Women -- Suffrage -- History; Women -- Suffrage -- United States -- History; Women's rights -- History; Women's rights -- United States -- History
"Den dat little man in black dar, he say women can't have as much
rights as men, 'cause Christ wan't a woman! Whar did your Christ
come from?" Rolling thunder couldn't have stilled that crowd, as
did those deep, wonderful tones, as she stood there with
outstretched arms and eyes of fire. Raising her voice still
louder, she repeated, "Whar did your Christ come from? From God
and a woman! Man had nothin' to do wid Him." Oh, what a rebuke
that was to that little man.
Turning again to another objector, she took up the defense of
Mother Eve. I can not follow her through it all. It was pointed,
and witty, and solemn; eliciting at almost every sentence
deafening applause; and she ended by asserting: "If de fust woman
God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all
alone, dese women togedder (and she glanced her eye over the
platform) ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side
up again! And now dey is asking to do it, de men better let 'em."
Long-continued cheering greeted this. "'Bleeged to ye for hearin'
on me, and now ole Sojourner han't got nothin' more to say."
Amid roars of applause, she returned to her corner, leaving more
than one of us with streaming eyes, and hearts beating with
gratitude. She had taken us up in her strong arms and carried us
safely over the slough of difficulty turning the whole tide in
our favor. I have never in my life seen anything like the magical
influence that subdued the mobbish spirit of the day, and turned
the sneers and jeers of an excited crowd into notes of respect
and admiration. Hundreds rushed up to shake hands with her, and
congratulate the glorious old mother, and bid her God-speed on
her mission of "testifyin' agin concerning the wickedness of this
'ere people."
WOMAN'S RIGHTS MEETING IN A BARN--"JOHN'S CONVENTION."
MRS. M. E. J. GAGE:
DEAR MADAM:--Your postal and note requesting items of history of
the almost forgotten doings of thirty years ago, is at hand.
In 1850 Ohio decided by the votes of her male population to
"alter and amend her Constitution." The elected delegates
assembled in Cincinnati in the spring of that year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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