India the first national Contagious Diseases Act Wl l

passed in r868 . Drafted along the same lines as the British Jcg islrLt iolt , it

called for compulsory registration of brothels and prostitutes, peri od it·itl

medical examinations and compulsory treatment of 'diseased ' pros rirut't ,,,

It differed from the law in Britain in that it made it compulsory for wonH' It

to register, while in Britain action could only be taken after the police l11 td

been passed information about a particular woman. As in all the British colonies, the administrators were in a posicion to

carry out policies that were not necessarily approved by Parliament , but

which it rarely opposed. The system of lock hospitals for VD suspec ts wns

widely used in India and it was accepted almost everywhere that it should

be the women not the soldiers who were detained for treatment. In the state

of Madras, hospitals for 'diseased' women were first established at the end

of the seventeenth century, and in r8os the governor appointed spec i~tl

151

plllit t' Ill dt •td wl ilt JIIIINiiiiiii 'M tlllil itt l lliljttl "' lllllfll Ill tllltqtl ii NII t

tll t'di n d t'XII tlliiiHiilliiN, ' l'lu• J.lllV!' IIIIIII ' III ill l lltltillll I 11d11 1111'd 1ltiH wi t II SOme hes itation , fiSki n,4 lot• tii OI't' d i' l ttilt •d ~ I till - l it II tlllll IIINIIII J.IN. ' I'll"

statistics showed that the nu rnbct· of llttt'OIWII II Moltl it •tN N t d k• t• i n t~ li·om VI had more than doubled since the lock hospita ls lwd hecn sec up . llowcvct·,

closing the hospitals only aroused protests from the military.

This was to be a pattern in India throughout the nineteenth century: the

military was only concerned with maintaining an efficient and 'healthy '

army, composed of single, young, working-class men who enjoyed

'natural' appetites for sex. They faced a moral opposition, both in India and

in Britain, which either refused to accept the legalization of prostitution at

all, or objected to the blatancy with which it was institutionalized. Some

suggested that the troops should be allowed to marry, comparing their

promiscuous behaviour with the orderly and disciplined lives of the Indian

soldiers who lived with their families in the barracks . But the prevailing

theory was that unmarried men made better soldiers. Apart from this,

opponents of marriage claimed that the cost of maintaining thousands of

British women would have been prohibitive, and would have enormous

and undesirable consequences on the social lives of both settlers and

colonized .

W hile the arguments over the regulation of prostitution and its alterna­

tives continued, the epidemics ofVD in India reached crisis proportions in

1868. The Royal Commission on the Sanitary State of the Army in India

was set up to prepare legislation, and the result _was the Indian Contagious

Diseases Act of 1868. This sparked off a great deal of opposition, both in

India and back in Britain . The Nonconformists were the most vocal in their

condemnation, arguing that it sanctioned prostitution, but the Act's

supporters in India claimed that being a 'courtesan' was a respected

profession there. The opposition from Indians was also extremely vocal;

many people saw the Act as yet another extension of police powers which

affected whole communities.

However, the reform movement in India was still overshadowed by the

campaign against the British Contagious Diseases Acts, although the law

was suspended in Calcutta and Bombay during the 187os, mainly for

financial reasons. By 1886, when the Act was abolished in Britain,

reformers in Britain were free to turn their attention to India. The

questions asked in the House of Commons by the opponents of the Act

proved highly em"barrassing to the government, partly because it became

152

t it ' 'I il11t1 llu tldlitllll' illlilH•IIih.a iii 111d l>~ ·· i 1r· tillt\'11111 11111 1"11"'"" "'''' I t I IW.IIi Ill Ill tlttlll ttlliitl i"l lTf• ll l llt ,l til 1111\ l lj ti iiiNililltl l>l •lt•gilt iW IN

,.,, .• 111111111 tllllldl titttllllltll 11111111 llltll llt ltlll ttllltl ' l llllljlM ttnd ol lh"

Wll ltttll wh11 Wttt tllttlll ij lltl tll ·t ll !ty i\ llt t.! llyl' t, 11 li't ll litiJ.\ Q uaker

ttlllll lltl/ \111 '11

Wt 'lll 1111 tllll ' til llii !NI' IIII N" IIIIIN Ill tHH/, I'C pot·ci ng in his

J111tlllll l, 'l 'hrSrl!lll!l rl , IIHtl 1111 '11 ' WtiH clt•t tl t•vlcl t• lltt' thnL prosciwtes had been

Hlllll'd l1y Nold lt•t'N tllld tl 11 tt til l ' NYM i l ' ill ol <.: limp fo llowers developed over

tltt• Yi'III'N l' ll lOUrllgL'd til l' lll'il ish soldict·s co despise Indians. Although his

111 ~ 1 di Nplltdu:s nl'fccccd pltbli c op inion , chis bad very little impact on the

111 ln tl11 is I I'l l t ion of chc Acts in lnd ia. A new crisis for the government arose

wht 'll l l documcnc , known as 'The Infamous Memorandum' was published

11 tlw Eng lish press. According to a biography of Josephine Butler, the

tim umcnt was reported to have been sent by the quarter master general in

lndin ro officers commanding troops there, saying that there had been

l omplaints about the quality and quantity of the women supplied for the

tmops. lt ordered an improvement in both, suggesting that if the matron

in charge of a brothel could not do better she should be replaced . After

much denying and disowning it was finally established that the document

was authentic, and the Indian government was immediately ordered to

abolish all regulation of prostitution. 54 It was clear, though, that the

mi litary authorities in India were intent on making their own arrange­

ments , and the abolitionists were forced to counterattack. The campaign

for reform decided that a new delegation should be sent out, this time

onsisting of women who would be able to visit the prostitutes and hear

their side of the story. In 1891, two American women who had heard about

the campaign volunteered to travel to India to present a report. Mrs

Elizabeth Andrews and Dr Kate Bushnell, both members of the World's

Women's Christian Temperance Union- the first international women's

organization- had professional qualifications for the job, since one was a

doctor and the other the wife of a Methodist minister. From December 1891 until the warmer weather of the following year,

the two women visited first the military encampments, which yielded little

new information, and then, after learning enough of the language, the

areas nearby where the prostitutes were housed. They found that many of

the women were young widows who had been sold off by families who

could not afford to keep them. They lived in premises provided by the army

and were paid a regular but minute amount of money by the 'town

magistrate' for their services. They were forced to submit to regular

1 53

t 'lUIIIIIil llt IW11111d Wilt ' 11iVt' ll tl t l. t•t" '"''""-"'1 wd ll)' tiH; ill Ill\ ' ~ ''' H''" II 111

"!rtify thci t• SUitt' ol h t•i tl ill , ' l'ht• I WO Wll lll l' ll ti t II )lltin ~ ~~ ~~~ dl ~l 111-'l ' ll 'd 11 11 11

the women were uudcr the IIU iiiO«' it y ol 11 11 11 l1ilt Wll ll ll lll , t'HIIt•d 11

'Moldaharni ', whose duty it was co bt·ing in ll t'W ;{ I ti N w l l t' ll 1 h ~· Sttpply wn s

down , for which she received three rupees a head .

The delegates' report was met with the usual den ials and attempts co

cover up the activities of the military authorities, but enough of the t ru th

was established to embarrass the British government further. Dr Bushnell

and her partner returned to England to publicize their findings through

endless lectures, articles and, eventually, a book called The Queen's

Daughters in India. In r895 the abolitionists claimed victory of a sort when

the government of India was forced to order the closing down of all brothels

within cantonments and to end all compulsory medical examination.

Within a year, however, the army's medical officers were reporting

enormous increases in venereal disease, which was hardly surprising since

they had also shut down many hospitals and treatment centres on the

ground that they were useless without compulsion. Statistics were also

used to demonstrate that the troops returning from India were infecting

the population in Britain and, encouraged by the return of a Conservative

government, the lobby in favour of the domestic CD Acts quickly

reasserted itself.

Josephine Butler, who by this time was approaching her seventies, was

again at the forefront of the campaign for abolition. Her writing and

editing throws much light on the relationship of women across Victorian

barriers of both class and race during this period, because of both what she

challenged and what she fought for. Although her personal life and her

involvement in the campaign for abolition of the CD Acts has been deale

with elsewhere, her international work has attracted less attention.

Josephine Butler's attitude towards Indian women is best explored

through her well-documented belief in a universal sisterhood and the

primacy of gender over class. An essay by Nancy Boyd, which otherwise

makes no reference to India, rather curiously describes her as a British

brahmin who chose to associate herself with outcasts who were like the

'garbage sweepers of Hindu society'. 55 In her writing, Josephine Butler

frequently challenged the idea that prostitutes had no souls and therefore

deserved no rights, and consistently asserted that women who were

prostitutes were as good as any other. Nancy Boyd illustrates how Butler's

154

Josephine Butler (r828- r9o6), taken in 190

work with middle-class women consisted largely in showing chclfl 1 lw

importance of the spiritual bonds that existed between all women:

Womanhood is solidaire. We cannot successfuly elevate the standard o public opinion in the matter of justice to woman, and of equality of all in ir truest sense, if we are content that a practical, hideous, calcu lnccd , manufactured and legally maintained portion of womanhood is allowed tO

go on before the eyes of all. 'Remember them that are in bonds, as bcinR bound with them'. Even if we lack the sympathy which makes us feel ch•· chains which bind our enslaved sisters are pressing on us also, we caonO" escape the fact that we are one womanhood, who cannot be wholly and trul y

free . 56

In a discussion of Josephine Butler's ideas about women's claims to

equality with men, Jenny Uglow cites Judith Walkowitz in pointing ouc

that although she approached prostitutes as sisters, she was also capable or presenting her campaign as one in which 'mothers' would save 'daughters' :

155

lltllh 1 N olr II 1111 ilfllllll l ll tl 111111l "''"'' I 'H IItll_dl il~_rVIL£'. l!f illo I ·If ~tdol·lt llll IIII I NIIJII ' I NI'i iiii/I Jiil ll lt ii l ltii l illllillllll)• II iltl\'1 llll!!lift ll, !1111 1.111111 1 !Itt 11~ 11 1 IO W illi OJ HC'X lHd Ill I I'HN IO I it t• d t lll~ l il t' I H Ill till ~ 1' '1 4\ ' Jliitlr I •ollliltll111 1d 1111

tuthoriry o't' liHiollsl tl j! ht· lwt•t•o lh t• oldc• t lodddl l' · t l l i ~N Wlltlll ' ll 11 11d Y"'' ''fl working women thn.t , n l c h O tr J.~ h cul'in14 1111d Pllllt 't t lvt', WIIN lt iNo hlt•ll ll't'hku l and custodial. 5"

I would also argue that Josephine Butler carried these contradictory

views of women into her international work, and that she saw Indian

women as being potentially egual to all women in their role as the moral

guardians of society, while at the same time being victims of laws and

practices from which only their spiritual mothers, British women, could

free them. Unlike Annette Ackroyd, however, she attributed their oppres­

sion to the behaviour of British men as much as to Indian culture. In 1898,

several years after Dr Bushnell and Elizabeth Andrews had returned from

their visit to India, Josephine Butler expressed this view when she reported

a meeting at which they had 'pleaded' for the 'Queen's daughters in India'.

The imagery that she employed to endorse the delegates' analysis reads

today as an appalling example of Victorian racism, informed by a desperate desire to publicize the oppression of Indian women:

Mrs Andrews spoke of the Queen's daughters in India, the poor Indian

women sacrificed by our rulers to the base theory of the necessity of sinful

indulgence for our army in India, as being ground between the 'upper and

the nether millstone;' on the one hand the native Indian laws and customs

which oppress and degrade their women - the child marriages, child

widowhood, the condition of the widow as a despised outcast etc; and on the

other hand, the foul and heavy-handed injustice exercised towards them by

the English authorities in India (backed by the English Home Government)

in entrapping and enslaving them, oppressing and tormenting them, and

doing them to death under their unlawful system of officially regulated fornication.

They are indeed between the upper and nether millstone, helpless, voiceless, hopeless. Their helplessness appeals to the heart, somewhat in the

same way in which the helplessness and suffering of a dumb animal does, under the knife of the vivisector.

We have heard of the meekness and patience of dogs, (the dearest and

noblest of beasts), under the inhuman tortures of the great vivisector; even of

their licking the hand which held the scalpel, in a mute appeal for pity. It is

I 56

tli•ll rllllltillll I I

111 tl11 ~ ~~~ !111 II rltilllilllil

lillill , \4•1111 ,,

lnit!i!\1 111111 111111 ph II Jllijllt •UIII'NN

il I I IIIII JU •t ll! 1 ( .I IIIII Ill IIIII 111 '1111 H ill

IIIII "' ,, l f'~lll llill 1 111 IIUiii ii iH fi H' II' 11 . 1 I d I .. I tdi tll I ill!

ltltllll 111111 N, \li lt II It 111 II ~ \llt l\ I• Ill til II'' I lu 111111111 rllilllililll JtlliiiH 1 1"1 ltllj'l •1 WI Ju•JI1 V! ' 1 lt 1 1 ~, Ill NO tl lC instances

tl11 lttll' ll lli~' lll 1!, d l111 IIH ilt ll l llloiY lu•, nl 11 I ltv lilt' powct' nhove al l earch's

tllll ' lt y, whit it 1111ty lw I'X I'III Nt•d 11 11 lu•l11ill ol til l· to t'turt.: cl .

' 1'l11 • M tiii YI S11 i111 N 11 1 th t• sll tl\ t' or Oil the I'II Ck, however terrible their

N t tll t• t ' l ii ~H, Wt'l't· t' llllhl1•d to l'i Sl' t•hovu 1 hum, an ti even co rejoice and sing in

till • nlidNt oJ I hd 1• l lll J.~ Ui S h,

HonH·whcrc, hal( woy between the Martyr Saints and the tortured 'friend

llilllil n' rhc noble dog , stand , it seems to me, these pitiful Indian women,

~ Id s, l'hild•·cn, as many of them are. They have not even the small power of

II 'S istnncc which the western women may have, under the tyranny of the

I'Xtt'utivc of this base system. The western woman may have some clearer

knowledge of a just and pitiful God to whom she may make her mute

•ppcaJ. She has occasionally perhaps the consciousness that among her

ountrymen and those outside this tyranny there are some who are pleading

her cause. This, I believe, has brought to some a faint hope, though it is no

rnore than a faint hope for the future rather than for the present . 58

It is hard to pass this extract by without discussing the metaphor of the

'd umb animal' but I shall return to it in my conclusion. I should note,

however, that it was used at a time when the campaign against vivisection

was becoming increasingly vocal in the political circles in which Josephine

Outler moved; Alfred Dyer, mentioned earlier, was an ardent opponent,

and his journal, The Sentinel, often carried information relating to the

inhumane treatment of animals. I find it significant that the image of the

animal under the vivisector's knife should have replaced the familiar

reference to slavery, and wonder how far it represents Josephine Butler's

determination to find a new and more powerful politically charged

language to express her views on the oppression of women, rather than

being a simple ellision of primitive native and docile animal.

The analogy of the millstone used by Bushnell and Andrews was very

complex, for on the one hand it conveyed very graphically the sense of

complete powerlessness which Josephine Butler attributed to Indian

women, while on the other it suggested they they suffered from a 'double

oppression' of being women under colonial rule. On both counts the

women were victims, unable to help themselves, but she also pointed out

157

dull 1Wt1II I IJI II1 Wllllllll lhlr ttld\' HI I -, li j ltt td \lt!tlitlj;tJ ill tllltt till)' llltild

dw11y N tll tlkt• 11 '11111l t'' tljlJH'Id 111 tltt•ll Mtquti iiP Utu l It i~ illtl ' lt '• tlll~ 111

0111p1 11'C il w lll li f.\ 1111/-i(' ol tilt ' llhOVI ' t'lt lhlll wi dt !111 Jli ll ll /-iii 'PII t!I IOit'd

earlier in this chaptet· wf'i 1r cn by Mt·s 1\ny lt• llt •ti llltdt tl tilt' Jillp,llthttlfllllilli'.t

Review in 1868 . ln t he earli er piece lndian wo uwn Wt'lt.' desc ribed as ' fi ll ing

(a position} which can only be contemplated wid1 feel ings of shame and sorrow', and British women were charged with the task of raising 'their

Eastern sisters to their own level'. In Josephine Butler's account of Bushnell

and Andrews's meeting, the shame and sorrow came not from Indian

women's position relative to their men so much as from their treatment by

British men. Leaving aside the language in which it was expressed, the

argument reflected the connections being made in India between the

incipient feminist movement and the nationalists, as well as demonstrating

the influence of the nationalists upon the campaign in Britain. Indian

nationalists such as the MP Dadabhai Naoroji were extremely vocal in the

campaign against the state regulation of brothels, since it proved beyond

measure that British rule was unjust. In r893 Josephine Butler reported a

meeting addressed by Naoroji at which he prophesied rebellion:

Mr Naoroji went on to show that, after all, the English Government was a foreign government to the native Indians, and the various rills of injustice and senses of injury were gradually accumulating and nourishing a turbulent spirit in the native breast, which would sooner or later bring it Nemesis upon the responsible British people and British Government . Mr Naoroji's closing words of warning were very solemn, and a tone of profound sorrowfulness in them must have touched man,y hearts . 59

Although Josephine Butler was herself highly critical of British rule in

India, she continued to hold on to her belief that the Empire represented an

opportunity for good in the world. Towards the end of her life she made the

following statement in a pamphlet published in 1900 about the Boer War

called Native Races and the War:

It is my deep conviction that Great Britain will in future be judged, condemned or justified, according to her treatment of those innumerable coloured races, heathen or partly Christianized, over whom her rule extends, or who, beyond the sphere of her rule, claim her sympathy and help as a Christian and civilising power to whom a great trust has been committed. 60

rs8

l_I11J1h· 1\ iillll! i ll j\i_ ltilf)•tl1

Wltii 'di ·ul·dllt-d 1! 11 I llllllltlltlll ll wl il1

ll!ill ltllilill j\ lii~ t i lltl iti11" 1 rll l;r.q;Jiltl ti llltiltl lu;lltjVt d littll ( ,Jiti NII IIIIIIY

1• tlu llll •tlll ll 1•1' y.• ltl1lt tlu t1 tld •1ilt tltl lu ~i t VI' tl Slit' Wll'l 11 dt·t.-·p ly

ti_; ll jtlttll - Wll llllltl wllttNt ltllilt l~ttd lu111 11 111 II JI IIII •tH•d hy l~t · t' ow n personal

~ ttllt . IIII H 1111 Wtll t l ~ !itlllltHII Wi iii i'IU III j\ tl11 • ltii Nt' IY of' the women and

t ltild11•11 tnvolvt•d ill psoNIIIIIIIIIII l.iLt• 111 ltt•t JH'O tnioenL Christian women

ll lltt •i dtty slu• r~ lt t llt 'd 11 viNtOII ol 1t SOt ll'IY which wou ld be like an extended

lttlldly lllldl't' dt l' l 'III'L' of tlw Jl11thcr in henven - a fam ily which respected

,., pntltl y lwt wt•t•n men ftnd wo tnen . llowever conservat ive this vision might

ttppt 'ill in it s :ttLempc co p reserve the idea of familial relations under a

pttll'itu•chal fi g ure, there was little compromise in Josephine Butler's

htllgtmge when she addressed the oppression of women, in Britain or

tnywhcre else. 'We are in times of battle', she wrote. 'We are living amidst

tit(• wnvulsions, a vision of Armageddon that heralds the end of the world.'

' l'lu·ough working with God to abolish injustice and oppression,

The groaning and travailing earth shall be released from her bondage, and the I'Od of the oppressor shall be broken! Fetters shall no longer be wrought

out of the intelligence and civilisation of one zone to entrap the unwary si mplicity and enslave the generations of another. The light of day will fall upon all the dark places of the earth, now full of the habitations of cruelty, and there shall come forth, at the call of the Deliverer, the thousands and

tens of thousands of the daughters of men now enslaved in all lands to

cruelty and lust .62

Loyal to Civilization

The contrast between these two women, Josephine Butler and Annette

Ackroyd, provides a useful indication of some of the ways in which

Victorian feminists in this period conceived of their relationship to non­

white women throughout the Empire . Obviously they worked in comple­

tely different fields and had very dissimilar approaches to their work, but

the differences serve to highlight a range of possible connections that were

made between British and Indian women. Annette Ackroyd and Josephine Butler shared several basic characteris-

tics. They both expressed their early political beliefs by working with or on

behalf of poor women in Britain: Annette was involved in the movement to

extend education to working-class women, while Josephine chose to defend

159

"" ''H' II • " ' Will I '"Ji ' l, lil ~- 11111- lilllfll~ I tt i Ill " illfj' [,ill li I"""'""''''" lilt• ldt•oiO/-IY of 'WIHIII ' II

1

N llri HH ill111 hy ltddt i'UIIIII i111 !i dlllldlilllfllllllli Wlll lll ' ll

by d11ss 11nd ~t· ndn. lloilr \'ll tt H' lr oot ld wr,d l,llrrll y lllll I ~ 11111111 I H 1tttd lutd

grown up wi ch an awnreness of the polilin tl ''' "II HiiH ttN nl tl tt· rH )Os und

1840s which had occupied cheir parents. Unlik(.• .Jost·phinc, who wHs born

into a well-off family, Annet te 's father was fr·o rn a working-class back­

ground. His political activity and belief in universal education was a

decisive influence on his daughters, particularly Annette . Josephine was

especially proud of her ami-slavery pedigree . Towards the end of her life, in

1900, she wrote: 'My father was one of the energetic promoters of the

Abolition of Slavery in the years before 1834, a friend of Clarkson and

Wilberforce. The horror of slavery in every form, and under whatever

name, which I have probably partly inherited, has been intensified as life

went on. '63

This was true of many other feminists in the nineteenth century. Philippa Levine describes how 'there were women within femi ­

nism who had learned their first political lessons at an early age. Many came

from politically active families or had married men with political careers'.

This is not to say that this was the main route into political activity for

women. 'Most came from more ordinary backgrounds, though sometimes

from families where religious nonconformity had perhaps promoted an early understanding of injustice and prejudice . '64

It is also likely that their family backgrounds contributed to their sense

of international solidarity which propelled them to work outside Britain

and to apply feminist principles to non-white, non-Christian women . In

any event, its own history had demonstrated that from the start nine­

teenth-century feminism was an international movement in which women

throughout Europe and America had received impetus and inspiration

from one another. Yet although feminism provided women with a poten­

tial understanding both of their common experience and their differences

across class and race as well as a new language of sisterhood, this

international solidarity did not guarantee that their motives were necess­

arily progressive or radical, particularly as the Empire expanded and the

numbers of British subjects grew. The very idea of a shared sisterhood was

dangerously close to the imperialist ideologies of a universal womanhood

which in theory also applied equally to women in all countries. However,

for imperialists the qualities shared by women could only be skin deep;

developing theories of racial difference and eugenics contradicted any

notion of equality or even similarity by claiming that the English were a

r6o

ltli ,, l ll lrHit l ilwli ltiiqllt u iiiJ .• 1 lur

1'111 IIIII- I Vlt lllil llll -, 4·1to. ill t) tit !})' 11 \lf! l ftllh· Il l Ioiii Ill 1111 J!ll11111• I11Jill 1

1111 1\ilil- li Will liillllillll)'t lij ltl1111ol' ol lll llljlllliiiJ1 1 /IIIVIIIIit% 111111

1lvlll il1 11 ' toll I' ', !111 ' ol ,lll I IIII '• v li11111 ilu•y 1 llll'illlll•d Wf'll ' IJtillll 'lli ly llt lijiiiiiiJI II I HIIVI IIIIII}\ IIIIIIII VIII IIIU tllltiiNIIVt •N II,

'1'!11 • wtllltWI ol AntH'III ' At kmyd uw i.J wwphlnt• lltttlt•r· Nhnw 11 1 rl1 ltul

IIWIIII 'IIt 'NN ol ll ltit ri lind ( tillll l'ld ll111JI'(' II II Iiy 1 htll lhis WIIN NOI III'IIItll '

IIVI 'III lHIIIOWt'd 01' iOillrttdk i N l by thei r vit·ws Oil Olh t,.' r S llhj~·t, IS . .} Otll ' jlilillt '

llttflt•t mnd1.• it d c11r that her project hnd n() lhing w do wi i11 t•ido~tln

luiNI IIIn rdi}o\iO II o•· 'fo t·e ign CLdture' on her Indian pLrpi ls, hu1 slw Nl 'l ' llli 'd

111 lt•t•l vet·y deep ly chat Christian ity wou ld be che force !lull 11 l1 i1111tll' ly

IIVt'd the world . She did noc proselyci:t.e among Jndian wotfi{' tt tlllt •t fl y lwtH IISe she was not in a· posicion co do so, but she ex1wesst·d lwr owr1

nli flsio n nnd che aims of chc campaign in uncompromisi n~ l y l'l.' llj.\IIHI

""'J.~~Htge . TbaUs not co say chat she did nor support the demands ol Nt't td lli

ftomi niscs wherever they were, but she was hones t about lwt• OWit

lllotivacion.

T he difference between the two women's sense of their work in I1Hii11 tit Il l 1 heir attitudes to racism becomes clearer when we consider how 1 ltt•y

re lated to Indian women and the d ifferent emphasis they p laced 011 IIH J11'1 1

of 'womanhood' . For Annette Ackroyd, the links were made rht'Oll /-l h 11 11

awareness of shared oppression, demonstrated by Indian women's l:tt k ol

social and economic independence. She saw education as a majo1· too l in

helping them achieve more power in society, and greatly resented who1 ril11•

saw as the behaviour of Indian men in perpetuating women's low St'll lll, ,

Apart from her strong dislike of the British colonial eli te in India, IH' I

views on colonialism itself are less evident. Josephine Butler believed 1 h 11 1

women everywhere were united through suffering physical abuse at '"" hands of men, and that in India it was both British and Indian men who were responsible, although in different ways. However, she continued 10

maintain a strong sense of Britain's responsibility, as a 'christian lltld

civilizing power', to protect the weaker nations of the world. T his

weakness might be measured by a country's ability to resist the colon izin

impulse of the European nations; but it usually referred to a state ol'

economic and·cultural backwardness in relation to the capitalist , Chrisc ion

161

i'II WI' I II ltl 1111 ' IYI 'H ti l ilt ll lll'l llt llfll)l li-ltl\ i lli llli l l id f' ll h lllil '- Il l tl11 1H1

opposing ti H' III , ilu• lll't tltlll' lll ol Wll llll ' ll l_t\' tll tll '"'"" lu• ll 't tt l tl'l 1111

important ind<.:x ol' a socie ty 's pt'OJ.II't ~NN 1111 fli t' 1 lll lillll tl tll ll y srnk of civ ilization.

The complexity of these two women's views on I'll <.<.' lllld gender is Curther

underscored by the ways each responded to cultural difference. For Butler,

the way that Indian women behaved, dressed, talked and lived their lives

was almost irrelevant in the face of their outrageous oppression at the hands

of men. Nor did she ever visit India, although she was acquainted with

Indians in London. Ackroyd, on the other hand, left behind a detailed

record of her reaction to meeting and working with Indian women of

different ages and social classes. As we have seen from her diaries she had

obviously expected to feel immediate empathy with women in India but

felt repelled, initially at least, by customs that she did not understand or

approve of. Her failure to influence her pupils' behaviour must have been

an added incentive to giving up the school.

This comparison is certainly not meant to be conclusive, but rather a

vehicle for exploring some of the different and often contradictory ways

that feminists tried to comprehend the connections between domination by

gender and domination by race. They lived at a time when Britain was

struggling to maintain its economic and military position in the world, in

a culture obsessed with questions of nationhood, patriotism and race. As

potential mothers, women of all classes were affected to some degree by

imperialist ideology, as Anna Davin, whose classic study of motherhood

and Empire, which discusses the connections between social policy towards

women and racist ideologies, has shown. 66 And as another historian, Pat

Thane, has argued, 'Earlier in the century good mothering was proposed as

woman's contribution to stability within a rapidly changing British society

-a stable home was expected to produce secure, responsible citizens. Later,

its additional role was to help secure Britain's international position'. 67 But

it was not just as mothers that British women performed a central role in

maintaining the Empire: the ideology of white womanhood, structured by

class and race, embraced women in all their familial roles. Whether as

Mothers of the Empire or Britannia's Daughters, women were able to

symbolize the idea of moral strength that bound the great imperial family

together. In their name, men could defend that family in the same spirit as

they would defend their own wives, daughters or sisters if they were under

attack. Faced by this ideological burden, the writings of many feminists

!62

lihtli\ lt llf ll t' i\tiJ II-t)' tl i lll.lj il ~ i ; p lt l i !(l i\llili. t• ~ I itt Y tt liiii.l tllll t lli td II II NII II I Ill

tl••ll ill t llltt h 1 111 tl u lol t·•• tt l i ' litfdll] ' lit •\ lt liHIII t llttll l'll /1" 111 t llllll ~ll! fi lltlll lltii Y ''"''II•'- 111 l"ll ll t.lll it""" 11 11 wlt lt It tiH• ltll(lt' tt ll lt NI pmj <.:ct h I" 111 It ·d 1111 Ii i!( I (IIIII , l•11 1 111 ti t 11 11)1 1111 1111 y t x jiii 'HNI'd 11 lut k of p1111' i oci sm .

U1 tl11 y tll llid tllilll ' ll ' 111 11 11' 11 lt•tllllli NI jtllll t lpll'll , nml dft:c tivdy condone

,,,tiNI il ttd lllij tt ' i ltdi NI IHtlit lt •N wlll t lt ll tlf lfii! 'SNt'd the frt:cdom and indepen-

' !JIll I 11f tlllt t'l jlt'll(llt ', llo1 ''' '''' Y Wtllll t'll , tltc J.ICOWII Phi<:ll l CXI'CIIt of the Empire allowed them

ltii iPtll ll ti k11ow ltdHc of and conwcc with their 'sisters' in other lands. This

llllllll'tl ilttl' ly crcntcd che possibility of totally unequal and dependent

t~ • ltll l nn~ hips in which women from the 'Mother Country' helped to define

11 11 1 desuibc the conditions under which the colonized women lived, as

Wt 'II I•S the nature of those women themselves. Both the grotesque imagery

ol illl' suffering indian female, halfway between dog and saint, and the

'11 1'1 in portrait of women whose situation provoked shame and sorrow are

l'lllllllp lcs of ways in which British women have been instrumental in

11 •inl'orcing the image of'Oriental' or 'Eastern' women as passive, quiescent

vit1 ims of male power, whose subordination was sometimes connected

with , but always relative to, that of Western women. Some felt morally

obliged to help non-European women improve their lives and tO throw off

the shackles of male domination, which was generally seen as a direct result

of religions and customs they saw as heathen and marking a lack of

·ivilization. Feminism could thus be seen as part of the civilizing process,

nlong with English civil law, education and Christianity. Meanwhile at the

heart of that civilization feminists set themselves in opposition to the laws

and institutions that they disliked so much in their own society. The broad question I set out to address in this chapter concerned the

extent to which feminism offered an alternative view of popular imperia­

lism in this period. In my conclusion I find myself asking another question,

this time more specific. Was it possible to be a feminist and simultaneously

to have an alternative view of popular imperialism? The tensions and

contradictions involved in the politics of Annette Ackroyd and Josephine

Butler suggest that it was not yet possible to comprehend what feminism's

most effective response to different forms of imperialism should be, by

which I mean feminism's contribution co the downfall of Empire and the

liberation of colonized people. What was lacking was a vision of liberatory

politics that connected the struggle against masculinist ideology and

power with the struggle against racist domination in the colonies. Yet, in

163

llttlltt1

N iilltd)1 ll i ~ lt1 ~ 1 111·- '"'' III N I'Itlj\ llll tllllllllll ~t li! li ttilli ljlll tlillll II

li w 111 1'11 ol liw tt ' IIIIIIY , ti H•t t• wr t ~ '' MIJI IIIItolltll tlllilil w ru( lltlt l • lt WII IIH' II

who did cllcct ivdy suppol't l11d lt tn ,,. ,, 11 ni N11t tlltol w lt11 wrHt ' ttl tit• 111 N<'t' 1 hut

any demand for change in women's s tntus lwd to ht• ltllk t•d 111 1 ht· t' lilt't'Ain

nationalist movement. It was not until che isS ll l ' ol women's suiTrn1-1e hnd

transformed feminism in the Mother Country chat women there COlli

really begin to take part in the political emancipation of the colonies.

Notes

Patrick Brandinger, Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 183 0- 1914, Cornell University Press, Ithaca/London I988, p. I9 .

2 John M . Mackenzie, ed. , Imperialism and Popular Culture, Manchester University Press, Manchester I986, p. 3·

3 John M. Mackenzie, Propaganda and Empire, Manchester University Press, Man­chester I984, p. 2.

4 Brant linger, p. 35.

5 For a summary of nineteenth-century evolutionist arguments about sex roles see Janet Sayers, Biological Politics - Feminist and Anti-Feminist Perspectives, Tavistock Publica­tions, London/New York I982, ch . 3· (Also fn 38 in Part two).

6 Philippa Levine, Victorian Feminism, 1850-1900, Hutchinson, London I987 , p. 23.

7 Sen gave this invitation at a women's meeting of the Victorian Discussion Society, I

August I870. Sophia Dobson Collett ed., Keshub Chunder Sen's English Visits, Strahan, London I87I, pp. 474-5.

8 William Beveridge, India Called Them, London I947, p. 220. Annette Ackroyd's

son and biographer was Lord Beveridge, chairman of the Unemployment Insurance

Statutory Committee, I935-44, who produced the Beveridge Report, blueprint for the welfare state. India Called Them is an account of the lives of his parents.

9 Sophia Dobson Collett, An Historical Sketch of the Brahmo Somaj, Calcutta I940. See

also Sophia Dobson Collett, ed. , Keshub Chunder Sen's English Visits, and The Life and Letters of the Raja Rammohun Roy, London 1900.

IO Mary Carpenter, Last Days in England of Rajah Rammohun Roy, Calcutta 1915. II Ibid. , p . 77. I2 Ibid. , p. 87.

I3 See Lata Mani's discussion of sati and the influence of Rammohun Roy on

nineteenth-century debates on the position of women in India in 'Contentious Traditions:

The Debate on SATI in Colonial India', Cultural Critique, no. 7 , Fall I987, pp. rr9-56 . I4 Carpenter, p. Io6.

I 5 Ibid., pp. I03-4· I6 Ibid . ,p. I25 .

I7 Sophia Dobson Collett, ed., Keshub ChunderSen's English Visits, p. 199, I8 English Woman's journal, vol. IV, November I86o, p. qo.

19 A. ]. Hammerton, 'Feminism and Female Emigration r861-I886', in Martha

164

I II II ' ~1!11111111 , I lllldllll I ~JIIU,

i 111111 11 I It Ito I, l tt ll olilll 1 'J/IJ 1 ljlilllt•d In li l it \\'ll lthlll Ill ll11l11 II I 1111 ~ 11 11ol 1'1111/p l>odd , t·d~,

I II lilt , /II' Ill I I I j11111 I( 1 llolitl I, 'I '/11• Ul /)11111 11/ /\I 11dr111 / lrllllll/111/ ; \\" tiiMIIIII lli'liflln, 11rt iiii'C rmd tbe United

1Wr'l 1 I IIII I 1111111 , 1\.hii 1111111111 , 1.11111 11111 IIJII,, p, M1, Hl't' uiNo jt)nnnn Liddle and Rama

'"~ ill , /1,1/IHhlrll II/ I IIIMmiiiP/11 #I ( oP,I//m• ( ,' /,111 •IIIII ( .'till~ Ill 111!/lti' Zed Books/Kal i for Women,

IHIIol111iiNt •w ll••ll tl ">H<1 , pp . ~ ~~ 11 , l!ll111 l'tly , Ol'ip,/lltd / ,ui/OI' /rtl/11 1 ndl11, 1\ . M. Forsccr, cd ., Hogarth , London I986, pp.

'1 \, Jo 1/ , I huv1· 11 01 hctn nhlc co fond much evidence of writings by British women about

llllllolll wotoH'Il durinli 1 he lure cighcccnch and early nineteenth centuries.

1 Aititll• VIl li SoLnmco· nncl Sam uel M. Zwemer, Our Moslim Sisters (A cry of need from

/,11111111/ tltll'l.illl'fS ini011JI'Oted by tbose who heard it) , Fleming H. Revell, London and Edinburgh

1 'Ill/, p . .~, ~ . T houg h published a litcle later, the tone of the title and of the book itself

pluvldt•N 11 f.IOOd illustration of chis evangelism directed especially towards saving women,

o111d ol' INlnm exist ing in a state of darkness needing Western 'light'.

J• l /Jnp,lishwoman's Review, July I868, pp . 472-82, p . 482. ~ l!nglishwoman's Review, April I87·3, p. rr9.

!Jnf!.lishwoman's Review, April I87o, p . 87. ired in Christine Bolt, Victorian Attitudes to Race, Routledge & Kegan Paul,

l.tllldt>n/Toronto 197I, p . 159.

H Brantlinger, pp. 76--85 . J9 Brantlinger, pp. 82-3.

) 0 Geoffrey Moorhouse, India Britannica, Paladin, London I984, p. 96.

;1 1 Moorhouse, p . 96.

2 For example, in the last ten years of her life she worried her political advisers by her

:loscness to a Muslim servant, Abdul Karim, who worked at the palace and whom she

promoted co being her munshi (teacher) of Hindustani. This srory can be found in Rozina

Visram, Ayabs, Lascars and Princes, Pluto, London I986, pp . 3o-3. See also Michael

Alexander and Sushila Anand, Queen Victoria's Maharajah: Duleep Singh 1838- 93, Weiden­

fcld & Nicolson, London I98o.

33 Sophia Dobson Collen, ed ., Keshub Chunder Sen's English Visits, pp. 48I-2.

34 Ibid., p. 471. 35 Annette Ackroyd's diary, letters and notebook are all unpublished manuscripts

contained in the Annette and Henry Beveridge Collection in the Oriental and India Office of

the British Library (Mss.Eur. C. q6). Unless otherwise indicated, all extracts are from this

collection catalogued under A (correspondence between Henry and Annette Beveridge), B

(Annetce's diaries) and D (correspondence with others, including her sister, Fanny Mowett).

36 Notebook entry for 27 March I873· 37 Collett, Life and Letters of Raja Rammohun Roy, p. I30.

38 Englishwoman's Review, April I87I, p . 90.

39 'Race Prejudice in India', Daily News, 22 May I888, reprinted from Anti-Caste, vol.

r, no. 4, June I888. See Part 4 for a detailed discussion of Anti-Casle.

40 Letcer to Henry Beveridge, 21 March I875·

41 Letter to Fanny Mowatt, January I875·

r6s

I 'lcn l l11 l'oll 11.111 , /111 Mi , ~lrtltt/• 1 ,1 'fl,, II 11 )/ll, P· I (,,

U CIH·d In llt•vt•rh lflt ', 1111/111 1.',!1/rd 'l 'hr111 , p , Ill

44 Ibid . , p . !)0.

45 Notebook, 26 January dl7 J. 46 Cited in Beveridge, p. 220.

47 As a result of opposition co the Bi ll the vicc,·oy ~""t: lld t:d i 1 so char ll i•,.·y of ~ tt lc11NI

50 per cent Europeans would be required in any case where an Jndi an judge faced n Europcnn

in the dock.

48 Thane and Mackay, p. 191.

49 Levine, p. r8. 50 Olive Banks, Faces of Feminism: A Study of Feminism as a Social M ovement, Marr in

Robertson, Oxford 1981, p. 90. 51 Extracted in The Storm Bell, April 1900, p. 297. 52 Judith R . Walkowitz, Prostitution and Victorian Society: Women Class and the State,

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980 . 53 Kenneth Ballhatchet, Race, Sex and Class under the Raj: Imperial Attitudes and Policies ,

and their Critics, 1793- 1905, Weidenfeld and Nicolson , London 1980. 54 E. Moberly Bell, josephine Butler: A Biography, Constable, London, 1962, pp.

227- 8. 55 Nancy Boyd, Josephine Butler, Octavia Hill, Florence Nightingale: Three Victorian

Women Who Changed their World, Macmillan, London 1982, p. 75 .

56 Boyd, p. 76. 57 Jenny Uglow, 'Josephine Butler, from Sympathy to Theory (r8z6--r9o6)' , in Dale

Spender, ed., Feminist Theorists: Three Centuries of Women's Intellectual Traditions, The

Women's Press, London 1983, p. 158.

58 The Storm Bell, June 1898, p . 59· 59 The Dawn, no. 22, December 1893. 6o Josephine Butler Native Races and The War, London 1900 (Fawcett Library ,

London).

6r Diary, r January r873.

62 Boyd, p. 91. 63 Native Races and The War.

64 Levine, p. 21.

65 Brantlinger, p . 2 r.

66 Anna Davin, 'Imperialism and Motherhood', History Workshop Journal, 5 Spring

!978, pp. 9-65. 67 Pat Thane, 'Late Victorian Women', in T. R. Gourvish and Alan Day, eds, Later

Victorian Britain 1867-1900, Macmillan Education, London 1988, p. 183.

r66

!'til i I t'

ll '11111ll1 1lliil 11111111" ' ccll' i iiiHJIIo n 11! Wl1111 I 11 11111 i11111 y

Women of the Klu Klux Klan, North Carolina 1964-5

Ill! ~· i fl u Ii iii iill!ll iHi i it!•H I nii !!Wn l It iN Y, lh li i' li 111 11 11 1.1 ti ll ~ 1 111 1 111 1 111

l1l,u 1 l1111 111 11 11 11 "" li ll lt luJ "·• ••o ltt-11\' 111 11.1 lt lt 1 1 ~ 1 11 ' ' ' "' IIIIII H"'

11 11111 , 14·11 111 111111 111 11-.lll til l' 1 llfi '*'' l'""l" lil llil t rll lll ' l111 t l11 • il tllil •ry of

l•l111 I Wllltllll 11111 11 I ~ 11 '111 11 d IIII!Vi lll lll ll 11 11 11 wli l11 Wl ll ll l' ll ll'" " ' ' V!.: I' fee l

1•••-- 111 11 1111111 Y Nllll , 1 11 ;~ 11 111 l11 w, l111 11 l il111f, 11 11111 I lnlwt tll li lt t·ly fucts don'c i1 W1IVM M•i'"'"' w ith t iiii VI'IIil tlll , 1111d 1111 •11 , II il il ' Hll ill y ptd l· 11 1'e,; found out ,

!1 11 1 l d n ;~ IN t llli NII' III 'd 11 11 ll ll li ol;ll ' 111 !Iiiii ' 111 11 1 t ile wom an is practically

f11111 'd Ill )11 i 11 i ll il tll ll li fiii H tf 11 W II li lt' flll l l ll l' l' of' her Sh fl ffiC.

lda B . Wells, r 894 1

A vl t til pmj ~·n awttits any histo rian interested in exploring the social and

p11 llt lud dynnm ics or race, class and gender in nineteenth-century Britain:

l jldtt• Nimply, ro identify and describe the anti-colonial movement that was

itllllll'd in opposit ion to the rapacious growth of Empire. While there are

l' jlll mlc scud ics of anti-imperialist campaigns, organizations and indivi-

dtt lii N, I do not believe there has been a single work that attempts either to

do1 111 11Cil t or to analyse the ear'ly formation of anti-imperialism as a

1110v<:rncnt . It would be an enormous task as it would require a study of the

IIIIS<.'c nt nationalist groupings in the different colonies, their supporters in

Hn~ l and , Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and the network of various phil­

il llhropic organizations that campaigned at the heart of Empire. Yet a

sing le account would never be enough; the history of anti-imperialism

'WOll ld benefit from endless debate and reframing, from being scrutinized

from different points of view, and from being constantly referred back to

other social and political movements of that period. Just as the history of

abolitionism has both added to and been influenced by an understanding of

1'11e early women's rights movement, so a compendium of anti-imperialist

thought and practice would enrich current perceptions of nineteenth-

entury feminism.

Feminist history has credited individual women with expressing criti­

cism of Empire: women like Annie Besant, for example, who immersed

herself in the Indian nationalist movement, or Olive Schreiner, who wrote

about colonial relations in her native South Africa. It would be possible to

list many other extraordinary women whose names have arisen in the

context of particular struggles - women like Lady Florence Dixie and

Harriet Colenso, who each played a decisive role in negotiations between

the Zulu people and the British government , or Daisy Bates, who left her

husband and son in Australia to live with aborigines. Their individual

stories are always highly intriguing, and in most cases require far greater

169

lllliV lilllll 1 111~ ~ II !til lllt ' II IIIVtll Ill 1111111 llt f\'"1 Tt lit II !Ill I .1 11

1

"""' ' "

wgctht•r, ll11• ~·x t N IIII J.ItltiOi ttii N lltlltll 'dltttfl \ •11; ,;.1 't1 tlu tlt l'd lw 1111

anaJysisofth<:ro le tllll( WOilll' ll p l 11y~•d lllll11 1 iltllillt1JIIIi ttli NIIIIIIVI' IIi('lll111

late Victorian Britain - an analysis which n>II Nidt•IH, 111 tl11• Ni t lit ~· 1 i nH', 1 hd relationship to feminism.

There has been an enormous amount of usefu l feminist research on th"

different strands of feminism that competed with each other during the Ia '""

nineteenth century. In Faces of Feminism, Olive Banks has described the

development of different political agendas among feminists in Britain and

America, showing how, by the end of the nineteenth century they were

involved in 'contradictions between different definitions of feminism and

different and indeed opposing concepts of femininity'. 2 In this essay I want

to bring this interpretation to bear on a study of a particular episode in the

history of anti-imperialism . It centres on the formation of a political

grouping which came together in England to campaign against lynching in

America, and its relevance for this project of connecting race, class and

gender stems from three main sources. First, the campaign was initiated

and largely sustained by women; second, it was a product of collaboration

between white English women and a black American woman who galva­

nized the campaign with a coherent political analysis based on her own

research and experience; and finally , through addressing issues of sexuality

and femininity, the short-lived anti-lynching movement not only forced a

division between different kinds of feminism, but actually made possible a

radical politics that acknowledged the connection between the domination of black people and the subordination of women.

Lynch Law

'Lynching is a peculiarly American t;radition', wrote Manning Marable in

his book How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America. 3 The word is now

used so carelessly that its meaning has lost much of its association with

racial terror. It was first used to describe the system devised during the

American Revolution by a Quaker political leader called Charles Lynch to

curb criminal behaviour in a community which was two hundred miles

away from the nearest court of law. The accused man was given the

opportunity to defend himself, but if convicted, was sentenced to a

punishment deemed appropriate to the crime. This practice, started in a

1 70

tihll ttlllilll 11 lttt )til l ( htlllt •l

illllllflll \ I till I 1111111 til l' I'll" 11/ I ht•

11 ttllltt'l 111 llll tlil !111 1ltltll tl t'M I't lltton ol t h"

l1 Wt t ~ 11111 1111111 IWIIIIY yt 'lll iltilll 'l il11• t' llli ol tl~t• Civi l War char the

lillll.itl tt JIIiillll 'tl IHIHjll'ti H ht •ttlllll ' tl II II 'I III N of jlO JII /('a l administratiOn in

tl11 ~Hill tl1 , IIIII ' wlt11 It p1111 111 tl 111 ly ttl lt •t It'd hl 11d~ pcopl<.: . By the late 188os a

111 w /lt 'llt'l 'lltion ol hl tllkN 11 11d whites hud g rown up wiche>ut any direct

i'"' lft 'lit'llll ' ol s i i i V~' I' Y . Sou them so<. icry had seen enormous social and

111111111 1111 disi lll l').l t'Htion , and where ideas about black behaviour and

jio lllllt logy wac once governed by·the institution of slavery, they were now

tnl11 11111'd hy theor ies of race and biological difference. As the decade moved

fttllll prospcri ry co recession, racist diatribes on black criminality and

lu •M tHtlity carne co be accepted by whites as the observable truth, and in

1 Hilt) 1 her<.: began an orgy of lynching. From then on the practice became a

jll't ilk form of racial terror: the g.reat majority of those who were lynched

Ill f he years from 1882 tO 1930 were black: of the 4, 761 recorded deaths by

ly1Khing, I ,375 were of whites .4 In the period 1889-93, which saw an

1111p1·ecedenced number, 579 blacks and 260 whites were lynched- and

1 \'1 of the total 839 rook place outside the South. By the turn of the

tt' ntury, from 1899 to 1903, only 27 of the total543 recorded lynchings

were of whites.

The statistics themselves reveal nothing of what lynching actually

involved. W ith the tolerance, and usually the participation of the local

·stablishment, suspects were sometimes taken from gaols after their arrest;

at ocher times the mere rumour of a crime was enough to send out a lynch

mob in search of a victim and in such cases people were seized without any

;vidence whatsoever. Far from being a spontaneous act of revenge, a

lynching was frequently publicized a day or two in advance, sometimes

even beyond the area in which it was to take place. Public transport might

be organized for those wishing to watch and tickets were sold in advance.

The event itself often became a mass spectacle involving ritual torture­

usually castration - and execution, watched by thousands of people,

including children . Photographs and eyewitness accounts describe how

families flocked to witness lynchings and then fought to get a souvenir

from the victim's charred and dismembered remains. On one occasion a

gramophone record was said tO have been made of the victim's screams. 5

The event was usually written up in detail by the local press. 6

I7I

1'111 /;Ill i11111 du ltif; d ltiW 11111111 rtlli ' ill HIIHUft \\'i i1 11l1111 dlttfd)

tnvolvt•d l11 i111 1H jillll 111 I 'M llit 'l llll tl1111 will' II du 1 I uTili [11 '1"' .'" ll11 tlu • Itt it

t HHoN til t' l !' WIINII l iiiWII II OO ppONltiOii lt11111 Wltlli 111 - tlitltlilll ~ lllt i ii •Stll ltil ,

ln the North, wh i<.:h had h y then wi t h d t'•IWII II H tlltllp)'lll~ ll t'''' Y• l y tH l un

came to be seen as a natural 0 ~1 ccomc of abo I i tion ; It wus 1 It o u t~ II 1 itH..'v i 111 hie· that former slaves would wish tO take revenge on whi ccs, who wou ld feel

threatened by their liberty . It was also assumed that the crimes wh ich

precipitated lynchings were invariably of a sexual nature- in ocher words,

that black men were assaulting white women. It was this assumption that

made millions of people throughout the United States condone the

behaviour of the lynch mobs, either through silence or by voicing approval.

Lynching was certainly 'the ultimate of historical white justice and black

death'7 - and it was carried out in the name of defending the honour of

white women. Few thought to question this apparent justification, and to

relate the pattern of lynching tO the political and economic fate of black

Southerners after Reconstruction.

By 1892, when the number of lynchings reached a peak, the laws that

guaranteed black citizens legal and constitutional equality with whites had

been dismantled or overridden by state legislation in most of the Southern

states. Segregation was enforced on public transport, in places of entertain­

ment , hotels and schools, and voting rights were in the process of being

removed either by law or by intimidation of black voters at the polling

booths. The old anti-slavery movement had fallen apart after emancipa­

tion , and although there was a great deal of protest and opposition, this

made little impact on the federal government which had already sanctioned

these developments.

The British anti-slavery movement had also disintegrated, although

many former activists retained an interest in conditions in both the

Caribbean and America. However, it was in Britain that the first concerted

public campaign against lynching took place. 1893 saw a resurgence of

act ivity in support of African-Americans, inspired and largely maintained

by the efforts of a few British women who were determined to organize a

protest movement. Against a background of Empire mania in their own

country, these women, who came from different political and social

backgrounds, were briefly united in an alliance with black people across the

Atlantic. Their motivation came partly from the horror they felt when

reading about lynching; but it was their understanding of the role of white

women in justifying the practice that made their involvement so impor-

172

1 illl l'lti- ~~~~' '\' wi iii•OI'"' I ltUI IIIIIVi ll j\ 1111 Ill dl ~l ll

•ltitiiiHIIMtlillllii

huil d tif 'li iii(! IJttd; jlilllli.llii ilu1 iJ!IlliHIIiill,

iluJ tlllllltlllll . ~!lll_lltllliill IM iltlll 1111111 ' lip

uppmt ''"'" lh·lluht

111 1 tlq 1 tlw A 1111 l.y 111 Ill till, C01 111tllll <'t' wns se t up in London sponsored by

111 hupii'Kidvc• liNt of ~·ditors, pol it ic i11ns and public figures . 8

Its aim was

111 nlll tdn n· l il thk inl(>r macion on the subject of lynching and mob outrages 11 1\tilt't'itlt, w n111kc the faces known, and to give expression to public

ll ltlnlon in <:ond(.;l'fl nacion of such outrages in whatever way might best seem

tid! tdll t (.;d w nss isc the cause of humanity and civilization. 9

'l'lic· rata I ysc for this group of people was the young African-American

jtHII'IIH ii st, ida B. W ells, who had spent several months in 1893 and again

11 ilw fo ll owing year touring Britain in an attempt to draw attention to the

w11y blacks in the United States were being systematically denied the legal

JII NI icc and equality guaranteed them in the constitution. Ida. B. Wells's lecture tours were not particularly unusual, as an

1 ltcrcasing number Of African-Americans had visited Britain from the

1 H3os onwards to campaign against slavery and to raise money for black

pro jects. T he networks, both personal and organizational, which had

invited and received American abolitionists were still very much in

·xistence following the Civil War and many of the friendships that had

resulted were carried on by the younger generations on both sides. When

Frederick Douglass made his last visit to Britain in r886-87 it was

primarily to see his friends rather than to make new political contacts;

however, he was often called upon at social gatherings to make speeches

about the situation in pose-war America. 10 In the course of one of these

meetings in London he met Catherine Impey, who was ultimately to be

responsible for the anti-lynching campaign on the British side of the

Atlantic. They met again a few weeks later at the home of Helen Bright

Clark, daughter of the radical MP John Bright , who had met Douglass as a

child when he was befriended by her father. Catherine Impey described her

second meeting with Frederick Douglass in her diary:

During the evening . . Mr Douglass gave us a luminous half hour's address

17 3

1111 till JIH '"I'II I llllldiillllllli lli l 111hlllll d l'"l•lll·d i1111 !!I t\1111 Ill'' l ju til litH 111

tit <: n tstt· httll l<' l N II 1111 <' VI' I yw lll ' l! ' ltl111 l. 1 oltlll 11 \Iii}' 1 til' tl u I tilt pili 1111 ~ 11111 I, sysLcm, their opp t·cssion , 11 11d t hc i1 1111 111 illt< l tllll\' 111 !tllllltl tlit •toi Ht' lvt•

without the ballot of which Lhcy h11d hccn d t• pil vl d I •Y t lllf 'IPt'IHI'< 111 1011 1111d

the fraudulent manipulation of the ballot box. 11

Shortly after this encounter, in r888, Catherine Impey launched a

magazine called Anti-Caste which was 'devoted to the interests of the

coloured race'. She wrote a substantial part of it herself, but relied on

correspondents in America and different parts of the British Empire ro

supply her with first-hand information and newspaper cuttings about the

maltreatment of black people by white. When Frederick Douglass invited

her to visit his home in Washington, Catherine was overjoyed and three

years later, while in America on family business, spent several days with

him learning about the realities of life for black people after emancipa­

tion . 12 It was during the same trip that she arranged to meet Ida B. Wells,

whose outspoken condemnation of lynching had brought her to the

attention of Frederick Douglass.

Shortly after her return, Catherine Impey was sent a report of a lynching

in Alabama that had appeared in a local newspaper, complete with graphic

photograph. She published the picture on the front page of Anti-Caste with

a caption that drew attention to the children posing by the body of the

hanged man. 13 In doing so she was risking her own reputation, not so

much because of the explicit nature of the photograph, but because she was

raising the forbidden subject of rape, and even worse, defending the

perpetrators of a particularly terrible crime. It would have required very

strong convictions for a woman to have brought it to public attention

anyway, let alone as a white woman defending black men against charges of

assaulting her fellow white women. At that time the circulation of the

journal was small, but those who saw it were horrified. A r{ewspaper editor

in Liverpool criticized her strongly in his own paper, assuming that the

picture was a drawing and had been embellished by the artist . When,

however, he was told that it wa~ a photograph sent out by the lynchers

themselves, his disapproval of Catherine turned to outrage at what the

photograph depicted, and he became one of Catherine's most influential

supporters.

Only days after this edition of Anti-Caste was published, Catherine

Impey read an account of a lynching so sadistic that it had reached even the

174

ttl I hi: 1\Ji!i"l! jl!i

iol ···illt ltljiill/1 illld

Jlll ~llllltllf l11 ftH(I IIII)' bfltidiltlllff iilti 11i.tl jllt ' j ll ll olf lllll ~ Wfllllllli li' l ll httlll

lilttl tdl v• w111t till Itt! I 1111111111 111 tlu mtltllllt 11 '11 St lton lt lti ldt l' ll wcr"

i"fll 11 tl ,ty 'll l11tlldtty 1111d '' '""~ Ullllt 'd Jll'llp lt• lt OIII t il t surrollndin tllllfl lf\'• ldr Ill Wtlfl lt till' I'Vflll Wlt if il Wll~ l'lltl ll'd IIIII in broad daylight.

1111 ltu td PI' I"''" •lt:Ht l dwd 111 dt•ftt tl h ow IIH• JWISWH'I' was tortured with red­

Itt II IIIII tH lw I HillI N I wl 1111 ' il lt' llitlllt 'N Wt l't' cvCJitLHtll y I it; after it was over the

1111tl1 l o11~ ltl ovt· t' II It' IISht•s 1(1 1' so\lvcnirs in ch<: form of bones , buttons and

(1 '1'111

( ll li H't'illc lmpey WI'Ote che same day ro Frederick Douglass asking him

• t 11 ll tt 'tlttf'~' l(>r someone , preferably Ida. B. Wells, to come to Britain to help

ltdlttt'HtC public opinion and campaign against lynching from outside the

llllflt•d Swrcs . She was encouraged to do so by an acquaintance, Isabella

l 'yvk· Mayo, a Scottish widow whose own philanthropic tendencies had led

IH'I 10 cake in lodgers from different parts of the world. 14 Isabella Mayo's

ll 'llt 1 ion co the lynching question was at first cautious as, like most people,

lw assumed that there must have been evidence of some dreadful crime,

presumably of a sexual nature , to justify the revenge of the lynch mob.

C11 1 hcrine's account of her meeting with Ida B. Wells the previous year

1 ntrigued Mayo enough to want to meet the outspoken American woman,

tnd plans were immediately made for a speaking tour. Two months later,

i11 April r893 , Ida B. W ells disembarked at Liverpool and after a brief trip

tO Somerset to recover from the journey, the three women set to work in

Mayo's house in Aberdeen planning the tour.

Through Catherine l mpey's contacts in the newspaper world and her

membership of the Society of Friends, and through Mayo's Scottish

onnections, meetings and publicity were quickly arranged and Ida B.

Wells was accompanied on a rigorous circuit of engagements. A new

organization was set up, called the Society for the Recognition of the

Universal Brotherhood of Man (SRUBM), which declared itself

fundamentally opposed co the system of race separation by which the despised members of a community are cut off from the social, civil and religious life of their fellow man. It regards lynchings and other forms of brutal justice inflicted on the weaker communities of the world as having their root in race prejudice, which is directly fostered by the estrangement, and lack of sympathy consequent on race separation.

175

Ida B. Wells (r862-193r), taken c. r893

Years later, Ida B.Wells wrote down the details of her trips to Britain in

her autobiography, Crusade for Justice . She quoted numerous press reports

and the interviews she gave, in addition to comments on the places she

visited and the reactions of the people who met her. She also wrote regular

dispatches for the Chicago paper Inter-Ocean, becoming the first black '

176

I Wit; 1 illilllllll l t l111 ' !Ill\

lli)'itljllll lllt" ,\I! II ' iii

la:t itttt•~ w ltlh •lu \l'tl

I I II II

l111111 i11iriVi1 11 It Jl,, \ t ., li£itl l'll••·d tit\ ll •t llilllil Ill Ill I

Wd l, \111 11 I. JIJIW illlll t ill Jlitl l ll ~ lt I""''" '"' ,,, 1\1 tlltdtiiiiiiiMif iiii VI At "' "' l Vl l\'tltllljl I M1dd W1 t ~ lltiiVl 'd Ill ••lt•t illlll ~l i t till , l11tt I NIIW i1 11 11 t lll •l t

IIIII IIM t wu•lt iii 'IIHt• Wl11 11 I tllltltlunt '''""" tlu• lli 'l4 '11l ylllliltt )-IN 111 tit IIII I It WitH lt 'tttlvl'd wit h illlll'titd il)' It Wl l ~ IIPW Ill fl tl llll 1 iltl ti II Wy llltd ol IIIli

lu• II PVI' t hut h tlllllill IH•IrtJ4H Wt' ll ' lullrl\t'd , Hhol , 1111d Ill II lll'd In )H'IHtd tl.tyl!)-1 111 , I it t• 1111\il l llt lf liol'itii 'H tW JJI I' il lli i'N loold llfl 0 11 , , , , ' l ' h t~y lO\I Id 1101

l11•1i i1VI' I h111 I h t'll(' JI( 'IH WI' I'(' dOIH' 1 11 01 by NII YIIJ.\C N, J\01 hy r1 111 1lih11 JH w ho ill

lr•M t wo 11 ld ltrtvt· hr1d 1 h ~: tx~· , • st· ol' providinJ.I rhcrnsd vcs wirh NOIII CI hln11 111

,.,,, , !Hit by rwoplt· <:n ll i n ~o~ th<.:msdvcs Chriscinn , c: ivi li:wd Anwrl n1 11

I 1 1 1 ~( ' 1\ N , I ,

ldtt B. Well s had anci ci paced a sceptical react ion and carne we ll tii'J•H•d

wll II tv idence co Slrpporc her argument chac black people in ehe Soul h Wt' l!'

lu•lng syscernacically denied access co the same processes of law thn t wt•l'<'

IV Ili iiLble co whites. All her examples came from Southern ncwsptqH·r

1 <'po res, so that no one could accuse her of exaggerating che decai Is, nnd sl11•

l111d carefully recorded the circumstances of each incident to dcmonstl'l llt '

rlmt che lynch mobs were prepared to murder without a shred of evidco c~· ol

111y 'crime' committed.

Her audiences consisted 'of all classes, from the highest to che lowest' ns

she travelled round churches, social clubs, political and social l'(;(ornl

gatherings, and even drawing-room meetings requested by 'fashiomthlt·

Indies' . Like many of the African-American lecturers who had preceded ht l'

in the years before the Civil War, she was surprised to find that many whit't'

people in Britain, whatever their class background, were prepared co lw

receptive and sympathetic to her cause, in contrast to her experience nt

home. In the same interview in The Sun, Ida B. Wells was asked whcchcr

she encountered any race prejudice in Britain. According to the report sh"

replied 'enthusiastically':

No, it was like being born again in a new condition. Everywhere I was received on a perfect equality with the ladies who did so much for me and my cause. In fact, my color gave me some agreeable prominence which I might not otherwise have had. Fancy my feeling when in London I saw the Lady Mayoress taking a negro African Prince about at a garden party and evidently displaying him as the lion of the occasion.

I77

)... ..

1\ 1() ( Jf -p 1 lll tr I IJII I

lnl u•1 lllll ll i lilli{ l ll l'll Y ld11 II Wi•II II IIXI •II IIoh'ol 1111 I f !~" 111 Ioj1 o I , ol l '~t 1d tlll

her ttC.:quni lltlllltl' wtilt ( )J.IOIIIId ll S11 p 11111, 11 ~' "' '" I • All fl oll l 11 11 d l1 td Hll ll lt'JII

who volunceered whelp with tiH.' Ulnlpll l }-1 11 In 1 H•J 1 ll 1 111 11 I' viNil t'd 111 ' 1'11 1

her hotel in London, accompanied by six k·ll ow Nil 1d1'111 N, 11 lso fro"' Al'rku: 'Such excitement you never saw, and several of the res idents of the ho1cl

said that they had never seen that many black people in their lives before'. '6

Sapara entertained Ida with stories of how some of his patients, who had

never seen a black man, refused to let him touch them. But she was

convinced that this was nothing compared to the hatred and prejudice she

was accustomed to in America. Her enthusiasm, however, must be read as

an index of the racism in the South rather than of the lack of it in Britain,

where resident black people were all too aware of what Catherine Impey

called 'the dark spirit of Caste, which so often lurks hidden behind the

scenes'. 17

Ida B. Wells's Analysis

The press reports oflda B. Wells's lectures and interviews during both her

visits are witness to her remarkable ability to move her audiences to

condemn racism. She evidently spoke quietly, which many found impress­

ive, and was ready to draw on personal experience as well as presenting a

carefully argued analysis of the failure of the American legal system to

protect black people. Born into slavery in Mississippi in 1862, Ida grew up

in the early days of the post-emancipation South, receiving an unusually

comprehensive education in a college set up by the Freedmen's Aid.

However, by the time she was twenty-two years old she had already been

disillusioned of any ideals of equality for blacks under the law when she

became the first person to contest newly introduced legislation permitting

segregation on the railways. When she went to sit in the women's

compartment of a first-class carriage she was ordered by the guard tQ

remove herself to the smoking carriage. After a physical su;_uggle in which

she was virtually dragged out of the compartment, much to the delight of

the white passengers, she left the train with her ticket intact and returned

to Memphis to bring a suit against the railway company.

Her argument was that under the law, black people were permitted

separate but equal accommodation on the trains, and that as there had been

only one first-class carriage, she was entitled to sit in it. She won the first

178

dl otlllllj' Ill ltill'il l- 1111 ''" ''I 111 iiloi odll ll 1 lllll ill ll idd l ~ 1 1 11 l 111 ol Ali i_l fl

IJ!,, II . Wtl l ~ Wlllil" I l l l11 1 .ih!l I

lliiPi'"Y .tfll'' drol lw h·"J int•11ol• ol

I IIIII lillllllld io11i l1 Iii

I It II Nil d l ~ ll l'l'lllil lf ' d ' " 'IIII INI I i llld i lll f \1 d Nll l i l jl lf'lll il ii iiHN 1111 '"Y I"'""'" jll'lll ' i ll lf y , I li iiVI ' f1111il y i lfl fft Vl'd tl 111 1 Jl u• liiW WIIN 11 11 II III Nld1• 11111\ Wll llld ,

w l11 •1• WI ' ll jlfll'll li•d 10 It, HlVI' I!H )11 Hil1 I' 111'1'1 Hi1 11 111 of i11 111 hi•l lt•l ii ntlufl l'l'i y

•IINtlll ll ill{('d , 11 111 I jtiNI now , If It Wl' l'l ' poNN ihl t•, would w uiH' I' "'Y n u I' i n '''Y '"' '' ~ 11 11d fl y IIWIIY wliil dl t'll i. 1

'

llowt•vc r di Si tppoint cd Ida felc with the power of the lawn> pro t ~·( l hl ut I. lll 'opk in the So11th , she never lost her commitment co fl Ahting f(H' lt'J.I'd

Ji i N I• ~c . ll er polici es became more sharply focused when she abnndwwd lll't

l l ll ('{'r fi S a teacher and cook over as editOr of fll·ee Speech, a b lack IHlWNI'Ii iWI

lu Memphis . It was ac chis point in her life that she firsc cut·ncd ilt'l 111 en cion co lynching and its function in Southern society . ln h t' l' Iilii o

hio,qraphy she wrote that once she too had 'accepted the idea .. . II H•I

11 11 hough lynching was irregular and contrary to law and order, ullt't 'USO II

111 ,4 anger over the terrible crime of rape led tO the lynching; chat pcrhnp

1 he brute deserved death anyhow and the mob was justified in cnkin1-1 ht ,

life' . 20 When, however, one of her best friends was murdered in cold blood

with the sanction of the white establishment, she realized that chc lynt•h

l t~w was becoming a primary means of controlling black social 1111d

·ronomic life.

In her autobiography, Ida gives a detailed account of this incidcnt ,

which was to change her life dramatically. Three black businessmen,

Thomas Moss, Calvin MacDowell and Henry Stewart, were arrested nf1c•·

some white men were wounded in a street fight. Fearing more violence, the

black community organized a guard outside the gaol where they were held

for two nights. On the third night, a crowd of armed white men entered

the police prison, took the three prisoners out and shot them a mile oucsid'·

the town. One of the daily newspapers delayed its appearance in order co give full details of the lynching.

The men who died had opened a grocery shop in a crowded black

suburb, threatening the custom of a white grocer who had until then had a

monopoly in the neighbourhood. They were well known and liked in th

179

llllllllllllli l y II IIIIIII 'WM 111 111111 llllll oltl I tlli\t1 (1' 1\ i ( llllt1 ~1 ~ ~~ tll" l (, 1\ IIIIWtl

J.lllt il l' l'l'd Oll lti id t• ih t•ti 'N ii llp , fill' Pt•u plr'" I illllt ii Y i ' tllilj HIII )I, 11111111. tti HIIII

the inci<.lenr, but thet·e was no vio l(' ll{t'. ll uw1 Vl' t , w l1111 Wll ttl llilllt ' IH11k to

the courts that 'N egroes were mass ing ', wd t•ts Wt 'll ' }{IVt' IIIO tile shct·ifl 111

take a hundred men and 'shoot down on sig ht nny Negi'O who appears 10 lw

making trouble' . The white mob swarmed inro the grocery, destroy ing

what they could not eat or drink, while the black onlookers were forced t()

submit to all kinds of insult:s. A few days later the shop was closed by th"

creditors and the white grocer was able to continue his business without

competition.

It was reported in the newspaper that the last words of Thomas Moss, a

close friend of Ida B. Wells, who had pleaded with the murderers to spare

him for the sake of his wife and unborn child, were, 'Tell my people to go

West- there is no justice for them here.' Ida B. Wells's paper, Free Speech, urged people to take this advice, arguing that there was no protection for

black people in Memphis if they dared to compete in business with whites.

W ithin a few weeks there was a great exodus of black families from the

city. White business was practically at a standstill as it relied heavily on

black custom. Even the transport system was affected as people preferred to

walk in order to save their money for the journey west. When anxious

executives from the City Railway Company came to the offices of Free Speech

to ask them to use their influence, Ida B. Wells wrote up the interview

with them and urged readers to continue to keep their money for

themselves . She then travelled out west herself, spending three weeks in

Oklahoma reporting on the successes of the new settlers in order to

counteract the fabrications of white newspapers in Memphis, which were

now urging blacks to stay in the city . Immediately after this she accepted

an invitation to speak at a conference in Philadelphia, and from there she

intended to make a short trip to New York before returning to Memphis.

On her arrival in New York she was greeted by the news that the white

establishment in Memphis was out for her blood. Her paper had been

closed down and orders had been given to punish with death anyone who

tried to start it again. Her friends wrote to her warning her not even to

consider returning as there were white men watching every train ready to

kill her on sight . Ida knew that it was her support of the economic boycott

that had driven the white authorities to try and suppress her paper, but it

was the final editorial, published while she was in Philadelphia, that had

provoked the mob to destroy her offices and to attempt to lynch her as well.

r8o

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" ' lltltill l{ ht 'llill ~ l ' 111 11 ll 't ltlilll '-- Ill lu l it VI tl 1111 II Wll ~ II NJHIIII ill\1 '1111

11 11tl1111 ~ 1 llii i'VI ' II f\1' ll}l liiiiHI lthll l l'l lj li NIN 1111d l l t iltilll ll ii•N it ' IN, lti ll i lt 'fllllllll

i iiV I'NII /II IIt ' l t ' IHI II N ol lyiH iiiii}IH 11 11tl diNt IIVI ' ll' d 11t11 1 til t ' VI ' I y lil t idl ' lll Ill

v ld11i w lliit' Wlll tlt' li Wt' ll ' Nll ldlo l111w lwt ' II II NNIII d H·d , I IH' li11 I N IH1tl 11t lll ttll y

111'1 '11 d iMI 01'1 t•d Ill II ol l'l'Uif.\lil l i Oil . ' l'hc t'l' WliS Il l ll10S l Ill) t'vidt•r H (' I 0 Nl fl lJHI II

I Itt • IIIJ H' lli t•W'Y, !'XU: pl iiHll til en <.: h Case I here WIIS :1 whi I ~· WO II ll lll who l1111 l

lu 'J'ItiOIIIId 10 lmvc heen associat ing with a black m11n of he1· ow n lt•t•t• wi ll lullllt' t'XII tnp le, the sheriff's seventeen-year-old daugh ter wns ll'lltt•d 10 !Itt•

I ttl li II of one of het• fat her'S farm-hands, whO waS then lynched by I li t• 11 1111!

IIIIH'd t•r· l () salvage the young woman's reputat ion. T he press ··epOI'I('d 111.11

' 'l' l~t · hig burly bru te was lynched because he had raped the sevc n-yt'll l' old

thlt iJ.I hrc r of the sheriff.' ' l'hc final editorial of Free Speech was direc t in its denunciation ol tl u

nxn tnplc of the notorious Southern chivalry:

Eig ht Negroes lynched since last issue of Free Speech. Three were chno•gt:d

with ki lling white men and live with raping white women. N obody i11 1 hiN

section believes the old thread-bare lie t hat N egroes assaul t white wometi . If

Southern white men are not careful they will over-reach themse lves nnd 11

conclusion will be reached which will be very damaging tO the rnond

reputat ion of their women. 21

Following her exile to the North, Ida B. Wells expanded her theorct·icttl

observations, comparing the widespread rape and abuse of black wome11

and girls by white men under slavery with the savagery they showed

towards any white woman suspected of intimacy with a black man. She hnd

become convinced that the Southerner had not recovered from the shock or losing his slaves and of seeing free black men and women working fo t·

themselves and enjoying their constitutional rights to education , vot ing

and holding public office. The racism of the whites , constantly refined and

developed as the economy of the South went into a severe depression

following Reconstruction, invoked a hysterical fear of black male sexuality

r8 r

We

whll Ia nu~tll • titt y 1 !lltHIII l11 •1 Wtl« ''I ti t!! I li11lt•lill,l 1" lli!i ' "'' •111111111 '"'''il''' II ll bhtck t lliltl NO ltltl ( ltiiH lookt•d II w ldtl ' WU II hlll i11 flu 1'\'1 lu• tiNI.t•d I wi tt accused of lechery ()t' insolt:ll n:, 1111d 111 Hllllll ' tWU •M il li N WII N 1 1 ~ p,ood 11

committing an acwal assauJ c. As long llS w l d It' WW tH' tl W\'l't' s~·c n 1 o he I It t• property of white men, without power o.r ll vok'c or chcir ow n, l'lwit•

'protectors' could claim to be justified in taking revenge fo r any al leged

insult or attack on them. Whenever the reputation of white women was

'tainted' by the suggestion of immoral behaviour, it could always be saved

by the charge that they had been victims of black lust.

Lynching was a way of reinforcing white supremacy by rule of terror.

Black people had learned that any action that might cause annoyance tO

whites, however trivial , could provoke a violent reaction for which there

was no redress in law; and the most plausible justification for this kind of

violence was the prospect of the sexual assault of a white female by a black

male. The young black woman's instigation of an economic boycott had

been damaging enough to the white authorities in Memphis; her slur

against the white womanhood of the South, implied in her last editorial ,

made her own lynching an inevitability if she dared to return home.

Ida B. Wells's analysis of the economic and political t reatment of blacks

in the post-Reconstruction South was received cautiously in the North,

which prided itself on its comparative liberalism . The complacency which

followed from abolishing slavery had led to a general apathy on matters of

race while attitudes and behaviour towards black people had scarcely

changed. However, she had just begun to make a name for herself when she

was invited, through Frederick Douglass, to go to Britain in the hope of

gaining a more sympathetic hearing.

Brit ish Responses

In many ways, Ida B. Wells 's audiences outside America were more

shocked than those at home by her portrayal of Southern justice. The main

hostility that she encountered came from those who thought that the

British had no right to criticize Americans, especially over what appeared

to be a complicated internal issue oflaw and order. The Times expressed this

view in a scathing denunciation of the Anti-Lynching Committee, which

had written to the governor of Alabama asking him to verify certain reports

of lynching in that state. The Times had obtained a copy of the governor's

182

II

I filii I jlllllltl

littil'" ll 111 -ill.' lll t i M Willi

ltillill Ill

!Hili' iltr l'' 'i' \: 118

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tllt 1hllff lllllttlutlll Wt dl

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1' 1111 tl11 WI' MIIJII111Ni' tiHII i111t~ l Wi1111111 i t'- l'liliNIItlt• llll I li t• llllltlllllt lllll ' 1«'111'1

lt~t V•• iht• lt•tt NI HltNpltlllll ti llll It Wt t ~ lll cly tlllu• t l ' ll" '~ ' ' "'' ' cl liN 11 piC'II ' ol nlllcltllt ~ lttlj ll 'ti lllt 'HII ', lllltll lll}i wl tlt Nytllptll hy lot' tilt• l!lll t h t nlntplt•d 011

tlf'/1111 , tlu•y i lf•inty IW tlll tNtinii HIWNH ol til t• tttiiHtl lt ude ••nd dt' lii'IIIY ol' tiH

)llltltll •t•l l tl whl1 h tl11·y tll't• intt•tv t•nl np. . Wl· N)oould ll OI lw St•rprlst·d II' t lt t• A oil l.y111 lt ltiH Coll1n\ltl0{''s wcl l. mcn nl kncr mult iplicd rhc lllll lllw r ol

tii 'J.\ IIII 'H who urt• lwn~o~cd , shor , nnd burnt by l'arn(fin , nor on ly in Alnhu11111 ,

'"'' lhi'OIIJ.\ 111)11(' the Sourhcrn scnces. 'L'his WOldd be a birccr SC I'Okc or ii'Ony . lltll It is the litre which f•·equen cly attends a fnnn.rica l anxiety eo impose 01 11

IIW !I l'llllOilS of civi iiSflt ion upOn people differently circumstanced.

ln tltl ntt<.anpt co be humorous the edicorial paid almost as much lltCc n l'ion

10 tlu: g r·ammar of both letters as to the content, even to the exccnt ol

111\J.ICSti ng that the committee's secre tary, Florence Balgarn ic, wtts i 11

""11/{t' r of being 'lynched by a mob of enraged grammarians' . Jc guvc r;.,. IJ, I'l'lltcr space and weight co the governor's reply, and after proposi ng t hot tid~ was not the occasion co discuss lynching itself, went on co dis piny t ht·

vrry atti tudes that condoned it . W hile condemning it as a form or I' l l ('('

lwt red, since it was only blacks who were being lynched, the writet· l'h <: n

Il- l t compelled to point out:

, . although the negro , it must be acknowledged, does something co justify such differential treatment by the frequency and atroc ity of hi s

outrages on white women. That is a circumstance which ought to weigh

with Miss Balgarnie and the numerous ladies upon the Anti-Lynch.iog

Committee.

The Anti-Lynching Committee would not have been at all surprised by

th is reaction from The Times as it represented the most conservative sections

of the ruling class. However, the facetious tone and arrogant racism that lay behind it could not obscure the point that it was hypocritical to critici z"

other countries for their standards of behaviour when comparable atrocities

were being carried out nearer home. Just as pro-slavery agitators had

183

''"

rhtl 1111 'd tlu11 1 Il l' I I' ll rh l1• ••tlldillillt ~ i11 lltl lliiJt i tt'. I Ji ll llloltl • lt hdt-1'11111

WC I'C fi11· WOINt' tl ll llllftONI' IIII Itl lllll NitiVI ' pifllll tllll11 11 1 111 flit j tllll tiJI UIIl NIM ll f

American racism could poi111 m 1 h t• tt'\' llll tll ' lll til II Hill Y t~f l l t tl ttl 11 '11 r olonl1d

subjects. Thesavage rcpJ·cssionof'thc IH ') f lll't lti lltfl ltillllll ll , f(t t' t'XII Itl plt·,

was a case in point. British criticism or th(; h ll lld l i " tl of' ( ht.• ' t'IICC prohkm '

in the South must have seemed continuous with their condemnation of'

slavery in the decade before t he Civil War, and many resented both th"

interference and the tone of moral superiority that often accompanied it. In Britain it was indeed relatively easy to express horror at the way white

Americans turned illegal executions into mass spectacles, but this outrage

did not necessarily have the effect of challenging forms of racism that

existed within the country and throughout the colonies.

On the other hand, as far as commentators like The T imes were

concerned, those who defended black people in America might as well be

defending all blacks, whether in the Caribbean, India or Africa. By the late

nineteenth century, theories of so-called scientific racism had sought to

prove that all people with darker skin were biologically different from and

inferior to whites. Serious uprisings in the Caribbean and in India had

made these theories more attractive to those who supported the idea of the

British Empire, which by now had been extended throughout Africa,

Australia and the Indian subcontinent. Those who actively supported

organizations like the Anti-Lynching Committee or the Society for the

Recognition of the Universal Brotherhood of Man earned themselves the

epithet 'nigger philanthropists' among those who believed in white

supremacy. It was not surprising then that the anti-lynching campaign

launched by Ida B. Wells brought together individuals from different

backgrounds who were prepared to make connections between racism at

home and abroad, and who realized their own responsibility to challenge

it.

At the centre of this group of people, including the 'numerous ladies'

referred to in The Times editorial, was the journal Anti-Caste and its editor,

Catherine Impey. The name 'Anti-Caste' itself meant virtually the same as

'anti-racism', which might seem strangely modern for a period more

commonly associated with jingoism. The paper was produced from Cather­

ine Impey's house in Street, Somerset, on a monthly basis, with the help of

her mother and sister, and sold for a nominal sum of a halfpenny to cover

the cost of postage . It relied on subscriptions and donations for immediate

support; though the main costs were borne personally by the editor.

184

Catherine Impey (1847-1923), on the right, with her sister Nell i

'atherine l mpey's family and many of her subscribers belonged to til' ·

Society of Friends: Street was one of the largest Quaker communities in

southern England. At its centre was the Clark shoe factory which was run

by W illiam Clark, also from a Quaker family. He was married co H elen

Bright, who had retained many of her father's radical connections after h"

died, and who was part of a network of English feminists and philanthJ·o­

pists . Yet although Catherine lmpey received a great deal of support from

local Friends, little evidence of her work has survived and all her papers

185

lmw di lluppt •t t ~t • tl wl rlHHit 1 l ttltt , ' l'lu• ),,.,. ttl lu1 olt .tlln 111 '' •'HI• ttH 1 h" would have ~·o lll tli ll('d NO n1111 h otlwtot ttiltlll td llt tll tlu tiiiWtlll." t il tlltl

racist sympathi~crs, as well ns mo1'e lnNtp. III H ltllll f ttllu•tltu• I11 •1Nt'll , Aptll'l

from a few surviving letters and essays uod itr vultnd 1lt• ftt•t HWut l t·~·t. o litoc l itll tr

from friends and more distant relatives in Sit'Ce t who remember hc1·

towards the end of her life, the main sources of information about her arc to

be found in Ida B . Wells's autobiography and in Anti-Caste .

Catherine was an unusual woman, not just because of her commitment

to what we would now call anti-racism, but because she made a conscious

decision to remain independent and devote her life to various social and

political causes. Her father, who ran a small business selling agricultural

equipment, died when she was thirty-eight and Catherine was given the

opportunity to carry on the family business. In a letter to a friend, however,

she wrote that her sister had taken over the business, which allowed her to

continue with her 'social reform' work, as she called it: 'I am very glad not

to be obliged to work for my living, but it is a more serious matter than it

seems to some- to deliberately choose a life of independence.'23

It is hard to do more than speculate on Catherine's early political

influences . J udging from the support her mother gave her, and the number

of local names and addresses on her early subscription lists, she seems to

have been part of a network of politically sympathetic families, many of

whom were Quakers who had been active in the anti-slavery movement. In

the first issue of Anti-Caste she wrote that she believed all arbitrary

distinctions between people to be 'contrary to the mind of Christ', and that

'of all such distinctions the meanest and most cruelly irritating to the

victims are those which are based purely upon physical characteristics - sex,

race, complexion, nationality - in fact, form or deformity of any kind'. In

the tradition of most Victorian philanthropists she relied on the power of

religious language to express her own views on what she felt to be right and

wrong, and biblical references and quotations permeated her writing . But

although she referred to all kinds of discrimination and oppression as 'evil' ,

she was also quite specific about what she meant . At the beginning of her

fourth year as editor she wrote:

While Religion teaches men that God is the Father of all, that we are all 'brethren', that of 'one blood hath He made all nations of men for to dwell

together', the 'Father of Lies' goes up and down in the world, teaching that the God of Heaven created separate races of men, to dwell apart - separated

r86

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h. • lul tllid ~llottltt , IHIIItth• I 111111 d '\ toll I'll "'"' h•t •'•II IJI IHtt l'tllod hllti Htl•l'• 1111 1 Wllltllll tllid lilt olt tWI I tttuldtll ltlilllttll ~ 111 dtnl. llltt•tl Wll tlol'l•, Ill

tlttlltj.l lllittl lll fllll l' ti ltitllll 1111tl11 tl11 l111d 111 1\ tli 1 ~ 11 odli1111f N111 1 1111111 tit

AII•IHii ltHtlllll '" ' "• 111 ii H'IM itlltdN 111 !111 fl o11 tlll•ttl H1•11" J· l

Aj11t1i lnuu t•tputllty lwtwl'I' JI dw llltcs, C:nil wl'im• lnljwy'N id1'1tl ol ltlllllilll luollH'rhood iod udt•d the H.holition of' t!H.: id<.:o lw lt nd'flc , 1111 t•lld 10

Hti l llllti N1111

tt l'l'N IWt'l l(>r l'hc environment und r·hc hutnanc t'r!.'ttii• Will of

111ittutiN slw wns 1tl so 11 scr ict· vcgc1·urinrl. She ofrcn wrocc about thcst• INN III

11 tlu • ' Vil111gc Album ', n rnont·hl y collection of essays and con·cs poudt•tH ,.

It pi l>y 1 he Quaker cornrn unity in Street. ln the last twenty years of'l wr I Itt• Itt• lll'nllnc a Poor Law Guard ian, though sadly very li ttle is known ni>Ot tl

tlli ll JWI'iod or her life. Her obituary in the Quaker journal ' 'l'ho f lrltllltl, II ' IIH'nlbcrcd how her 'warm and generous sympathies had ever been 11 1 1lu•

Nt' t vkc of the many interests to which she was wholeheartedly dcvOI(•d ' .

' Nt•vcrchelcss, ' ic continued, it was ' the colour question, which cn li s" •d lw1

1 loses t sympathy, and on which she held deep convictions in her consis lt' tll

tldvocacy of equal rights for the white and coloured people.' 2 ~ Hy the time she founded Anti-Caste, Catherine Impey had already visi I cd

lite USA three times , and had made important contacts with black writ;t•, n 1

t lcrgy and teachers. Among those she listed as her personal acquaiJ1lliOn:l

in the first issue of her journal were Frederick Douglass , Amanda Smith (11

preacher who passed through England on her way to Africa) , Judge Alb ion

Tourgee , author of the first novel to deal with Reconstruction, T homns

Fortune , editor of the New York Freeman and an influential fig ure in bJuck

politics, Fanny Jackson Coppin, P resident of the Institute of Coloured

Youth In Philadelphia, and Frances E. Harper, head of the black women's

section of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and with Coppin

and four other black women, a speaker at the World's Congress <

Representative Women, which was held as part of the Colombian Exposi­

tion in Chicago in 1893. 26 Many of these friends kept up a correspondence

with Catherine which must have given her great encouragement: 'My friend and sister,' wrote Frances E. Harper, 'permit me to say go on wich

187

~L»-.

yo111 ' work IJr du• IUIIIIt ' 1il 11 1111 w.lll riHIIIIIIIH'tl• -tlll•)i illlllllll lilllt hlidt y l•y res pcc ti n,g i l. ' -'~

Catherine lmpey a lso r·clicd Ul~Oil l dmdM rlltd 11111111•1 ~ tl11011,4 l11H11 ilu•

Empire to supply her with informatio n . Sh<• WII N pHil It ulilr·ly torHcr·rwd

about the situation in India - both the cxploiwdon of workcrs on 1<.'11

plantations and of the state of the nationalist movemenc. ln one issuc slv· wrote: 'We are sure the comfortable tea-drinking public li ttle knows ac

what a cost of human lives their cheap tea is procured.'28 She went on c

describe the conditions under which the coolies of the Assam tea gardens

were forced to work, comparing the abuse of the system to slavery in

America and the West Indies. Quoting an article in the Indian Messenger

which claimed that many of the British did not regard Indians 'as in any

way superior to lower animals', Catherine agreed: 'This is strongly put, but ,

it is undoubtedly the feeling of many of our Indian fellow-subjects. And

what wonder!. when race prejudice is manifested towards their converts

even by the men to whom has been entrusted the solemn responsibility of

introducing the Christian religion in the East.' She then cited a new book

that exposed the corrupt behaviour of missionaries in India, given to her by

a 'Christian working man'. His own verdict of the book had been that 'if

this is the state of affairs . . . I feel I should be doing God's service more by

circulating this work, than by contributing to the Missionary Society.'29

Reports from Australia, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, China­

wherever the British or white Americans were responsible for injustices­

appeared regularly, although Catherine Impey was careful to keep her

journal short ' so that it may be read even by busy people'. She was also

quick to condemn racism in England itself, most notably when Lord

Salisbury, the prime minister, referred to Indians as 'black men'. Although

his remarks were given wide publicity in the press, and he was forced to

apologize by Queen Victoria, Salisbury had evidently felt he was expressing

a view held privately by many others. Catherine pointed out that it .was this

underlying racism which was as much a problem as its open manifestation:

'On the whole we feel somewhat glad that the dark spirit of Caste, which so

often lurks hidden behind the scenes- the prompter of so many a cowardly

and bloody act on the part of our rulers - for once allowed his face to be

openly seen.' This was followed by a long extract from another paper, the

Pall Mall Gazette, which attributed Salisbury's use of the phrase to a

'certain mental defect ... which is probably the direct result of his

aristocratic training'. His sneer at darker-skinned people would not have

r88

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dlill •••h11111111i dull ,\ntl r.mll• "''""ld lu 11 ~ l ll ltl ' 1111 ltltlll Wlilt ' IM 111

jili_'~ l; lll till II 1 1 1 ~ 1 1 I I Hi ll tH IVI' IIl NC ti iilltlllilf ' ll HIIJtplil •tl jlllllijllti t' l !l Willi I' ll

li\•l•hlt I 1111 111 111111 Wll llll ' ll , 1111d ll ' lllirllt •tlr •x ll iiii H lwr•l hl111 k lli 'W~ I li iiii ' I H 111

1] 11 IU II ~ I K Hl' lll Ill ltt •l JI<' IHIHHill y, 1\dill'il iiOIIIti Ill lli t•Vt'lllt' III N W<'ll ' 111

(lilfl iurltll iiiii'II~H I 1111d wlr<' ll viNiiOI N liiH' I IIIII it• (Jtdllll 1\I OWII ('I IIIIC Ill

1\rlt tli ll 111 ndNt' lt1111IN lor li t llools und univcr·s it it:s lot hlntl.; t hildr c:n i11

r\ 11trtllll , HIH· ,411v <· lil l'll\ llt•r lu ll suppon . 1'111111 ll'i llllng Ant/-( ,'rt.tlu over 1 he t'i_4h t ycnrs it was puhlishi.•d , 11 iH t li 'l il

ilttll ( i llltt•rlll t' lrnpvy's own po liti cal vision was <:ontirllt tdl y dt• vt • l o l llllt~ • I"" tltllhtdy ns n resu lt· of' hcr con met with black :tcc ivists sud• 1 1 ~ td 11 II

Wu ii H 11 1HI tlrcderick Douglass. This is illuscraced most forcd"u ll y hy d~t • d 11 '1111101\S she made co the subci de or her paper. A nti-CttJ'/0 bega n I i It • , , ~ I I

l1111 1111d 'dcvoted co the interests of co loured races '. Some c i}-1 ht ct· n 11\illllli

bilt' l thi s masthead was amended co: 'Advocates the bt'OI hcrhow I 111

1111111kind irrespective of colour or descent'. T he ed.itorial expl11int•d I IH•

HWIOIIS lor the change:

' l'ruc, it has been, as it said from the first: 'devoted to the intt:J'CNIN ol

t olourcd races' but that declaration of its object imperfectly i ndi ctllcd il tt•

standpoint from which those interests were treated. Among the aristm ntt

or Europe, thousands are 'devoted to the interests of' the working CIHSN!.!Io .

A las! few are there who 'advocate the brotherhood' of rich and poor as chc ht•si

of their 'devotion'. 'Anti-Caste' advocates the brotherhood of Mt1nkind

irrespective of colour or descent. Its purpose, however feebly fulfi ll ed, is to

awaken in the breasts of others some of that aching sense of wounded lov"

that should stir a brother's or sister's heart, in view of the shameless cruelty

under which the most defenseless of God's family on earth are bcin

helplessly crushed. Our money they do not need, though they are poor; nor

our patronage, nor cheap condescension . .. 32

Six years later, in the final year of its publication, the subtitle chantlcd

again. As a result of a personal rift between Isabella Mayo and herscll',

189

ltllltt 11111 lltlj tty IIIII)' l111 V1 l111 11ltltjll d1 1lt i itii 'l' In) ·IIIII' •II IIIIIIIIH 1 ~t i ll

w1ott• tl ulf 1\1111 Lililt• IHIW 'A""""H'N t lu lttll lll t il uu~t l lil 1lll' lltlftt• ltllltHIII

fi1mi ly, and d 11i o ts 101 til l' 11i11k I'll\ I'll of M111tl Inti !Itt 11 l'ijllld lt p, ht 111

protection, personal libert y, equn lity of ll ppolltllll ty 1111d ht tltl\ lll

fellowship' . 33

Shortly after this the journal ceased publicac ion altoge ther, and we <:11 11

only speculate on the reasons for this. O ne, almost certainly, was chnt

Hannah Impey, Catherine's mother, became ill in r 895 and died within a

few months. She had always been supportive of her daughter's activities

and it is likely that Catherine would have missed her intensely, especially

because her sister Nellie suffered from ill-health as well. But there was

another reason for Anti-Caste's demise- one which accounted also for a gap

in publication the previous year. Catherine's passionate belief in the

equality of black and white led to a situation that jeopardized the whole

anti-lynching campaign in Britain, and exposed a range of different

attitudes towards questions of race, gender and sexuality.

Femininity and the 'Female Accusation'

Scarcely one month after she had arrived in Britain, Ida B. Wells witnessed

what she later described as one of the most painful scenes of her life. 34

During the two weeks which she had spent in Aberdeen with Isabella Mayo

and Catherine Impey preparing for the campaign, she wrote that she had

very much enjoyed the 'atmosphere of equality, culture, refinement, and

devotion to the cause of the oppressed darker races'. The three women were

helped by Isabella's lodgers, one of whom was George Ferdinands, a dental

student from Ceylon, as it was known then, who had trained and qualified

while in Aberdeen under his host's patronage. The tour began when Ida

accompanied Isabella Mayo on a visit of Scottish towns and cities while

Catherine went ahead to prepare the way in northern England. Soon after

she had left Scotland, Catherine wrote to George Ferdinands proposing

marriage, and he professed to be so shocked by her letter that he forwarded

it immediately to his benefactor. Ida was shown the letter by a scandalized

Isabella Mayo, who more or less ordered her to denounce Catherine at once.

Catherine was summoned and asked to explain herself.

In the offending letter, Catherine had declared that she 'returned the

affection' that she was sure Ferdinands felt for her and that she was taking

1 90

Iii lin -0, 1·u; i1111 11l 11 tlilll, t•l

tttlllllllll IIIH ltn tn li' IIII OII ol

t•lll\'llljt ltlllt•IIH I Iii l)'i ll jt lil•ll tlll? ' ll"llllildlii/IIYt tltl • ptoltlto ti H· world o

tlit ilu1111t l -111 lhH I II I'I'IIIVt'd tl 11 tt p lldli )' ll illtt • lu tH IH•dtoOd of man'.

i nt lutltil Wtt• 111 ilti N !IIIII ' l1111 y llvt Y'''' ~ Pld , 1111 'iW' 111 which hopes of

ltEIIilitjll lt11 ,, "' " li lt• Y11 11111 11 11 Wil li II III Wtlt dcl huvt l'l'u.:ded. According to a

1111 \ ill - ~~ " Wll" IIIII I' t' IIP,IIJ.It'd 10 11 111\ ' lld wt ol 1 he Clark family in her home 1" '"11, l1111 ilu• ll ll ltdH~t· wus ~· tdl t•d olf , poss ib ly for financ ial reasons.

35

I lot 1111 VI 1, 1 l11•n· ls no t• v ide nee 1 hnt she ever expressed regret at not having a

lllt ~ I Httld tlitd , us we hnve seen, was positive about the independent life she

lrlt ~ lu • lutd dii>S<.:n . George ferdinands, about whom we know next to

lllttltlll}l, 11 pp11rcnt ly 'revered' Catherine for her work on India, but never

In '"'"'d ol her in any romantic connection. It is hard to believe that

t 't illtt' III IC would have made the proposal without any encouragement, and

!111 wliol t> episode remains a mystery . However, what is very clear is that

I til INtdwlla Mayo, her colleague's behaviour was completely unacceptable.

Ill' itlsisted that Catherine was a disgrace to the movement and that she

Wll ~ '1 he type of maiden lady who used such work as an opportunity to meet

'"" ' u1akc advances ro men' . Ida recalled that Mayo even called Catherine a

II Y111phornaniac, and demanded the destruction of the edition of Anti-Caste

wlt k h had their name as joint editors. Catherine, who was devastated, was

l'v idently no match for the older woman's 'scorn and withering sarcasm' .

I laving been forced by Isabella to choose between them, Ida spent a

lt•t·pless night 'praying for guidance'. Although she felt that Catherine had

I 1t•cn mistaken in acting so impulsively, she had not committed any crime

hy fall ing in love and was certainly not likely to do it again. Moreover, she

l111d already proved by her work that she was genuinely concerned about

t•q uality and justice for black people and Ida was not prepared to desert her

jusr to appease Isabella Mayo. She also knew it would be impossible to

txplain to people at home, who had immense respect for Catherine Impey

md her work, why she had abandoned her. She begged Mayo to change her

mind, but, 'stern upright Calvinistic Scotchwoman that she was', she cast

the two women 'into outer darkness' and Ida never saw her again.

In spite of being humiliated by Isabella Mayo, Catherine refused to

withdraw from the work. She accompanied Ida on a tour of Newcastle,

Birmingham and Manchester, arranging interviews with newspapers to

obtain maximum publicity . They then returned to Street to plan the next

stage of the itinerary . Isabella Mayo, who had tried to prevent Ida from

191

llllllillllill fl wl th l111 I IIJIIIJII IIIf III N1 i 11 ~ h l 1 .! llt •ll II f l ti .. 1111 lli l ll llti ll ll - 111

IIIIlS( Ill lt'll ll l IH' I'N i iHil' d hy II 1111111 ' 1111 il lldd t 1111\ lj li lllllll l 11 11 iti ii 'III III IVI '

was pr<:S lll ll llh ly ll uu M11yo would p t~h ii N II " l lltt l lt111 ~ " i'll ll ll ll i ( ,11tlu•111 1"'

behaviour which wo~d c.l case a bud I i t~ III 011 ldtl M 11y11 lu1d 11 l1 t'ltd y St' lll

details to her friends in America, cri t ici :t. inp, 1\ht's lwhnvio ur· nnd dcnou tl<.'•

ing Catherine. Ida attended a few meetings in London in May of thac ycnr

and then returned home, leaving her friend full of bitterness and scl• ­reproach that the tour had ended without more success.

In her autobiography, Ida B. Wells explained that she had only written

about the episode to remove any misunderstandings that might have

arisen. She remained friends with Catherine for several years, inviting her

to her wedding in r 895 and having her pamphlets distributed from

Catherine's home address. In subsequent meetings she often referred to

Catherine's work , expressing 'the gratitude of the colored races' to her for

her efforts . 36 It seems that the quarrel, which, as I shall explain shortly,

continued to disrupt the unity of the campaign, also affected Ida's

relationship with Frederick Douglass, to whom Mayo wrote complaining

about Ida's ingratitude towards her English hosts . But however difficult it

is to piece together the narrative, the subject matter of the dispute raises

intriguing quest ions about the politics of race, gender and sexuality. What

exactly was the nature of the crime that Catherine Impey had committed in

Isabella Mayo's eyes? Was it that she dared to proposition a man, or that she

was attracted to a black man? In other words, did she transgress the

accepted bounds of her gender or was it her racial identity that she

betrayed? The evidence suggests that it was probably both. And what was

the significance of Ida, a black woman, supporting Catherine, and what

does this imply about her sexual politics? Possible answers to these

questions emerged more clearly as the anti-lynching campaign gathered

pace.

Shortly after Ida B.Wells returned to America, the anti-lynching

campaign was relaunched, a feat which Mayo credited to her own efforts.

She enlisted the help of a Caribbean writer and editor called Celestine

Edwards who agreed to take over the leadership of the newly formed

Society for the Recognition of the Universal Brotherhood of Man. In July

r 893, Edwards launched a new paper called Fraternity, which was to be its

mouthpiece. The aim of the society, which Edwards explained in his first

editorial, was 'to direct its attention to the work of removing inequality

and wrongs from races , whom we feel sure will, with greater opportunity

192

11 11 1ol t u rdii iu !llPiil '•l l •· ••- tl \ ti l l\' I IIII h iii I ll ltllll l j H'' ,

1111111111 ~ .. 111 ,., , ,, Nllili iM '" tl1111 111 l 1111 r'.'m t~. with t•dllw'llds,

litlll tll lll l li•ll 11 ln111 1 IIV I; II t t i11 l11dh1 , 1\l l h tl 111 A111I 'JI I'II , pmycrs,

Iii ~ 1111\' tl li ll l( tl lll ll jl lll Ill lu 11l1 VI lli I I ll fi ll ' I IIIINI' l) f ll bO II N i ti ll~ mcism .

!I ~ 1 • 11' 11 IIIIJII .I 1 htll ( oltlu•li111 Wlt lild lu• Nllllh lwd hy rhc revitalized

" If f\', 11111 Wt l ~ llii Httd. t•rt , l111 ltd w 11ll l ~ l11•d t lt•r 11'i y h~·e n 1\ll ad mirer of Anti­

hil . 11 1111' 1111111 illit l kllt 'W li N t•dlt ll l Jlt'I'SOtlll lly. I li s attitude towards

I •lll1111 111 1111p1•y IH•t t• N OPt ht• • l'l'J'lllll l ion in 13 ri cain and America as a

'tlltll• llll lll lnd t t'ltlllldt•r. Tile li r·st scncc ncc of his new paper read:

1'111 Yl'tll N IIIH' has hccn long ing for chc opportunity co plead che cause of che

Hl•l tti 'HHI•tl 11 11 tl helpless, and when we firsc came inco contact with A nti-Caste

,\' l 'oi i H 11;111, Wt' thou}o!ht char there was at lease a prospect of helping chose who

Wt'II 'IH llt ll ll y doing a work which our own experience (in all the countries in

wil l! It tlw wo rk of chis Society will extend) convinced us was very much

uol t•<•tl. For more chan six years A nti-Caste has been doing a quiet work in

1\11 /( lill td , slowly bu t surely permeating society, and winning the hearts of

IIOt I mcn and crue women to the cause of the struggling helpless races in

Anlt·t·ic.:a , India, Africa, and Australia, and wherever tribes, races, and

tilt I ions have been oppressed by the accursed enemy of mankind- Caste. 37

Edwards was born in Dominica, the youngest of nine children, but had

~ t · ll l cd in England in the r87os when he was in his late teens. By that time

lw had become a convinced Christian and a champion of the temperance

nl(lv<; ment. He quickly made a name for himself, campaigning first in

Ht odand and then all over England . He was a popular speaker, and used to

drttw crowds of over a thousand at his public meetings. At the time when

It ~· was approached by Mayo to front the SRUBM he was editing another

magazine , Lux, which was a 'weekly Christian Evidence Newspaper' that

f'rcq uently expressed the same anti-imperialist views as Fraternity . In one

c~l itorial Edwards wrote that 'the British Empire will come to grief unless

ir changes its methods of dealing with the aboriginal races.' He went on to

warn that 'the day is coming when Africans will speak for themselves . .. .

The day is breaking and . . . the despised African, whose only crime is his

colour, will yet give an account of himself.' 38

W hether or not Edwards knew what had caused the rift between

Catherine Impey and Isabella Mayo, we shall never know, but he obviously

attempted to steer a middle course between them. He relied heavily on

1 93

c ntlutltw '• lttll ' w Hit,'"'''"'''''""~ '''' 1, ;;m " 1 l ii l n ru" IIHIIIIIt ~ lu111i t•dliOI'NWilillltlt'd llljlllhi/Nh 1111•11 IIW itjlllllthtl ~, 11111 11 \ '1/,/-i ,11/rl illtljll lllll

ily Sltspcndcd plthlitution in 1 Hl)•l ill HI ( ,Jttl u•t 1111 dttlhllt 'd ,til l11 •t llllllt' t litl

to Edwards. Another exam ph: of Ou ht·,·i ll l' 'll t ntti 111111 ~~~ 1 nvo l vt•ul t..•nt , 111 1d

of her u ndamaged reputation, was given dv ri n~ fiH• wt•cks rhnc l(> ll ow<.'d

Ida B. W ells's visit. T he second edition of F1·atemi1y, p ublished in Aug ust

1893, carried a report of a m eeting in N ewcas tle w here 'thousands'

gathered to hear Edwards lecture on 'Black and W hite in America'. T he

chairman, who had been a missionary in Jamaica, opened the proceedings

by giving a 'high testimony to the earnest zeal of Miss C. Impey . . . the

originator of the society, who, almost unaided, has carried on the work up

to the present time'.

Isabella Mayo was continually frustrated in her attempts to dissociate the

campaign from Catherine Impey. When Edwards died of illness and

exhaustion in 1894, she took the opportunity in writing his obituary of

giving a revised version of his leadership. She explained how he had been

hampered by a small clique, who had gained some footing in the society,

even in the brief interval which necessarily elapsed between the first

startling appearance of difficulty and Mr Celestine Edwards' obtaining

power to grapple with it. The object of this clique has been to force upon the

society's councils a person of admitted mental instability - the victim of

'hallucination'- one, roo, who on being expostulated with on the matter, had given promises of absolute withdrawal from active and official relations

with the society, which promises were immediately afterwards broken. 39

This 'clique' to which Mayo referred consisted of Catherine and her

friends and supporters who had apparently taken control of the society by

unconstitutional means soon after Edwards left the country in a desperate

attempt to recover his health . They had been helped by the fact that

Edwards had not managed to find time to record the preliminary sessions,

according to Mayo, who resolved to keep control of the journal until the

society was again in the hands of a properly elected council.

Edwards's greatest achievement as leader of the SRUBM was to organize

a second tour for Ida B. Wells, who returned in March 1894 and stayed for

several months. Mayo still refused to have anything to do with her, so it is

quite likely that Catherine Impey instigated the tour, even if she was to

keep a lower profile this time. During Ida's visit, which was followed

194

{li t iH ll ll ll t II illl t-1;;','- ltlllll IIHIII 1111 tlu 111111111 11! !111 ljl hllll ' il ut WI'I ' IIIhll I.WII Wllltli ' ll

til l' ll l'ljlll ' lll y 111 ' l l' ltltd t• til 111 N11Ji 1111 ' Ill till • l l l ~t · 111 till ' lyllt lll'd

'"- Il l""•· 11111 1111 11' tlllt•llt lon Ht'I' IIIN 111 I111Vt' l wt•ll ).IIVt' ll lll l l'ti idll IIHtd dd j{ tl dhll ltli•N WI' II I, IIOWII 10 lltt•dltll l II H' Il 1111d l llll ii'OilN ol ('XPI' I H' IIil' , ' l'ltt 'll'

111 Wt litt l' ll who wi ll ' fttllt y' ll n y th ln~ whit h wi ll ~lvt· dwllln Nl' ll Nt•t loo ''' '" ' '

llitli pHNHIII fl rlolllrlt•ty . In wi ld tount rics, whcr·t· f\·r·rihil' <' f'iiiii 'N wi ll til lld ly 01 t '"'• Nll t II di st·nscd imn~inalions wi ll f: tsiC: Il upno tl lt'~t·, 1111d

'' " ' ~ 1111 ' 11 1 rl ~tl i r lll l nnd nn 111 rcmprcd crime in any innot·t nt Sl 1"1111 ,41'1', l Jndt'l

l iiq tp ll •r Nmin l cir·n ,mstn nces che mor·bid egociscs mny onl y inlll fll lll ' il 1111

lll l' tll ,dlln love with rhcm' . lk ic n:: mcmbcrcd chrtccven chis 'i nw,4inltttnn ', I illdt d).lt·d in by n 'whice woman', regarding a 'nigger' in some of rhl'iill'i i'N,

Wilt tid )1) ()1111 tho detttb of the 11/ttn , perhaps che more ignominious dc11t h, lll11•

Y!' llllll't:d tO say in self-defence chat che 'imagination' was wholl y bllsc it:NN, or 111\INI h11vc been derived from some of rhe nacural and proper civi litil:s p111tl

hy youth and strength to age and manifest infirmity . For it must he: no11•d

1h111 fema le sufferers from chis diseased egotism are not necessari ly ym ll lH 11 1t lllighty _ T hey are ofcen elderly, dowdy, and disappointed. Nor llrc tht'y lttvnrinbly recognised by their nearest connections as fit objects for piry 11111 1

t iln; . Their friends often leave them to wander among unsuspcctiiiJI,

st m11gers, heedless of the annoyance and hindrance they give. Such kinsfolk II'C ready enough to crave for mercy and to plead hereditary menta l o(fli Cf ion

and general weakness, and instability, if even from this unforcunllt l'

woman's own statements they think she is likely to get herself into serious

1 rouble ; but they are prepared to recall all their words when only the intori!J'IJ 11

otbers, or even of great public causes, are concerned! We have just risen from perusal of the documents in a strikingly cypi <.:ll l

ase of this kind, in which all the points of diseased vani ty, pruriertl

insinuation, and the self-contradictory selfishness of 'kinsfolk' are strongly

brought out . 40

Isabella Mayo's continued assertion that Catherine had behaved in a wily

that would have caused a lynching in the Southern states must have bc<.: 11

extraordinarily wounding- it was intended co be so. After a p lea to all

195

111 ~ ~~~~1 1 1111'11 1111.1 Wlllillll lO 11\'ttid till I l •tuil I r -· ·lillli"·' ~l i l\'11 I ll

i1 1111 11 11' Ntilll'l! ' l Ni1111 dtl ~t • dit • l111 tl11 Mtd 1 11l lut 1111 lll ttl ltt 1tltl1 'A11tl 1'1111

anythin1-1 iw nto t ~· w l l() l t 'Nill tt t• l o • II liN tll ttlp lttillt tw ill • l1 111 11 ~ l'llt i ll!ll l Nlll /{1'

is , as the bes t Iu nney uuthol'it ics IISSt' l l , NIIIIJ! iy VII I Itt y til ttl tiw h tiNt•N t

egotism), that the know ledge chat rhc uc: l'ivl' ou illl't•u k ol th cs~· sy rnpi OlliN

will leave the sufferer to "go softly" all her days '.

Mayo's parting shot g ives an interesting slant on her understanding ol' the lynching question:

If the women in the South were all 'pure in heart and sound in head ', we

should hear of fewer lynchings; and if British philanthropy, whenever forewarned gently set aside the dubious help of these diseased imaginations .. . many good works which now flag and falter, would go on apace.

This suggests a conservative approach both to women's sexuality and to the

question of race. Her use of the phrase 'pure in heart' implies that it was nor

acceptable for women to take an active role in relations with men. This was

a conventional attitude towards female sexuality which was shared by many

women - feminists and non-feminists alike _ The idea that madness

contributed to white women's attraction to black men is harder to

interpret. Possibly Mayo meant that in a climate hostile to interracial

relationships a woman would have to be 'unsound in head' to risk the

consequences both to herself and to her lover. I find it strange that her

argument is at odds with Ida B . Wells's analysis of the situtation in the

South, and this suggests to me that her motives for backing the anti­

lynching campaign had been different from Catherine's from the start. 4 1

Isabella Mayo wrote as though it was the immoral and irresponsible

behaviour of white women which contributed to the increase of lynching,

taking a moralistic view of the activities of actual women. It was true, as

Ida frequently pointed out, that friendships between black men and white

women were often initiated by the woman, and that it was invariably the

man who was punished as a result. Instead of blaming white women for

immorality, her demand was that such voluntary relationships should be

allowed to exist in the open, just as they were between white men and

white women, and that if there was any element of coercion, the guilty

party should be brought to trial according to the law of the land. In other

words , Ida B. Wells was not interested in criticizing the behaviour of the

white women who were implicated in lynchings; her argument was based

196

Iii [() Wiii it (IJtiuuul jtQ (Ill !dfitilljlittd tllll i! illllllil 11l

il ·lli till Ioiii PIII ·j liiJ 'li~ !i lT d I Hi I I lllltlll 11J111 Willi!. W11 1111 111 IIIII IH ' Vt ' l lt•t•l

H•ll " ' ·I ll \' 111 111 , iti jilt 111 !I t• , hn 11 ltl t\1_1- ltllilt ' w• • ~. 111 l11•t' t•ycs,

tlli lj ttlll ldt wi th 1111 tvh ltlll t hi ll lhttl••tl lu l !'ddtlllll f\ lll'tii'Nt'l ll't' il . This

11i It 111111 liilj •M 111 t'll jtl lli ll 111 •1 dttiNitllt 111 Mllpptlll Clttllcr inc who, she

iitjlti, l11td 111111lt • 11 nd Nt!il, t• lutt 111 11 tiiiJIItlittt·d 11 u ·imc . T hc ultimate

1.• ullh tilt•• 111 1 Ill ~ t ' jll ~lldt • Ill 1 il tll 11 d nltt ll lt i:t.t•d imporcanc aspects of Ida

II ~~ • ll ii'~ t ll lld y~IM ol lylll hllt ).l . 1\y l.'Xpos ing Isabel la Mayo's conservative

i!l\ 1 1111 lt•twtlt• Nt'X tttd ity wh i<:h WC I'C cxpressed in response to Catherine

lttij•t,l"• tlllllll liodox lc n1ini ne behav iour, ic forced a division between the

t\\'tt "'' "'"'II who lmd made the campaig n poss ible in the first place. 11 1' 1i11• 1ln11' ldn H. Wel ls returned tO Britain in r 894, she had collected

fill II IIIII' Nlllt ist ics and had sharpened her arguments to show that whites

r 11 d l't t•i vi ng only chcmselves in their efforts to 'protect' their women.

I til II ol thi s informacion was contained in a pamphlet called United States

llltlll/irl which was published in Britain during her second trip. Celestine

I dWtll ds wt'OtC an introduction in which he tried to explain the reasons for

11\ ttlll'rll l'aCism:

'l'lw rtt~l cause lies , not in the Negro's fondness to outrage white women, but lu 1 hr lliCt that slavery was abolished by force- physical force, and without tO tt1p<: nsation to the slaveholder. . .. Besides, the white man, who boasts of "upcrior mental power, must know that the immoral tendencies which he 111 ributes to the Negro of today is greatly due to himself, because for three

hundred years he kept him like a horse and bred him as a pig .42

l)u ring Ida B. Wells's second visit , her forthright speeches on Southern

l1ypocrisy- in particular her insistence on the active participation of white

women in sexual relationships with black men - led her into another

1 oncroversy, which, involving other women as well, eclipsed the one

between Catherine Impey and Isabella Mayo. What began as a personal

dispute between Ida B . Wells and Frances Willard, a famous American

women's rights campaigner, soon emerged as a bitter confusion of ideas

about female sexuality and race . Although the argument took place in the

·onrext of American politics, it was significant that it was first publicly

aired in Britain. This next section will explain how the controversy came

about and explore its implications for women's politics on both sides of the

Atlantic.

197

I hu Jllft111Hil i111IW Wlllttul

l l Wl l ~ put'!' Willlldt' ll l!' tll ll l lfi' II IH I'N \IVI JI.11d , I It, Wrll lol l11ii iii iiH lr•r ltl l'l o l

the Women's Christiu n 'lb npt.• r':t iHt' I Jr dn tt (\lVI '' 111 J), w1 1 ~ Nlllyi rt !{ in

England at the same time as luu B. Wt•li ll. Sli t· w1ts 1111 t'X II'l' lllciy

charismatic speaker and an as tute organi :t.c r, who Ide her home in tlw United States in order to rest from the relentless campaigning that had

begun to undermine her health. She stayed as a permanent g ucsc of Lady

Henry Somerset, the aristocratic leader of the British Women's Temper­

ance Association, and the two women shared a close friendship and a

mutual influence which earned them criticism from their respective

organizations. Their alliance was further proof of the close political

exchanges between different movements in Britain and America.

Frances Willard held a complex and contradictory set of political ideas

which reflected many of the changing beliefs about women's place in the

nineteenth-century Western world, and her influential life and work has

been studied by several historians of this period. 43 In accordance with the

dominant theory of gender relations, she believed that women were by

nature more moral than men, which meant that their influence within the

public world was both necessary and desirable. Like many of her contem­

poraries she attributed women's subordination to their childbearing role

and general sexual subservience, aggravated by men's propensity for

alcohol. She summed up her philosophy in the phrase 'a white life for two',

a symbolic crusade for sexual abstinence between married couples, which

would give women time and energy to become independent while allowing

men to become more acquainted with domestic roles. However, this

critique of masculinity did not involve rejecting the traditional male­

dominated family structure which continued to be one of the mainstays of

society.

According to Barbara Leslie Epstein, the WCTU was not strictly a

feminist organization, because its aim was to reform society through

promoting higher morality, rather than to raise women to equal status

with men. As she documents in her book The Politics of Domesticity,

however, the temperance movement overlapped with many other social

reform movements of the time, including feminism and socialism. Many

women who belonged to suffrage organizations shared the conviction of

WCTU members that women were naturally better equipped than men to

reform society. It was thought that only by allowing women access to the

198

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1 rr liul . • l •~ il 1111 i h1: 1 llirlt '1111)111111111

I" Ill II 111111111 ' Ill I Il l II\'

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f l , illllllll'lllllil " ,, 11111111111 11111 ,. II ruttll'i llll h iiVI ~llirltlllil II II III

![ 11 ·11 VI 111 M yrH III/111 ~ ~ ~~ WrH ild I111V1 .\1 Vllit'd 111 '1 I ill• Ill "illll ill ~ lll , Ill tlu VIIW nl llll • \'{/( ;' I' l l, rtll Mllihiii •V IIH 111t dd lu• lod, r•d 11111111

i ;uif tlnqrtlllltolllh 11 IH rl , 11 v11 ·w wh it II t' ll t~h l t •d WI lllt '111l w1N to NY " 'I II II ll bt •

itll 11tlll ' l Hill lid tt• lo1111 IIIOVI ' IIIt ' II( N, lJndt•r• tlH' itondt•tNIIIJI o l Jlniiiii 'M

lh11d ilu• 01;-llilli Zll lt OII's hol'izoos t•x p11 11dcd s i~o~nilicunt l y . Sill' Ul iiNidr•H•tl

tl1111 tlu• lt 111IJ H'II III((' JlliiV('IIICI\ 1 Wll~ th t: !ipproprillf'C plnn• II) dt•Vt 'III J1 llf'l

111 tltiii 'HI N lw· i-l •'t:llt l'r pol ititnl power for women; usi ng h~·r p l ~ttftullt iH 1 It IJ 111d 111 !It t· WC'I'lJ , she: persuud<.:d mernbers lO link thl' d L· rti iiiHI l111

rlll ll 'l l 'r~ Nt d lrngc ro t'h t: carnpai g n for I l lome Procccc ior11

ll lld sm lid plltll y ltl ll1ltuin the conccrrls of the cernperance rnovcment· wt' l'l' 111111 It

lhlllltWI't'. 11 was not a caLr se particu larly assoc iftced wi1 h l't•tn iilt ll ltl ,

ttldtrllli-l h mnny feminists felt strongly about the prohibirion ol II IWIH rl

llttWI'Vl'r, Lady H enry Somerset was ent irely won over by PrnnccN Wi lilt HI '

1 1111 t'i-lics, and cogecher the cwo women attempted co force tlw suli lllj\1'

~ ~~ lit ' 011 to a mosc unwilling membership . T he m ajor ity wcrl' 11111 on l

IIIIIM' IVIltive in their beliefs and not interested in parcicipacing in puhlu

ll lc• 10 nny extent, they also greatly resented interference from an Alll!' r'il 'tlll

ltvc•n those who were involved in more progressive women 's polirics, Nlllh

IN I ((;len Bright Clark, who was also a friend of Susan B. Anrhony 1111d

HI iz:~bech Cady Stanton, cried to suggest to Frances W ill arcl 1 h111 ~~~ II' tl's rr ict her influence. In reply to a letter from Helen Bright Clark , JlrtliH "

Wi ll ard wrote:

Thank you for your kind letter and suggestions. Be assured that l have 1101 meant tO intrude .. . . My reception from the religious, temperance, nnd philanthropic guilds in the beloved 'mother country' has been so gcncrou ~ that I may have overestimated the friendliness of temperance women bu t

1

i tl the long run' I am quite sure we shall be warmly appreciative, mutually , nod

misunderstandings will be cleared away. 44

Frances Willard was in England for nearly two years, much tO I'll" annoyance of the members of the WCTU in America. During this time slv •

199

~I I VI IIIIIII Y lttlllll •ll dt iiiiiHIIItlll "" 111111111' '''I" i \'H illl)' illlllfltli 11M l ty ''" '

luilllunl pt •dnlltiiiiH t'H, W ht'll ld11 I I Wt II• tlll ilu l 111 I lilt til II'"' ht •i llt li t

tmu· in • H\) ,\, mnny ol those wlto rll lll l' ltl l11 •1 11 l111 I till, Wl'll' tllt xlo ttN 111

know iC Frances Wil lnt·d, ns n pr·o•u int•ot Alllt'lll ttll NJWttki ng on lllontl issues, had condemned lynch ing. Ida 13. W<.:lls, who11 lways mndc:: the point

that silence amounted co consent, felt parciclllar ly ang t·y about llmrH.:cs Willard, having read an interview with her in the N ew York Voit·e in which

she practically condoned lynching. Not having a copy of the paper, she was

unable co substantiate this charge, but she never mentioned the temper­

ance organizer's name unless asked specifically about her. On her second

visit, however, she came prepared with the evidence because she felt it was

an example of the way that lynching was continually misunderstood by

Northern liberals. The interview, given in October 1890, was printed

under the heading: 'The Race Problem: Frances Willard on the Political

Puzzle of the South'. It began with Willard claiming not to have 'an atom

of race prejudice', having been born an abolitionist and believing that it

was the colour of the heart, not of the skin, that settled a human being's

status. Her argument was that whites in the South would never consent to

real equality with blacks, and that the best way for black people to develop themselves freely was to return to Africa:

If I were black and young, no steamer could revolve its wheels fast enough to convey me to the dark continent. I should go where my color was the correct thing, and leave these pale faces to work out their own destiny. 45

However, it was not the idea of repatriation which annoyed Ida B. Wells

though she had fundamental political disagreements with those who

proposed it, black and white- but the reasons that Frances Willard gave

for the 'race problem'. It was her belief that rather than giving all men the

vote after emancipation, there should have been an educational qualifica­

tion. In the interview she portrayed the majority of blacks as illiterate,

ignorant alcoholics who multiply 'like the locusts of Egypt' . Her sympathy

was for the Southerner who was mostly 'kindly intentioned towards the

coloured man', but who had an 'immeasurable ' problem on his hands.

Willard also managed to convey the idea that white women were particu­

larly at risk from marauding drunk black men - which was the very point that was always made to justify lynching.

The opinions expressed in the interview were not at all unusual, as they

200

! HP~~' •H £ .1 tlu ~ l t llllhtfd wlllt !J N•.i ttli fl iH ,'\Iitftlit tll tlltlill d• • II•W •"" ~ w l~o11

IWi' 1". '''' "' d 111lu) thO ~••llt tli•H•Iii U • HI ul tlu :11111111 M 1111Y nl IIWNI' who ltitlljjfll Ill lfiiiiiHiil \' 1111 I I ~ lllllj'I P-•h•t' ~ 1 11111'1 1 1l11 • HII IIH ' Vll'WIL fll'llll t:eS

l t)l111d'11 111111 111 II til l til' !Jtlllit llf tll 1111111 •111 Ill II ~ lH111111 N(' ii (•J' h<.:li e(s ftbOLit

Viil!ll' 11 1 ~ Mt tlt •ly illll ll tltlll . Hl'k lllillf\' whit It Nlll ' li 'VI 'I " t'd in tl w Voice interview

llhii•IJ 'I ''" wit h t lttll ll l' '''""'' hy Nlll ll t' lt •t ~t l iog Amct·ican feminists . The r ttl\' Wt lltll ' ti'N •I )J, hi H tii OVI 'Itll 'lll , whi t It lt11d developed out of and alongside

tlu tlllll ~ lttvt • t y (llntp11lfp1S, IIIO Yt'd slt lll'ply away from alliances with black

111111 1111d Wll liH' II Il lmos t immcdiace ly a(ccr slavery was abolished. Whereas

11 IIIII ' I IIIII' 1 It t· t'iAht·s oC black slaves and of women had been seen to be

lflll'll!lll llt 't ln l, pt> li cical pressures forced abolitionists, black and white,

ltlttlf' tlltd lt.' lllrtl c, to narrow their objectives in the struggle for the vote. 46

II tiM lttll\tfihl aboll t bitter divisions between those who supported universal

llll ltiJ.It' liiH.I chose who saw the necessity for enfranchising black men to

1•11 tlt 't 1 them from the repercussions of abolition and who feared that too

l•tt111d 11 demand would jeopardize' all their chances. Within a short space of

llnu•, many younger white women who became involved in the movement

l111 women's suffrage in the second half of the nineteenth century had

lll't omc convinced that their rights should come before those of former

htvt·s, and that women's interests would only be hindered by being linked

111 1 he demands of black people. At the heart of this belief was the fear that

white women needed protection from black men . Elizabeth Cady Stanton,

lw·mcrly a passionate abolitionist, made this very argument when the

til-hates over the strategy of demanding votes for both women and blacks

1 11111e to a head after emancipation. In an article that railed against male

nho litionists for their failure to support universal suffrage , Stanton declared

1 hat just as women had had no protection from the laws and institutions

made by 'Saxon' men, it was even more likely that when black men were

•nfranchised they would be victims of even worse treatment. Quoting a

·ase of child abuse in which a young white girl gave birth to a black child

and then strangled it herself, she asked:

With judges and jurors of negroes, remembering the generations of wrong and injustice their daughters have suffered at white men's hands, how will Saxon girls fare in the courts for crimes like this?47

By 1890 this quite specific fear of black men's desire for revenge after

years of subjugation had become a fundamental aspect of American racism.

201

Wiilt tlu illtll ' l t ~ ill f{ 1111ttd u r11 111 l•tJII !f11!t!li 1 111l 11 l ( i t jl l l ~ h- 8 1 Hi t d l i lt JI 11 11111

,1-i nlllt N IIIlO lil t' l lll ltt•d Si tllt 'H, ' ' "'''Y ili h hl hH i tl ~~. lllhtlll lh l il td ~ i

extended chis hosti lity townn ls hl ut k ll U' ll l li t' ~~' "' ' lid n d li iii iRI " "" llltiH •d

of'aliens '. As we have already seen, tl lONt' who IH•li! •vt•d tlnll WO II H' II Wl' ll '

morally superior were antagonist ic cowanJs tlit'll /{t' llcr·nll y. llut· whik 1tl l

male sexuality'was potentially threatening tO all women, it was black nnd working-class men who represented the threat at irs most unconcrollabl"

and fr ightening.

Frances Willard was merely repeating conventional N orthern prejudices

in her interview, and like thousands of others was probably unaware thar

she was supporting the torture and murder of innocent black men in the

name of protecting white women. As far as she was concerned , the

threatening behaviour of the 'ignorant and illiterate' was due to their

consumption of alcohol, and she portrayed them as victims of the liquor

trade, the source of most social problems. While on the one hand she

attempted to cover herself in the Voice interview by saying that 'neither by

voice or by pen have I ever condoned, much less defended any injustice

towards the coloured people', on the other she insisted that it was wrong to

give the vote to black people and to 'alien illiterates, who rule our cities

today with the saloon as their palace, and the toddy stick as their scepter' .

Under her leadership the WCTU established numerous departments to

deal with specific areas of work, aqd one of the least contentious was that

for Temperance Work among Negroes and Foreigners. But the views she

expressed in her interview and the way she was to defend herself against the

charge that she condoned lynching only served to illustrate Ida B. Wells's

point that most white Americans were quite indifferent to the fate of black

people in the South.

O n her return to Britain in r894, Ida B. Wells was soon obliged to

produce her evidence against Frances Willard, and so she took the

opportunity of publishing part of the New York interview in Fraternity

together with an explanation. As a result she came up against the combined

anger of both Willard and Lady H enry Somerset, and the latter threatened

to use her influence to stop Ida from giving any more public lectures in

Britain. Ida found herself in a very vulnerable position, which she later

described in her autobiography:

Here were two prominent white women, each in her own country at the head of a great national organisation, with undisputed power and influence in

202

" '' I IIi HI Ill Ul'-" tt!l III - I

11 \<1 l11 llt 11 IIi"!) II III lidf il

Iiiii IIt ~ Ill

l111 ll ,ul 111 I ti ll I 11 111111 \ '

I 11! 11111 11 Ill ll t• fll l 11 1

1rh t~ ft n t l t~ • r tllt lll tt ltil l.llilll ill'' 'l ' l " ''" ' ' " · titl ' \\''rt/1111111/r'r ( ,, ,~, ltitJtt ,dlt•d H ~ t · ll " " ' ' lt •l ttl i ll ll l ll lldt ll l till l ' lll lll lll !hil ly '_ ll ltdt•d II lt' IIHiil y

luitHv li w nl tlnti Ht'rl Wl lh111l l ty 11 11 111' o illl ' l d 11111 l11•t t lnNt' ft tt•tl! l I.1Hiy

I II II I V tl ll llll ' l ~ t ' l H111 ht•t il u1 11 l! ' l l lll l i ll f\ Ill ' 1tpologi1.illt1 lor lw1 I! ' II H'tl

111 " '' 111 tl11• A t• wt·kt il l J H 'I ~~' ''o l' n tt HI 'N Wdht•·d Wl' lll on 10 rt'IH''' ' tl 11• NI II JII'

lt•~ll II Ii iii " ,

I ll tl f\ lll 11 1 11dd d111 t whk h I had bc.:c.: •1 w id by the.: bc.:st people I knew ''' ti t~ • "" " ' und I knew u grenc many min isters, cd icors and home pc.:opk t ltiil

tl tt • ~ id t• t y of women, of childrc.:n , is menaced in a chousnncl locoliti c.:s so tl u11 ti ll' t•ll'll dnrc not go beyond 'the sight of their own roof rrecs . A<

'l'lt is t i roc, however, 11ranccs Willard was careful tO add chat 1 ll l' l' t' WI'

111 1 1 d n1c however heinous (that) can by any poss ib ili ty cxcust· tl w t llltl tllission of any act of cruelty or the taking of any human l ite wi tlto\1 1

tit H' ('()LI I"SC Of law'. < )nc of the most remarkable things about the interview between dw 1 wo

l! 'ntpcrance leaders in the Westminster Gazette was the patroni:.d ng Wil t' 111

which they spoke about their adversary. In the introduction , Lady l lc 111 y Hoo1C rset presented Ida B. Wells as a victim of her own race prejudk c hy 11sing , out of context, a remark she had made in another oewSjWJWI

Jlll crv iew. On that occasion Ida had been asked by the editor about her· own

tll <.' ial origins; her reply had been characteristically direct:

Taint, indeed! I tell you, if I have any taint to be ashamed of in myself, i c is

the taint of white blood! 5°

The editor, who published a sympathetic piece condemning lynch ing 011

the front and inside pages, began his interview with Ida's retort, though i 1

was clear it was made in response to a question . Somerset, however, quoted

it as an example of Ida B. Wells's racism towards whites, and then set it

against her statement in Fraternity that 'There was no movement bcinJ~ made by American white Christians toward aiding public sentimen

20 3

BEYOND THE PALE

against lynch law in the United States.' After this attempt to portray the

black American woman as a troublemaker, she then explained how she

decided to hear Frances Willard's point of view: 'I therefore sought the first

opportunity of a quiet hour with her under the trees of my garden at

Reigate.' The conversation began with an attempt to be humorous, a point

to which Ida B. Wells was quick to draw attention in her reply. Frances

Willard adopted a slightly aggrieved tone when asked about Ida's accusa­

tions, adding that when she had first heard that she was in the country, she

had tried to help her, 'for I believe in the fraternity of nations and that we

ought to help each other to a higher plane by mutual influence'. The

interview ended with both women agreeing that it was most unfair for Ida

B. Wells to have 'misconstrued' remarks made by Willard in an interview

that had 'nothing to do with lynching', and it appealed to British justice to trust her reputation.

As it happened, Ida B. Wells believed that the way the two influential

women joined forces publicly to denounce her only served to her advan­

tage. She wrote later that the attack was a 'boomerang' to Frances Willard

and that it seemed to appeal to the British sense of fair p~ay . Her reply to

the interview, which sliced through its condescending and complacent

tone, was published in the same paper the following day:

The interview published in your columns yesterday hardly merits a reply, because of the indifference to suffering manifested. Two ladies are repre-

. sented sitting under a tree at Reigate, and, after some preliminary remarks

on the terrible subject of lynching, Miss Willard laughingly replies by

cracking a joke. And the concluding sentence of the ' interview shows the

object is not to determine best how they may help the Negro who is being hanged, shot and burned, but 'to guard Miss Willard's reputation'. 51

Ida B. Wells's letter showed no mercy to the famous American woman .

She ignored the personal attacks made on her own integri ty , pointing out

that it was not her reputation at stake, but the life of her people. The

additional evidence that she gave of Frances W illard's supposed commit­

ment to black people was particularly damning. Why, she asked, had

Willard sat in silence when she had placed a reso iLrtion condemn ing

lynching in front of cwo nat ional meet ings of tlw Brir ish Wonwn's

Temperance Assoc iat ion? In sugp;ts ring 1111 nnswcr ro hr•r· <p•r:N r ion , I do II .

W ells inrroduc~·d tt ll llllll ldl ion iiHIIi n MI Wl ll r1r'd wltltlr w11 ~ 111oh11 hlv 11101'<'

drllrlil /{i OJ-1 fO lwr· ln rlrc• r•yt•ll olli! •r 1\r•IIINfllo llowr•r

'·'"

'TO MAKE THE FACTS KNOWN'

I should say it was because as president of the Women's Christian Temper­

ance Union of America she is timid, because all these unions in the South

emphasise the hatred of the negro by excluding him . There is not a single

coloured woman admitted to the Southern WCTU, but still Miss Willard

blames the negro for the defeat of prohibition in the South!

Frances W illard had no defence against this charge of segregation

practised by her organization. Ida B . Wells later called it a 'staggering

r·cvelation' which 'stunned the British people', and although chis was

something of an overstatement, she certainly appeared to gain support asH

r·tsu lc of exposing Frances W illard's apparent hypocrisy. T he ed itor of ell'·

\Ve.rtminster Gazette defended Ida by denying that she had expressed any r-w·•·

h111 red in h is interview with her, and shortly afterwards she was iovi ced ro ho1 h breakfast and dinner in the House of Commons. Finally the Anri ­

l.ynching Committee, set up on her last evening in the country, proved 10

lw Ida B. Wells 's g reatest t riumph . In her autobiog raphy she printed ll lis1

11f 1 he names of all the influential and p restigious members. Amon A thc r11

W<'l't MPs such as W illiam Woodall, Dadabhai N aoroji and A lfred Wehh ;

luhour leaders like Keir Hardie and the American Samuel Gompc•·s; !It t•

1•dirors of the Manchester Guardian, the Liverpool Daily Post, the London

l>,ti/y News, the Bradford Observer and the Contemporary Rrwiew; and k•:1d i 11

«lr ' 'IIY· including the Archbishop ofYork. The names ofboch Lndy ll t•nr

Hollu•r·se l and Frances Willard were on the lise as well , which ldn 1\ , Wt•ll

lf ' llll«r·kcd on as one of her greatest achievements .

11111 1 he antagonism between chc cwo Amer ican women did 11 0 1 t•lld

w11ll1· 1 l« t·y were both in London; and it continued co dmw in many otl ll' r

11 11 hw h si des of che Atlant ic.

Race und Gondor In Tomporonco Politic

II II' d 111 p111 r· w11 s 10 prov~· 11s long 11s i r w:1s hi 11 t· r·. A 1 1 hl· IWIII' f ol 11 Wt 'll

I'VI' Iiil INN IWN wldr II Wl' l't ' nil inrt'ITOIIfl t•t'll•d . llir ·s r, rlu ·r·c· Wil li t11Hrlf1 lrf

I1 11W111d 111111d IH't' j1 1d i((• III'OIIWIIII J-1 iiH• Iwli l•lri HII It Wil li lrlll1•r•d IIII Ni rl t• llll

Iiiii ' wrllrll 'll illilii •Soillir IH"riiii Nr• niiiH• IItl 'lllioiiNIIIId drlrlll- r•llll iilllll ' lrl

1•1•111 ltll 'll , 1H1I11 1 11 ~1 111 11111 llll ' llrl iNH 11 l rl11• \XII '' I'll Wl' ll ' 1 Ollll ' llil 'd , 1dlttll ' r1

rr urld l11 • diiii i)I'IIIII H 111 Wlll lll 'll 1ill1 '1 11rli11 11 rrl1rrlurl , l1111 J,IJHI 1111 '11 Wt ' ll.

illrtll jl llllrtiH • I '~ I II ' Il l rll y 11111111 irrdllllllillll l'-~, 1 11t 1 111 ~ 1 rrlllllitr l , l ~"' l - wr ll II fl11/1 IIIII J/111111 rll l' 11HI11H 1111 , 111111 ·.\'11.1 II l1111l/irl!illllll 111 J 1111d ! ~ llii.J

tttillt •M tltth ttlllll tilt~~ til!'ttJ Wt lt lilltt l·n l !Ji;•Ji•jiiUtl tilfiUIJ tllf'ii ltii Wit:ll

hlu1ks tll tt l w l dH •t~ ' l 'ht•Nt' ttll tdt •lltlflltlitttltlttlitllt\' tllitllu ;A thdliy ll 'l ltll:t

tra its to be l(>uml OVl' t w lt e lttlllt~ l y '''"' '" II tl11 l•ltll l JHtJ•IIhtttllll , IIIIW lt t•r d

from the restraining in fl ucnct' of s l ~tvt• ry . llnt ll t t'H Wt lltttd 'll 1 htt tii N 11 01 111

have 'an atom of race prejudice' looked l<;ss t'OttVltH 111~ wlwn slw l'l'IH'II tt•d

'what she had been told in the South ' - chat b lacks mu lt ip lied like lon tsl

and threatened the safety of good white women. The very l ~nglltlf\1' itt

which she expressed these opinions echoed the words of one of the SolJth 'll

most well-known academic racists, Phillip Alexander Bruce. ln a book

called The Plantation Negro as Freeman published in r889, Bruce expounded

his theory of 'regression'. For him the most striking example of the rewrn

to black savagery was the increasing frequency of 'that most frigh tfu l

crime', the rape of white women by black men. He wrote:

There is something strangely alluring and seductive to them in the

appearance of a white woman; they are aroused and stimulated by its

foreignness to their experience of sexual pleasure, and it moves them to

gratify their lust at any cost and in spite of every obstacle. This proneness of

the negro is so well understood that the white women of every class, from

the highest to the lowest are afraid to venture any distance alone , or even

wander unprotected in the immediate vicinity of their homes. 52

Second, there was the issue of segregation practised by white women's

organizations. Whether or not Frances Willard personally approved of it,

the fact was the WCTU permitted segregated sections in some Southern

states . Some of their leading white members, women such as Rebecca

Felton, who had been loyal Confederates during the war, were fiercely

opposed to the idea of working together with black women. 53 The fear of

losing Southern members was too great to prevent the WCTU leadership

from outlawing separate organizations for black and white women

throughout America. Like many liberals in the North, Frances Willard was

able to profess and believe in the theoretical equality of the 'races' while at

the same time turning a blind eye to the reality of segregation and

discrimination in more distant parts of the country. By 1897 the racist

climate had so degenerated that Rebecca Felton won huge popular support

by declaring, 'If it takes lynching to protect women's dearest possession

from drunken, ravening beasts, then I say lynch a thousand a week if it

becomes necessary.' Encouraged by friends and supporters she then

206

itliiJ Wit illilll l"flt ill ilti1t hlu•l

thil.ltltllltlll 11! tin) ljt!f!ltfl !lnWtL II l'qitli)' l W' ill.11d tllt.iltl it II II !111 ltlt_l tl llt l It il'itl! it hhtl Wt_Hil·lll ·· tllt v.'tll ltll l tlltl \' tlittllttl}l ill

li,(ll luti-tlllttlll vll ·\4' 111 \ll ltlt 11 \1'"'''''' ' ",, ... ,lltllt\' ld ,I'M 111 ~ l ~ tttll ,. !1 1111 It w11

lt!tt "'" ltll'tl w ll t~ll lttll ltdtllttl tl lilt• 11 lll t llllltl ~ ltip~ w11 1t hl ttt I ttll ' ll did \ill''''"'.\ wl tlt tl11 lwllt ll ii loll ty ttltiiiY 111 !I tt• \'V' l '1'1 I, ''" lit~lltt l\ JIHII H t'

lh11•l. Jl11t1 Wlll t ll ' ll Wt' l t' itiVtlt itdtly Vl ( littl ll ll i ll ltili • ltt NI ' l'li t• ~il l ' t llltlltlll \tpllh ttltl tlli 1111 ' 11 1111d 11111111' Wil t I Wl ' lt ' ' t t~ lli lfll lll 1111d tllil l' ltili ' ' tttld I ll itltl

t·- tllllll ditldtly tl ttii )\I' IIIIIS !111 11 11 1\ lt dttllk pt'I'YIII f.l 011 Whll l' Wll llll 'll

lltlltolt tlt •ttlltc •ly w tih WC' I' l! t, lti losophy, whi lt• the poss ihil tt y ol wdl

lllj , lll '-• 111 1 !111' ptit'l ol tlt t· so-ndlt:d vkti n1 s WllS vicw~·d 11s 1111 IH II II'H''II tl

IIi', HI • I III II ' I It II i I WI IS Il l) I just the idCil or W()IJ'\C il bei llg :t l' ti vt•l y j til ('l l',l ll '"

II • • ~ " " " Nli iiHIII Ii:t.cd so tl'li iJ) Y i\mt:r ic:an women ; Ida n. Wt·ll s lt tid ttl llll

~o~l • • · tl till' lorhidden topic of misccgt:nation . It was c:orntllOtt lwow lt·d gt•

tl1111 \Iiiii k WO IJl t' ll hnd suffert:d sexual abuse at thC hands ()t Wltlll' 1111' 11

ol11titll\ ~ l uvcry, 11 fa ct· 1·har was often described in abo litionist p t'OPIIW111tl il ,

111111 i! llll•l'l y in works of fi cc ioo. The idea, however, chac whit e Wll ll ll 'tt

ltti l{ ltt lind b lack men desirable was altoge ther a differen t issut: . 111 t H'I CI,

tit~ • wt· ll -kttown abolitionist campaigner Lydia M aria C hild lost llllll It ol

!111 po1w lar support when she wrote an appeal against miscegentltiOii lii WN,

1 ! t in;.~ several happy unions between white women and black 1l1l' l l. 1\vt' ll

1 htiiiJ.I h she dared co speak out, risking ' the world's mockery', she st iII It• It

tthlt~cd co distance herselffrom any such possible desires by clni minJ.I tl n11

II wtts only the lowest class of white women who would cons.idc•· s u ~ · h 11

11111011 , the difference between them and middle-class women beinJ.I '11

ttttlt 1 t: r of caste'. 55 Although it was almost forty years later, the rac is1n tl 11 11

ltltt n. Wells encountered both in Britain and in the Uniced Sllll('

t lllll:ti ncd the idea chat black men had long held suppressed desires lil t

whi te women. She constantly refuted this by citing the example ol

phmcation owners who spent extended periods away from home, leav ing 11

wi re and family in the hands of trusted slaves:

Do you remember when the American negro had his great opportuni ty(

W hen his master went into the field openly to fight against his - the negt·o's

- freedom, and left his wife and children in the negro's charge? Whru

wrongs those negroes had to avenge! And what a temptation to vengeance!

Yet not a man of them betrayed his master's trust. 56

207

Jln1111I'M Wlll,tlll , wlutll•' 111111111 IIi Itt t lu:J ~tt 111l1 !wl iH~ Itll d lu 1 111 till

pi'OblciiiS t'I I\I Nt'cl by lilt' l ~t • IHt V hllll lli' ilt tJ 111 111.11 ·1 il1ll'l l 111 jlld tlll1111 1 lil lilllhtti

to chink or het• Stlllld j ng tlll\0111-\ t It t• w l ti ,,. Wil li II II 1111 1111111 •1 N Ill "'' ' \ll/ ( '' I'll Speaking at the 1894 WC'I'U t.:OIIV(' IIttoll 111 ( lt ·VI' IIInd , ()lito , Jlntll'"

W illard attacked Ida B. Wells in he1· op<:oillf.l ttddt•t•ss, ilopill}-1 to s llmu

her on this issue for once and for all :

The zeal for her race of Miss Ida B. W ells , a bright young colored wornnn,

has , it seems to me, clouded her perception as to who were her frie nds and

well-wishers in all high-minded and legitimate efforts to ban ish the

abomination of lynching and torture from the land of the free and home of

the brave. It is my firm belief that in the statements made by Miss Wells

concerning white women having taken the initiative in nameless acts

between the races she has put an imputation upon half the white race in this

country that is unjust, and, save in the rarest exceptional circumstances,

wholly without foundation. 57

Willard referred to herself as a 'friend and well-wisher' and urged Ida to

'banish from her vocabulary all such allusions as a source of weakness to the

cause she has at heart'. She also accused her of misrepresenting the WCTU

while she was in England. After her speech there was not one resolution

offered that mentioned lynching, even though one had been passed

unanimously the previous year. Ida B. Wells, who was present at the

convention, recalled in her pamphlet, A Red Record, that she worked with

sympathetic WCTU members to produce one, but it was not adopted.

After the conference the WCTU paper, the Union Signal, reported a far

milder and clearly ambiguous resolution. It spoke generally about the need

to ban all kinds of lawless acts, but looked forward to the time when

the unspeakable outrages which have so often provoked such lawlessness

shall be banished from the world, and childhood, maidenhood and woman­

hood shall no more be the victims of atrocities worse than death.

Ida B. Wells finally met Frances Willard during this convention, after

the president had attacked her in her speech. In a chapter of A Red Record, called 'Miss Willard's Attitude' , Ida gave an account of their conversation

and conclusively demonstrated the way that white women were able to

silence and attempt to dominate their 'coloured sisters'. She asked Frances

208

11i ttl tlu_; \\IL i-ll lti11 · r11• · itt tit

ilt~tt Ml11 : lt .ttl 11111 ''" itiqntittll!l! 111111)' 1 Wll litlll " lljtl l' "li ' ~ tl• tli '•iltitd!Otl~· 111 L!ij \hllliltttltllut It Wi t ~ 11

1 1!i~' tl11!1 I \ld•t\ ''" '''1 " 1 fluJ wlllt r ··•illtftl ft i .t\1111 "' '' Wl1111 ld 11 " II"' lltlttl t ll l. III IW wIt y • Ill I hid I' IIIII IIIII Il l Ill I Wll I' I ll d I ~ I II II w IIIII Mill • 1111 "

It\ IIIII ! ll'ltlll~l Ill Wlltll . 111 \11 111111\ii il•l li\ 1111 \ 1111111 ~1' 11! Willi! ~111111 ' 11111 ' 1 ' 1 ~ 1 i!rtd \ll ld \111

1 \ll/ illt11tl 1111 '11 1\y tiii iiWI II'd tlt lll ldtl 1111111ild IIIII \JI.tllll ' 111 '1 1111

\ti.t titlllllil til l 'll jlii 'M~ illll ~l t\1111 - 111• lntdlll ' l Wtty 11! t'll \llt 'HII ill /-1 tllitt j\M 1111d

id tl1111 li11•1M Slw ttlltdt • 110 tlllt ' lltpl 111 ll 'lt llll lwr spt•t•t II dttt'lll jl, tlw 11 ~rll 11l

\lit I IIIIVI' III i llll , ll lthllll ~ ~~ Hit'W wwdtl iljljlt'lll '(•t\ till li t• Ill')( I t•dit i011 ol///1/rlll

\ '!lt.tl ln rl ll't ld ol withdrawi ng tlw lttt:tt'k tntldt.: 011 ldo , tk c•ditt\li ld

111111111111'd tl1111 Mi ss Wi llard hnd not intend t.: d tt lil t.:l'll l int<.· rpn' liiiiOI\ 111

1lu l1tiiH"•'H'' IISt:d , but 'employed ir co express a tend t.: ncy thilt IIII Hhlt ' il rl lil

'" l•tddic tiHHt ).l ht as a result of utterances so sweeping as son a-t I uti lt tiV

ltu11 11 111dt• hy Miss Well s'. Ida B. Wells's tinal comment Wllfl hllt••tl y

Hlj\IY · ' It is littl e tess chan criminal to apologise for the butdwn; IOtht y lilld

liltt!II IIOW tO repudiace the apology py declaring it a ftg ure ol spl'l't ll ' ,

Mt•ttnwhile in England a similar debate was held in till.' WOt•H'II '

llll q ii'W IICe movement. In early r895, almost a year after ld:1 H. Wt·II N l~ttd ttlllllll'd home, Lady Henry Somerset referred co Ida's 'injudi<.:io11 s spt 'l'l II '

111 \wr ,,ddrcss to the British Women's and World Women's Tttll jH'Itllllt

1 IIIIVt' IILion in London. Although the British women passed :1 t'(!No htli llll

tlt{IIIIISI I yncbing, it was followed by another supporting the pos i 1 ion ol tlu

W< :'I'U in America. Florence Balgarnie, secretary of the AIILi -LytH lit II

I wnmittee and an active temperance organizer, rose to Ida's dclc tHl' 111 1111

'•• loquent and impassioned speech ' , according co Catherine Jrnpcy' s t't'plll 1

111 Anti-Caste. 58 The editor of the London Daily News, with whose f11111il y

ld11 had stayed wh ile in London, was also quick to pour scom 011 1 lit•

l1 '11lperance organization's eq uivocating: 'The American ladies, led hy M 111M

Wi llard , appear to complain that M iss W ells had not sufficiencly min((•d

lll'r words in telling of these shocking outbursts of lawlessness.' '\

A furt her sign that Frances W illard felt threatened by Ida B. W d I '

r:unpaign was provided the sam e year. Early in r895 a declaration Wll

published in America, signed by leading radicals and former abolitionist n, 11bsolv ing Frances Willard of any blame in what she had said or nol s1 tld

about lynching. Having first established her abolitionist ancestry , 1 ht• statement announced that 'as President of the WCTU, and founder of till'

World 's WCTU, Miss Willard has always maintained the position challlll

209

t11h1111 llnc• lcHtld lcLt iHtWIIII\' ''' '"' •i •dt!iy<'. li WG tll ill lllt t ""'""''"" tlu

WC'I'lJ wctN o tgll n tt.c•cl tHI 1111 • l wtl~ t l1111 hll lt li lilli" 11111 1 tltt tfHitt llllllllll lti{l

its own inccrnal nnitic·s, 11 11d 11 1111 111 'to~t ll ll t ' ul tl11 ~ll tllht • llt lllt tl t'N 1 ololll!'tl

unions had been form ed with the hc.'t ii'IY tOtll ttll t' tll t' of k11ding to ltH IH'cl

women'. Assurance was then g iven t hnr b ind~ won1 t: 0 dc l c~n t cs Wt•t

received 'on terms of perfect equality with white women' at nnciorwl

meetings. 6° Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison both put

their names to the document, which was republished by Lady Henry

Somerset in an English newspaper in an effort to clear her friend' s name. It

was a dishonest attempt though, as Ida B. Wells's English supporters

quickly tried to prove.

One of these was Florence Balgarnie, who was also an active member of

the BWTA and editor of their journal, Women's Signal. When Ida B. Wells

decided to publish her attack on Frances Willard in Fraternity, Florence

Balgarnie, who was a journalist herself, had counselled her to act more

cautiously. She persuaded her to wait until she had spoken to Lady Henry

Somerset on the telephone in order to arrange a meeting to discuss the

matter before the journal was distributed. Ida did so, but was insulted and

threatened by the aristocratic English woman, who then hung up before

Ida could reply. Convinced of the need to support the anti-lynching cause

wholeheartedly against the temperance leaders' hypocritical claims, Flor­

ence Balgarnie threw herself into the argument. She challenged the

declaration published by Somerset, declaring that she was in possession of a

letter from Garrison proving that he had given his signature before he was

informed of what had happened at the annual conference of the WCTU

three months earlier. On this occasion, as we have already seen, a strongly

worded resolution against lynching was withdrawn in favour of an ambi­

guous one which repeated the charge that it was 'unspeakable acts' that had

provoked such lawless behaviour. Garrison was horrified at this 'apology for

Southern outrages', as Florence Balgarnie pointed out, but Somerset chose

to ignore her and printed the document exonerating Frances Willard again,

this time in the annual address of the BWTA. Balgarnie challenged her

publicly from the platform of the City Temple, but received such an

unsatisfactory reply that it made her determined to expose the truth. In the

November edition of Fraternity she asked two straight questions: first, how

could Lady Henry Somerset reconcile her original statement that the people

who had put their names to the document had also worded it, with her

subsequent admittance that it was she herself with Frances Willard who

210

I It cl11 .I '"'" ,j ,,_lllili ld itf til tU!ld, lt ~'W Wtlfl ll l"'~•i ihl f d ull ' ' " 'dt •lltl,

!1!111.' ''·· \l• ltlllhtd -ijlW'd dtt? tlt• llllctli !ll tlttJ t_l ,cy lu htll ' !ti M dc•c ilh , toctld

leU "' !hilt d11 Wl '' l'l I !l,cil 'r1111 dllllt iO ivt:8 •'I"'" '' 'Y tlll 11 ' \011 1 ngn insr l\' H~ li !tt l-' II l11 luu ll . 1111WII wlt it t l11t.l 11d.':" pl illt' 111 i\u • 1 wcvt•nt ion several

t•h~ I till II I Ltt• lv I lull y !-11111 H'l"t'l w•vt•t 1 t•pllc•cl 1 o 1 ht·st· qucsr ions in public.

!1\Ji!l:ll•_l llcci Htlll tll' Wi t ~ NI H kt•d It ou t IH'I' JOh nt the \'1/omert's Signal without

i[! rl•d ii)IIIIIY l onlpl' ltNIII ion , 1 ~' I I S III' c.:d hy the .B WTA executive committee

!itol lnty•cllll'd tiS 11 tt.•cnpcntnce lecturer. The following month she was

ltl.llttllt 'd wht• n llrcdcrick Douglass 's widow, Helen, wrote to her con­

ill ntiiiH tl11ll Iter husband had certainly not been aware of the WCTU's

1 u1 h11 i11 11 wlwn he gave his public support to Frances Willard, and that

111y ltnpt'll!'hrncnc of his integrity in this or any other matter' was an insult

, tllltl ll ltH' IIIOry . In the same letter Helen Douglass, who was white, recalled

11111illl 'l' incident which showed the influence of the South on Northern

tli iii ' II 'S l)l'ganizations:

It IN not two years since, at the great annual convention in Washington DC 111 th e.: National Woman Suffrage Association, an Afro-American woman of t•K!'tptional cultivation and refinement, a college graduate, a fine Greek and l 11tin scholar, and a writer of ability called at the Riggs House, the lll'tldquarters of the suffragists, to see one of the officers of the Association on husiness, and was ejected from the elevator, and not one word of protest lrom the Association, which hushed the matter up, and thereby lost this l{ l'llnd opportunity of embodying its principles, obliterating caste distinc­

t ion , securing justice, and putting itself on record in a way not to be tnisunderstood. To conciliate the white Southern sisterhood it paid the price , its own stultification, and the degradation of the coloured Southern

sisterhood. 61

This exclusion of black women would have been particularly hateful to

Frederick Douglass as he was the first man to support women's suffrage

publicly. The last day of his life was spent attending a women's suffrage

convention in Washington. In the third issue of Anti-Caste Catherine

I mpey had reported how Douglass refused to co-operate with women from

the National Suffrage Movement who were crying to form black women's

suffrage societies. He was obliged to make his reasons public to avoid any

misunderstanding. In a letter to the press he wrote: 'My appreciation of the

211

.....,

11 1111 1d lllll l illtl ' ll ttlllod Wil t lit 11 l t l11 It ill IIIII .I Wii til llll \\'11" 1111 - /llllt llll l ll l lll\

oppwd 1lon 10 III IVI II I-Iill!'" ' p11 11 lll'd ••lllttl•t -•I•M•IIf lll}illlti 'hllilltl 111 dl•lt•tut •

to a p rejud ice wh ich lw l ong~ 10 fl u• lntd ltiiiNIII 111 " ' I" ''' ' y, 1111d wlilt ll I !IIIIi !

is fast dyi ng out and aga inst wh it h rny who It• lilt• I 111M I ll'\' II 11 pnH t'N I .'1''

Catherine Impey, who by March 1 H9 5 h11d rT hr uu n lly , in t'Cs ponsc to

Isabella Mayo's efforts ro silence her , taken up che ed icorship of A 111i-C11.11 once more, added her voice to the criticism of the American wom cl) ',

organization. She first examined the infamous docum ent absolving !' ranees

W illard , focusing her attack on its references to the 'colour l ine' . Dy

allowing separate organizations on the grounds that it suited both black

and white women to work independently, she contended, the leaders of th"

WCTU were bowing to the demands of the white m embers to exclude their

black 'sisters' . Their claim to welcome black women on equal terms as

officers and delegates to the national organization glossed over the fact that

it was extremely intimidating for the few who were selected to attend their

'monster assemblies'. Catherine Impey concluded that the Southern con­

science was 'too blunted by the effects of slavery to be trusted where the

rights of coloured women are concerned', and if the North did not realize

the significance of this concession, then pressure would have to come from

elsewhere- 'from English protest, where feelings and conscience are less

benumbed'. 63

The Significance of Anti-l ynching Politics for White Women's Feminism

The detail of this controversy is important, I think, because it illustrates

the range of positions that different women took in their attempts to

formulate a political outlook that acknowledged both gender and race . It is

also significant that the public quarrel between Frances Willard and Ida B.

Wells first surfaced in England and was carried back to the United States

where it had originated. This was partly due to circumstance, in that

Frances Willard happened to be in Britain when the Society for the

Brotherhood of Man was being set up . But as a young, unknown black

woman in her own country, Ida B. Wells would never have been able to

attract public support for her criticism of a figure of Frances Willard's -

calibre. Yet in London her relative obscurity seemed to add weight to her

argument; she believed that the British public felt more sympathy for her

after the two temperance leaders threatened to use their influence to silence

2!2

111ild In llillf;tl Vif I il l}' ht ·d('!i' Il l

II U· t ol 111!1 pili )' ' l'il ll -·ll f•jotlll ti hll . 111 1-11•1di ,j lilti,d Ulll[iil id olllll lrlqtt 'tltdl • t

li\tllj\ltl i t~lltil r tlll ill tl lill llltl ljt wll h ,, W· l ,,jtl, II! llhdlll ~U I ~ I lll ttlld ,,, ,,,,,

I utili i ud Itt lid y•lll Ill I i ii ltd I u I Ill Ill "II II I It t! ,, ltll otll till i lllj d 11 ill I 1111 11 till

It

lw lt111i111 ,111d II" ' ''"'" "' '"' 1111~ ~· I' ' ''-' '"'"~~''"'' ' ··IHt·w l" '" ' 11,,, ' '" lil•.tl lltllll W11 111lt •t wllt'i lt t•t tlti llllll tii V!IIII Wt l ~ tlllljli tdl lt• lu•t ttlltl!' II WtiN tliiltl t•

Ill lilt .\tllt 'lil tlll t llltll'll t , 111 wl11 1111 1 It Wtl ~ '" ~' ' Mt't' ll 1 o ltoltl ~I ll HI ill li t it ili lt

i11111ti1ti lilllit 'l It' ll, WI !I ' ll' Nl'jl. ll '~l l( IIIII IIIII I fll\ 11 ti lltlbordll lli i iOII Wl ' ll ' tdM!l

Iii"' 111 t•v •·tyduy l ilt•. W il y did l d 11 II. Wt•ll s not lltl't' 111 01'1 ' oppoNlllnn 111

1\lllttl lllilllll siH· d id, si1Ht lwr tksll'i pt ion of sodal rdu 1io 11 H i11 ti ll ' So 11 tlt

~: 11 "'"' " III IWtlll(ll' lli ht y dose 10 those i11 parrs ol the 1\tttp it•d As ~ ~~ · · ltt't Mt ll llt 'q ll t'll i ty poi tH ed Oltt , che ha rdest part of her wo•·k in 1\l'itllt ll wu ill tti ii VIIItt.' pl.'oplc that black men were noc 'w il d b~:nsts ni'tt•t wltlll '

'""''"'/.1 W hen '/ 'be 'f'i111e.r drew che ~ttten c i on or Florence HH i t~llr l llt ' ' ' '" I

ilu • llllllll'rous ladi es upon che A nt i-Lynching Com m ittee' to ti lt' ' It t•

'I"'''" y \lnd atroc ity of his outrages on white women', it WliS tllll jttNI

111t•tt inp. 10 t he b lack man in America, bu t to everywhere w het·e ll tlll lll wit It

,, " '" kn sk in could come into contact with whites. 1'1tis be lief, which lurked in the recesses of the im perial imagi nlllion ,

lu11 i h<.:en more widely expressed, not in the context or 1ht: 1 \l'it~ N il I'll pt•t·icnce of slavery and abolition, but in reac tion tO upris i n).\S or hltll I,

tll loui:tl subjects in India and the Carib bean - in particu lar tht• lntl lttll

' M11ti ny' of 1857 and the Morant Bay uprising of r865, both d iscusst•d 11 1

1'111'! 1 . 6~ Although responses to the uprisings were part of a rn LI Ch 11 Hlll '

tll111p lex debate about the nature of dem ocracy at home and the lc).\ it in w

tiWI of imperial rule abroad , these rebellions and the m anner .in wh iclt 1 IH·y

Wt' l'e suppressed occupied an indelible place in the m em ory of I'l l ! till

tlt> tn inance . Yet it does not appear that the Brit ish anti- lynching t'lllll

pttigners saw useful analogies between the situation in the Empire 111 HI

t Ottd itions in the Southern states of America. T heir opponents in t lw

SoLtth, however, were quick to cite the cruel suppression of the Scpoy

rebellion as an example of barbarity committed by the hypocrit ical Bri tish .

W hile the 'ladies ' involved in the Anti-Lynching Comm ittee woLt ld hav\'

hcen too young to remember the actual events surrounding the insurrl.'t'"

t ions, they would have been familiar with the mythologies that devclopcd

as a result. Not being American, they might have been less sensitive co rlv·

outrage caused by Ida B . Wells's remarks about Southern white wotncn

213

BEYOND THE PALE

enjoying intimate friendships with former slaves, but they would certainly

have been aware of the impact of such arguments had they been made in the

context of British colonial society. The way that Isabella Mayo reacted to

Catherine Impey's proposal to her lodger was evidence that even when

friendship between black men and white women was possible, marriage was an entirely different matter.

I shall now consider what motivated the women who rallied behind

Frances Willard and lady Henry Somerset to defend the name of white

women in America. The details of the controversy belie the simple

conclusion that it was a conflict between middle-class white women who

saw themselves as representing what they understood to be women's

interests and middle-class white women who were more concerned with the

idea of helping oppressed people than fighting for their own rights as

women. By focusing on the writings of Frances Willard, Catherine Impey

and Florence Balgarnie, it is possible to explore the political beliefs that

these white women shared as well as where they disagreed with each other.

Frances Willard belonged to a body of women who believed that society

needed moral reform, and that woman's equality was justified by her

ability to provide moral and spiritual guidance rather than as an end in

itself. Ultimately, the WCTU was a conservative organization, although

many of its actual policies suggested some degree of radicalism, intersect­

ing with both socialism and feminism. There was a constant tension within

the network around its identification with feminist aims- the demand for

'rights for women' was considered 'too strident', for example. 66 However,

by the beginning of the twentieth century, the movement for social puri ty

was in decline, as Victorian ideas on morality became outdated. Fraaces

Willard died in 1896, and her life and her philosophy - summed up by th

call for 'a white life'- were very soon identified with an era that had passed .

It is no coincidence that Willard's views on race were also mor"

appropriate to an earlier historical period. She was, as she claimed s proudly on many occasions, a child of the abolitionist movement, and ic is

significant that in the r89os she still felt this was SLJtficient proof of h<:1'

freedom from racial prejudice. ' f was born an abolicionisr, rn11g h t ro I'CHd

out of the "Slave's Fri end ", she nnnounccd HI llw lw~ i1111in ;.~ or Jw interview in the New York Voirll. 'I' be PI'O jl l l ~llll t lit or o hoi j I ion iNtll WIIS ol'l I' ll

directed flr WOill{' ll iJJ 1 li(•i•· ~·11pnd 1

ir II P!ll'll i <·cl 10 rnuny I Wt'II IINI' ol liN ~ ''P! Hi r 1 lor l>uNit d t lll lti ~ f It vll li WN, 1 l11• III IINf l rllpOI I IIJII IIIII ' Ju•ill /j I IJc• clc •ft•ll ll ' Il l f l11• f1111 i/ ly i/111 i11 11 11 ~ 11 11ti H 111

' ·I

'TO MAKE THE FACTS KNOWN'

women, campaigning against slavery was entirely compatible with

demanding equal rights for women outside the home, as long as they still

accepted that women were basically responsible for the moral and spiritual

welfare of the family. As we have already seen, Willard's views on the

I iberation of black people beyond emancipation appear to have been confined

to a general sympathy for educated blacks and support for the policy of

repatriation.

Catherine Impey , whose views on racism were expressed through her

·olumns in Anti-Caste, was also born into an anti-slavery tradition.

I fowever, the changes she made to the masthead of Anti-Caste from r888 to

' r 895 revealed that she was more in touch with the aspirations and

11chievements of black people than Frances Willard was. As we have already

seen, the aim of her journal moved from being 'devoted to the interests of

coloured races' to claiming black · peoples' equal right 'to protection,

personal liberty, equality of opportunity and human fellowship'. This

1 hange reflected a shift from a conventional philanthropic stance, in

keeping with her Quaker background, to a more active recognition of the

11u tonomy of black struggles for racial justice.

Like Frances Willard, Catherine Impey, who lived in a household of

women, was in no way dependent on a man for her upkeep. Although this

docs not necessarily mean that she believed women should be active in a

wider sphere, her writings and involvement in the anti-imperialist

111 '1 work all take for granted an assumption that women should be as free as

111~· n in expressing their political opinions. She recognized that women had

11 purticular role to play in the anti-lynching campaign, though whether

lids was due to a sense of women's philanthropic mission is not clear. Her

III'NI issue of Anti-Caste stated her belief that purely physical differences J

l w1 ween people, such as those arising from 'sex, race, complexion,

11111 io nn lity', were arbitrary . However, as far as we know she did not

11 1111 pn ig n specifically for women's rights, nor was she a member of any

IIII IIJlll ig n lor women's suffrage dL1ri ng this period. Superficially- and there

11 liulc evidence co rnke ic lur1·her - her views on suffrage and women's

111 l1• i n liw publi<: sphcrc w(·r·t r •H i•·d y rompn t ihl e with Willard's.

In til t· onl y Sill vivi 11g wl'ili1111 hy Citll ~t• f'in (' on this subject an article

Wli ll t•n tw· lilt • Stl't't' l ' Vd htf!(' All utt• t' Nltt• 1 l'i••d l o t•dd i'(:Ns 1hc nrAt11nencs

fili i( W1 '1'(1 li •t•qt ll' lli/ y l'l t/ Mt•d II J41 ii 11 Nf Wl lllii 1111N d i ' ll ll llld fnl' fl it' V() j(•,

1' 1 I J'n

lt tl lill ll l li J.I WII N Jlllf wfllll tllf II II II Wii lll tll 111•1l1 1 1!1 11 ~ Hlil • I11 NI JHI Itlf r•d 0111 1 II" cl t!IIW' I II til Wll lll i' ll ill li lf Vfii /1 /Hdll il d Jlll ' '.' l l til il u I j ii iiNI . 11 ll 11Nlii JI fil 1•11

nfhu•tttl ' 111 l1111111' 1'111 • W•l• 11111 1111 tllil\'tltt it111·tl lli1 f tli"ll It '' ' I I ~ '''"""" '•

job 10 I'll lSI' 1 ht· 1 hild1t•1t wl11 l1• tlu• 1111 111 111111 , '"' 111 I ill lli ii Mitll •, l1111 1111

attempt tO undc i'SI II IH I !lw h tiSi i ohj t'tlitlll Ill Wlllllt'll 1

its opponents - that ic was 'unn tll urnl'. I h•t iiH•wy WIIM !l u11 'vt' IY lt•w

political or social arrangements of pc 1·ma ncn~t' llltVt' Ol'igi niHCd sok ly i11

evil' and therefore it was vital tO the success of' chc reform n•overncn! 1 o

understand why those arrangements evolved . People, she suggescccl , wen•

generally very slow to realize that as society changed so these old systems

became inappropriate and 'obnoxious'. But it was a mistake to think thA I

everything about the outdated system was autOmatically wrong and

override it by 'the iron wheels of modern theory-in-action' .

Catherine's argument was that the time was right for women to vote and

take part in political life because the family- 'historically the unit of all our

political systems' - had changed radically. She explained how the 'Division

of Labour principle' accounted for the greater involvement of men in

certain activities, but this was for immutable physical reasons rather than

ideological ones. It is significant that she turned to examples of 'primitive

"village communities" in parts of the East' to demonstrate the influence

that women had in the absence of their men. It was more often the case that

proponents of women's rights throughout the nineteenth century tried to

distance themselves from 'primitive' society by arguing that women's

subordination was an index of lack of civilization.

Apart from the fact that the family unit had changed so that women were

now often heads of households just as men were, the importance of that

'external life', which men traditionally saw as their domain, had altered as

well. She wrote: 'We must realise a state of things where national life and

organisation (in which men ruled) was, compared with today, feeble and of

small account and where local, even family life and organisation, where

women ruled, was full of life, importance and variety' . The loss, in modern

'artificial' society, was that women's influence and responsibility were

diminished at the expense of society as a whole. Now that the public

political sphere was so much more pervasive and accessible to both men and

women, it made sense for women tO be equally involved. At the same time

Catherine made it clear that she still believed that it was women who were

primarily responsible for maintaining family life. It was wrong to place too

much hope on endowing women with political power:

Even at present there are too many instances that women when suffered to

2!6

iiP' "" ! •H•h: ~- it,it ft 1 !i1i' pul!lH HI Jiiitii!Hil~ Ytlill It ll·'''"'l'''o''' ll"'' ''''"'• ilullt, lilt "• ,u iHpli·ol 111 1111 11i til t; ' 'i!f\' tt1!1d1_* i! l iltullj Ill •11 1d It t iiii H wlt li hit

111111111" \1-'1 1111111 ~ ltilltll 1111 ill iliil-(l ht•ltfl[) tlltloltllllllt HHIII 'II tlll y WI'

f11t : t il l U~ttlloilll till jil l'-1 111 ol tll'• il l tltl •t 11111 ''1 1111111 tlj\tti ii NI tllly ti illl/{ !1 1111

t[ll,\~ Ill tl11 IIIIth I Vtlhilll/1 Il l l1111til \' lilt wlil t ll I ~ tiH• ! 111~ 1 ~, htlll lilld y

pi.ll·llil\1

111 11111 l l'llpi111 1 1111tl IIIII 1IYIII~tllh11111 ill11 • Wlll ld .

1 ll •tltly tht•tt ' Hll' illi Jlllll lllll ovt·•·lttpN lwlwt·cn the policies of Frances ll~tlll l liltl Cu thcl'i nt• ln1pcy

1 ill ustnlled by this lase sentence. Catherine

Ill ,d ~ ll 1111 111'1 iv~· 111etnber or her IOCftl temperance organization and was

•tY lll.t' ly to have been an admirer of che WCTU leader before the

••lllljllll g ll tl,lllli nsr lynching began. I ly tiH· 1 i me rhac Catherine Impey wrote her article, the suffrage issue

\\IIIN It' ~ ' beginn ing to at tract greater popular support from women in

lltlt 11i11 . The trade union movement was rapidly expanding, and many

nddd l t~ -dass women involved themselves in employment issues with or on

lll' llltll oi working-class women .. In r885, Florence Balgarnie was

qtpoi n ted secretary of the Central Committee of the National Society for

\\'li lllen's Suffrage. She had already made a name for herself by her skills in

l11tl h organizing and public speaking, and she was widely respected for her

tlll •ltnitment to women's rights. In r889 she was one of a group of women who iounded the Women's Trade Union Association, and she was also,

tlti'Ough her work as a journalist, closely involved in the British Women's

'l't·mperance Association. An interview with Balgarnie in the Women's Penny /111/JCr revealed that she felt most at home when addressing meetings of

wo rking people, particularly men. 68 Born and brought up in Scarborough,

Yorkshire , daughter of a Scottish Congregational Minister, her favourite

hook as a child had been Uncle Tom's Cabirt. Education was another caus"

1 hat interested her and she helped set up the Scarborough branch of the

University Extension Scheme; for two years she sat on the school board

there , having been elected alongside men. In the same interview she named

Ruskin, John Stuart Mill and Mazzini as writers who had influenced her

greatly, although she also lectured on the life and works of her ocher

favourite author, Charlotte Bronte. Florence Balgarnie was, like Catherine Impey, an independent woman

engaged in reform work. More of a 'conventional' feminist by virtue of the

fact that she belonged to suffrage and women's rights organizations, sh''

encountered the anti-lynching campaign through her work as a journalist

217

-'

II I II I Wtl ~ IIIII td th• I ll pll ~~ it It)' \\ II Ill ti ll I·;·; llliliitf dtT!'dl' illl'i:l\'1'1 1 A li i'!

bci llg d ~·~ tt·d Nt't t t' ftii Y nl tltc• A 111 l I.)' IHIIIIIJI 1 lllttlldttt 't' i11 t HtJ. j , NIH

wrote an arcide ll hOllt ld11 II . W t'IIM Ill 11 l lll jlll l ll lll tlf.\il li lt' n dl t•tl ( ,' rMI

Thoughts. lt began:

The age of chivalry is nor dead nor dying. l c is 1-\ lori ottsly r~:n l nnd pr·cscnl

with us. This so-called prosaic nineteenth century thri ll s with romance, th" very air palpitates with deeds of daring and heroism . We have brave knight­errants in many a field, and, better still, women, the Jeanne d' Arcs of today , are not wanting. 69

Despite the purple prose, Florence Balgarnie's account of her young life

and her analysis of lynching accords completely with Ida's own version. For

instance, she contrasted the treatment of white women by black men with

that of black women by white men, and drew attention, using Ida's own

words, to the fact that black men were being lynched for rape when the

relationship between the victim lynched and the alleged victim of the

assault was 'voluntary, clandestine, and illicit'. The article went on to

describe Ida's success in Britain and its effect on her work back in America,

where at last an anti-lynching campaign seemed to be gathering momen­

tum. Balgarnie was aware that Great Britain 'should be the last to condemn

another nation' when 'it came to race prejudice, but that it was in the spirit

of 'goodwill, brotherly kindness, and large human affection' that they were

pressing for equality between black and white in America.

The key to the connection between Florence Balgarnie and Catherine

Impey can be found in their use of language. It was this concept of 'human

brotherhood' that inspired many of those who actively supported anti­

racist causes. Throughout the nineteenth century the word 'brotherhood'

had been an ideal most often expressed in religious language, but as the

socialist movement gathered pace, it acquired more secular and literal

connotations. The development of Fraternity into an overtly socialist

publication illustrates this process perfectly. In r895 the SRUBM became

the International Society for the Recognition of the Brotherhood of Man,

and the motto 'Fellow-Workers' was adopted. A statement in the magazine

declared: 'We are endeavouring to widen the scope of our work in order the

better to serve the interests of the weak and oppressed in all land~'. The

revised aims of the new society were:

To declare the Unity of the Human Race and to further the Brother­hood of Mankind.

218

,J lti •t I• 0 Ill til !l~ titjl •ll l t

llr. i Alllltlli~lq• I till.!

tdl Al tt'l l•""' ~t\uH•'" "' ,,. 1 , .1," . i 'lltiUI_il " " I iiii I " ' I"'"" Ill,, itl tqi\1 '""''llttl dtt Ht •N JIIIII•I Itilltii'M till.!

ll~tlpltttlili '•• tlllt l ''"I"' ltdl l' tlllll ~l~ l 11\'illt tltt .\lil Y tt l t lu• ~ t lltl t ll (t·~ t ll ltlll) 111 \1111111 I du• Wt-tt\ (~~tll ltll i l II

1i lit ···· tli lll ~ IIHVI' II MtHttill ttlllil y tl l ll t' l'!'lll I WI!' 10 t " (' OjW I\ l O~ t•diiOI'itil l ll

\ 1111 c,, /1/~, whit It l11•d I'CIIOllll( 't•d 11 ll 1( )1' 11 \ll of' int•qtmlity , indt1di11~ 1hw

IHJ! wn II IIH' II IIIId w o1111' tl. Wt)ln ~·o ~·o11t inucd w be invo\v(.'d In 11ril /tllll lly ,

IIIJWt·vt•t, l ~ ~t lw lla Muyo d o i.-ned co be che founder oi the new sm lt.· ty, 11 11d

ltn IIW II polit ks were radicall y innucnced by che new soc i ~t li ~ t Npllli

I IIIItH III t i11g C:urolinc Marcin as the new editor, she wrote !'lilt! ' hri ~ llt t• l .!ttY • lil t ' now <.\awning for our work! For we have ac lnsc gn incd 11 lir111

~ l t lllt I poi IH in that very sec cion of society which we dared co cnl ist wit It " "' 1/1~ ll'!ll'l.wrs of the world, all of wh?m we long ro sec banded cogecher nsj iJ/IIJ II I 1/ 'rlt ~1111', 1 , si nee only chey can stand against the world's forces of w ron~ 11 11d Hthht•l·y.' 11 Caroline Marcin, who died only weeks after caking LIP h ~· ·· po~ l , Wtl'i 11 hou t to become trade union organizer for the north oi St'Ol h•11tl 1

I111V III J.I; written and lectured extensively on 'Labour matters'. She tOO WtH! 11

I ll ris tian, as Mayo was at pains ro point out, and 'was led on tO ht•1' rUOHI

tttlw nced standpoints, not by "revolutionary" pamphlets, nor evt·n hy " t'l onomic" considerations ... but by the earnest study of the Nt•w

'lbltament itself'. 72

l'raternity was evolving during a period of popular imperialism, whi t II

tkmanded new arguments and new tactics. In the 1896 annual mccrin~ ol

1 he ISRBM , a resolution was put forward which lamented 'chc prcstnt

outbreak of "Jingoism"' and condemned the policy which had led 10

lttempts by different European countries to divide up Africa. The mnll who proposed the motion argued that the society should try to educate 1 bt·

working man in the true principles of fraternity and persuade him thllC rlw notion that trade follows the flag was all 'nonsense' .

73 This emphasis on tht•

working man dominated the magazine in the last few months of its li il'

under the editorship of Frank Smith, who succeeded Caroline Marcin in

t896. In one of its last editions he published an article in favour of women's

suffrage in an attempt to redress the imbalance of language. The wricer

began by saying that he - or she - had never considered the fact chac

219

J

' l't~lll ' ttdly ' w1 1 ~ 11 ttl 1 1 ~11tll1u Wt•ll ltlllt ll w l·p;_ltt i Wiltt 1111 1111 1'1'1 " ' 111

Hl'f.l lllllCIIt wt iN tilt• 1,111111 111 1 IIIII' ll utt ' ilu '' '111 1.1 \''t lllt • '''"""''"~ · tllttl It can't gee it unti l Wt>tlll' ll li l't ' f't 't't' 111td lut vt. li ll'l t !'t ill Nlll ll t' 111 tlt t•

management of it '. 1 ~ Readers were t•x hOJ'!t•d 10 i ltl td. ol t li t• 'IHtl ionul lttt ll lt '.

of the great human home of the race, denit•d t'Vt' ll tiH.: pw·t·i<: iplltion ol

women in the management of i ts affairs , and say if you can wondct· t h 111 i 1

falls so far short of being ideal'.

The changing language of Fraternity expressed perfec tly the transition of

the anti-lynching campaign from a generally middle-class phi lanthropi~

concern to a more concerted attempt to involve the working class in a

protest against imperialism in general. As the movement became more

infused with socialist ideas and dedicated to the task of converting workers

to its cause, so the concept of 'fraternity' became more literal. Despite the

attempts of women workers to form and join trade unions, the ethic of

labour politics was predominantly masculine and the word 'fraternity'

inevitably came to be associated with men, losing its previous humani­

tarian meaning . The vision of 'human brotherhood' shared by Catherine

Impey and Florence Balgarnie had included justice and equality for all,

regardless of sex, race, nationality or class. At that time there was no

language to express the particular connections between women and black

people , beyond the vocabulary of slavery and emancipation, yet it was

through the anti-lynching campaign that those connections were made

explicit.

This was ultimately the significance of the short-lived movement. It

showed the possibility of an alliance between black and white women in

which white women went beyond sisterly support for black women; by

confronting the racist ideology that justified lynching, these white women

also began to develop a radical analysis of gender relations that intersected

with class and race . Whether or not they were 'feminist' can be judged

perhaps by the way they lived their lives and identified themselves with

social and political issues - the implications of their own independence

were that they believed women should be free to choose how and with

whom they lived or associated themselves. By refusing to accept the

portrait of innocent and vulnerable white women painted by those who

supported or ignored lynchings in the United States, they were not only

defending the rights of the black population but also claiming a different

and more active ver:;ion of femininity. As a result, they threw into relief a

range of conservative beliefs about both women and black people, not just

220

ll lllll ll lll itl l ll 'tl hntll h11 lt.ll t)t 111•Jil u jtjiltlllt''

l11 II !"lf b 'l'" jllllj iii 'Vii Vfl llt1 II WJ I ~ IIIII 11 I 1! •1 111 Ill dl " l\ 11111 IWi "' I '( II I It t jllt l ilil " ttl 1l11• WII IIH' II who

" i'l"'"' ttll tht II \Y./1 11 11 ,111!1 tlt 11~ 1 •·lilt 1 tit.tl tt• •il ''"''' l11•1, hut thc•·c wer" 1.) 1111111 11 dllll ' ll ' tlt l' ll W l1111 llttlll tl'• W dl tttd tt11 d oti11·1H in the temperance

ll ll tl' tllll ' llt MIIW tlu • t•t N t• l vt~M 1111 IHIHI'Iy 11 '1"''"' '"'' ' ' /l. wonw n's interests, both

i tttlll ti n!' lnlji<'Y 11 11d llloll 'll tt• llt tl wltlllt ' dvt li ll't d themselves co be advo­

' till '• 111 llllll ll illi Hot iH'rhood , wlud1 t•xpresscd , as we have just seen, a desire

ltll lltdvt • t '~ llll'qun l i ty ncross m<.:e, dass and gender. T he second difference

, , ~ tl utt those who were offended by Ida B . W ells failed to see the

11111 nd It y of n•cisrn wh ich worked both to oppress black people and, in the

tl l ~tl ll l lyot:hing, to Lt ndermine more radical ideas about women as well .

Notes

lmcrview with Ida B . Wells in the Westminster Gazette, IO May 1894; also quoted in

l i,lvld M. Tucker, 'A Memphis Lynching', Phylon: Atlanta University Review of Race and

I Hllu,.v, vol. XXXII , no 2, Summer 1971, p. 120. live Banks, Faces of Feminism: A Study of Feminism as a Social Movement, Marcin

lltilll'o'tson, Oxford 1981, p. 102. 1 Manning Marable, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in R tiCC

/ 111/llim l Economy and Society, South End Press, Boston, 1983, p. 15. 1 Jacqueline Dowd Hall, Revolt Against Chivalry: jesse Daniel Ames and the Womo11 'J

I :,1111/Jrlign Against Lynching, Columbia University Press, New York 1979, pp. 134- 5. ~ R. M. Brown, Strain ofViolence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism,

t )~ f(>rd University Press, New York 1975; H. A. Bulhan, Frantz Fanon and the Psychology o.

llfilmssion , Plenum Press, New York 1985 , ch. 8. 6 See, for example, Ralph Ginzburg, 100 Years of Lynchings, Black Classic Press ,

I lit! t i more 1962fr988, a book compiled entirely from press reports during the period 1880-

I \)(ll .

7 Bulhan, p. 157· 8 The source of information for much of chis part of the book is Alfreda M. Duscco·

~d . , Crusade for justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1970. For further reading about the life aqd political influence of Ida B. Well s, who is now being acknowledged as one of the most important black figures of hco·

generation, see Joanne M. Braxton, Black Women Writing Autobiography: A Tradition Witbin t1 Tradition, Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1989, pp. 102-38; Hazel V. Carby , Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist, Oxford University Press, New York/Oxford 1987, pp. ro8-16; Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race, rmd Class, Random House, New York 1981; Paula Giddings, When and Where I Enter: The I mjltiCI

of Black Women on Race and Sex in America, William Morrow, New York 1984; Dorothy

Sterling, Black Foremothers, The Feminist Press, New York 1988, pp. 6r-u8.

9 The Times, I August 1894.

221

111 I 11111)11,1••1 1111do !110 1111' ill f'lllooloo • lililil lllllhlfi1111 Ill vl"if 11/IY fll i ll' fllli ' lu• )Ill W IIIII 11 /1/

I I Alii/ C.'lllt~. VII I, VII , llpd l 1/IIJ~ Ibid .

ili1iil•liiHiilfiWdli ""''' lnld

I 3 A nti-Casto, vol. VI, ) lllllllll y o HI) 1,

14 Isabella Mayo was also n. novelist· who wo•ott• 1111olr • lilt• J1Ht•11dony" 1 ol f!dWiill l Garrett. She later wrote an autobiography cnfl cd Nul'l!llt•rthltll 11j lflbat I Sttll', Whrtll 1./t'l'l

Through and What I Learned dttrilzg More than Fifty Yeat:r o/Sorl11/ tllltl Utorttry 1Jxjlorlc11r6 ()oil 11

Murray, London 1910) which unfortunately contains almost no reference (() her pnli tknl activities.

15 The Sun, 26 August 1894. 16 Duster, p. 214.

17 Anti-Caste, vol. VII, January 1889. For more informacion on racism in Britain nt this rime see Douglas A. Lorimer, Colour, Class and the Victorians: English Attitudes to th

Negro in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, Leicester University Press 1978; James Walvin , B lac,

and White: The Negro and English Society , 185 5-194 5, Allen Lane, london 197 3; Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain, Pluto, London 1984.

18 Duster, p. 20.

19 Duster, p. xvii.

20 Duster, p. 64 . See chapters 6 to 8 for Ida B. Wells's own acount of her realization that lynching was a form of political and economic terror.

21 Duster,p.65.

22 The Times, 6 November r894.

23 Letter to Frederick Chesson 1886, Rhodes House Library, Oxford (Ref: C138/r63-74).

24 Anti-Caste, vol. IV, January 1891 (supplement). 25 The Friend, 4January 1924.

26 For a discussion of this occasion see Carby, pp. 3-19. 27 Anti-Caste, vol. IV (supplement) January 189r. 28 Anti-Caste, vol. III, January r89o. 29 Anti-Caste, vol. III, June r89o. 30 Anti-Caste, vol. II , January r889.

31 Her actual words were: 'We hope little by little to give some insight into the evils of Caste as it prevails in countries where our white race habitually ostracises those who are even partially descended from darker races; and by circulating in our pages the current writings of prominent and thoughtful persons of coloured races hope to give them fresh opportunities of presenting their case before white races.' Anti-Caste, vol. I, March r888.

32 Anti-Caste, vol. II, August 1989. 33 Anti-Caste, vol. VII, March 1895.

34 For Ida B. Wells's account of this, see Duster, ch. 14, 'An Indiscreet Letter'. The only account that remains of this incident is in Ida B. Wells's autobiography, compiled years later after Ida had lost touch with Catherine. However, assuming that she kept a diary

and that her memory was good, there is no reason to suspect Ida of embroidering on the affair, especially as she was implicated in it as well.

35 I am indebted to Stephen Morland for his help and interest in remembering Catherine Impey, or Katie, as she was known, as an elderly relative- one of the pleasanter ones- who visited his family when he was young, and for suggesting further contacts.

36 The Friend, I June 1894.

222

I

lillllfllll/ l'olll Alilllllljill

(Jul ltl i. 1111d •11/1"1 111 1111 1dli!IIA

ltn Jllllliild 11111-loli lid ol y ~ ~~ filyli , 1'1' Jfll I)

/iollilllflll, vo l II , Hq •ll' ill l lli liiiJ oj

l'l /iollilllf/ 11, VII I II , Atl~l l ~ l i ll!J,I

l11 1 1 •Ill 1 loll •toll d i/11 1111111 '•1111

/ll llthli lfllll Iii llili 1illl 11 l 11 1'1illli1 1dl y dliHI loll 111dy 11 Hl1111 1 Ill ilool dill ' I ii Ii i I'" ,, •• li11l1 ,,111, 11 ol 1l11 • w ll' ill llllon ol

(I I hi N N II ~~I·H illlll IH NIIJIIIIIIII 'd liy fd1• II, Wl'J IN'Il uc<.:ou 111 of Catheri ne Impey's first

m• l ~•l illlll wl !l1 fNnht•ll u Mu yun h11111 ly111 11 1' '11 : "'response co Mayo's q uest ion about why !111 I llilii·d Hltlii 'N ol A11wrku wns bi ll' ll i n~ hurrwn beings alive in the nineteenth century

Ml•• liotpt·y's rt·ply w:ts evidently no t socisfacrory ' (Duster, p. 85).

ld11 , II. Wells, United States Atrocities, London r893 . 11 l\iu l11 trn Leslie Epste in , The Politics of Domesticity: Women, Evangelism, and Temperance

Ntn~lrMth<.'wtury America, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT 1981; Mary

llo11 luu1 , l 'rwlr~.r \'(lil!ttrd: From Prayers to Politics, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1944; IIIII h III!Hlin, flrtmces Willard: A Biography, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel

11111/lolldon 1 ()86. 11 Com:spondence of Helen Bright Clark, Clark family archives, Street, Somerset.

ll1 l1•11 llr·iJ.Iht Clark was an interesting figure in her own right. Daughter of the Liberal MP

1111111 ll••i)lht, she married into the Clark shoe family at a time when the industry began to be ~· 1 y pi'Ofitable. She maintained many of her-father's contacts after his death , and was in close

1 ill IIIII I with American feminists such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady StantOn , as

W1 tl l us black and white abolitionists from America. Much of her correspondence wich Wl lllll' ll reveals the class nexus of transatlantic radicals, from which Catherine Impey would

lu1vt· been excluded , possibly on account of her slightly inferior class background . Her

1 iii 'V Ious engagement to a member of the Jess well-off branch of the Clark family may also

h11vt· explained why she was not in the same social circle as Helen Bright Clark.

'I ~ Voice, New York, 23 October 1890.

lfO See Part 5, pp. 240-41. lf7 Ellen Carol Dubois, ed. , Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B . Anthony: Correspondence,

o·itings, Speeches, Schocken Books, New York 1981, p. 123. ,,a Duster, p. 2ro. For an account of the dispute see Duster, ch . 25, 'A Regrettable

fll iCrview'.

'1·9 Westminster Gazette, 21 May 1894. See also Duster, pp. 204-8. 50 Westminster Gazette, ro May 1894.

51 Westminster Gazette, 22 May 1894. See also Duster, pp. 208--9.

52 Joel Williamson, The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South

1im·e Emancipation, Oxford University Press, New York/Oxford 1984, p. 121. 53 Williamson, pp. 124-30, Felton is an interesting example of a white Southern

women's rights campaigner who actively supported lynching. She became known through

her association with her husband who was a congressman, but by 1893 was a national fig ure in her own right, working as a politician, journalist, prohibitionist and feminist. From

1890 to 1893 she was a member of the all-white Board of Lady Managers of the Chicago World's Fair, which refused to allow black women to have a representative. In response co

an exhibition at the Fair organized by Harriet Beecher Stowe around the life of Uncle Tom ,

she arranged an exhibit depicting 'the actual life of the slave', with 'real coloured folks'

223

p11111111~ 1111d 1111 dlil)l 111111111 , fil ii\' Iiiii tf11 I lllltfll ollhl j!l ill[ lil. ll•11 II II HI! Iiiio ·II 1 1111114 di~ jlitll ' Ill

diiiii !'H IItlly , IHIIIII olilll ' 11 111 1 lllllll'llilllo>lll

Wl ll lu ntNIIII, p. 1 All

Ko r·cn Sn nt ht~ l!pp l t•l , ' llt td lly llondH, '1'111 I nil 1• 11 111111 IIIII 111111 • 111 llt•roilniHII i lllld Abolition ', RopresonltllionJ, .l iJ, fin II • !)HH, p. •1•1 ' l'ltiH 1111 11 11• lll lll liiiiH 1111 iiiii ' II'N illl

discussion of the theme or misccgcnnlion In illlii •H illvt•ly ill 111111 . St•t• II INo jiiHI('H Kliilll•y,

Amalgamation: Race, Sex, and Rhetoric in tho Nillotcolllb·G'vnlllly Amorimn Ntwo/, Urt't' IIWOOI I Press, Westport, CT/London r985 .

56 Westminster Gazette, ro May r894.

57 Ida B. Wells, A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and A lleged Ctmses of Lynchin{l.s inlh United States 1892-1893-1894, Chicago, r895, p. 8o. See ch. VIII , 'Miss Wi lln1·d 'N Attitude', for her account of the meeting between Frances Willard and Ida B. Well s.

58 Anti-Caste, vol. VII, June/July r895. 59 Ibid.

6o Lady Henry Somerset's Annual Address to the British Women's Temperan"" Association, May/June r895, in BWTA Archives/Collection.

6r Fraternity, vol. IV, July r896. 62 Anti-Caste, vol. I, May r888 . 63 Anti-Caste, vol. VII, March r895. 64 Duster, p. 220.

65 Lurid accounts of slave violence in the Caribbean dating back to the eighteenth century were also used co stoke up opposition co the abolition of slavery in America. See

Forrest G. Wood, Black Scare: The Racist Response to Emancipation and Reconstruction, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA I970, p. 28.

66 Epstein, p. I4 7.

67 Catherine Impey, 'Some Thoughts on the Women's Suffrage Question', Street 'Village Album', c. r887.

68 Women's Penny Paper, vol. r, no 2r, r6 March r889. 69 Great Thoughts, r894, p. 384. 70 Fraternity, vol. IV, January r 897. 7r Fraternity, vol. III , July r896. 72 Ibid.

73 Fraternity, vol. III, June r896. 74 Fraternity, vol. IV, January r897.

224

ti I I

~~~ il11t11 1 I '"' j.,;~ ltli1 1l lf! [ttiliJII1tl1 ft litlll

~I o iii\ ' 1111 lttl!'lto ~l ot fllll •II II! I I Iiiii Ill lltl1 lu ·o lltl 1111 l uowl ~ t il 1111 iiol• lilj to lt oll" ll •t l ti ~ l

111111 WI ~ lt 1dllu IIIII lollllill' \l' lllti1111W.

l'lu Mt~tlll • t N ul !111 lt toq ollt ''" ' totlliiii •IN o lu~ 1111 ,

l'ttutt llltlltl tlt• !Ill 11 1 ' " " '"' ' tl 11•y lw11 t 1\tl lll lltd it's <.:n il.

(In ll ti llln 'N It y '' " ''IIIII III Aldnt 'N Ntdtty sht>rcs, 'l'ht•y 111 '111' tltt' n tll10 dt~t y 11 nd IIIHlWCr ic by scores.

St•t• t ltt•lll trooping tO the standard, hear them answer to the cry

Anoss our lilr-nLong frontiers (Theirs not to reason why).

'J'It t h11nd rhnc rocks the cradle is the hand that rocks the world,

And ir waves above each infant head a Union Jack unfurled.

l horus)

They are the Mothers of the Empire,

'l'hc Sisters of the Free-

I lands across the sea;

'' iris of the Bulldog breed!

From New Zealand and Australia, Ceylon and Wai-hai Wei,

Bermuda, Malta and Bangkok,

Chips of the Grand Old Block. 1

I 'Ids song was written and performed in the late r 940s, in our mothers'

lllt•t imes if not in our own. Today it seems ludicrous to have still been

1 t•lt·brating a brand of patriotism more appropriate to the turn of the

1 t'lltury at a time when Britain was rapidly losing her colonial possessions,

(.Jitl it does serve as a reminder of how recent that history is. For many white

women in Britain the immediate memory of Empire was overshadowed by

I It t 1 9 39-4 5 war which dominated the early lives of those born or growing

HP in the 1950s. Since then there have been various attempts, both in

lorcign policy and at home, to revive the idea of the once 'Great' British

1\rnpire and restore a sense of that identity to the national collective. As

lllOSt people were aware at the time, the war with Argentina over the

Falkland Islands in 1982 provided a convenient symbol of Britain's

rapacity to become the Mother Country once again, sending forth troops to

protect a remote colony threatened by aliens.

Post-war feminism developed as a political and cultural movement

during a period of continuous reconstruction of colonial memory, which

has been shaped by specific forms of racism operating within the shifting

227

C 1!11 M\ Hq tt ll lll Hl il"lll illi i t ll1

11 IIIII I I ~ )' ii Wtlll '

neSS ol it s OWII l tl ~ tOI /rll l tiiii(I ' X ( l 11 1 ~ 111 11111 !1 11 t'i ljHII I Ill lt11 I, ll i t'II HIIJ11 '11H'II(

with chi s pmcess. For· insttlll tt• , 11111 11 ll 'tt ' tlll )l tlu •11 ~ t ' I ' III N 111 llu vt• ht•t•tt 11

resounding silence concemi r)g tillY pcr·swutl t ll tllil 't 1 IIIIIN to tilt• twopk wl111

were involved in the coloni:ting process, pnt•tit ul111'1y tile 'Morhers of tilt•

Empire'. The women's liberation movement chat emerged in the I ott•

1960s was full of women whose mothers, aunts or grandmothers wcr"

affected in some way by the emigration of British people to different pares

of the Empire- there can certainly be few white middle-class families who

did not have colonial connections in some form or other over the last eighty

years. Wealth acquired in the colonies provided for many sons and

daughters to attend private schools, for example, and later universities .

There must have been a significant number of feminists - and post-war

radicals generally- whose education was paid for by money earned through

the labour of Indian tea pickers, Malaysian rubber workers or Kenyan

coffee farmers. The point is not to devalue anything about feminism in the

196os or 1970s by drawing attention to this, but to emphasize the

connections with Empire that have been played down, even if in the

interests of solidarity with the anti-imperialist struggles of those same

workers' descendants.

Apart from a few outstanding anthropological essays, I have been unable

to find many attempts to analyse, rather than describe, the roles of white

women in pre- 194 5 colonial society. 3 While white feminists with colonial

backgrounds may not feel it is necessary or desirable to talk about this

aspect of their personal histories, the majority of black women living in

Britain are in an entirely different position. Depending on the specific

history of their country of origin, they are visibly and personally connected

to the British Empire whether they wish to recognize this fact or not.

Women from South Asia, from the Caribbean, from East and West Africa,

are largely descended from former colonial subjects whose lives were bound

up in different ways with white British administrators, soldiers, business­

men, missionaries, doctors, nurses or teachers. The feminism of those

black women who began to immigrate to Britain in the 1950s has

consequently been derived from a network of political concerns and

priorities quite different than those that influenced white women during·

this same period. It is probably even true that black women's insistence

that racism and imperialism be included on a feminist agenda has made

many white feminists even more reluctant to come to terms with colonial

228

H-lrii•i t ii 11 ·1111111

I •'I ''"''' I II III II I l l:t l I ll Iii i i

ilit lt plnnilln l ,, · i 11 ti l11

llitlfi11M lt itl ltllit I 111 1 lt •11

~ j ll •t ll th,d 111 w ltll t l t lll l ll l ~ l il ti11 l l11j! tllll l ~· II I III H, Wlll"ll II 1 111 ~ tlll t lll\ llt 'd

I ll ,t.\ .\ 11111- l tltlll Wll ll ll ll 1 ~ I • t •t l lt ll ll 1 l 111' .\ 11111 _,, \,tl tii ii Ji ll j\ 1111.11 1 t iii ii i ~N IVI '

' "" " ' " Il l )\ IIIII lt •t•IIIIH" tlllll ' ' '' " ' III II NIIII II ~ I II 'NN, till• jlll ll lilll ~ , ,, dt•l'pl y

lllt llh ''" '" Kt•ll lthltlll ', l lllll ll l ttld ~ llii Y Wt' il tiVt ' IIIKIIillt lc•tlll y c•xplwt•c\.1

ltl t'tll lt tlj tht• tSIIIIYS in1his book I hilVt· looked Ill di!Tcn'lll II SIH't IH of' !Ill

hll ttlly , 01 hiHtor·ics those tluu t:tkc Cu ll occount of t'll t:e aH well liN f-l l ' tHI~ · ~ 1111 1 1 lt1 NH - in order to rni se qucscions chat arc relevant 10 COIIl t' lliiHlllll

lt" tlli tdNIII. In my conclusion I wane co look ac sornc of chc prohk tt iS lltlll

'l""~ t l oii S i11vo lvcd in interpreting che imrnediace rcconscrucrion ol lii stotl

1 tl tlll ' ti\Ot'Y. Pose-war feminism has uncovered an enormous IIIIHHIIII ol lll ltllllllll ion about women's lives in the past and their res istance co dillt•t'l' '' '

IIIII ll S or oppress ion, and in doing so has identified centra l quest ioml ol

jUIWt'r llnd knowledge relating to the very concept of history . T hcrt· hu, , I111Wt'ver, been less emphasis on the role of historical mcrnot·y in 11t1 '

dt v1•lopment of contemporary forms of domination. Whether or not ti H'I!'

til l' personal reasons for overlooking it, one of the problems chat al'i scs It O til

IIIHitl"fl cicntly exploring this recent history of Empire is the lack of cl'i 1 in ti ,

lt•lllillist reaction to the way that the memory of colonialism is consttlt ll ly lll' ing recycled and reconstructed. I have already mentioned che wny tl llll

tlus memory is evoked in relation to Britain's changed political srn t us i11

tit( international world, but there has been a corresponding cultll t'itl

1 t•t rospection of Empire as well. It is as though enough time has elapsed lw

1 he for mer Empire to look back nostalgically at the raw imperialisn"' tl u11

ht: longed to another era. Such reflection is guided by conternpOt'iii'Y

ideologies of race, class and gender which make sense of that past i11

politically charged ways that range from self-criticism to celebrat ion . I

chink that by overlooking this important cultural phenomenon fcmini s11 l

loses invaluable opportunities to contribute to this process of reintcrpr'L'

Ultion; as a result, feminism is less effective in understanding and cbaog it1H

oppressive ideologies of race, class and gender today. I used the words 'recycled' and 'reconstructed' to convey two levels ol

producing historical memory . The first refers to cultural material that came

directly our of the colonial experience, but which continues to be absorbed

229

ttlld 1 ' II Jttyt •d l111 11 Vt ll II 1 y nl 11 ·11 111 11 ~ I 111 r T 111 iOII o1 I 1 It:,; 111111 Ill oily ' ' ~ 1 1111111 • 111

llft•l n !Itt• 1\ lltjl ht•, Will'llll'l 111!111111 . til llltitlllt , lollilllllljV I' liiiiii'IIII 'HH IIlll

of' ' l'luu 's how it WIIS', W h l' l'l' I'VI' I YO III ' klli 'W i111 •lt pltlil ' 1111d il11• U lliN"

quences of steppi ng ouc siue it . Piu ion sc•c•lltN In I Il l VI' olf t· n·d 11 foil' JttOi t'

complex view in which both the mechan ks lilld I hi.: crh i<.:s or 1\mpirc lltl '

explored from varied perspectives - and in chis context l am ca lki rl specifically about literature produced by the colonizers . 5 Leaving aside t lt t•

classic works of male writers like Rudyard Kipling, Rider Haggard, and E.

M. Forster, there is a genre of colonial novels written by or predominantly

for women, including M. M. Kaye's Far Pavilions or some of Rume1·

Godden's works, which has rarely been studied despite the continuin

popularity of these types of books today. After all, the colonial world

provided an ideal setting for romantic fiction, full of possibilities for

transgression, adventure and exoticism. Nor is it just adults who continue

to enjoy literature produced in the colonial period. Many classics in

children's literature contain references to Empire which contribute both

directly and indirectly to a memory of a national imperial past, recycled in

the cultural education of each successive generation. 6

The second idea, which concerns the reconstruction of historical

memory, relates to the way that colonial experience is represented in more

recent times, whether it involves the reworking of old materials or the

creation of new ones . The r98os, for example, witnessed the production of

lavish television serials such as Jewel in the Crown and The Flame Trees of

Thika, and elaborately made films like A Passage to India, Out of Africa and

White Mischief proved extremely popular at the box-office. While some

writers have made serious attempts to examine the dynamics of colonialism

with fresh perspective, the act of fictionalizing or romanticizing the past

through film or television inevitably helps to revise the sense of national

history associated with Empire. For those who have experience either of

colonial life abroad or of growing up in Britain as the centre of Empire,

these representations may or may not connect with something familiar; for

those born later, the representations of colonialism in popular cultural

forms are likely to have a very different resonance . There has been little

feminist cultural criticism or comment on these kinds of films which is

surprising considering the high profile of female characters in so many tales

of imperial adventure. I suspect this has partly to do with a sense that films

made by British directors with largely British actors set in colonial society

are bound to be racist, and so they are dismissed. When teaching a mixed

230

11111111 ~- 111111-, llt iitl !!\II Hill hi.ltllli e I ~ it•i Wt:t l ltl(ll tllltlllll 1 OltiU

tl\iollllilli Ill\ ti \ 1111JIIIii!1~ jJ,Il!illlltJ!iili)i ltlllll iii!' ftlnt , ,\ /',llhiJ:It /rl

llldfrl ,' It \Oil~ tjltlll . llllllll'' '"'l Iii ln ll uiW illi ollillii- Jih t ll diiiJ IIII '" "' Vl' llll

h:wn~·. IIIII il ti • llll. itlllllllh Mlll.' l 'lllli; d Ill) Jllli lll '" "" '' till ' It II~II II H why ltiiiii-I• IIIII I IIVt 'dtll tl t•d lltl• JIII JIII Ittl tll lllll od 1'111 ' 111 11111 ' 111111 ,

ll hll l dt •tl dt •d Ill dl ~l "~" iltl • jhlll h \IIIII I JiiMill lt• Ill til t' 111111 IWt"I I\IIK' I Celt

II ill •t ltly tii WI II IIII'd i111• lllljllllltlllt I ' 11 1 illll \1 1111 1 lt• tlllli C ( hilnlCt CI'S in

1111'!1 yilli\ 1\ dtl tih lllll ittdt•N i iiWII td~ nHt ' 1111d d HSS. ' l'hc off'i cia l garden

fill II y p111V1111-t l tl w h11t kdt•op 111-{lli iiSt wlt k h n rnnge of posit ions wcr"

111 /l ltli Hitt t·d both tow:trds lnd htns and the Raj itse lf. Two newcomers to

lltlll ~ lt lttdi st, the protagonist , Adela Quested, and her prospect ive

1111t tl11 •t ttl· l11w , Mrs Moore , were horr ified by the disdainful way in which

tltt ltul il tn gucscs were be ing created. Since the party was arranged mainly

!111 !IH'it· bcncft t, having voiced a desire tO meet 'real Indians' , the cwo

1' 11}\lttth women could not understand why their hosts were being so

llttilll•ndly . The older woman, Mrs Moore, remonstrated with her son, an

Ill' ~tml -c.:om ing colonial official, that the occasion was just an excuse for

lhu 11tl ing power. Adela Quested remained incredulously naive - she was

1,1 ~1 inatcd by her own idea of what India was really like and terrifted o

IH•toming like the other memsahibs who had settled there . A third l'. t~g li shwoman, Mrs Turton, represented the unselfconsciously racist orfl ·

tlld's wife - the stereotypical memsahib, in fact - who revelled in th"

p•!lcctcd glory of her husband, the most important man in the district . The English men, by comparison, were either unquestioning of chei 1·

ow n power, or downright cynical, both cowards the Raj and towards any

possibility of change . The Indian women, who were assembled in a group

waiting for the white women to make the first move, were seen through

1\ritish eyes. Assumed at first to be friendly, if shy and non-comprehend·

ing, they turned out to be fluent in English, well travelled throughou t·

Europe and highly amused by the attempts of Mrs Turton to speak dow n co

them in their own language. The sequence finished with a rendering o

........ od Save the King', played by an Indian brass band, during which Mrs

Moore argued with her son about the morality of British rule in India.

This extract gives some idea of how female characters are able to signify

both distance and difference between black and white, rulers and ruled.

But equally interesting is the suggestion that the three positions occupied

by Mrs Moore, Mrs Turton and Adela Quested- the Good, the Bad and the

Foolhardy - occur again and again throughout British colonial fiction ,

231

lll ll lilllhll ly witt II It ~ ~~·I ill ltllli il 11111 - li n i il u) Utull l lllll ll ll iii i'N II

spif'i t iHil llPIHINili ll ll Ill td l lfii iiiN lllll jtjiii •M• Ii tll tll ll ltlltl til lll i' MN til l t lllll lll ll l

who conveys th is is dt•stlll t'd to Hlli lt•t lu•• ' '" ~ I ~ ~~~ lr t•IM tl t•t•ply tdllllll tlu

injustice of apolit ical syscc rn which slw is l lii W t ' tl t ~HN ltl t lll ltiJ.\ l'. 'l 'lw st'U> II d

- the Bad - shows the apparently uncomplic:11wd t ll ti t u d~· or tlw w i l ~ wli tt

enjoys the trappings of power and superiority chat accompany hct· ciii NM

position in the Raj; she may resent the climate and the people, blt t sh(•

knows her place and performs her imperial duty with enthusiasm . T lw

third example- the Foolhardy- is perhaps harder to define. For a start slw

usually displays feminist inclinations, which is part of her unwilling ness C<

conform. India represents for her untold exotic mysteries, which in turn

fascinate and repel her: her fate is to 'dabble' in things she knows nothin

about, and to break the taboos of colonial society, usually with disastrous

consequences both for herself and for her racial community.

The three types of characters that I have described articulate contrasting

modes of white femininity, which in this example are defined in relation to

particular constructions of black femininity and white masculinity. They

each express different aspects of Englishness, conveying the complexity of

social, political and economic relations in colonial society. Their recurrence

in the fiction of this period confirms that gender as well as race and class is

an important component of key ideological symbols . During my own

research into this area, I became particularly fascinated by the Adela

Questeds of colonial fiction, and by the way that their transgressive

behaviour threatens to upset the whole system, revealing interlocking

structures not just of race and class domination but of gender as well.

An episode in Paul Scott's Jewel in the Crown, also set in India but

published in 1975, fifty years after Forster's novel, provides a further

illustration of the theme of proto-feminist transgression. Daphne Manners,

a young white woman with a similarly inquiring mind, was raped while

meeting her Indian lover secretly one evening in a park. Despite her lack of

co-operation- she refused to identify anyone, claiming that it could just as

easily have been British soldiers blacked up - the authorities acted with

swift repression, arresting and imprisoning several Indians, including her

lover. The injustice of this response and its effect on the nationalist

movem~nt formed one of the main themes of Scott's quartet. These

powerful images of white female vulnerability set against black male sexual

aggression recur repeatedly in the imaginary world of the Raj, and are

usually implicated in the legitimation of colonial authority. Like authority

232

II ii iL*l i li n!jlfJM nw l • t:~ i - ll liH i tu l wl! t:1i i lll i wlttil •illltli ll wl111 till

ll 'l"t-t d ttl l•f Jiii'ifl l'i!J ,q, iiill " ldl llil! li.t I•·• IIII VI tl'- . ,Hit IIIII I tlll 'll'hY

l11l h tljll !111 wlud• • YI' II ;III ttl 1111 1 ~ 1 1 1 n d ltl t lll td l ttl ~ t dtllllil htt lllll whH It is

ltll .It ltltdt•tl 111 tlwlt ll tllt lf AM 11 II)Mtdt 111 il u•lt ll tiiiHJ.\ ' I:IIN IOII , 1\c iiiH.: r

.lt ltl II II I I h1p\1 111 WP II ttii ii WI'd Ill IIH tlll ill ill tlt t•ll to loni:d COJOtn ltnic ies.

J l , t i t lll ll '~ ptll li ~ hii H ' III w11 ~ I""' ilt tl ttll y tH' Vt' lf ' 11~ sill' 110t only lost her lover

ltill tll ll lllll y d it~d 11 ~ 11 lt 'll till ol HIVIII P, h il' th to hi s child . T his specifically

ii """ '' lw 11 1 ol N 1tll~· ri n ~ t~lt\ h<.' r1: 11 d ns n consequence of love 'across the 11 l111 11 lltu•' , llllOtht t' chcn1c of so much colonial literature but one which

11 \lt ll \111N 11 11 i ,,dependence from issues of polit ical repression and resistance.

111 l . l p l i o ~'s stOry , 'Beyond the Pale' , it was the Indian woman who was

·111 11 1i Nill'd l'or break ing the unwritten laws while her white lover, who

dl -g lliSt,'d himself as a woman in order to visit her, learned the old colonial

'"''xinl wo late:

A tnlln should, whatever happens, keep to his own caste, race, and breed. I .t·l chc White go to the White and the Black to the Black. Then, whatever 11 oublc falls is in the ordinary course of things- neither sudden, alien, nor

IIIH.:xpccted 8

In terracial sex frequently leads to death in colonial fiction, and it is

llllportant to ask what this means . Is it a discourse on the impossibility of

love between a man and woman from entirely different cultures? If it is,

t h~.: n there would be little substance to the romance that invariably leads co

such dramatic resolution. In Louis Bromfield's novel, The Rains Carne, ch"

w~.:althy white American who falls helplessly in love with an Indian surgeon

ncquires a humanity and humility she has hitherto lacked; but in her desir"

10 convince her lover of her sincerity she falls victim to the outbreak o

·holera which they are both involved in treating. Where white women arc

·oncerned, it would be useful to study the configuration of plots and

characterizations that both lead to and result from their involvement in

such dangerous terri tory . Moving between fiction and history (what 'really' happened) is a diffi cul l

and often delicate process, but I think the idea of historical memory fo rms

an important link between them. The recycling of literature helps to revise

this memory, while an awareness of history can be useful in making sense of

the imaginary or semi-fictional worlds. The clearest example of this

relationship between fiction and history is provided by the theme which I

233

liii VI ' JII NI diNII I ~~ r · d 1!11 llll il/\1' 1)' 1rl wlllr• · liri1 rl ,

hy h l 11d~ 111111 1' IIHi{ II 'NN iwr , ' 1 ' 111 ~ Nf ll 'l ll t, wltl , l1 Wll

reports nnd r·un1our·s ol rr( t rurl t ' Vt ' III N, w1 1 ~ 11 ~ 1 · rl l'll l'l rl vl ly 111 rlu · 1 H

uprising in lndia co fuel des i1·e I(H· llr•llrNir •t'VI'II J..If' IIHIII rtNt tlr t• 111111 lnr11 1

Sepoys. As I suggested in Pare J , th is episod(· of w lon lll l hi swr·y hdpN 111

explain both how and why the safety of wh ite women in the .Empire brru n1

an ongoing ideological question, linked inextricably to the legicirnacion ol

colonial power. Most of the literature of colonialism that draws on r·h"

imagery of threatened white women refers back not necessarily to thr•

uprising itself but to its historical memory, passed from one generation ro

another. In Forster's novel the panic that erupted among the Britislr

community at the thought of interracial rape was dearly connected to their

terror of nationalist fervour and the loss of control by the authorities. y,

put it simply, the historical memory forms a familiar backdrop in the

novel, while Forster's own narrative aUows a closer examination of the

ideological processes involved in the revision of that memory. As Jenny

Sharpe writes in an essay cailed 'The Unspeakable Limits of Rape: Colonial Violence and Counter-Insurgency':

If we are to read literature for its disruption of an ideological production that prevents social change, we can no longer afford to restrict our readings to the limits of the literary text. Rather we should regard the literature as working

within, and sometimes against, the historical limits of representation. A

Passage to India contends with a discourse of power capable of reducing anti­colonial struggle to the pathological lust of dark-skinned men for white

women. Adela serves the narrative function of undermining such racial assumptions but then, having served her purpose, she is no longer of interest in the novel. The 'girl's sacrifice' . . . remains just that, a sacrifice for advancing a plot centered on the impossibility of a friendship between men across the colonial divide. As feminists, we should nor reverse the terms of the 'sacrifice' but rather, negotiate between the sexual and racial construc­tions of the colonial female and native male without reducing one co the other. 9

It is also important to try to connect this discussion of the relationship

between colonial fiction and colonial history to the dynamics of race, class and gender in contemporary Britain.

. Another urgent task for feminism is to deconstruct the symbolism of

white womanhood in imperialist ideologies in relation to the actual

2 34

pt:!lf!llfi;r 111' !111 FT Wl1 i1 lr vu.l iii lultfi i itl l ~uu~· rt fi '" " ''''' ttr '" "vtdr iii ~ tilflt .r/ 11111111111 I I l1111 j' ioor [! llllttil i lillljikJI v"J V 11/ I il r Mill ltd tl •l;rt IWI

!II tll1 dIll lllltlld lrl i WIII ll 11'''1111'f1 [ill II rill -I ;V!,II1 rlpr 11lr lt• 111H tl1111 liow frol ol

lrl 11lr111 II VI', wll lr It 1111111 tl11 ll hlillrllrrrl ' lll ~ 111 nty lrook : {II'H t , how is che

'' I• "''"' llll nli•II II IOII lri Ht ll l rtt l1111hd "'" '" ' y r1n tndl y ( o ll tttcd ; second, the I11 111 H l11d pr•111 pt •c1 lVI ' lll 't•d t•d 111 cli m• llt llll /l lr• fir (' complicated web of social

fl hlliiHIH lt•IH •N 011 11 know l t ·d~r · 11 11d liiHi t· I'S ill t1ding of the interrelat ion of

filii_, 1 h• NM 11 11d ,4t11dcr in hi stOJy t lmt has yet to be writ ten; finally, there

ftin iN 1 o I w "'OJ'C dcwi led J i.scuss ion of theoretical issues which analyse the

'11111 11 '1 1 ions he tween different systems of social domination, for example,

111 tl11 • WilY rhac categories like 'woman' or 'femininity' are to be used. As a

1fy of wmbining some of the themes in all these essays, I want to turn to

lit IN question of theory.

Common Ground

Coherent theories in an obviously incoherent world are either silly and ••ninreresting or oppressive and problematic, depending on the degree of hegemony they manage to achieve. Coherent theories in an apparently

coherent world are even more dangerous, · for the world is always more ·omplex than such unfortunately hegemonous theories can grasp.

Sandra Harding10

' J'o say that the British histories of black people and women have been

interconnected is just another way of underlining the fact that race, class

l~llcl sex continually intersect. It is at the more abstract level of theory that I

feel that feminism in Britain is lacking a coherent account of these

deceptively straightforward questions: why have black people and white

women been dominated in different ways as a result of racist and masculi­

nist hierarchies in British/European history? What are the connections

between racism and the subordination of women, black and white? What,

then, are the connections between the politics of black liberation, whether

from slavery, colonialism or the racism of post-industrial society, and those

of the different strands of feminism? Like most questions of theory, it is not

the answers that are important so much as interesting and fruitful lines of

inquiry . I want to look first at common ground shared by some black

people and some women, as this might also help to explain similarities in

how the two sets of oppression have been made to work. Although class is

2 35

1111 l'~ll l ' llilnl ltllltll 111 1111 llu ·111 1 'I"'"'"" 1 lui i111 d,, 11 f , (,1111 }' I 11 ludl

Ollil' lll fil l ~• Oil I lit I' 1111d J.WIIdt •t f111 fill ~ ( Ii iii 111 Ill \' i ii JI IIIIII ' III 'l(t .41'1

straight to che poi nt, ht'l't• is 11 st•f ol vt·1y Nluqdt ljii!'IH IIIIIH w ltlt l1 n•nu lllw answered in the ncaacive. 11

Is it the way we are made?

First, there is the question of biology. Whereas there are certain significant

physical differences between the male and female body, the same cannot be

said about people categorized as 'white' and 'non-white'. At the same time,

there is still relatively little understanding about the relationship of biology to culture, which remains highly disputed territory.

It is when we look at perceptions of biological difference that there begin

to be connections between race and gender domination. Nineteenth­

century European evolutionism tried to rationalize the supposedly innate

superiority of 'white' males by categorizing humans according to percep­

tible difference: both gender and 'racial' features such as skin colour have

been the supposedly natural lines of differentiation. Other physical charac­teristics such as brain size, skull shape and size and genitals were used to

justify and explain culturally determined social divisions, both along race

lines and those of sex. As Sandra Harding says in The Science Question in

Feminism: 'The division of humans into races is a cultural act, and how the

division is made is extremely variable historically. Similarly,' she con­

tinues, 'the division of humans into two or more sexes depends upon a

culture's interest in and ability to perceive sex differences at all, as well as

upon what they are taken to consist in.' This statement offers a useful

insight into colonial society where race interrupted the apparently simple

division between men and women. It could be said that where a colonial

elite presided over an indigenous population the differences between the

lives of white women and black women and between the ways in which

they perceived each other were so great that it is less useful to view them as

a single category - women - rather than each as a compound of sex and

race. The same would apply to black and white men, creating at least four different categories of difference.

Is it the way we think?

This question concerns the development of European scientific, rational

thought which has legitimized theories of biological difference and defined

2 36

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lt lllllillllY il1111 It tl w IJiUi~ ui \\'l•Hitt i liti!ljl il l l1t tli htt llltlll ~ lllllt r tl

Wl ildll il Mt•l 111' lllllil( tl ll(i( tl it ll!t iOII d!l. j 11 !1[ /Jf 11 t'' 1

111 11111

dtittiiiiiiiiU' IIVI' I i111•

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11111 11 t ' ll tOI Iwt , L1111 Witt ll 1111111 l •r- ltt j;, •• II 1111111 w ltt' I N, oh)N I IVil y I11H1t

tlhjt•('( ivity . l llt 'i ll l tptili , 111 1(111111 :-,ttlltlt ll llutdlllj{ ll }{lliJl, ' t ll t• IOII tH' I II• IH' I

IIH'Oili i'O I I he lnli t'l', l t ~ll l il u• litllt ' l I hl l'l lit'll to overw helm t'i JC IOJ' II I(' J' 1 1111d

!Itt threatening " law.:r" in <:lit It mse 11ppears co be associaced with ll ~t•

"lcminine" in social hicral·chies or mascul ine dom inance, or wit h 11011

Hu1·opeans in the case of racial dominance.' However, the dichowm it•s Ill!'

seemingly endless, and gender, race and class do not always li e so 11 CII! ly 011

one or other side of the dividing line. Civilization, for example, is rlw Oil II ' I

side of the coin to savagery. In some contexts, white women miglu itlt lt•t•d

he assoc iated with the idea that female nature is inherently uncivi lizt•d ,

prim itive when compared to men, and lacking self-control. l n the I.'Oill t'Xl

of imperialism or modern racism, the dominant ideology would pl lt( t•

white women firmly in the civilized camp, in opposition to non-Jlut'OJlt'II JI

women whose lack of social and political rights are to be read as n murk ol

cultural savagery. This means that white 'women can occupy both sides ol 11

binary opposition, which surely accounts for much of the confusion und

ambivalence to be found in the ideology of gender relations.

The conceptual basis of European thought has been attacked by l ll development of postmodernist philosophy. 12 The definition of logico l oml rational thinking is itself shown to be an ethno-historically specific artdiH 1

that has changed even within the history of Western thought. The ways i11

which a society sees itself and its relationship to nature or other soc iel'it:n1

for example, affects how it constructs theories oflogic and rationali ty. 'rht•

history of Western science, premised on the idea of continual technoloAi<.:ll l

progress, has shown clearly how beliefs about the origins of the universe o

the properties of gravity, for example, discredit previous claims ond therefore shift the ground of what appears to be logical explanation.

One of the clearest examples of this is the shifting boundaries ol' scientific culture that defines how 'man' himself is constituted _ Donn11

Haraway explains this in her essay, 'A Manifesto for Cyborgs' . 13 What

made 'man' human and special was partly his distinction from animals. In

the late twentieth century, 'the last beachheads of uniqueness have been

polluted, if not turned into amusement parks- language, tool use, sociA l

behaviour, mental events. Nothing really convincingly settles clw

237

I'J!i ll liliiHIItf i.lllll illl illid 111ti1111il II II I illlktl"h td II IF I i- Tdlllllllllll \' illl 'lll ,,

whldll' lllp luiNI:tl'd liu• litii 'H l•t•t Wt'l ' ll till I! IIIli 1 tlll j11l ffl l lilll l jll llll . lll ~ 1111\'1

now reduced tht•ol to ' 11 lilitl l 11'1111' tl' · l' tllu•d lit ld• ·•tlllftil lll NltltMdi• 111

professional displl t<:s bcrwecn l ilc 1111d sot ltd HI lt •IH' '

A second way that 'man' was defined was il~t·ottf.~h Ids nbi lity 10 <.: tt't ill

machines, which possessed no autonomy of their ow n, co work l(l t' h i11 1

But, as Haraway so convincing ly puts it : 'Late-twentieth-century m:.chint•

have made thoroughly ambiguous the difference betwen natural and artificial, mind and body, self-developing and externally designed, and

many other distinctions that used to apply to organisms and machines. Ou1 machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert_ '

An obvious question that arises from this: if there is no such thing AS

'man', can there be 'woman'?

Is it what we do?

The final seam of inquiry relates to the social division of labour. It is

generally agreed that the domination of women by men provided the first

model of the human division oflabour but as yet very little is known about

how and when gender, class and race became interlocking systems. In the

meantime, the short answer to the above question is that the life of each

member of society today is determined to some extent by the division of

labour - a division which affects individuals' psychological development

and education, and therefore often their economic prospects in adulthood

as well.

In other words, women do not perform domestic labour because this

type of work demands skills that are essentially feminine, but because of

historically and culturally specific meanings attached to being female.

Black people do not occupy the low-paid sector because they are intrinsi­

cally less able, but because racism systematically denies them opportunities

to qualify for better paid jobs. However, women's role as primary carer for

the very young is more complicated because of their experience of preg­

nancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. Feminist theorists continue to contest

the ground between the two poles of essentialism and constructivism- how

we are and how we are made to be.

The answers to these three questions may not tell us why systems of race

and gender subordination have existed for so long, but at least they help to

explain how they have been maintained. The set of theoretical questions

2 38

tlt tJ i!!l!i!l ill dH ' if\' lll ·t lll Iii II 1111111 111

httiiW ICiljll 1111.! 111111i Hlilth lill;\ 1 1\ lt ~ii li 'W lti • It i• 1111 vll tddy 't.tllttt<d 1111d

1111fd lty tlt rlld ~ t • 111 1111111\ tllilriT tll j •Uhll· l l ltlll ~ Jltl llill l• i t'lil Nii' lltOIO!-IY

lt~t l IIIVt 'l lu•t•ll 1111d t< t 11 111lt ltlltll •f •• 1111l11y , 1111d il~t • tt ' IN sti ll litcle

II III IIIIIHII K IIVI ' I 1111 • dt•ltidl it Ill ill tilt IIIIIII JII ll f /-\(' lldt•l 1)1' indeed whether it

I~ ll ll t1ild Ill Nl'lll li 'llil ' HI'M ftllltl ftl 'lillt 'l WI 1111 lllll tl ylit.. cru egory . My own

1111 II 'KI In ltt'l tdlng d11 N p11tl1 iH 10 dt•vl'loplllOI'C solid ground for opposing

til ltii !IHI ol do rnin:HiOtl, 111HI I now want co rccuro co the themes that

tl tlt 'I!J.t'tl l'rorn each of ch<: histori cal sections in order co assess their

11 II'VIIIIt'l' ro fcm in ist political action coday.

Themes through History

When che crue history of the Anti-Slavery cause shall be written, women

wi ll occupy a large space in its pages; for the cause of the slave has been

pt:culiarly women's cause. Frederick Douglass

)nc of the themes that runs through the histories of women and black

11cOple is the extent to which their vario~s struggles for emancipation relar"

1 o each other. I took slavery as the first example of the ways in which whit''

women turned to the situation of enslaved black people in order co

11nderstand, interpret or sympathize with the experiences of another social

group. Having made these connections, it is important not to ideali '"'

them , and to recognize that they emerged or disappeared depending on

whether or not they were useful to the women making them at the time. But this was very much the beginning of a process that continues today,

and that has implicat ions for defining what we want in future. This kind of political empathy or affinity may be a preliminary stag"

cowards but is not a substitute for making actual alliances . It is more fl.

question of one group of people being able to see parallels between their

own subordination and that of another set of people, not necessarily of th

same class, gender or racial group, and possibly living hundreds of m iles

away. The connections may not be mutual, or even welcome, but the act of

making them is a vital stage in developing an awareness of the nature

domination, or possibly even of the process of revolution itself. There ar''

pragmatic aspects of this kind of relationship, however one-sided or

idealistic it is, which might be more easily recognizable . In Part I I

239

1

d i'Mttl \ wd li fiW ,\ lt lt l ltt lll foJ 11 Ii l ll l l ~ itt t lu i i,)lt •J~ l ll 'j!i lll 111)\i ll il ' Iii /

I C'Nt il l 11 1 Ntll 111 1 11111 1 j ill \ i t It ttl ti jill t'IIVt il Hllllll lli lll\ ltii JI I' Iy l11 1111 t h 1• tlvl l

l'i 11 hi N ••HI Vt' lt ll ' lll HtHII I' nl t lu• hl ll /{ 11 ".4' ' It II II I t I ll ~ II IIIVt ' lllt' l l l 111 11 1 1111 1 h

Sll <.' h liS Nit i iiH 1111 ti ll l l ll ' l IOIII IN o l' .11 0 11 • v io \('111 ji i'Oi l'N( Wl' l't• hOI'riiW\'d

d irec tly l'r0111 h lut k tlt lt v ltii N to become an integ ral pfu' t of po l iti t.:~d

campaig ns waged hy 0 1 ht•r r~ rou ps , especially fem inists. This is not simply

because women pt·e ferr~·d non-violence on pract ical grounds; there was also

a recog nizable elemen1 of' ant i-militarism and hence anti-masculinism io

that form of'peacefuJ' protes t, whoever was carrying it out . Another mor"

recent example is the way some environmental groups have adopted beliefs

and practices formerly assoc iated with Native Americans to affi rm their

relationship to the earth .

The extent to which this borrowing, or appropriating, is acknowledged

obviously varies a great deal, but I think it can potentially provide an

important link between different types of struggles . As I argued in Part r,

having an awareness of the genealogy of a particular political struggle can

be a way of recognizing the intersection of race, class and gender that gives

it its momentum. In practical terms , however, it is important to move

beyond sympathy and self-recognition to forming alliances that give a

different weight to the politics being expressed . For example , many people

in Britain, black or white, might feel strongly about apartheid or famine

because they identify in different ways with the victims of these kinds of

oppression. At what point , if at all, does donating money or wearing T­

shirts and badges become effective in challenging global and local networks

of power?

It is also important to recognize that there is no necessary or automatic

connection between people just because they feel oppressed, and that

shared oppression often works tO distance different groups of people from

each other, particularly if there is an element of competition . Turning to

the example of suffrage and slavery in the USA, some of the leading

feminists who had been so active in the abolitionist movement became

positively hostile tO black suffrage when they split from the Equal Rights

Association. Similarly there were tensions within the British suffrage

movement over the question of class: many women feared that their cause

would be dragged down by the prospect of working-class people becoming

enfranchised and tried to dissociate themselves from demands for universal

suffrage in the interests of votes for particular categories of women.

Sometimes this empathy deepens to form the basis of alliances. The early

240 .

,j' ti ll' llltl ~ l lt ltlll tll l-.1

\ 11 II t l i iTi lllll N11IM 111 lt1 ~ 111 1 ~· '" h nti ~t hi• i1i i l1

l!.••'"lltl l , ttl ''" '' 11 "'11" tl wt idl uwhWiitdl y l'l '"'' jut\l t illtlj tl llltilil' • l •tUIIIi t"l U llllt [ll fl ili.,:;\ li illl lllljllll l tll ll I IIII 11111 1 Ill th t•

1111111111 '" 111 tlu t lt p i! tl lllj \III H I\ ' "'ltllillll 11111 tl ll f\ 1 Il l Wltll h IJI!t t k llt li l

w l il l t' 11 11 ' 11 11111 \ Wil l III II tiiJ IIII .I t It• It til l it II III pt tw it l t'H, in ordt••· to

ltlld t•t'tl t tlttd lww lt llf t'l tl 11 •1•\11 w••- :111 • • l 11q t ~< ' " ' 1111 d hcn •·tfell we•·c rh"

•I"'''' I11•H it IH lwt·d '' ' t lt• tn" 11111 11t l11• II WHyt•d hy hoth sides, and s ~· bsequent l l(ll llllll lilll't ' itwvit ll hly w t • i t~ llt t •d jl((( lllllil !-l lO the po li t ical scandpoin cs or tl ll'il' ll ltlhOt'S, 1

111 1\ t'i t :d n , where the suffrage issue was fought on entirely different

g tuuuds, ic was the question of lynching , discussed in Part 4, that best

t I lust races che complexities of political alliance between black people and

wlt ite women. The women who supported Ida B. Wells in the campaign

•gninsc lynching were, whether they meant to or not , actually challeng ing

n:rtain ideas about women and fem ininity which were contributing to their

own subordination . This made their solidarity and political work all ch"

more effec tive and radical. On the other hand, Frances W illard and he•·

f"ollowers were unable to match their beliefs about women's rights with

Lheir ideas about race and the behaviour of black men in parciculo•·.

Although at one level they declared that they had no problem with th"

demand for racial equality, in practice they were unable to face up co th"

implicat ions of their own political doctrines on the oppression of womcll .

In other words they insisted that black men were still higher than whi t''

women in the hierarchy of gender dominance, and were reluctant to admiL

that white women dominated black men as well as black women in cl1''

hierarchy of race relations. Their anger came in part from the fact that ir

was a black woman, whose social position was at the bottom of boch

systems of dominance, who was challenging them most insistently. This pattern has been repeated throughout Europe, North America and

wherever whites have colonized non-European peoples. It has shown itsel

consistently around the spectre of black male violence against whit

women, which continues tO haunt racist societies, although there are ocher

types of situation that produce similar configurations of alliance and

conflict. In order to build solid political alliances in the future there has co

be some awareness of the historical processes that have brought different

groups together and kept them apart . The contradiction between the unifying category of women and the

particularities of race and class is another theme that emerges very

241

fiiiiiHly. Allilt 'f II ' At" hllyd IIIIIVIdt I ,,' " " '' I ]lj([llllj •h II I II (,,,.il,IIHI Wllfl WIIS ill t•t ptippt•d fllld \lllllhft• Ill di •l fl Wi lli lil t dil'lolllt l fl. lu I Wil l-' ll \YI JIIII 'II

across mcc and (.' uitun•. ' l'he NPI'f 1111 I<• oi' u lttlddl t• 1 lit ~N w ltlit• lt •ndtii Nt

setting out tO help educate ludi1U1 won H'I I 1 wtl y 111 l111d iltotl tdH• 1 wild 11111

tolerate the way that most of t hem dressed . ~ 11 t or III C, JJ)l ,4hL ,4l vc soul

people sufficient reason for dismiss ing her, buc her life symbo lizes i ll!•

perpetual crisis within women's politics over the negotiation or rnce nnd

class differences which has everything to do with racism and imper ialis n1 ,

Feminism has battled with the problem of representing the experiences ol

all women, while the social hierarchies of race and class ensure chat clv• complexities and contradictions of women's lives cannot be easily articu·

lated or contained. The influence of nineteenth-century imperialism on

British feminism since Annette Ackroyd's futile attempts to work with

Indian women needs to be explored in more detail, but the main problem

seems to stem from the belief that 'women' were a universal category in a

way 'men' were not. Historically, ideas about what constituted 'woman­

hood' were culturally defined within a masculinist social structure; the face

of difference itself was rarely disputed while the main area of struggle was

the significance given to various types of difference, whether physical ,

mental or spiritual, and the relevance it had to equality. In the same way,

ideas about femininity - what was acceptable, deviant, exotic - were

constructed as part of a complex system of control and resistance. Both race

and class were important factors that determined how these constructs were

developed, maintained and perceived. Although I have only dealt with the

history of the nineteenth century there is enough evidence to assert that the

deconstruction of concepts like 'woman', 'women' and 'femininity' in any

period wm yield important clues about the links between race, gender and

class domination.

The final theme of this book, and in a way the most problematic, is the

need for a political language that will express the differences between

people without losing sight of the aims and ideals that we have in common.

During the early nineteenth century it was religion that provided the main

source of imagery for emancipation of any kind, just as it was the

institution of racial slavery that gave it its urgency. The concept of

brotherhood used by Catherine Impey represented one strand of politics

that crossed the line between liberal and religious activity, but it was not

able to withstand the emerging secular language of socialism. One hundred

years later the vocabularies of socialism and communism no longer function

242

111 lll • pll l l tll iit id jii_! l l i IUi l iH Ji ll !! !',UI!llll)' Hi· ' -- 1-.r ·d·l• lit lilttvh i• d u j.,,

11l 11 Il l w illll j \ II IJ'.I '1

il" II ' li! (lft i 10 11 • Ji1 r ll lltllllll ll il l' 111 l11111 11 111 ~ Il l illf'il

II VIIII IIII It ' ll\ . 111111 d l' ll ll ll li l· ,, il f """ h it\ \ I IIII ltli It ~ Ill II II H" IIIII I H· hi till iltld

l l llil llt l tltl t~d , l1111 1111 l t • '"" ll It I" 11111 111 11 111111 I'IJ PII ' lN 11 N<'lll l h H0i 11g on for

tii'W ' '' '' '" ''" " l'tt lttl ll, 111 w tll ll ''' l'' • wldt wltl t lt 111 dt•11r ribe exc ici ng and vi•IIIIIII IY liiiiii i'K lnt tdltlutNI' Wlll t lHtVI ' ht•t' ll lil l ll '~ ill l tl i zcd by the dominat-

11 /1 Kll lli l\ tt t:l'l ol nt t f' , 1 l u ~N t111tl J.I C' Iid t••·. '!'tying LO calk about race, and

III' IHk•t', wit hot II' l()rgclf in~ dnss, is conswncly a scruggle against the urge

111 ow t·-si n1plify und generalize wiehont over-stressing particularity;

tiJ.I IIi ti NI 1 he urge co speak for others without ignoring them entirely; against

tlu• urHe co run away from complicated and contradictory desires and

' lc•dings , without losing sight of the way identities are interconnected.

Jlt•tn in ism and the polit ics of black liberation share the goal of redefining

, lltll J.I UO.gc and of ridding the ways in which we speak and understand each

other of negative and oppressive meaning .

Femininity and Nature- A Clean Break?

In the course of writing this I came across a most bizarre feature in a glossy

women's magazine which, I felt, demonstrated some of the problems

try ing to articulate a radical viewpoint without seeing connections between

race and gender. On the front cover of the journal (winner of the W omen's

Magazine of the Year) was the heading 'Group Sex, False Wives in Brazil'.

Flicking through I was startled to find a double-page spread showing a row

of Kayapo women, semi-naked with J?ainted faces, who were described as

women who are 'strong, resilient and l~ve to dance'. The article in question

was entitled 'Mystics and Magic' and cook the form of a travel diary writ ten

by Anita Roddick on two recent trips abroad, first to Nepal and shortly

after to the Brazilian rainforest. The introduction to the article read:

In parts of Nepal people live on roof-tops, women have several husbands, and mystics make love to corpses. In the Brazilian rainforest , people

decorate themselves to look like parrots, and natural medicines include plane extracts to stop menstruation. This is what Anita Roddick discovered on two journeys she made lase year in search of recipes and ingredients for Body Shop products, and ways to help protect these peoples' increasingly

fragile environments. 15

243

~--------------

1'111' IIJ HI pit IIIII ' Nlwwl'd , • I ~ IIIII ' Oii JI III 1-Tw• t 1il1 11 1111 lt tii L'IIi! Ill , tllld iiiHI

looki ng An11 11 1todd11 k, lolllll lt•• ul tlu tii iJJil • I H•• ·-~ 1111 l lt11 ly 1-l l11 tp 1' 1111'1

prise , surr·ollnded hy a 1-\ I'Oll p ol Nt•Jntl t•Nt• t lt tldtl ' ll wl11 1 Wt 'll ' dt•Nt 1 dH•d 111 11

caption as ' inhabi tants of a hosri lc nil l tii'HI t'II YitW III H'Iil who Nllll t•t• IHI II I

serious vitamin deficiency and a Jack of hyg iene nnd medi t:nlion'. I t o11 ld

not help being struck by the similarity of t his image co carl y phocos of t l ~t •

white female missionary sitting amid a g roup of pupil s or conv ert · ~ .

Skimming through the text my eye caught the sentence: 'T h is may seen•

abhorrent, but what is extreme and odd to us they consider natural.' I

turned the page. 'The last thing in the world I'd ever want to be in th is

society is a woman or a dog.' And two columns later: 'With the women , on

the other hand, there is a great sense of camaraderie . I find it wonderflll

therapy to be able to touch and stroke these women. It is a great release co

be in a society where one is able to be tactile and show affection withou

being regarded as odd.' In Brazil, where Roddick visited the Kayapo on her

second foraging trip, the atmosphere was altogether different: 'Sexual

activity among the Kayapo is "extremely natural" ... a lot of horniness

goes on. The men are forever lusting after the women and the women

teasing and playing with the men, but there is none of the squealing and

hiding that you notice in our society.' In the concluding paragraph I

learned that the Kayapo are to be idealized/idolized because they live 'in

complete harmony with their environment' . This was in contrast to Nepal

where Roddick found the 'absolutely natural' way of life of the Sadhus, the

'crazy holy men', unthinkable.

What I found most extraordinary was the insidious way that the female

reader was being invited to share this vision of heaven and hell through an

assumption of shared interests in Body Shop products and a prurience

relating to the sex lives of 'natural' peoples. Throughout the feature- and

no doubt this was due entirely to the efforts of the editorial staff - captions

for the images managed to mention 'penis' in connection with both

societies. Details of Roddick's own health and hang-ups ('going to the

lavatory within sight or earshot of anyone else') increased the sense of

intimate revelations, while the uninhibited use of 'we', meaning 'First

World' , and 'they', meaning 'Third World' (that is, underdeveloped), gave

a very familiar perspective to the undoubtedly well-meant endeavour. The

images of exotic peoples, some of them posed and self-conscious, some

ethnographical, told their own story. Interestingly, the advertisement on

the very next page showed a sleek white couple, entirely naked and

244

,-HI ~·1 11 1 ,j 1111 1111 1 (lill ll ii il l!li

f 1 1 1 ~1'-- 111 11 l111 ll il ' llo i11 tlll

lt!il U ti it1 I lt 111 ~ I" !111111'

I 111 11hll ll litll it !liN1 Wil~ IH' ill

IIIIINIIIIil i tl til lll il j' li•ii'l\' di ll f illll n;ll)ii_; lli• - 1111 111 1. A" tl 11 • I ttt tw llll 1 1111 1 111 " "''"' 11 I• 111 11 n l, tl u till II , II t ill' 1 wo 11 ips t'liS t and

WI'M I WIIM Ill ill lllhil lf tl Mt'I II IJ I l111 Ill W 11'1 lpn" 1111 d IIIW iiiMI'Cdi cntS for

lll~ ltll ' ti tH wl i11 illlt 'lti! IIM Ill Nl'l tlj • I' II YI II III II H'II tl il j) I'OjeCCS that would

IH'II I' ilt t lt t• lot: II IJWilp ll' . A1111 11 I\1 Hid11 I, IN 11 11 i1np01'WOt Ggurc in cnviron­

lll t'llt ltl po l it ks: she lu1s ht · ~· ll d t'N~ ri lwd ItS ' the orig inaco r of the movement

II Htl ullowed us co consume, wJch a nod co conscience , cosmetics and then

pt' t i'OI, wttshi ng up liq uid , investments, and still campaign for Amnesty

1111 t t'IHlt ional and the rain forests.' 16 As I read the art icle , I felt that it raised

wnc pertinent questions about the current state of green consumerism. In

ll ltOt't, it was implying that we girls in the West can have smooth and

, I mgrant skin and hair in return for subsidizing ecologically sound agricu l­

tural products in places where being a female is comparable to being a dog,

because life is so arduous. Yet, 'we' are cold, as long as this is 'natural' then

it is all right . At the centre of this proposition is the connection between fem inini ty -

that is, what it means to be female- and nature, a subject of intense dcbac··

among feminists and their opponents that goes back centuries. The

category of women in this article is itself problematic. Roddick described

aspects of their lives as they appeared engaging or remarkable to her, b Lt t

she found very little that she had in common with them and generall y

seemed to feel more comfortable with the men in both societies . T his

impression had the effect of sharpening the reader's focus on the brand

feminism which ran seductively through Roddick's monologue. It was

there in her interest in women's lives and the sexual division of labour, her

independence and her readiness to admit her own physical weakness , her

hard-headed business sense as she pursued a new source of raw materials,

combined with an unconvincing aside that she was brought up to think

that capitalism was evil. One of the 200 richest people in Britain, Roddick

embodies a kind of green, feminist capitalism which was made possible by

the political and economic conditions of the r98os . On the other hand she did enjoy a brief experience of a shared femal

identity when she went to wash in the river with the women in N epal: 'It

was a beautiful ritual- they gave me ground-up herbs to use on my hair.'

T his anecdote highlighted a particular version of femininity- a posit ively

natural way of being female - which Body Shop products are designed to

245

~\

I ' IHilltt tt)lt ', ' I 'IH' II ' ' " 11 NII HIJI'"' 'It"t 11111 111111 '''''''IIIII l 1h· 1lti ii, w l dt~ l' i n vo l v~· rt•td lwrhs 111td lrudlltnll ll ltil wtl ll, 1tll11 w II. I IIJ.IU t l lll~t' t 10 ' 11 11 11111!' ,

and t<:mpomrily di ssoivl! Olll' dillt•I'(' IH I '~ Wi t It Will i II II nnn1 l'llllll :iy tl/il llt cn t cul tures.

It is relatively easy to see how ideas abouL 'mtturl! ' Ul'l! <.'eiHI'iil 10 tl 11•

environmental movement, even if people disagree as co the meaning of tilt•

word. At the same time, green consumerism - that is, the creation of a new

economic market in response to a perceived demand - has made many

women feel uneasy about the way that environmentalism can often confi rm

woman's traditional roles as mother, carer and cleaner by portraying them

as an aspect of the 'natural' world. Ideas about femininity and 'nature' havr•

long been important concerns of feminism too: for over a century feminists

in different parts of the world have been divided over the connections

between women and nature, and over the nature of women's nature, in fact ,

and these tensions are still rife today. Eco-feminism, for example, is often

associated with ideas about women that were prevalent in the nineteenth

century: that women's biology gives them a special relationship to nature,

and that women are essentially superior to men, both morally and

spiritually. Socialist feminists, and those who look for materialist causes of

male domination, have tended to reject suggestions that biology gives

women a privileged connection to nature, arguing instead that it is the

division of labour which stems from women's reproductive role that has

configured women's subordination.

As the world approaches the end of the twentieth century each of these

two positions begins to look outdated. The very concept of 'knowledge' is

under attack, primarily from postmodernist critiques of philosophy, which

have enormous implications for how concepts like 'nature' are understood.

In this society, for example, the study of the so-called natural sciences was

created, developed and given social significance at particular moments in

history. For quite specific reasons 'nature' became something that had to be

dominated in order for it not to overwhelm 'culture', which was thought to

distinguish humans from the rest of the natural world.

Because of women's capacity for childbirth, the line separating 'natural'

processes from 'cultural' has never been so clearly drawn as it has with men.

But the division of labour in Western societies has been organized

according to where this line appears to fall. Why is it that so many so­

called green products are connected to housework and why has so much

advertising focused on women's role in cleaning up the environment in the

246

11111111 f t•w,•thl'' l wt~•u

'h •tll ll lt l\ 1uilu1M '"'" lEIIIt Willi hi, II yl ll /1111 hu~ jl 1\t!i

111\ill!i:t\

lii.lll ll'! l 1tl1 il1 i1 Wil Ill

I ll 'Ill !IIIII , Ill I IIIII I

Ill 1111 11 I !111 II II II I ll 0 111 y 1111

lljtllllhllllll\ 'tidlllll-' l'lu• ww ld ol ilu IIndy "\ lt ll j t•llld 1l11 tllltltlt i llll t ~ l w i Wt'l' il WIII IH' II Iilttl

liiiiiiH' i\ 11 11 il Nt'I ' I. M Ill t.llllillllljlf I lt •tlltliJWii~, ll'lt l-\ lllll( t', idi'I IM 11h11111

luu llly lly!-llt·m· ''"' 1tll l t ~lillt h111 'tl wll lt 11 jntl'tl t lliltl' kind ol lt•Jltlidlllly wh h II (hLll!ll hat k 1 o 1 ht• Nll llll tll y 1 dW11I U "'' pn i ~ n ~ of' Vi <.: tol·iu 11 Hrit ui n. l1 1

1 H,t) w01ncn onicin ll y joi1wd til l' nus11de for i1np1·oving public nnd priv11H'

ht·nlth with the founding of the Ladies Associat ion Cor the l)il'lusion of

S~t llitlii'Y Know ledge (LADSK) . This was an organi;c.ation of middlc-dll t~ w0 111en who saw it as their moral duty co visit the poor and teach tl w••• thout the virtues offresh air, good diet, clean clothes and houses, and dt•u n living. Since it was women who prepared food and who were resp<msibk li ll'

negotiating dirt and disease in the private sphere, they were prime tnrt~t' l for health education. A precursor of the health vis itors' movement fomwd nearly fifty years later, the network of local groups provided oppOI'tunil i t~ for women to move into a highly important area of social reform. J lOWl'V('I ..

there was another aspect to the proliferation of pamphlets with sensih lt•

cities like The Power of Soap and Water. As cleanliness was next to god I i l \l~m~, it was also part of racial hygiene. In a speech made at the inaugt•nil ceremony of the LADSK , Charles Kingsley, who identified sanitary rdOJ' itl

with 'the will of God' , urged women to recognize that 'one of the nohlcllt

duties' was 'to help the increase of the English race as much as possible ' ill order to colonize the Empire. Personal cleanliness had become an index oJ

class difference within Britain. It also provided another measure ol

civilization in the colonies. 17

In her account of her travels abroad, Roddick was reaffirming Lhe

connection between femininity and personal hygiene in her role as prov id<.H'

of a particular branch of cleaning materials and cosmetics. Yet afte l'

finishing 'Mystics and Magic' I was left with the question: Why docs it make me so sick? I am as eager for effective face creams as the next woman,

I admit to being a green consumer, and I am also interested to know how

women in other societies live. I decided that there were two main

problems. First, I was disturbed by the absence of any kind of explanation for clv•

way that the world has been degraded, environmentally, politicall y,

economically. There was no sense that colonialism or racism might hav"

247

,,

IWt'll ll hH 1111 llltiiiYIIIII ''II II vt'll, illl ltt.IIIIH ll11dol l1 l·111.1\\' 11 l11l1tr;, l111 diltt y

ol'in1p1·t;ss ions nnd <'X IH'Ii! ' IHI 'N tl' pllltllt d il u ll •t ll lv ~ ~ ~- tttlijllllllt t il ""ill ' t i111 icy which is th<.: (i.tmi linr (;u l tu nd l w~J.I I I fJ.I ' ol 1 ltl' wltitt • Wmlft' IJt IHI VI' il t•t ,

male or female. Second , the arri clc misl·d til t• jll llh lt•Jtl •n li t•J't' tll In 11 11 111

types of green consumerism, where th<.: act ol pu t·d111Si ~~~ so nt ~· t h inJ.I i1

offered to the consumer as a substit ute for ocher forrns of poli rica I act ion . Itt

this case, it suggests the possibility that choos ing a parcicular brand ol cosmetics becomes instrumental in saving the Brazilian rainforest; and chut

by buying 'natural' products women are embracing a supposedly natuntl

way of being female that will somehow ensure the protection of the p laner .

Non-Innocent Categories

It has become difficult to name one's feminism by a single adjective- or even

to insist in every circumstance upon the noun. Consciousness of exclusion through naming is acute. Identities seem contradictory, partial, and strategic.

Donna Haraway18

Travel writing is an obvious place to explore ideas about what is essentially

female, or essentially anything human in fact . In another article, a million

miles from Anita Roddick's, June Jordan concentrated on her relationship

to black domestic servants whom she met while on holiday in the Bahamas.

Her discomfort in the contrast between her own situation as holiday-maker

and that of the woman cleaning her hotel room led her to conclude that:

Race and class and gender remain as real as the weather. But what they must mean about the contact between two individuals is less obvious and, like the weather, unpredictable .... When these factors of race and class and gender absolutely collapse is whenever you try to use them as autOmatic concepts of connection. They may serve well as indicatOrs of commonly felt conflict, but as elements of connection they seem about as reliable as precipitation probability for the day after the night before the day. 19

Immediately on her return to the USA she found herself involved in

supporting a white woman seeking refuge from a violent husband. What

might have seemed a more unlikely connection to another woman's

248

jMolit 111111 Ill .,,. , , !11\'flii till

j ~tilt 1111 111 l1111!f yho li' ili i

Ill 1111 IIIII I VII w g l Ill 1111

t1Kphtlllfld l1111h1 •t \11 11111 •lu tlll 1•111l

illtd 11111 111 '"

t:•Njll'dlililll Ill lit itttill , ) \lilt' Jtll'dllll

Wt• ltltVt' ht•t• ll 111/-l i lltl ~ lll fl 1111 il w ht1 N I ~ of ldcncity, around immutable t lltl'ihui ~N ofl{t.: lldCt', riltl' illld t lit NN i<>l'ltlong cimc and it doesn't seem to have worked .... J chink ch<: I'C is son1<: thing deficient in the thinking on the part of nnybody who proposes either gender identity politics or race identity

polici es as suffic ient, because every single one of us is more than whatever rnce we represent or embody and more than whatever gender category we fall

in co. 20

' There was a time when it was a heresy to suggest that there was nothing

about being a woman, or being working class, or being black or being a

lesbian that necessarily guaranteed anything about a person's political

orientation. At best this meant that women were able to deal honestly with

differences between them, and to use them as a basis for a shared politics.

At worst , this inevitably produced a certain amount of tokenism, particu­

larly in the field of employment, where many black women found that they

were given jobs in predominantly white organizations and then expected to

deal with matters of race, often witho~t the support of white colleagues .

T here was also a belief in the hierarchy of oppressions, however much

people argued against it and tried to resist it, a belief that allocated

credentials to women on the basis of race, ethnici ty, class or sexuality .

Despite the problems and difficulties involved in allowing different

feminist viewpoints to co-exist, there was at least a recognition, at long

last, that being female was not enough. As Donna Haraway puts it again:

White women, including EuroAmerican socialist feminists , discovered (i. e.

were forced kicking and screaming to notice) the noninnocence of the category 'woman' . That consciousness changes the configuration of all previous categories; it denatures them as heat denatures a fragile protein.

21

Yet if feminists have begun to discuss the use and misuse of the categories

of woman/women, the concept of femininity has perhaps retained some of

its innocence. While it has been deconstructed as a historically class-

249

""""-·

IH't II H pht' l lll 11 H1111111, II ,. • tl llt ill l ill l ltll!illl Ill iiiT ill I ill\' 1;~ 1

l'hc rndu l lt WIUIIII~N illf i l l ltc•d tll lll'llll' 11 wltill' Wlllllllll

Theori:ling can somcti1ll t'N 11 11 iiH• Jilt' lt•1•l dl l'l tlll lt ll 'l ll'd llll tll pollt lnd

action. Then 1 remember one occnsion, u UH'I' I Ill j{ 11 11 lt•ttiiJII Nill li nd I'll< iN n t

called in response to the increase in rac i.al at tncks in London in 1 ~H6, whk h

illustrated some of the problems in negotiating race, clnss and genJeJ' in

politics. It was proposed that women at the meeting , who were white, takt• turns to sit with Bengali families on a particular housing estate threatened

by persistent violent attacks. One woman said she felt uncomfortable in th"

presence of Bengali men, and declared that she did not intend to hide her

feminism. The minutes co the meeting read:

Women expressed the need tO be up-front about feminist politics and not lose them 'for the sake of the larger struggle'; tO give strength tO each other when we are working in mixed organisations; and to recognise that men are on the receiving end of racism too, so that working with families involves coming into contact with them.

On the one hand I had sympathy with the reluctance many women

expressed about working in mixed organizations with men; but I was naive

perhaps in being surprised that some women felt so defensive at the

prospect of dealing with black men, as though black men were not integral

to the families that were being supported. No one questioned the assump­

tion that Bengali men would be wary of or hostile to white feminists,

because of their feminism. For all the awkwardness of the non-innocent

categories, we are still left with social relations of race, class and gender

that determine very real patterns of poverty, racial and sexual violence,

discrimination and other forms of domination, and the ways in which

people respond to them. So how does the act of deconstructing femininity

actually affect how these relations are experienced?

In Part I I examined some of the ways in which comparisons between

different kinds of femininity serve to highlight or even symbolize the

supposed superiority of white, Western societies. This has been a theme

throughout the book, as I frequently encountered nineteenth-century

writers of different political persuasions who claimed that the position of

women could be read as an index of civilization. Purdah, arranged

marriages, the dowry system, were held up as examples of non-European,

non-rational and even 'primitive' customs which marked out the societies

250

1!1111 I'''" il ~crl dt~ u' ' ' !Itt dtlllll Iii vdth)t

iiiTo l l lu 1•dl, tlltd

I IIi liiVG I' tlti It lll ·th l ~, llllllillllt •M IU

1111111 ·11 i_lilt'i !IIIII itl tl 11 I Wl ' lllft iiJ l11 IIIII ' Il l il 11 IIIII- I j lllli:ll[ ~ 1 , . ....

ttllt iii Y W11111111 '\ luu lln lti1' '11 h•;tt!l tll till Mill ti l ll illlll til ttll d po ll tlt td

ltllflj{ lc' ti nt I l 11 1 ~ 111qtlit ttl h11nl•!l ' lu-\'ltlltl iiH• Inl ll ll'dh•ll ' pn11 i tn tl tiiH' ol ii H• lllji/J, 01 lt t•t ll l ~ t ' ll d 1\ti lh wi tl dtl l'tllll! tltlllt\1\ lli l l' l t'N liN wd l 1 1~ ] ll lOIII iii H ~ thtil t•rt· prcdonli tllltttl y M 11 ~ l l 11 t , ww •tt•tt lutvt• hc~· nlnvo l vcd in h1•t1lcs ovt•t'

tilt' t'Onditions ol' lts Wl'l i d ll~ whH h have been frau~ ht wirh irony, 1111 11 mdiccion and bi ctemcss . u. In ' 990 , the b ·ench govcrrunc n1 nnd t ht•

tn ci · t'ftcist movemen t were spli t over whether to allow schoolgirls th t: ri ~ llt to cover their heads. There was cension between che liberal anci-mc ist vkw

1 hac argued for cultural pluralism and support for minorities, and t:hoH"

who felt chat the hajib was a symbol of fundamentalism which was CO~lllt ~· t ' r.o the secularism in French schools. The same year in Britain, two sisr<.:r ... ,

Fatima and Aisha Alvi, who attempted to wear their headscarves in

secondary school, were banned for health and safety reasons. After a grc1tt

deal of media attention the governors of the school reversed che dec ision,

allowing the girls to wear them as long as they were in school colours and

did not present a safety hazard. For British feminists the veil presents something of a problem, chcorcl'i

cally at least, since the ace of covering the head suggests submissi011 It

men. It poses the question: to what extent should women support orh~· ·· women's right to practise customs which appear to confirm their own

subordination? The Rushdie Affair provided an opportunity for many people to voice their anxieties over the 't.reatment of women' in Musllotl

communities in an attempt to highlight what they see as the real reason

why their presence is unacceptable in a modern rational society. 11ft)'

Weldon, in her pamphlet, Sacred Cows, made a provocative statement Oil

this subject as part of her feminist attack on multiculturalism. 23

For her

the problem is 'the Muslim women in our midst, with their arranged

marriages, their children in care, their high divorce rate: the wife-beatings,

the penalties for incalcitrance: the unregulated work in Dickensian sweat·

shops' . Although her rant was directed against the hypocrisy and cowardi""

of the middle classes, she reserved a special sort of venom for whit

feminists who, she claimed, found it 'easier to be seen on the side of th"

ethnic minorities, all in favour of the multicultural, too idle to sore out th"

religious from the racial, from the political: too frightened of being

labelled as white racist, elitist, to interfere'. Black feminists, on the ocher

251

lu~tul , wr•11 • ' lltrr 1•111 '"""'It\' rlu '''''' I ln•rrlrn· ··· JH, lit ~l~ r d~ttt iiiiY wldr iJitCI'ft•rt•nu• I~ hy dl'ltrddtttl l tiiiNt, till• lllqur~I IIJ I ttl' wldtt rrdddlr • r lrr

standards lrpon c.: rl lrlit woddnj.l 1 IIIHN pt•np lrJ, Itt d rill' "''Y 1111 , flo WI' 1111• 1111 sisters, our p roblems fli'C ull the Sttuw ',

To be able to say that 'our problems arc all 1 ht• Nil Ill<.'' lx·c11 usc w~· nr·c.· 11 ll women, and therefore sisters, sounds WOrthy or Jlmnccs Wi llan.l , llOd it I,

no coincidence that Weldon picked a nineteenth-century image co describe

the oppression of Muslim women living in Britain. I t is patencly absurd

and quite anachronistic, betraying a lack of imagination as to how complex

social relations really are. However, she is right in her observations tha

some feminists have been wary of commencing on or interfering in what

they see as a 'different culture', though whether that was through idleness

or fear is another matter. Post-war femi~ist analysis of central theoretical

questions such as the family and male violence, with a few exceptions,

steered clear of cultural difference partly because racism, or lack of

awareness of racism, made it too difficult to understand the social relations of'different cultures'. It was mainly through the insistence of black women

that the variety of women's lives in post-industrial Britain began to be acknowledged in the last decade.

Yet the question of cultural difference has remained a problem for

feminism. It was constantly thrown up in the 198os over the issue of

arranged marriages and immigration laws, only to disappear into a cul-de­

sac of unresolved contradictions. Feminist Review, for example, carried a

series of articles in 1985-86 which tried to re-examine and debate socialist

feminism and racism. One author, who discussed what she called the limits

of cultural pluralism, began by stating that 'the call to respect cultural

patterns uncritically' was problematic for feminists. 24 Whatever the merits

of her particular argument, I personally have problems with the idea that

there has ever been such a call. To claim this, in my view, is to

misunderstand the nature of the relationship between black and white

women and between race and gender. It is as if the only way white women

can understand the demands that black women have been making for their

support in fighting racism is to find problems in how they give that

support, since it seems to involve respecting cultural practices that are distinctly unfeminist.

There is rarely a suggestion that white women have their own particular relationship to the idea of racial difference, a relationship which might give

them a different but connected route to fighting racism, to providing

252

1'11111111 ''" ldi!tl I''"• ~~ - tltl • lllltil

11/ ltPIIIH It 111rdr ''"l (ll ll lt l tlir r!

tlu It fr · tllilll ~ l I'' 1111

11l ,dltlll dlfiPtflll W•'YII

fjtHrllilt •" till ' rd WriVII IChll I V[), ~i(' lrllt " 1111rlrllr 1 lrtNII Wll ltll ' ll IIIC ' lll 'ljlll 'llil

1'!'11 I II d H' dw11l 1111111 1 1 d 1111' il~ 11 111 I'll I 111 Ill )Ill ' 11011111 d ' I y Ill' ol f t•rr li nlrlll y dthtlllf{h lht• IHtllrlllJifii 1N ttl Jlllllrllllliy Nlil lt IO IINIIilll ly Ill lilt• CXfWIISI' of

olht·r· rypcs of WOi li CII , w l ll • il~t • r wllitr• wmkl ng-<:lass, non-1\ui'Opcno , hlllck,

)1·wish, dcpcndi11g on th~· Ut lll t.'XI. Whi te women may appcn r· 10 h"

' llhcntccd' compared co Asian women, while stereotypical ideas abou t the

sc.:xuali cy of Afro-Caribbean women might make them seem dcv.ianr und

uncontrolled in comparison to white women. Thus different kinds o

femininity can articulate racial and cultural difference, and in doing so hcl1 co secure domination by gender, race and class.

If it is accepted that definitions of womanhood and femininity lU"

ulturally constructed within the interlocking systems of domination chill

they also help to shape, then feminism actually needs to bring women

rogether to take them apart . White and black women can uni te nor so

much in favour of women being able to wear headscarves but agains t the

combination of gender, class and race relations that forbids cultum l

differences and fears that the dominant culture will be 'swamped' by nn

O ther one. Similarly, feminists can dissociate themselves from rads r

assumptions about predatory black men and vulnerable white women

while continuing to campaign against violence from men in general. ) usc n.

black women have had to identify and oppose racist definitions of chcl r

identity as women in their struggles against racism and female subord ina­

tion, so white women can potentially open up new avenues of polici cn l

strategy and alliance by refusing racist definitions of white femininity .

Writing this book has confirmed my conviction that a historicnl

perspective is needed to help break into the contemporary codes of race and gender, but I have arrived at a very different point from where I started . I

look forward to a future in which an awareness of certain historical

processes permits greater freedom and creativity in building new political

coalitions and forcing an end to economic and social structures that exploi

and oppress. Whereas when I began I was dubious about the prospec ts of a

feminism that would be able to resolve some of the enormous problems and

contradictions that women's politics had raised, now I feel greatly optimis­

tic about the chances of developing networks and alliances that cut across

race, class and gender in ways that might have seemed unthinkable in ely·

2 53

' 'J/"• 111 1\'f ll il u ••JIIrt- 't'l1111 •- ll f ll ' i11

ll !'t l'llllll t / ly IIIII d il f t•d , 11111 f lll' llljli HINf I lit , t ll ll llll ll \ 1111 111.'1! j lll l /i /11d 11 11d

" 'OilOtHk Oll tp ol II IC' ww ld il utt WI' 11111,111' l11 il u• 1 'I'J"

'!'he arg uments tluu lllllvt· ll lildt• in ,di ii i!'NI' I'M IIyli ll 'N I 1111 n•y 1 n11 vit finn that political unity between women ncross rlin• 11 11d d11ss Is JlO it' llt lull y 0 11 1•

of the greatest forces for change in the world , hut thnt ch c rc i.~ Oolh i tl~ about being a woman which necessarily g uarantees that un ity. l f fcmin i.~m is to survive the fragmentation of women's poli t ics which has been

happening as a result of realizing this lack of g uarantees, then fem inists

need to acknowledge the inescapable diversity of femininity and woman­

hood without losing sight of the ways that we are all what J ane Flax refer

to as 'prisoners of gender'. This means working out the dynamics of race,

class and gender in every situation that demands a political response -

adopting what some have called 'strategic identities' which allow opposi­

tion to one form of domination without being complicit in another. I recognize the dangers in over-simplifying what are infinitely complex and

fractal patterns of social relations, constantly affected by the refinement of

communication technologies and bio-technologies. As Sandra Harding

says: ' "Something out there" is changing relations between races, classes

and cultures as well as between genders - probably quite a few "some­

things"- at a pace that outstrips our theorizing.'25 Perhaps it is the very

speed with which the changes are taking place that makes an awareness of history all the more urgent .

Notes

I From 'Aladdin, or Love Will Find a Way' by V. C. Clincon-Baddeley, London I949, quoted in John Mackenzie, Propaganda and Empire (Manchester University Press, Manchester 1984, p . 57) as an example of the enduring nature of 'lively patriotic songs' in popular theatre.

2 In this Part I have used the words 'colonialism' and 'imperialism' almost interchan­geably, except that the former refers more to systems and structures of domination in the colonies while the latter is used to describe the ideologies that sustained colonial rule. The adjective 'colonial' therefore refers to societies in the British Empire.

3 Helen Callaway, Gender, Culture and Empire: European Women in Colonial Nigeria, Macmillan, London I 987; Hilary Callan and Shirley Ardener eds, Incorporated Wives, Croom Helm, London/Sydney/Dover I984.

4 Adrienne Rich, 'Disloyal to Civilisation', in On Lies, Secrets and Silence, W . W. Norton, N ew York/London 1979, p . 28r.

5 See Patrick Brantlinger, Rule of Darkness, British Imperialism, 1830-1914, Cornell

254

l ln i~ rl " fl\' ,.,, ,._ lilt•h ••ll.i iiiU• ill 1

H• •l1l11 W Wtul • 11111 1 l • llli D~ It l\ii l lt 1 1 1 11 ' "~' 1\ l il lldii ••HI 1111111

I l:FW I, , 'I Ii•• 1_111 11111111 11l il u llu)' , Ill lf!PI!o l ll l'itliw, M111 11 l11 •• 11 •1 I li iiVI'IHity

11 111111 il dll i fll/111111 )11•1 nl !1 11 1 1 ~ 1111111 111111 , ll lltll l""• " l ilu• ilookN oiHnid Ncsbic. 'J'hc '" '"'"'' "1 '/ 'h#,lrfl•'' ' "'"lul tl '"""' '• lll ullll"ll ll lll ll l ll ), 1111 t'Xtll•lp lc, is a.n Eng lish ch ild l1111 11 11 11d lulll lll ill 11p ill Iii d ill l1y IIII IIYiil l Hil l' WII N "" " '111111111 i ~(·, l by her colonial upbringing thll i Hill' t1111l tl 1111 ly 1(•111 11• ltl l li t• Wll ik f ll /ll f ll ~• l "'llp l t• ll round her as if they were her Indian •PI VII III N, 11 11d tlw NIIII Y l't•volvt•N l ti\I IHI IH•I I1'11 11Nformnrion inco a 'normal' English girl.

1 'J'hc hook , II lifl.l .lll)/,1' 111 lmli1t , hy H. M. Forster was first published in 1924. The

111111, dii'C( tt.:d by David Lean, was mndc in •984. H llnr di scuss ion of this extraordinary story, see Dick Hebdige, 'The Chronicles of

' ~t · ro', f!werf<DIIcy , no. 4, 1986 . 9 Jenny Sharpe, 'The Unspeakable Limits of Rape: Colonial Violence and Counter­

flisurgcncy', Genders, no. 10 , Spring 1991. . 10 Sandra H arding , The Science Question in Feminism, Open University Press, Milton

Keynes 1986, p. I64 . 1 1 These questions are based on Sandra Harding's consideration of what she calls the

/ curious coincidence of African and feminine world views' (The Science Question in Feminism ,

pp. 165- 96). It proved too complicated to summarize her argument without doing injust ice to it, and I can only recommend her book.

12 Jane Flax, Thinking Fragments: Psychoanalysis , Feminism, & Postmodernism in the 'ontemporary West, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA/Oxford I990.

13 Donna Haraway, 'A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 198os', in Linda ). Nicholson, ed. , Feminism!Postmodernism, Routledge,

New York/London I990, pp. I93- 4· 14 See, for example, Kathleen Barry, Susan B. Anthony, A Biography, New York

University Press , New York/London I988, pp. I85--6 . In her account: Few have understood Anthony and Stanton's desperation and the isolation that resulted from the Republican and abolitionist opposition to them during the Train episode. Because they were committed to nor prioritizing the rights of one

group over another and because theirs was a special commitment to women, they refused to abandon the women's cause or subordinate it or themselves to the men who tried to dominate them. In doing so, they appeared to be taking a proslavery

or antiblack position, thus prioritizing rights after all . . . In those painful moments of isolation, Anthony and Stanton learned that no political parry or reform movement led by men could be their sustained natural ally, such as

Republicans and abolitionists had been for black male slaves. In Women , Race and Class (Random House, New York I98I , p. 76) Angela Y. Davis wrote:

Whether the criticism of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments expressed

by the leaders of the women's rights movement was justifiable or not is still being debated. Bur one thing seems clear: the defence of their own interests as white middle-class women- in a frequently egotistical and elitist fashion- exposed the

tenuous and superficial nature of their relationship to the postwar campaign for Black equality . .. in articulating their opposition with arguments invoking the privileges of white supremacy, they revealed how defenceless they remained­

even after years of involvement in pro6ressive causes - to the pernicious ideological influence of racism .

I 5 Marie-CIa ire, February I 990 .

255

111 ' h uo•ul 11111 fill•, l o~II,IMII, 111 ;\pl l i i •IIJ

I I Hil t' ( II VIIIIiiJi ll IIIII I V Illi I Willi ' , , , II IIHI,I'I I IIIII Ill 111/IC/1

111;11!1/h '/}lt/~11 , WIII 11 1'11

1N l lt •HlJ,I II Hil t VIII, l lliiolllll IIJIJII, 1'1' ,,, , , ,

1 !l I o N kho l ~o 11 , l'd., pp. 11)(1 I·

/1~ 1

19 June ) o1·dnn, ' 1\ cpon llro 111 t il t· ll u l w u llt ~'. In U11 1:,111, .'ltii ldl ltnd Pi t'MN, 1\oNIII II

1985 , p. 46.

20 Interview with Pracibha Parmar, Spare Rib, Nov~ 11)bc 1' 1 yH I · 21 In Nicholson, ed . , p . 199 .

22 Ruth Mandel, 'Turkish Headscarves and the "Foreig ner Problem"', No111 G'ormt/11 Critique, no. 46, Winter 1989.

23 Fay Weldon, Sacred Cows, Chatto & Windus, London 1989 , pp. 35- 6. 24 Sue Lees, 'Sex, Race and Culture: Feminism and the Limits of Cultural Pluralism',

Feminist Review, no. 22, Spring 1986. 25 Harding, p. 244.

2 56

11holirionism .roc tmdm· u11 1'i -slavcry

movement 1\ckroyd, Annet te I 2I- 2 , 133

and Ilbert Bill 122, 147, I66 1147 and cultural difference 138, I45·

r 6r , 242 ·and feminism 148, 241 and Indian men I46 and Indian women I40, 146, 148

' political background 134-5,

I59-60 politics of I6I-3 and racism I 36-8 reaction to Anglo-Indian society

I36, I38 rift with Sen I40, I42 and school I40, 142-6 and sexuality I 39 and womanhood I 2 2

Aikins, Lucy I25 Album of the Female Society for

Birmingham for the Relief of British Negro Slaves 59, 68

Alvi, Fatima and Aisha 25I Andrews, Elizabeth I 53, I 56 Anthony, Susan B. I99, 223 n44 anthropology 2 3, 66 Anti-Castexvi, 37, 174, 184,

I86-9o, I93, 2I9 anti-imperialism r69, 213, 2I9 Anti-Lynching Committee I73•

I82-3, 205, 2I3, 218 anti-slavery movement xv, 29, 30, 43

African-American abolitionists in

64, 75· 77-9. 88, Il3 n50 and class 59, 67 history of (Britain) 58, III n24,

!72

history of (USA) II4 n85, 29, 30, 172, 240- 4I, 255 ni4

images of women in 6I-2, 7I language of 102-9, 220

literature 5o-58, 7I women's role in 59-63, 69-79,

IIO n3 r84o Convention 81-2, 85, 87 see also feminism

anti-vivisection I 57

Balgarnie, Florence r8 3, 2 09-II ,

213, 217-18, 220-2I Ballhatchet, Kenneth, Race, Sex and

Class Under the Raj I 50 Banerjee, Sisipada 13 5 Banks, Olive, Faces of Feminism 94,

I49, qo Bates, Daisy rq, I69 Behn, Aphra 50-53, uo n4, uo n5

Oroonoko- or the Royal Slave 50-53, 57, IIO n4, IIO n5

Benetton 17 Bernard, Mrs Bayle I29, I37• I58 Besant, Annie r69 Beveridge, Henry I43-4 Beveridge, William I34, I64 n8 biology xii, 236 bio-social sciences 64-6, Io8, II2

n38, 206 Black Power 31, 32 Bodichon, Barbara Leigh Smith 8o,

90, 98-I02, 126 Bogle, Paul41 Boston Anti-Slavery Society 77, 98 Boyd, Nancy, Three Victorian Women

who Changed the World I 55 Brahmo Somaj I22, I34, I42

257

fl toiWlt·y, III WI II II I •I lltiJ.I IH , .Jolllt 1 1 1 llrllish lnd lu Snd<•ry u 1 British Movement 1 H Bri tish Raj 134,

British W omen's Temperance

uiHnd dtiJI 1 1 • J •II~ f l 11111 t il ( ll lll ll ltd ll ll iiJi ll l ililll S ill '"'Y I

111 1011/ ii lJ NIII ~ ~ ~~

Association I 98, 204, 210

Bromfield, louis, The Rains Came 233 Brown, Hallie Quinn I89

Brown, William Wells 54, 75, 95 Bruce, Phillip Alexander, The

I. :.1~11 II J .

I

and women 37, 43, 23 1- 5, consciousness-raising 19, 28 Conservative Party xi , I2, 25

Contagious Diseases Acts I 5 o-5 I Plantation Negro as Freeman 206

Bruno, Frank and laura II Bushnell, Kate 153, I56 Butler, Josephine

and British rule in India I 58 campaign against Indian CD Acts

I 54 and Christianity I 59 and cultural difference I62 and Indian women I 56-8 politics of, I 59-6o

and womanhood I so, I 54, I6I Butler, Judith, 'Gender Trouble,

Feminist Theory, and

Psychoanalytic Discourse' 49 Buxton, Priscilla 9I Buxton, Thomas 68

Cagan, leslie, 'Something New Emerges' 30, 32, 35

Callaway, Helen 38, 254 n3

Carpenter, Mary I23, I29, I4I, I43 Central Park Jogger' rape trial xiii

Chandler, Elizabeth Margaret 83

Chapman, Maria Weston 77 , 87, 97 Chartism 92, 94

Child, lydia Maria 69, 207 civiLrights movement 30, 240

Clark, Helen Bright I73, I85, I99, 223 1144

Clifford, James 44 nu

in India I5o-54 Coppin, Fanny J ackson I 87

Cork ladies Anti-Slavery Society 89 Craft, William, 78 crime 4, 6-8

and racist images 6 crime statistics 7 Cropper, Eliza 9I

Darlington Women's Abolitionist Society 76

Davin, Anna, 'Imperialism and Motherhood' I62

Davis, David Brion, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture 50

Dixie, lady Florence I69 Douglass, Frederick III ni3

and British connections 75, I73, I75, I87, I92

and lynching I82 and slavery 84, 239 and Stowe 54

and women's rights III ni3, 210-12

Douglass, Helen 21! Douglass, William 75 Drescher, Seymour 76 Dyer, Alfred 153, I57

East India Company 105, I 32

2 58

-----,.----.~.,..!-rr!ltlllt !t lll

" 111111' I II h11 •II IIIII I I I \

l ltltlllltd J•ll lh 1 nl It I l iiol lll 1 ~ 1

111 ludltt 1 ~ ~ . 1 1~, 1 '"

Jl d W1111J N, C l' ii 'N iilll ' 11) .1 , j , I tf/ lliiJiltltlnn 1 ~ (,

Hlti pl t t'1C V, ,n, I l l ) , I J. 'f, ,,H (1\,

J r; .~ o

UII!J, Ihh \Vomtm'sjourntd 8o, 99 l!nfl li shwomcn

1nd Empire 37- 40, I27 , I49 , 162 in India 130, 136-7

.Englishwoman in colonial fict ion 23I-3 images of 148 as a symbol 40, I28

l!nglishwoman's Review I29, I 37 IJ'rzglishwoman's Review and Home

Newspaper, 39 ·nvironment xi, I87

politics of 240, 245-8 Epstein, Barbara leslie, The Politics of

Domesticity 198 Equal Rights Association 240-4I Estlin, Mary 90 eugenics 3 7, 1 6o Evans, Sara, Personal Politics 32 Eyre, Edward John 4I

fascism 24 fashion I6-I7 Fay, Eliza 128, 139 Felton, Rebecca 206, 223 1153 Female Middle Class Emigration

Society 126 Female Society for Birmingham for

the Relief of British Negro Slaves 58, 71, 72

femininity

and difference 4, II , 2 53 and Empire I20, 232 and Englishness 232

TTfiTTTnTii'm

llll •t iiiiiiJI• 111

1111 I i ttllll ll '

11 11 11 111 I' •Jo ~;g

II III 11 ·J! I 11 11 11 '1 II

~ ~ I

lf' JII t'Nt· nt lll ions of 13- 18, 232,

" l(;minism

and anti-slavery movement 29, 32, 80- 90, I 07, I69

as civilizing process 37-8, I28, 163

contemporary xv, I7-20, 227-9,

242 , 249 . 252-4 and difference 242, 252, I62 and emigration I 26

and Empire I30, r6o, 162- 3 and .history 36, 44, 147, I69 and imperialism II9-20, I63 as an international movement 30,

r6o

nineteenth-century II9-20, 149, 170

and racism I8- 2o, 250, 252 radical 33 socialist 26, 246

in the USA 29, 30-35, 20I, 240- 4I, 255 lll4

Feminist Review 252 Ferdinands, George I90-5)I First National Indian Uprising (I857)

39. I 3I, I84, 213, 234 Fitchett, W.H., The Tale of the Great

Mutiny 41

The Flame Trees ofThika 230 Flax, Jane xi, xvii, 254 Forster, E.M., A Passage to India 187,

230, 234 Fortune, Thomas I 87 Fraternity I92- 4, 202-3, 2IO,

2I8- 20, 22 3 1137 Free Speech I 8o-8r

Fry , El izabeth 94

2 59

1'1 Yl'l 1 Pel (' I 1 S/o/)1//IJl / 'rill\ 1 fl ,\

Garner, Margaret 7H, 1 1 .~ n Garrison, William Lloyd 83- 5, 88,

89, 95- 6 , 2I O Gemmell, J.E. 35 Ghose, Manmohan I35 Godden, Rumer 2 30 Gompers, Samuel 205 Grimke, Angelina 87 Grimke, Sarah 87 Gupta, Krishna Govinda I 3 5

Haggard, H. Rider 230

hajib I 3, 2 5 I , 2 53 Hall, Catherine 45 n38, n6 n142 Hammerton, A.J. I26-7 Haraway, Donna, 'A Manifesto for

Cyborgs' 237-8, 248 Hardie, Keir 205 Harding, Sandra, The Science Question

in Feminism 2 3 5-7, 2 54 Harper, Frances E. I87 headscarf see hajib Hebdige, Dick 255 n8 Heyrick, Elizabeth 7I, 79, 83 historical memory 42, 229- 34 Honeyford, Ray I2 Hopkins, Ellice, The Power of

Womanhood I49

identity politics 249 Ilbert Bill 122, I47, I66 n47 immigration 6 imperialism xv, 26, II9, I47, I 54,

229 and motherhood I 62

and women 26, 37, 237 Impey, Catherine

and Anti-Caste I84, 2II contacts in USA I74-5 early life I84-6 politics of I86-9, 2I5-I7,

I i j! I I lflh! i l'\ I 1 •J ;j

1111 w11 l1 l\ l 1i\'ll I IJ" ') '/

lllttl WI Ill ~Ill ) ,

llld hl J l ' ~ \,I) I I I ~'I. I :.I H, I HH lnl llfl t' t y ol WO II ICII In 1 JH ,W, 1

' 10 5 11 2;) , 250

see also under A. Ackroyd; Brit ish Raj;]. Buder; CD Aces; education

Indian 'Mutiny' see First N ational Indian Uprising

Indian Association I 30, I 3 7 International Society for the

Recognition of the Brotherhood of Man 2I8

Iran2I,22

Jacobs, Harriet Brent III n2I jewel in the Crown 230, 232 Jordan, June xvii, 248-9

Kaplan , Cora I05 Kaye, M .M . 230 Kilham, Hannah 63, II2 n32 Kingsley, Charles 247 Kingsley, Mary 42 Kipling, Rudyard 36, 37, 230 Knight, Anne 79, 8o, 86-8, 90,

96-7

Labour Party I 8 Ladies Association for the Diffusion of

Sanitary Knowledge 247 Ladies National Association 15I Langham Place Circle I02 Lawrence, Sir William 64 Levine, Philippa, Victorian Feminism

I49, I6o lock hospitals I 5 I Long, Edward 64 Lorde, Audre I8 Lorimer, Douglas, Colour, Class and

the Victorians 63

260

llltlllll' l , MIIIII'Hl'

l1111ol y, lll•llj tllnin , '!"he Genms ~ /11/IIW'trl/ J!l!lt!llcijJation 83

/.11\ I I) ~

lyntltluJ.i qo 72, 174-5 , 179, !81 l , 197. 200, 220

Mttckuy, Jane, 'The Englishwoman'

ltJ8 Mnckcnzie, John II9 male violence xii, 6 , 8 , 27-8, 44 n3,

253 . Mani, Lata I64 ni 3 Marable, Manning, How Capitalism

Underdeveloped Black America qo , Married Women's Property Act I02

Martin, Caroline 2I9 Martineau, Harriet 90 Mathews, Winifred, Dauntless Women

36 Mayo, Isabella Fyvie I75, I89- 97,

2I4, 219, 222 ni4, 223 n4I Mill, John Stuart I03-5, I24, I32,

144, 217 miscegenation 207, 224 n55 Mitchell, Juliet, Women's Estate 3I Morant Bay Uprising 4I, Io6, 2I3

More, Hannah 7I Mort, Lucretia82-3, 86-7,95,98,

II5 n97 mugging n-8 multiculturalism I2 Murray, Hubert 35 Muslim women

images of 14, I 30

Naoroji, Dadabhai I3I, I58, 205

nation xi, 5 National Front I 8, 25 nature xi, 245-8 Nead, Lynda 67 New, Margaret 97 Nichol, John 95

O'Co~tn <: ll , l)unit: l 1

Opie, Amelia 7 l Out of Africa 2 30

Parental Alliance for Choice in

Education I 3 Parmar, Pratibha I8 A Passage to India 23I-2 Pease, Elizabeth 6I, 76, 79, 83, 85,

87, 89-96 Pease, Joseph 83, 90-9I Pennington]. W.C. 75 Phillips, Wendell 8I-2, 94

police 8-9, 27 Powell, Enoch 5, 22 public order 7 Purdah I29, 250

Quakers 79, 94, I 86 Queen Victoria 89, IOI, I88

and India I3I-3, I65 n32

raosm contemporary xii , xiii, 4- I2 , 237 history of (Britain) 63-6, II 2 n36,

q6-8, I84, 222 ni7 history of (USA) I8I-2 , 20I, 20

in India I 36-8 scientific 64-5, Io8, II2 n38, t8 1,

I84, 2I8, 232 see also feminism

rape 4, 5, 27, 38, 40, 206 Reclaim the Night 27 Remond, Charles Lennox 75, 88-Remond, Sarah Parker 78, II3 n7

representation of black men 6, 9- n , I 5 of black women II, I 6- I of white women 9- II , I5- 18,

23I - 3 R ich , Adrienne 2I, 229 R ichardson, Anna 76, 79 R ichardson, Ellen 7 5, 7

26I

II lit llf,,, 1,111111 I 1 ltoddhk , A 1tl1 t1 ~ 1 ' 1 II Rook , jt:11 n 1

Rowbochom, Shci ln JtJ Roy, Rammohun 1

Royal Family 5, I 5

Salisbury Group 5 Salisbury, Lord 188 Sapara, Ogontula 178 sati 124, 128 Schreiner, Olive 169

t 12 5), I

Scott, Paul, jewel in the Crown 232 Searchlight 24 segregation 206

Semmel, Bernard 39 Sen, Keshub Chunder 121, 125, 131,

133. 135. 139 The Sentinel 153, 157 sexuality II, 192, I95, I96- 7, 20I,

207, 2IO, 2I3, 229 Sharpe, Granville 57 Sharpe, Jenny, The Unspeakable

Limits of Rape' 45 n38, 234 Sheffield Association for the Universal

Abolition of Slavery 49, 6o, 61, 64 Sheffield Association for Female

Franchise 97 slavery 50

Smeal, Jane 95 Smith, Amanda 187 Smith, Frank 2I9

Society for the Recognition of the Universal Brotherhood of Man 175, 192, 2I8

Somerset, Lady Henry 198-9, 202-3, 209-II

Spare Rib 29

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady 84, 87, 98, ir 5 n97, I 99 , 201, 22 3 n44

Stepan, Nancy Io8 Stephen, Sir George 70 Stone, Lucy roo Storm Bell I 50

I I IIII,

I I I ()(.), I I

Il l 0, I I t} Ill

Sturllt, j oseph 8

Taylor, Barbara 65 Taylor, Clare 97 Taylor, Harriet 65

Thane, Pat, The Englishwoman' r62 Thompson, George 79, 8I-2, 9I Thompson, William I02-4, Io6, I09 The Times I82, 2I3 Toll, C.S. 97- 8 Tourgee, Judge Albion I87 Tyrrell, Alex 66

Uglow, Jenny I 55 urban myths 3

veil see hajib

Visram, Rozina, Ayahs, Lascars and Princes I37

Vogue I5

Walkowitz, Judith, Prostitution and Victorian Society I 50

Webb, Alfred 205 Weldon, Fay, Sacred Cows 251 Wells, Ida B. xvi

and Anti-Lynching Committee 174 analysis of lynching I8I-2, I96-7, •

24I audience in Britain 176-8 Crusade for justice I 76, 22 I n8 early life I78-82, 221 n8 and racism I76-8 rift with Mayo I 9o-97 and Willard 20o-2o9, 2I2, 22I

Westminster Gazette 203, 205 Weston, Anne Warren 92 Wheeler, Anna 65 , I03, 109

262

II ""- 1\1/it /!"( I 1 I Jj '\'.

Wltltl \V/11 111111 - l't illfi I IIIII i iiiiiii~IH

111 Wlx ltll ll' • H11 11 IJII, 1

Wll lwfioHc•, Wl lll1111t '/r' Wl lhu·d , l 1r111H c·~ I IJ/

nnd lynr hin,4 Joll ~u

nnd polici es 198 , ~ 1 11 1'5, "..l..l .\ otJ .I WCT U and race and women's rights 198- 9, 241

Willis, Ellen 'Radical Feminism and

Feminist Radicalism' 33 Wollstonecraft, Mary, Vindication of

the Rights of Women 58 , I03,

I04-5. I06-7 'Woman Question' see Anti-slavery

movement, I840 Convention woman/women, as a category xv, 49,

235. 24I, 249 womanhood

definitions of 253 diversity of 2 54

lth'ttlttj \'Il l \'• llil t •Yl1 •l:l1 lfl\ 1 tit I . ill/

lllhlltlllll • ttl lt(t , I ll I I l•iH, llil "l lllltii-\M ol whit e 11

yJuhoiiHitl ol white .\ ~, 2Jtl

lllli Vt' I Si d I 55 1 16 0

Women Against Racism and Fascism

18, 25 Women's Christian Temperance

Union I98-9 , 202, 205- IO, 214 'women's mission' 66, 95, I27 women's movement see feminism Women's Trade Union Association

217 women's safety I6, 38-42, 20I-2,

205, 234 women's suffrage 88, 96, 164,

I98-9, 201, 2II, 215-17, 24o-4I Woodall, William 205

Yellin, Jean Fagan, Women and Sisters

83

263